A Prosperous Life on the Gobi Desert [The Sixties]

The Steel Mill's Little Chef in the 1960s: A Gobi Beauty's Journey of Struggle. Please add to your collection.

Reading Guide: The male lead is Xu Yingchu.

Lu Sumei transmigrates into the youngest child of the Lu family. She has two older brothers and two older sisters.

Sadly, the original owner of her body died young. In this life, Mother Lu cherishes Lu Sumei like the apple of her eye.

When her siblings hear that their little sister is in poor health, they all want to bring her to live with them.

As it happens, her eldest brother, Lu Sumin, has four children, and his wife, Yang Hongxiang, is kind and easygoing.

If Lu Sumei moves in with them, she'll have everything she needs, and they can even introduce her to a good man.

At first, when Lu Sumei hears that her eldest brother lives in the Gobi Desert, she imagines the old days of agricultural reclamation: everyone living in dugout homes, eating wild greens and cornbread, and facing wolf attacks from time to time.

But Lu Sumei has worried for nothing. After years of hard work, the Gobi has become a wheat-growing oasis, and the dugouts have been abandoned for years. There are reservoirs, hospitals, restaurants, schools, and everything else they could need.

Lu Sumei can go catching little fish with her nieces and nephews, admire the snowy mountains, ride camels, and grow cotton.

Life is even better than it was back in the village.

*

After being reborn, Yang Hongxiang discovers that in her previous life, everything went smoothly. She married an outstanding man in the regiment, and after following him to his post, they were deeply in love. They had four children, all of them adorable, sweet, obedient, and clever.

The one regret was that she was fated to die young. Later, her family even sent her cousin to her husband's side, claiming she was there to help with the cooking and childcare.

But her cousin spent the rest of her life pining in vain, remaining a servant forever. That's when Yang Hongxiang realized that Lu Sumin had stayed faithful to her for his entire life.

However, her four children were led astray by her cousin, and Yang Hongxiang could only feel angry and regretful.

After being reborn, Yang Hongxiang politely turns down her cousin's request to come to the Gobi to find a husband. Instead, she brings Lu Sumin's little sister to live with them.

One sick person is still a sick person. With two of them, they can get healthy together.

Yang Hongxiang never expected Lu Sumei to be so clever and quick-witted, with so many skills.

What's more, after Lu Sumei arrives and joins her in eating well and exercising, Yang Hongxiang finds herself in better health than ever.

Other people's sisters-in-law are often impossible to deal with, but hers is the children's ringleader and their little lucky star.

The Steel Mill's Little Chef in the 1960s: Blurb

Yu Shuiyan is the daughter of the steel mill director. It isn't until she turns eighteen that she remembers she was transmigrated into this world as a baby.

Now she has two choices. One is to pack her bags and go to university, only to be sent to the countryside as an educated youth a couple of years later.

The other is to return to the steel mill, get a job, and find someone to marry, because she really doesn't want to go to some remote village.

Yu Shuiyan chooses the second option.

As expected, after she returns to the steel mill and gets her father to arrange a kitchen job for her, he is sent away for reform.

Her mother goes with him to care for her husband, leaving Yu Shuiyan and her two younger sisters from her mother's family in the care of Chef Liang at the steel mill.

Chef Liang is Yu Shuiyan's mother's senior fellow apprentice. They both learned their cooking skills from the same master.

Yu Shuiyan quickly becomes Chef Liang's apprentice, giving her a foothold at the steel mill.

But not long afterward, Chef Liang has to leave for the Third Front, carrying an iron wok on his back.

Before leaving, Chef Liang is especially worried about Yu Shuiyan's marriage prospects.

He introduces her to two men.

One is the son of Chef Liang's ex-wife. This man, named Meng Shanguang, is good-looking and sturdily built.

But he comes with a whole family in tow: a long string of younger siblings and nephews, and he isn't even related to Chef Liang by blood.

The other is the son of Chef Liang's older sister. He's handsome and proper, and soon to graduate from university as a trainee technician.

Everyone in the steel mill compound thinks Yu Shuiyan will surely choose the technician.

But no one expects Yu Shuiyan to marry Meng Shanguang instead!

The people in the compound think Yu Shuiyan is in for a hard life.

Her future husband's family has so many children, and she has to support her mother's two younger sisters as well. With so many people, they'll surely struggle to make ends meet, and the house will be a madhouse.

But just before leaving, Chef Liang gives Yu Shuiyan the position of head chef in the steel mill canteen.

Yu Shuiyan suddenly becomes the canteen's top chef. She takes on several apprentices every day, who wait on her hand and foot. With her cooking skills, Yu Shuiyan is the one and only big sister to them all.

Meanwhile, Meng Shanguang, who married Yu Shuiyan, does the laundry, cooks, and takes care of the children at home. He manages to keep the whole string of kids in pretty good order.

Meng Shanguang also starts out as a steelworker at the mill. He tells himself he has to work hard and get ahead, so he won't embarrass his wife.

Besides, Yu Shuiyan is the head chef, so she can bring home some food and ingredients from the canteen. Not one of the children is left out, and at least they all get their fill.

Later, the university graduate and trainee technician is also sent away for reform, and Yu Shuiyan breathes a sigh of relief.

She also knows that in the future, he'll abandon his wife and children in the countryside, return to the factory, and try to seduce her, the director's daughter.

But Yu Shuiyan will never give him the chance. She'll just let her husband, Meng Shanguang, stand in his way while she enjoys a peaceful life.

*

#The heroine just wants to be a canteen cook#

#The hero does laundry, cooks, takes care of the kids, does housework, and earns extra money by day. At night, he studies skills and knowledge hard, in case his wife suddenly gets fed up with him and kicks him out#

Theme: Making the most of every day matters more than anything