Reborn in a Famine Year: I Feed Meat to My Siblings Every Day

In 1960, in Hongxing Village in western Shanxi, Li Xiulian, a modern agricultural research institute technician, is reborn in a drafty earthen house. Before her are three younger siblings faint with hunger and a grandfather coughing blood in bed. The rice jar has nothing left but a thin layer of bran. At her moment of despair, the Famine Mutual Aid System activates. There are no fantastical special effects, just practical supplies and skills unlocked by completing tasks. From using the System's reward of ten jin of potatoes to tide the family over, to catching rabbits with "snow snare techniques" and preserving food with "saltwater curing methods," Li Xiulian keeps her family going through the famine. During the collective era of the 1970s, she uses the System's "tofu-making techniques" to start a sideline business in the commune, helping villagers trade for grain. In the 1980s, as reform and opening up begin, she leases wasteland to build a livestock farm and sells "Hongxing Cured Meat" in the county town. After the 1990s, she stays to run the local industry, watching her siblings start families and her children succeed. From youth to old age, she never leaves the Hongxing Village that gave her life and raised her. In the winter of 2023, 82-year-old Li Xiulian closes her eyes surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Beside her bed lies the yellowed first-generation System task panel, bearing the words: "Fulfill a promise made over a lifetime: Make sure your family and neighbors always have meat to eat." Her life is the story of an ordinary person rooted in the countryside, striving through the changing times.