Everyday Bargain Hunting in the Seventies

After working overtime, ultrasound doctor Bai Xuexi died suddenly and became the second daughter of the Bai family, living in a crowded courtyard in the 1970s.

Her father was obsessed with having a son, her mother was domineering and sharp-tongued, her eldest sister was beautiful and sweet-talking, and her younger sister was clever and quick-witted. Bai Xuexi was the quiet workhorse stuck in the middle, neither loved nor cherished by her parents, burning herself out to light the way for the whole family.

She had two choices as soon as she arrived: go to the countryside as an educated youth, or get married in a hurry. The job at home had to be saved for the “little brother” who didn't even exist yet.

The original Bai Xuexi had a chance to get a temporary job, provided she was adopted by her great-aunt, who had no children, and cared for the old woman in her later years. But the original Bai Xuexi had cried and begged her parents not to send her away. To prove how determined she was, she used her belt to hang herself from a roof beam.

A true workhorse, Bai Xuexi was furious: Where else could you find such a great deal?

So the neighbors were amazed. The day before, Bai Xuexi had been desperate to die. The next day, she was living in her great-aunt's main house, eating meat, and, best of all, working as a temporary employee at the subdistrict office!

Bai Xuexi had no desire to work in her actual profession anymore and just wanted to slack off. But at the subdistrict office, she seemed to have become a walking human ultrasound machine, also known as X-ray vision.

A young woman who had been paralyzed in bed for three years was pushed over in a handcart to apply for relief money. Bai Xuexi realized she was perfectly healthy and could move all four limbs.

A worker who had been infertile for years and insisted on getting divorced to obtain a letter of introduction turned out to be a eunuch.

A young wife, five months pregnant, came to apply for a birth permit. Wait a minute, don't bother with that. Get to the hospital and have surgery. That's no baby in your belly, it's a tumor.

The parents of a crying infant, frightened by rumors of a haunting, came to ask for mediation and a house with better feng shui. Forget feng shui, call the police! There's a nail in your child's head!

Before long, Bai Xuexi became the famous Director Bai, known far and wide for her outstanding mediation skills, or rather, her X-ray vision. Meanwhile, when nobody was looking, she'd become a champion bargain hunter.

The filthy pig trough at a divorced commune member's house was actually a brush washer used by a calligraphy master.

The weapon used in a bloody fight after catching a spouse cheating was a Dingyao purple-glazed porcelain pillow from the Song dynasty.

The chicken bowl belonging to a lonely elderly woman in desperate need of relief turned out to be a blue-splashed-glaze bowl worthy of a museum's greatest treasures.

Even a scrap of bronze used to prop up a table was actually a bronze mirror with a six-mountain pattern from the Eastern Han dynasty!

Bai Xuexi spread her hands. “There's always a higher mountain and a taller building. If you want to find a bargain, just start a crowdfunding campaign.”

[Coming next] The Railway Compound of the Seventies

Lin Zhen was the belle of the Niushigou Production Team. Her father kept the team's work-point records, her mother was the women's director, and she lived in a spacious, bright brick-tile house. Young men from all the nearby villages wanted to date her, but she fell for the educated youth Gu Weimin.

On the third day of their marriage, Gu Weimin went back to the city to visit his family and never returned. Lin Zhen searched far and wide until she found the city's railway compound, where she learned that he had become the deputy section chief's son-in-law. The shock caused her to miscarry and damaged her health. She became a laughingstock in the village and lived out a miserable life.

But when she opened her eyes, Lin Zhen was reborn. The good news: her child was still there, she was healthy, and she was young.

The bad news: she was on her way to the railway compound, about to catch her “husband” in the middle of another marriage...

As she debated which foot to step into the compound with first, she happened to meet Ji Yuemin, who had been cornered by the organization and urged to meet a match. Looking troubled, he told an enthusiastic older woman, “I was injured during an arrest operation and lost the ability to have children. I can't hold a woman back.”

“If you really have to set me up with someone, find a divorcee with a child. At least then the woman can still have someone to care for.”

“Comrade, would I do?” Lin Zhen immediately volunteered herself.

A railway worker, after all, traveled a lot, had a high salary and good benefits, and was hardly ever home. Best of all, he couldn't have children. Wasn't that her ideal marriage candidate?

But after she moved into the railway compound and became a proud railway worker's wife, who said Ji Yuemin couldn't do it?

His colleagues at the railway police station noticed that Ji Yuemin had become a different person since having a child. This man, known for his iron grip and eagle eyes, the so-called Eagle of the Rails, had somehow become more and more eager to go home. What did he do there? During the day, he showed off his only daughter, who had been born seven months premature but was now chubby and rosy-cheeked. At night, the lights stayed on until well past midnight, and everyone teased him about whether his back could take it.

Lin Zhen had no time to worry about anything else. She studied late into the night every day, hoping to get into the railway hospital and continue the career she hadn't been able to finish in her previous life.

Theme: Women grow strong and self-reliant, and find happiness in life