The 1970S: How to Stick Together After Becoming Cannon Fodder

Jiang Ning transmigrates into the body of a spoiled, pampered drama queen, only to be kicked out by her exploitative family and sent to the desolate northwestern frontier with nothing but ten jin of grain coupons to fend for herself. She thinks she’s destined to be buried beneath the yellow sands, but it turns out two other unlucky women are crammed into the same truck. One is Shen Xingruo, a sharp and clear-eyed woman whose own mother sold her for 300 yuan in bride price to build a house for her younger brother. She fled with the money in the middle of the night and ended up in this godforsaken place. The other is Su Wan, a goofy woman whose family stole her spot in the rural resettlement program. With only three cents to her name, she’s about to starve to death. The three women join forces. Jiang Ning grits her teeth, clears wasteland, digs wells, and plants sea buckthorn, determined to turn the Gobi into an oasis. Shen Xingruo puts that 300 yuan in bride price to work, opening a little stall in the desert. She takes in Fu Yanci, a down-and-out educated youth beaten half to death, and uses him as a human shield as she climbs from a supply store to become the frontier’s retail queen. Su Wan, meanwhile, marries Shen Zheng, the gruffest, foul-tempered soldier in the corps, the man no one else would dare wed. With nothing but a spatula, she sells braised snacks and earns enough for a grand house with three rooms in just three months. At first, the whole regiment waits to laugh at these three outsiders. But then... Jiang Ning turns endless yellow sands into thousands of acres of fertile farmland. He Lan Shan, the gruff company commander ostracized by the entire regiment, quietly helps her carry her shovel, then blocks the entrance to her tent with an awkward grin. “I don’t want your fruit. I want you.” Shen Xingruo’s department store rises from the ground. When her awful relatives show up demanding money, she sets the dogs on them. The down-and-out educated youth Fu Yanci slaps a bankbook with ten thousand yuan on the table. “Touch my wife, and I’ll destroy you.” Su Wan counts money until her hands ache. Meanwhile, Shen Zheng, the gruff man rumored to be violent and cold, slips his pay card into her pocket with red ears and meekly begs for a hug. This isn’t an exile to the frontier at all. It’s three doomed side characters making their fortunes in an era of swirling yellow sands...