Springtime for a Cannon Fodder in the Seventies

After waking up, Gu Meiyi finds herself transmigrated into a period novel as a crazed cannon-fodder character.

Gu Meiyi was spoiled rotten from childhood. When she was ten, her mother died of an illness, and her father soon became a stepfather too.

The female lead, brought in by her stepmother, is sensible, hardworking, generous, and clever, making Gu Meiyi look even more useless except for her pretty face.

She also sets her sights on a future big shot: the most popular and quick-witted young man in the village, who will become the male lead and her stepsister's fiancé.

After falling for the male lead, Gu Meiyi does all sorts of crazy things, making her already poor reputation even worse.

After two years of trouble, her stepsister marries the male lead, while Gu Meiyi is forced by her father and stepmother into marrying another cannon-fodder character, whose only purpose in the novel is to show what a terrible person Gu Meiyi is.

Shen Jiming's father works at a research institute, and his mother is a doctor. His eldest sister took their grandmother's factory job and stayed in the city, his older brother joined the army, and his younger sister is still little.

Caught in the middle, Shen Jiming has no chance of taking a job or joining the army, so he answers the call to go to the countryside as an educated youth.

Because he is honest and has no connections, someone schemes against him and gets him drunk. He spends the night in the same room as Gu Meiyi, and the next day, marriage becomes unavoidable.

At the end of the novel, Gu Meiyi really does go mad and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Shen Jiming, meanwhile, doesn't even get an ending. He's just an anonymous passerby among the cannon fodder.

Looking at Shen Jiming, who has just sobered up, his eyes red, his lips red and teeth white, and who, after a long struggle, can only manage to say, "Don't be afraid. If you're willing, we can get married," Gu Meiyi knows that she and Shen Jiming, two cannon-fodder characters, have to band together and work hard for their future.

Set in the 1970s. Marriage first, love later.

Theme: Never give up on working hard for yourself, no matter the circumstances.