He Yuzhu is an ordinary PhD student at a top-tier university. He hasn’t published enough papers, his advisor is breathing down his neck, and he’s never even been in a relationship.
Hoping to find something in common with the campus belle, his junior, he grits his teeth and binge-watches Love in the Courtyard all night. He promptly drops dead at his lab workstation.
When he opens his eyes again, he has become “Silly Zhu” from the show: Beijing, 1965. He’s an apprentice chef earning eighteen yuan a month, living in a crowded courtyard. His father is unreliable, and his younger sister is still a child.
The good news is that he’s bound to a Journey to the West Demon-Subduing System. The bad news is that the System was supposed to bind to Sun Wukong, and it picked the wrong person.
Even worse, he’s a chef, but the System gives him Zhenyuanzi’s Universe-in-the-Sleeve and Sun Wukong’s Fiery Golden Eyes. The problem is, where is he supposed to find demons to subdue in this era?
He Yuzhu looks at Yi Zhonghai, watching him like a hawk in the courtyard; Qin Huairu, crying poor and playing the victim; and Yan Bugui, scheming down to the bone. He suddenly realizes there are plenty of people in this courtyard harder to deal with than demons.
He decides to keep a low profile for now. He’ll hone his cooking skills and build up his savings, while setting up greenhouses and raising livestock in Qin Family Village. While the people in the courtyard are still quarreling over a piece of dried radish, he’s already quietly stockpiled an entire “Flower-Fruit Mountain.”
But the trees may wish for stillness, yet the wind will not cease. Someone wants to trick He Daqing into going to Baoding to “join another family and raise their children.” Someone else wants to turn He Yuzhu’s cooking into their retirement plan, while others eye the perks he has access to with greedy, bloodshot eyes.
He Yuzhu only wants a peaceful life, but someone is always mistaking him for an easy target.
Until Yan Bugui starts collecting gutter oil in the toilet, until Yi Zhonghai gets beaten so badly he loses a testicle, until the White Widow’s scandal is exposed...
The people in the courtyard realize that the “Silly Zhu” they knew may not be so silly after all.
I've only read about twenty chapters, and overall it's alright, but the timeline is a bit messy. Historical fiction should adhere to historical accuracy. It's only just getting better. Military control ended in late 1953, and street offices were implemented. The old folks were just starting out; ration coupons and the eighth-grade worker system were introduced in 1955. The public-private partnership was also formally implemented. The Great Leap Forward began in 1958. The famine of 1953 followed.
It's a pretty interesting story, but it lacks a strong enough argument against the "retirement group." Worth watching.
A genuine five-star review, no joke, reading this is truly beneficial. At the beginning, he cleverly helped He Daqing break the deaf-scam trap, and then various other despicable methods were used to toy with the flock.
They were just too naive and foolish.
It was a little soft.
Great, beautiful, keep it up!
It's great, I like it, five stars!
Not bad, quite interesting.