Spring Breeze Sweeps the Land [Period]

[Next Book: The Villain from an Explicit Novel Transmigrates into a Period Novel] Vixen x Cold-Faced, Rugged Man

Synopsis:

This is the story of a country girl who, through relentless "hard work" and timely "choices," makes her way from the countryside to the city, studies abroad, and eventually returns to the countryside to teach and nurture the next generation.

"Hard work matters, but sometimes your choices matter more."

-The first half: a coming-of-age story-

In Qin Xiaoxiao's ninth year, the younger brother her whole family had pinned its hopes on was born.

According to the usual script, she was supposed to wash clothes, cook, and take care of the baby; drop out of school in her teens to work and support the family; then find someone to marry in her twenties.

Qin Xiaoxiao: No way! Absolutely not!

Her grandmother, who favored boys over girls: "What's the point of raising a girl well? She won't support you in your old age. You feed and clothe her, and in the end she'll belong to someone else's family. We might as well give her away now!"

Qin Xiaoxiao goes from house to house: "Uncle, Auntie, Grandma doesn't want me anymore. Can you give me a home? I'll be good. I can wash clothes, cook, and take care of my little brother. Sob..."

Her one-year-old brother: "Sister, don't go! Waaah!"

It was enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes. The villagers crowded around the Qin family until not a soul could get in or out. The village secretary stood with his hands behind his back. "I hear..."

Grandma: "We wouldn't dare!"

Her meddlesome grandaunt: "What's the point of a girl doing well in school? She'll get married anyway. The butcher's son in the next village may be a bit stupid, but his family has money. Why not give it some thought?"

Qin Xiaoxiao tugs at her cousin's sleeve: "Look, your future cousin-in-law gave me a gold ring. Isn't it dazzling? Sigh, once I move into a big house, it'll take me all day just to clean it. I won't have time to play with you anymore."

Her five-year-old brother: "My brother-in-law looks like a movie star!"

Her cousin went home and made a scene until, in the end, she became the "bride who took someone else's place."

After finally making it to high school, a few men in suits blocked her path.

"Damn, they really went all out this time!"

The men in black: "Good day, Miss!"

"Huh?!"

Her little brother: "Sis... how am I supposed to play along this time?"

-The second half: a love story-

On the day Tan Xiaoxiao got engaged, her childhood friend, who had rejected her feelings four years earlier, suddenly appeared.

He had shed the rebellious, unruly bravado of his youth and become a mature, steady, refined rising star in real estate.

Yet in a hidden corner, this "rising star" was staring blankly at a locked metal box.

Inside were all his "trophies" related to Tan Xiaoxiao: the pencil stubs she had used up, the drafts she had thrown away, even a bundle of long-dried candy wrappers... His fingertips stroked the old keepsakes again and again, an almost pathological obsession roiling in his eyes.

His parents happened to catch him in the act.

After all these years, his father once again took off his belt and lashed the man, now a head taller than him, with it.

"Are you a pervert?!"

Pain tore through his flesh, but just as he had as a child, he clenched his teeth and endured it in silence, offering no defense.

Only after his father grew tired and stopped did he slowly raise his head. There was no trace of malice on his handsome, refined face. Instead, he wore an unsettlingly sincere, bewildered expression.

"Dad, do you think... she'd like a pervert?"

Looking at his son's feverishly intense eyes, Hong Fu froze with the belt still in his hand.

It's over. That good-for-nothing really is beyond saving.

Notes:

1. Slow burn, family life, school days, and the daily grind of striving for a better life.

2. Contains author-created details. Please don't overanalyze.

-Next book's synopsis-

The Villain from an Explicit Novel Transmigrates into a Period Novel: Vixen x Cold-Faced, Rugged Man

Shi Jinye, a wealthy heiress with hundreds of millions in assets and still not satisfied, loves to dance barefoot on thick Persian rugs, circling the birdcage custom-made for Huo Tingye.

She watches him, in the grip of his hunger disorder, try to push open the ornate golden gate secured by more than ten locks, while she idly toys with the heavy ring of keys.

"Don't waste your effort. Your career or your woman, choose."

"I want both," the man grits out.

She runs her fingertip slowly over his thin lips, as if granting him a favor. Her long, alluring phoenix eyes glimmer with amusement.

"Since you refuse to behave, I suppose I'll have to choose for you."

She lazily reclines on a deep-red velvet chaise longue and waves to her subordinates behind her, intending to have them take him away until she's secured the project and can let him go.

But instead, her lovesick cousin Wen Nian shows up.

"Shi Jinye, you devil! Tingye and I truly love each other! You can't tear us apart! I'll fight you!"

Before she could figure out which number woman Huo Tingye was to Wen Nian, or which number man Wen Nian was to Huo Tingye, or even tell Wen Nian that she was only interested in money, she died on the spot.

When she opened her eyes again, she had become the village belle from the period novel her father wrote, a girl who had been tormented to death by her relatives.

She immediately rummaged through the house for the family passbook, only to discover that her hundreds of millions in assets had come with her!

Why wait, then? In her last life, she focused only on making money. This time, she had to spend it properly! Spend until not a bird flies over a thousand mountains and no human footprints cross ten thousand paths!

But her father, who had spent his whole life writing novels and being a coward, hadn't given this book a "wealth gap" setting.

So anything Shi Jinye could afford, other people could afford too; and anything other people couldn't afford, Shi Jinye couldn't afford either.

Shi Jinye: ...Forget it. I'll go lie flat in the courtyard and soak up the sun.

But can someone tell her why, even after she'd decided to lie flat, those awful relatives still kept showing up one after another to pick fights?

-

While chopping wood in the mountains, Qin Jianhua happened upon a book whose cover showed a man and woman kissing. He frowned and expressionlessly kicked it away, but stopped a few steps later. After a moment's silence, he went back and picked it up.

With a stern expression, he turned the pages, his lips pressed together and not a word leaving them from dawn until dusk.

That night, however, the scenes described in the book appeared in his dreams, except that the leads were himself and Shi Jinye, the villain from the book. When he woke, he smoothed out the creases in his pillow, as if nothing had happened.

The next day, as he worked in the fields, he caught sight of a familiar figure in a daze. His grip tightened around the hoe handle. The person from his dream crooked a finger at him, and, as if possessed, he walked over.

His voice was as calm as if he were talking about the weather. "My name is Qin Jianhua. I haven't had much schooling. I'm not the scholar you're looking for... Comrade Fox."

Shi Jinye: ...Does he think I'm a fox spirit who only goes after scholars?

"Well, I'm sorry, then. You're the one whose essence I'm going to drain."

Theme: Love and being loved.