The Beautiful Educated Youth in Ice City [Period]

Coming up next: The Little Cook at the Steelworks in the Sixties and The Beauty's Struggle in the Gobi Desert. Please add them to your favorites!

Blurb:

Zeng Linyu was born into the world of a period novel and raised in the Gobi Desert. Everyone praised her as a lovely beauty, and her parents cherished her as she grew up with her bright, pretty face.

Her mother's hometown was the freezing Ice City. She never expected that in 1968, at the age of sixteen, she would have to go there to become an educated youth.

She thought life would be hard, but Lu Aiguo, the second son of the family next door, was going with her to become an educated youth, too.

Lu Aiguo had been bullied by her since childhood. She got to ride his family's camel first, and Lu Aiguo always brought her the family's sweet grapes and melons to taste before anyone else.

Of course, Zeng Linyu returned the favor. Lu Aiguo wasn't good at studying, so she did everything she could to tutor him and give him extra lessons.

Then the two of them went to the production brigade where Zeng Linyu's maternal grandfather's family lived, to become educated youths sent down to the countryside.

Zeng Linyu felt at home there, with relatives nearby, and was sure she'd be the one looking after Lu Aiguo.

Lu Aiguo left their old home in the Gobi Desert and followed Zeng Linyu to Ice City.

He thought that from then on, all he and Zeng Linyu would have to eat was wild greens and sweet potatoes. If necessary, he'd eat only greens and let her have all the sweet potatoes.

But he never expected the forests and mountains around Ice City to be full of dried blueberries, wild pears, frozen pears, and all kinds of wild fruit.

Not to mention Ice City's local specialties, like hazelnut mushrooms, ground cherries, round jujubes, sour wood berries, wild walnuts, and wild greens.

In summer, they picked wild fodder to feed the brigade's livestock, gathered medicinal herbs and tree seeds, and took them to the purchasing station.

In autumn, they gathered acorns to feed the pigs and make wine. Lu Aiguo walked dozens of miles to bring back frozen grapes from the Ice City growing trenches for her.

They ate ice cream on snowy days and sat around the heated brick bed, enjoying a huge pot of pork, cabbage, and glass noodles.

Their life was wonderful.

Blurb for The Little Cook at the Steelworks in the Sixties:

Yu Shuiyan is the daughter of the steelworks director. She was eighteen when she finally remembered that she'd been born into this world from the womb.

She had two choices. First, pack up and go to college, only to be sent to the countryside as an educated youth two years later.

Second, return to the steelworks for a job and find someone to marry, because she really didn't want to go to some remote village.

Yu Shuiyan chose the second option.

Sure enough, once she returned to the steelworks and got her father to arrange a job for her in the kitchen, he was sent down to the countryside.

Her mother went with him to care for her husband, entrusting Yu Shuiyan and her two younger maternal cousins to Master Liang, the steelworks' head chef.

Master Liang was Yu Shuiyan's mother's senior fellow apprentice. They had both learned their craft under the same cooking master.

Yu Shuiyan promptly became Master Liang's apprentice, giving herself a foothold at the steelworks.

But before long, Master Liang would have to take an iron wok with him to support the Third Front construction campaign.

Before he left, Master Liang was especially worried about Yu Shuiyan's marriage prospects.

He introduced her to two men.

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

But he had a whole family to support, with a long line of younger siblings and nephews behind him, and he wasn't even related to Master Liang by blood.

The other was Master Liang's sister's son. He was handsome and well-mannered, and was about to graduate from college and become a technician.

Everyone in the steelworks housing compound thought Yu Shuiyan would surely choose the technician.

But no one expected her to marry Meng Shanguang instead!

The people in the housing compound thought Yu Shuiyan was in for a hard time.

Her future husband's family had so many children, and she also had to support her mother's two younger sisters. With so many people, the family was sure to run short of money, and the household would be a mess.

But unexpectedly, before Master Liang left, he gave Yu Shuiyan the position of head chef in the steelworks canteen.

Yu Shuiyan suddenly became the canteen's top chef. Every day, she took on a few apprentices, who eagerly served her. With her cooking skills, Yu Shuiyan became the one and only big sister to them all.

Meanwhile, Meng Shanguang, who married Yu Shuiyan, did the laundry, cooked, and looked after the children at home, managing the whole string of kids pretty well.

Meng Shanguang also started out as a steelworker at the steelworks. He was determined to work hard and improve himself, so he wouldn't embarrass his wife.

Besides, as the head chef, Yu Shuiyan could bring home some food and ingredients from the canteen. None of the children in the family went hungry, and they could all eat their fill.

Later, the college graduate technician was also sent down to the countryside, and Yu Shuiyan breathed a sigh of relief.

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

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

*

#The heroine just wants to be a canteen cook#

#By day, the male lead does the laundry, cooks, looks after the children, handles the housework, and earns extra money. At night, he studies technology and knowledge so his wife won't decide she's had enough of him and kick him out one day#

Blurb for The Beauty's Struggle in the Gobi Desert:

As soon as Wu Jiuzhi transmigrated to the 1950s, she took her whole family to seek refuge with relatives.

They had meant to go to the city, but they took a wrong turn and were captured.

Luckily, someone rescued them. She heard he'd gone to the Gobi Desert to reclaim wasteland.

Wu Jiuzhi thought love at first sight wasn't unreasonable. She went after him not to repay his kindness, but to stay by his side for the long haul. She'd wait for him to run into trouble, rescue him once, and consider the debt settled.

After becoming one of them, Wu Jiuzhi came up with plenty of ideas.

She joined them in digging underground dwellings in the Gobi Desert, cooking for them, building houses, planting and harvesting wheat, repairing reservoirs, planting and picking cotton, and planting and harvesting fruit.

She also treated sick people and gave blood transfusions, tended injured animals, taught literacy classes, and earned plenty of merit.

She was a good marksman and could fly planes, too.

But with her charming face, slender figure, and sweet, clear voice, she stood out even more than the brilliant flowers of the Gobi Desert. No one was willing to believe she could fly a plane.

Later, Wu Jiuzhi met her cousin once removed, who had been away from home for many years. He had no children, so he wanted to adopt Wu Jiuzhi as his daughter.

Her cousin told Wu Jiuzhi she should find someone to look after her, and introduced her to a capable man who worked under him, Mu Qinlai, who was just as determined not to lose when it came to the work of building the country.

Wu Jiuzhi: People change. Don't underestimate them after a long time apart.

Mu Qinlai: Should I repay the kindness of saving my life by marrying you?

Her cousin gave them the perfect couplet: May you be happy together for a hundred years.

*

After Wu Jiuzhi was rescued by Mu Qinlai, she asked everywhere to find out where he had gone. When she finally found him, he said he didn't know her.

Many years later, Mu Qinlai recalled the past to his grandchildren.

He said, "I've rescued more than thirty girls in my life. At first, they all said they wanted to marry me. I played dumb and said my memory wasn't very good. Later, I introduced them to my relatives, friends, buddies, and neighbors..."

"But your grandmother was different. She didn't say she wanted to marry me. Instead, she said she was going to be my superior, put me in my place, and squeeze me dry. She made the road of my life winding and crooked, but I still managed to overtake everyone on the bends..."

"And what happened after that?" The children gazed at him eagerly, hoping to hear more of their grandfather's wisdom.

"After that, she became the top leader of our household. Usually, if she tells me to stand, I wouldn't dare sit. If she's sitting, I wouldn't dare lie down..."

Wu Jiuzhi happened to hear all of this.

Wu Jiuzhi (smiling faintly): "Comrade Mu Qinlai, I'm giving you one chance to get your story straight."

Theme: Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty: a taste of life