The Lazy Nanny of the 1970s

People say that poor children grow up fast, but there are exceptions.

Tang Tang was one of them.

While her mother swept the floor, she traced the ashes. While her sister cooked, she stoked the fire. While her sister herded sheep, she picked grass. While her brother carried firewood, she held the rope.

She took part in everything, but never did much of anything.

Oh, and the sisters mentioned above weren't the same sister. Her family had lots of kids: two older sisters and a brother above her, two younger brothers and a younger sister below her. Stuck in the middle and ignored by everyone, she had to make herself noticed.

With the family on the verge of being too poor to afford a meal, her second older sister, who could have gone to vocational school, went on a matchmaking date to secure a bride price.

Tang Tang picked up her only pair of ragged pants, stole the only decent outfit in the house, and hurried off to the city to work as a nanny.

She went to the home of her mother's second older sister's brother-in-law's cousin's aunt's husband's niece's eldest granddaughter's uncle's maternal aunt's family, where she was to care for a great-grandmother so distantly related they couldn't possibly be any more remote. The eighty-year-old had such a strange temper that her own son was on the verge of divorce and the family was falling apart.

How did Tang Tang know all those details?

Because she had transmigrated, into the family of poor, villainous gourd kids from a period novel.

As for why the family was still so poor even after she got here, that's a long story.

**

The eighty-year-old distant great-grandmother had a bad temper, always got her way, was brisk and decisive, and had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Once you knew how to handle her, she could instantly turn into a kind old lady. Her cooking was so good it made your tongue melt with longing.

The six-year-old little tyrant was a terror who drove the neighbors to despair. Who would have guessed that he loved bedtime stories? A Thousand and One Nights is a must-have, guaranteed to turn a little troublemaker into a sweet angel.

Other people's nanny jobs involved grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and running around like a spinning top, then sleeping curled up in a corner at night.

Tang Tang's nanny job:

The groceries were things she liked, the eighty-year-old chef cooked the meals, and the kids helped with the cleaning. After running around all day, she could snack to her heart's content and lounge in the brightest room in the house, swinging her legs.

What a lovely little life.

If only the stern political commissar next door would stop looking at her with those scanner-like eyes. Keep your distance, keep your distance. We're not right for each other.

Theme: Trust one another and keep striving.