Lin Xia was born into an ordinary single-parent family. Her mother worked herself to the bone to raise her, but succumbed to illness before Lin Xia could graduate from college.
Ten years later, accomplished and successful, Lin Xia returns to her hometown. While sorting through her mother's belongings, she comes across her mother's diaries from when she was young and discovers her own name in them. The name belonged to an aunt with the exact same name as hers, yet Lin Xia had never met her, not once, from birth to the present.
Then, unexpectedly, Lin Xia gets pulled into the diary and sent back to the 1980s.
Her mother, decades younger, sees her and immediately calls her big sister.
Huh? Mom, this family hierarchy is so confusing!
To her surprise, her mother hears her inner thoughts and asks, "Where'd you pick up that He Nan accent?"
*
The diary says that her mother's family had two daughters and a son, and that the youngest boy was always the favorite. Every tasty bite and drop of good drink went to him.
One day, when her mother is so hungry she's gone pale and thin, Lin Xia plants her hands on her hips and corners her little brother: "Hand over your stash, and I'll spare your life!"
Her little brother struts around, acting like he can do whatever he wants because he's the favorite. He even casually takes a bite of a fried flatbread.
Lin Xia: "You little brat! If you take a bite, I'll pull out those two front teeth of yours that are hanging by a thread!"
Her brother opens his mouth and lets out a wail. Lin Xia takes the freshly fried flatbread from his hands.
She smiles and hands it to her mother. "From now on, stick with your big sister. I'll protect you!"
*
The Lin family is famous in the village for being poor. The two sisters even had to listen to lessons by standing outside the elementary school and peeking around the wall.
One day, Lin Xia hears the math teacher teaching English too, with an accent that sounds like it was cobbled together from plastic parts at a construction site!
Her: "Chinish? Leave it to me! I've got TOEFL, IELTS, and the highest-level English test under my belt. Pick me!"
Math, Chinese, and English today; politics, history, and geography tomorrow; physics, chemistry, and biology the day after. If her mother wants to learn it, Lin Xia teaches her everything she knows! Before long, kids from next door and even the houses beyond crowd over whenever they have free time to listen in.
Lin Xia boasts proudly, "You all have my little sister to thank for this! Hurry up and thank her!"
*
1. Family life and everyday squabbles, with a few awful relatives, but not many.
2. There is a male lead, but he doesn't get much page time. The story focuses mainly on family affection.
Theme: To be revised
