Returning to the City: A Pampered Wife in the 1980s

Ongoing: An Eighties Professor's Loving Wife

Up next: Raising Kids Together in an Eighties Courtyard; The Childhood Betrothal in the Seventies Is Sweet and Endearing

Completed: The Great Beauty of the Eighties Siheyuan

Su Yan finds herself transported into a novel set in a bygone era. Other educated youths return to the city with bags full of luggage, but Su Yan comes back with two little ones. The boy is a villain, the girl is the heroine, and Su Yan is their single mother, destined to struggle in poverty for the rest of their lives.

Her scumbag father curses her for getting married in the countryside without permission and kicks her out. He orders her to give the children away or go back to the countryside.

Su Yan stays up all night writing a short essay titled "A Father Is Like a Mountain" and shows it to him. "I'm registering myself and the two children here. If you won't cooperate, I'll send this straight to the newspaper."

Her scumbag father's face darkens. Through gritted teeth, he says, "I'll register you."

With the compensation money in hand, she raises the kids while racing down the road to prosperity. Who could have guessed that their father would come back?

Gu Ye is an outstanding soldier who fights on the Vietnam battlefield, devoted to serving his country. As he lies in a pool of blood, a voice tells him that his wife and children are waiting for him.

Her stepmother and stepsister are delighted. Su Yan was sent to the countryside as an educated youth when she was only a teenager, married a country man, and came back with two children. She'd taken a hand of good cards and played it terribly.

At her stepsister's wedding, everyone shows their "concern" for Su Yan and lays out three options: marry an old widower, give the children away, or take them back to the countryside and find her country husband.

Regimental Commander Gu's brows draw together, his gaze dark. Holding the two children in one arm and Su Yan's hand in the other, he says in a low, icy voice, "Everyone, shut up. This is my wife and children."

Everyone is stunned. Gu Ye, grandson of Old Master Gu of the Gu family in Jiang City, is the "country bumpkin" Su Yan married?

Theme: Blooming amid adversity