A Post-70s Stepmom's Laid-Back Days Raising Kids

Please vote for my contest entry!

Marriage first, love later / raising a child as a stepmother (the orphan of a martyr) / slow life on a remote island

Recommended completed novel: The Everyday Life of a Bare-Bones Marriage in the 1980s

Next up: The Village Chief of an 80s-Era Village or Remarrying a Fool in the 1970s (whichever inspires me more)

Because the house was small, Xu Wen shared a kang with six other members of her family, spanning three generations.

Suffering from severe insomnia, Xu Wen decided to marry herself off.

Her biggest demand of a potential husband was that he absolutely had to have a room of his own!

Xu Wen was famous far and wide for her beauty, and matchmakers flocked to her door. She picked someone, but her family all objected.

*

Grandma: No way. He has neither father nor mother.

Xu Wen: Perfect. I won't have to wait on my in-laws. Besides, he has five rooms.

Parents: No way. He's already been married once.

Xu Wen: That's fine. He has five rooms!

Sister: No way! He has a child, so you'd be marrying him to become a stepmother. That's no easy job!

Xu Wen: That's fine. Then I won't have to suffer through giving birth myself! Besides, he has five rooms!

Brother and sister-in-law: No way. He's got a scar on his face, and he's so ugly he could scare a child into tears!

Xu Wen: That's fine. He has five rooms.

On their wedding day, the man vanished into thin air. A few months later, news came that he had died without a body to bury.

Family: We told you not to marry him! You're so young, and now you're a widow with a kid to raise. How are you going to get by?

Xu Wen: I get two pensions, so I'm doing great! I don't need to marry again!

Outsiders: No one should marry Xu Wen. She's cursed to bring death to her husbands!

Xu Wen: I have money, a house, and a child. Why would I marry again?

Xu Wen quietly set up a cenotaph for her husband. She felt a little guilty, but his house, his son, and his money were all hers now!

Lu Yuanzheng: ????

Sorry, I'm still alive!

Synopsis for Remarrying a Fool in the 1970s

Lin Shichu often had strange dreams. This time, she dreamed she had become a disposable bride in the 1970s.

On her wedding day, she caught her groom eloping with a female educated youth.

To make matters worse, the shameless pair mocked Lin Shichu.

Why put up with that in a dream?

Lin Shichu slapped the faithless man, took the betrothal gifts he had given her, collected the wedding banquet money, commandeered the wedding venue his family had set up, and married a fool she had happened to find by the roadside.

Lin Shichu thought, since it was only a dream, she might as well go all the way. She even had her wedding night.

But when she woke up... she was still in the 1970s.

Lin Shichu could only cry as she faced the mess she'd made while doing whatever she pleased in what she thought was a dream.

Her family had no idea what was going on, and her former fiance's family came to make a scene.

In the production team's extremely crude cowshed, Lin Shichu stared in disbelief at the fool she'd picked up by the roadside.

The villagers crowded at the entrance to watch the spectacle.

Oh! Huh? Hey!

The villagers who'd come to laugh gradually stopped smiling!

Was life actually going pretty well for Lin Shichu and her fool of a husband?

They had meat to eat, money to spend, schooling, prizes to win, and even a genius toddler!

After the Prodigy Village Belle's Career Crashes (Working title and synopsis)

Also known as The Village Belle and the Village Bully Return Home

Li Xiao was the only