Military Industry Mythology [The 1980s]

Many years later, visitors to the Arms Museum would marvel at the wall of distinguished figures.

In the most prominent spot at the center was a beautiful, elegant woman.

Her profile said that she had dedicated herself to innovation in military technology, led the world's only all-female team, and won more than twenty invention patents and countless medals of honor.

She had also guided several third-tier factories through the transition to shareholding systems and helped workers on the verge of layoffs find a path to shared prosperity.

Her name was You Yilan.

Yet when she had just awakened to the fact that she was a cannon-fodder character in a period novel, her name was still You Yinan. She was the eldest daughter of Lao You, a foundry worker at Factory 409 deep in the mountains.

The original heroine broke off her engagement to the factory director's lazy, greedy, and deceitful son, went to the capital to pursue the arts, became a big star, and married a coal magnate, living a life everyone envied.

The rejected fiancé, feeling humiliated, found a poor cannon-fodder girl even prettier than the original heroine to take her place. After they married, she was idle, uneducated, and lazy, and he beat her whenever he felt like it.

Unfortunately, You Yinan was that cannon-fodder girl.

In the original book, she died at the hands of her husband's fists before she turned thirty.

Her father-in-law, the factory director, even used his connections to change her cause of death to an accident.

At that moment, the plot had reached the point where the fiancé sent someone to propose. Lao You was in poor health and urgently needed money to travel to the provincial capital for treatment. The couple were congratulating themselves on finding their daughter such a "good match."

You Yinan had just returned from the town's middle school with her university entrance exam registration form in hand. "..."

That night, she discussed it with her parents until the middle of the night, and they reached an agreement:

She could refuse to marry, go to university, and change her name.

On the condition that she take Lao You's place in the foundry for a year to put her younger siblings through school.

The job was known for being grueling, exhausting, prone to heatstroke, and rife with accidents.

You Yinan gritted her teeth. "Fine!"

Later, she was glad she got into the National University of Defense Technology a year late.

That year of experience in military production gave her a purpose she would pursue for the rest of her life.

It also led her to meet the best person at the best time of her life.

Theme: Grow into a better version of yourself.