Educated Youth Sent Down to the Countryside in the 1970s

Sheng Zhiyan’s parents were longtime employees at a state-owned factory. At the factory’s mobilization meeting that year, their family was assigned one spot for sending someone to the countryside.

If no one went, both of Sheng Zhiyan’s parents would have their wages suspended.

The spot was originally meant for Sheng Zhiyan’s eldest sister. She had just graduated from middle school and had failed to get into high school, so she had no way to continue her education.

But who could have guessed that at this critical moment, her eldest sister would start dating the factory director’s son!

To cling to the factory director’s son, Sheng Zhiyan’s parents changed their minds and made their second daughter, Sheng Zhiyan, who had already gotten into high school, take the spot instead.

They coaxed Sheng Zhiyan with promises that once her eldest sister married the factory director’s son, they would find a way to bring her back to the city.

But everyone knew that once a beautiful young woman was sent to the countryside, the most likely outcome was that she would marry, settle down, and never return.

So after Sheng Zhiyan left with the group heading to the countryside, her parents acted as if they had never had that daughter.

They stopped sending her money, and all correspondence ceased as well.

Later, the state-owned factory went bankrupt, and the eldest daughter and her husband stayed home, living off their parents. But then Sheng Zhiyan’s parents saw on TV the second daughter they had abandoned.

They learned that she had not only returned to the city after passing the college entrance exam, but had also become a research scientist and married a well-known local entrepreneur. They could not hide their astonishment.

Was it still possible to acknowledge this daughter again?

*

Sheng Zhiyan’s eldest sister, Sheng Zhilan, had been reborn.

In her previous life, she had answered the call to go to the countryside with honor. But she could not endure the hard labor, so she tried to use her looks to marry the village chief’s favored only son.

But the village chief’s son was a blockhead who had no interest in her pretty face, so she settled for marrying the local team leader, a fellow educated youth ten years her senior.

Later, when the policy allowing people to return to the cities was introduced, everyone else happily went home. But because she had married and settled down, she could only stay in the small mountain village for the rest of her life as an ordinary farmer’s wife.

Reborn this time, she was determined not to repeat her past mistakes. She seduced the factory director’s son early on and made her younger sister, who had already gotten into high school, take her place in the countryside.

She assumed her younger sister, who was even prettier than she was and could not stand hardship, would end up just like her in her previous life: marrying young and wasting away her life.

But she never expected that after the state-owned factory went bankrupt, she and her husband would be laid off and stuck at home, worrying about how to make ends meet every day.

Meanwhile, the younger sister who had taken her place in the countryside married Tan Beinan, the village chief’s only son, who went on to flourish and become a well-known local entrepreneur after the Reform and Opening Up!

Watching the two of them appear on TV together, Sheng Zhilan thought in shock:

Wasn’t he supposed to care nothing for looks?!

*

As the only son of the village chief, Tan Beinan’s father hoped more than anything that he would marry a city girl.

But Tan Beinan himself disliked nothing more than city girls who were affected, pampered, and prone to acting like spoiled young ladies.

But when he saw the city girl who had come to the countryside, her eyes red as she blew on the blisters the hoe had rubbed onto her hands, he felt like his mind had gone funny.

Maybe a city girl wasn’t so bad after all?

Theme: Don’t compare yourself to others. Live your own life well.