A Women's Director in the 1970s

Coming soon: "My Stepmother Only Wants to Get Rich [The Nineties]" and "Picking Up Trash in the Eighties." Please add them to your reading list!

Blurb at the very bottom.

With a crash, the women's affairs director makes a dazzling entrance.

Jiang Jun, an overworked office drone, is reborn in the 1970s and plans to run for women's affairs director.

The villagers gossip, "She's a young wife with thin skin. How could she possibly handle our village's affairs?"

The leader frowns and refuses. "Stay home and take care of the children and the elderly. You're too young to be a cadre."

Even her mother-in-law has doubts. "Being the women's affairs director is thankless hard work. Why invite trouble?"

"Power-hungry" Jiang Jun swears she'll be the most fabulous women's affairs director around.

Known: She has five subordinates: her mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, a son, and a daughter.

Also known: She has a soldier husband who's rarely home.

Question: How can she become the women's affairs director of Dahe Village?

Jiang Jun becomes the youngest women's affairs director in the whole area, and she does things her own way.

Round 1:

A mother-in-law mistreats her daughter-in-law and makes a scene, crying and wailing as she grabs Jiang Jun.

Jiang Jun furrows her brow and "takes the mother-in-law's side." "You young people don't understand how hard it is to run a household. I'll punish you by making you split up the family."

The arrogant, overbearing mother-in-law is stunned, while the long-suffering daughter-in-law cries with joy, finally able to escape a life of being drained dry.

Jiang Jun stops the mother-in-law when she tries to take it back. "Let them move out and live on their own. Then they'll understand how good you've been to them."

The mother-in-law sits on the ground wailing in regret. "Now that they've left, who's going to earn work points and cook for us?"

Round 2:

A husband beats and berates his wife, complaining that she lazes around at home.

Jiang Jun nods and takes him away. "This kind of wife needs a little schooling."

She counsels the women who have been beaten and tells them women need to stand on their own two feet.

She forms a women's self-defense squad and teaches them how to protect themselves.

The husbands watch their wives transform, but think nothing of it.

The next day, one husband hides his swollen eye and a tooth that whistles when he speaks. "I... I fell."

Round 3:

Neighbors can't stand each other. There's a small fight every two days and a big one every three.

The villagers are at their wits' end and ask Jiang Jun for help.

Jiang Jun slaps her forehead. This is no big deal.

The next day, she announces a Five-Star Family contest, forms a senior citizens' dance troupe, and sets up a garden...

A series of measures keeps the villagers so busy they can barely keep up.

They're busy having fun, bringing honor to the village, and making money. Who has time to argue?

Jiang Jun lets the facts face-slap the gossipy men.

The men in the village finally shut their mouths and sincerely call her "the female general."

Just as Jiang Jun's career is taking off, her husband returns from working away.

She looks at the broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, upright man and feels guilty.

She's afraid he'll discover she's an impostor.

Just as she racks her brains and finally comes up with an excuse, the man says awkwardly, "I've lost my memory."

Jiang Jun: ...

Those are my lines!

Content warning: The female lead is imperfect, not a saint, and has her own little schemes.

"My Stepmother Only Wants to Get Rich [The Nineties]"

When Xia Youyou wakes up, she's back in the nineties, having transmigrated into the role of a remarried man's stepmother.

He's divorced, has a child, and is rarely home.

Xia Youyou: A twice-married old man? Even a dog wouldn't marry him! Divorce. We have to get divorced.

The old man, who has nothing but money: Twenty thousand a month, plus living expenses.

Xia Youyou blinks. "Woof."

He's offering way too much.

Gu Nanheng is a real estate tycoon who caught the wave of the times. He owns countless assets and is so busy that he can never be found.

Unfortunately, while business is going well, his son Gu Yunting keeps failing his exams.

To set Gu Yunting back on the right track, he signs an agreement with Xia Youyou, a top student from a teachers' college.

She's his stepmother in name, but really his tutor and psychological counselor.

Gu Yunting knows his father married a stepmother just to keep him on top of his studies.

He comes up with 180 ways to defy her.

But Xia Youyou doesn't play by the rules.

She doesn't care that he failed Chinese. "As long as you can read, you'll be able to find your way home."

She doesn't care that he got thirty points in math. "As long as you can add and subtract within a hundred, you'll be able to give the right change when you sell vegetables."

When he gets into a fight with a classmate in PE, she applauds. "You're strong! You could make money carrying sacks someday."

Gu Yunting thinks she's being sarcastic, but Xia Youyou means every word.

The stepmother who's supposed to be at odds with him is busy working, opening a shop, and trading stocks.

Other people's stepmothers compete for affection, frame people, and fight over the family fortune.

Gu Yunting's stepmother makes money, makes money, makes money.

Xia Youyou: What's so great about men? They only slow down how fast I can make money. The only cure for worry is getting rich.

Bonus scene:

One day, Gu Nanheng gets a call from his wife in name only and realizes he hasn't been home in three months.

He assumes Xia Youyou is once again urging him to come home and visit.

But her voice is full of apprehension.

"Mr. Gu, if you're coming home, you have to tell us ahead of time and give us the exact time."

"Whatever you do, don't come home early or show up unexpectedly. We don't want surprises. Whatever you do, don't surprise us!"

Gu Nanheng: ...

Why does it feel like I have horns growing out of my head?

Gu Nanheng had planned to keep working, but sneaks home. He doesn't expect to find his newlywed wife picking up trash with his son.

His rebellious son, who should be doing homework and extra lessons, holds a trash bag in one hand and a grabber in the other, expertly plucking up a water bottle.

His virtuous wife, who should be tutoring him, claps. "Ten cents for a bottle. We're making money!"

The richest man, Nanheng, is plunged into deep self-doubt. Hadn't he made enough money? Why did his wife and child have to pick up trash for cash?

P.S. The son isn't biologically hers.

"Picking Up Trash in the Eighties"

Zeng Yuzhu's parents died early, and she was raised by her grandfather.

Before he died, her grandfather told her that he'd once arranged a marriage for her and asked her to go into the city and find her intended.

She follows her grandfather's instructions and goes into the city. On her first night living in the residential compound, she has a dream.

In the dream, she and her fiance Yan Nanxiao are a poor match, but they marry under the pressure of Grandpa Yan.

After the wedding, Yan Nanxiao heads south to Pengcheng alone and doesn't return for nearly ten years.

Zeng Yuzhu is left not only to live alone and endure her friends' and relatives' mockery, but also to disappoint the Yan family elders for the rest of her life.

After waking from the dream, Zeng Yuzhu refuses to let the nightmare come true and calls off the engagement herself.

She knows a woman can't easily get by in the countryside, so she rents a room in the city to make a living.

She has no money or skills, and hasn't had much schooling, so she takes up scavenging.

Her fate changes completely as a result.

She picks through a garbage dump that others avoid and makes thousands in income.

She resells junk that others consider worthless and ends up with a small truck.

She takes the initiative to partner with a steel mill on the verge of collapse and launches a business empire.

Friends and family hear that Zeng Yuzhu has taken up scavenging and either mock her or feel sorry for her.

They never expect that, starting with nothing but a pair of hands and a grabber, she'll scavenge her way to a fortune worth hundreds of millions and become a renowned entrepreneur.

One day, the very Zeng Yuzhu they looked down on becomes someone they can only look up to, a true gem.

After waking from her nightmare, she doesn't marry into a wealthy family. She becomes one herself.

Theme: Women hold up half the sky