Plastic Couple in the 1970s

Please add my upcoming novels to your favorites! The blurbs for A Seventies Return to the City and The Factory District Beauty of the Sixties are below.

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After someone set her up and she fell into a river, Lin Qinghe, the golden girl whom every eligible bachelor in the surrounding villages had been vying to marry, was rescued with artificial respiration. Her reputation was now on the verge of ruin. With no other choice, she married Lu Xiangyang, the fellow-villager soldier who had saved her.

Three days after the wedding, her husband returned to his unit. Others laughed that she was stuck in a marriage without a husband, but she secretly delighted in their arrangement: they lived apart year-round and left each other alone.

Thanks to her talent for writing, she transferred from the commune middle school to the provincial newspaper's reporting department. An article about a woman abandoned by a returned educated youth got her career off the ground.

But then a call from the military upended her life. Her husband in name only had been injured and hospitalized, and he needed her to take care of him.

After traveling a thousand miles by train for a full day and night, she arrived at the hospital only to see a nurse helping her husband undress.

Lin Qinghe smiled politely. "Am I interrupting you two?"

The nurse stared in alarm at Lin Qinghe, who was nothing like the crude village woman she'd imagined.

Lin Qinghe was ready to test the limits of divorce, but instead she was suddenly pulled into someone's arms. A low voice sounded by her ear:

"Wife, you're finally here."

Lin Qinghe: ??? Are you kidding? We barely know each other!

Tips:

1. A married-first, love-later couple, with homely family life and a warm, everyday feel.

2. Very little drama with awful relatives. No one is reborn or transmigrated.

3. Lots of fictional details, so please don't compare it to real life.

4. If it's not your thing, you can stop reading. If the story stops making you happy, please just close it. There's no need to tell me.

A Seventies Return to the City: aloof, handsome "kept man" X straightforward, fiery village girl

The educated youths' arrival sparked lively discussion in Spring Breeze Brigade during the winter lull. There was only one reason: among them was the especially handsome Young Chu.

Male villagers: He only earns five work points.

Female villagers: Young Chu is so handsome.

Male villagers: He spends money like water.

Female villagers: Young Chu can repair tractors.

Male villagers: His family background is bad.

Female villagers: ...

Lin Baoyi: Our Lin family has been poor peasants for three generations. We're loyal to the cause and will gladly unite with the backward elements!

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The Chu family of Chu Yanting, the young tyrant of the military compound in the capital, fell into ruin overnight. All the prestige of being a child of the compound vanished, and he found himself sent to the countryside as an educated youth.

His imagined life in the countryside: Though I have only a basket of food and a ladle of water, and live in a humble lane, I can pick chrysanthemums by the eastern fence and leisurely gaze at the southern mountain.

His actual life in the countryside: Bang, bang, bang, time to work! Bang, bang, bang, time to bring in the harvest! Bang, bang, bang, time to collect cow dung!

Chu Yanting was so exhausted that he saw stars. He took another bite of the lumpy sweet potato, his stomach burning and churning.

The tough girl on his team, who worked harder than any man, came over. Born with incredible strength, she swung her hoe straight into the ground. She smiled, revealing two dimples, and said brightly, "My family has soft rice."

The Factory District Beauty of the Sixties

Lately, the workers at the Shanghai Steel Mill have talked about little else over their tea breaks than the branch factory.

The steel mill's housing compound is bursting at the seams, and the prospect of getting an apartment is nowhere in sight. But the branch factory offers housing right away, with a chance to become a cadre.

Everything sounds great, except it's in Jiangcheng, a poor county a thousand li from Shanghai.

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Yu Yue had barely had time to celebrate passing the exam for a job in the finance department after working as a canteen server at the steel mill when she learned that her family planned to marry her off to the slick second-generation son of a factory worker, so her second brother could have a marital home.

They called it a blessing.

They called her sensible for going along with it.

The two met at a state-run restaurant.

The factory heir was of average height with a bulbous nose, and everything about him screamed that he was a great catch. He condescendingly told Yu Yue that after marriage, she should transfer to an easy job, have a child as soon as possible, and put family first.

Yu Yue: Whoever wants that blessing can have it!

*

At the neighboring table across the aisle, Song Yan was on a blind date too.

His stepmother had vouched for the woman.

Someone walked by carrying a fish, and the woman, who had been gentle and graceful just moments ago, suddenly started retching. The doctor at the table behind them checked her pulse.

"Congratulations, miss. You're three months along."

Song Yan: ...

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Yu Yue, being "unreasonable," handed in her application and boarded a train to Jiangcheng.

The branch factory was in its infancy and urgently needed talent.

Through hard work and talent, Yu Yue gradually became a key member of the finance department.

The women in the union also started worrying about the single employees' love lives.

Another blind date at a state-run restaurant.

Yu Yue: Why is it you?

Song Yan: Why is it you?

Theme: Marriage requires both partners to work at it.