After Reincarnating as a Delicate Flower, I Became Famous by Teaching [The Sixties]

Shu Ran woke up to find she had transmigrated to Xinjiang in the 1960s, with a new identity as a female educated youth from a family with a bad class background.

As far as the eye could see, there were saline-alkali flats, and all around her were looks of prejudice and exclusion.

The work team gave her nothing but a drafty, ramshackle shed:

"The literacy campaign is urgent. Just teach them a few characters. Don't hold up production!"

Everyone waited to laugh at the capitalist young lady, especially the women's dormitory supervisor, who glared jealously at the face cream, fruit candies, and silk pajamas in Shu Ran's camphorwood trunk. "What a stinking bourgeois affectation!"

So when the women of the work team's families mocked her for being delicate, Shu Ran brought out soap and face cream and showed them how to wash their hands and care for their skin. "We're women. Even out here in the Gobi Desert, we can live clean and with dignity."

When she was publicly accused of stealing water, she refuted the accusation on the spot with clear logic, then slapped the rumor-monger awake.

When parents refused to send their children to school, Shu Ran took ration coupons and candy and went door to door to win them over.

Later, people were surprised to discover that this female teacher really did have some skill. She was not only socially adept, but also sincere and kind, without a trace of a capitalist young lady's airs!

Chen Yuanjiang had always thought the new female educated youth was suspicious, so he kept a watchful eye on her.

Later, during a blizzard rescue operation, he was injured, and she was the one who dragged him into a sheltered cave and warmed him with her body heat.

He tried to push her away, but she held him tightly in her arms.

His chin rested weakly on her shoulder, and he murmured as if in a dream, "You said you'd warm me up... How long will it take?"

"Don't waste your breath. Save your strength."

"Once I'm warm... will you... have to leave me? But I... can't bear to let you go..."

At that moment, Chen Yuanjiang wished he could keep that transfer order in his pocket forever.

[Reading Guide]

- The setting is lightly fictionalized, with no real-life models or sensitive topics.

- If you spot any inconsistencies in the period setting, just imagine a parallel world. :D

- All details in the story regarding the ranks of government departments are fictional. Please don't scrutinize them.

Please add my new novel, The Gobi Oilfield's Little Kitchen [1960s], to your reading list!

Blurb:

Zhu Qiao transmigrated as a young woman sent to support the border regions. Assigned to the great northwest of her homeland, she became a cook at a residential site in an oilfield district.

A residential site was just a few rows of dugouts on the Gobi Desert. The canteen where she worked was a temporary kitchen with drafts coming in from every side. Conditions had once been so harsh that every day's meals were either noodles boiled in plain water or mushy potatoes. In winter, when the vegetables ran out, they could go several days without seeing anything green.

Fortunately, Zhu Qiao had grown up here in her previous life, going with her family between the pastoral areas and the Gobi Desert. She dared to take roads others were afraid to travel. Where others saw land so barren that not a blade of grass could grow, she could return with a basketful of ingredients: wild greens from the floodplain, mushrooms from the sandy ground, autumn fruit...

She dried the leftover wild greens and mushrooms, and cooked the fruit into sweet-and-sour jam.

Whenever the transport team brought in supplies, Zhu Qiao came up with a different dish every day. Today she mixed ground-ear mushrooms with wild eggs and steamed a pot of piping-hot buns. Tomorrow she would sizzle mushrooms and wild chives in a wok and make a pot of fragrant mushroom soup with rice. The day after that, she'd braise carrots, onions, and raisins into glossy pilaf. A couple days later, the table would feature noodles topped with stir-fried mashua and wood ear mushrooms.

Before long, the people at the residential site looked forward to one thing most of all each day: What delicious food would the little kitchen make today?

Later, a young team leader named Shao Zheng was transferred to the residential site.

He spent all year working in the field, was tall and broad-shouldered, and had a cold face and few words.

The first time he came to the little kitchen to eat, everyone else praised the food. He said nothing, simply polished off a full bowl, then took another look at Zhu Qiao before leaving.

After that, game mysteriously began appearing in the little kitchen.

Zhu Qiao asked around, but no one admitted to bringing it. Unconvinced, she hid in the kitchen one night to keep watch.

Sure enough, late that night, the door curtain shifted, and Shao Zheng walked in carrying two cleaned rabbits. He had just bent down to put them down when someone behind the stove asked, "Captain Shao, what are you doing?"

Shao Zheng froze, then turned around.

Moonlight streamed in through the doorway, and his gaze met Zhu Qiao's bright, sparkling eyes.

He looked at her for a long moment before saying, "Found these rabbits on the road. They're for you."

Theme: With the power of the stars, let us compose a brilliant chapter in education.