Ruan Xiaotang, a twenty-one-year-old orphan and stand-in actress in modern China, wins fifty million yuan in the lottery and purchases a mysterious jade pendant. Shortly after, she experiences a vivid nightmare of suffocation and death, which she interprets as a premonition. Upon examining the pendant under lamplight, she is engulfed in golden light and transported to a luxurious spatial dimension. A television within this space displays a countdown indicating she has seven days before transmigration to another era. Recognizing the gravity of her situation, Ruan Xiaotang deduces she will travel to a time of scarcity and resolves to stockpile essential supplies to ensure survival and comfort for herself and her future family.
Over the next week, Ruan Xiaotang liquidates her assets and embarks on an extensive shopping spree. She purchases one hundred pigs and one hundred cattle from a slaughterhouse, along with vast quantities of vegetables, grains, cooking oils, cigarettes, alcohol, and dairy products from agricultural markets. She also acquires millions of yuan worth of daily necessities from supermarkets, including hygiene products, clothing, bedding, and tools. To prepare for potential illness in the past, she visits numerous pharmacies to buy over-the-counter medications. Additionally, she buys fabric from a factory to create period-appropriate clothing and exchanges twelve million yuan for gold bars. Within her spatial dimension, she cultivates land, planting crops, fruit trees, and raising livestock, ensuring a sustainable food source upon arrival. Before leaving, she confronts Shen Qingchi, a famous actor she secretly helped launch to stardom. After he betrayed her and ruined her reputation, she physically assaults him and forces him to publicly announce their past relationship, seeking retribution before her departure.
Ruan Xiaotang transmigrates to the spring of 1958 in Lotus Village, Cao County. She inhabits the body of a girl with the same name, who is the daughter of a widowed mother, Liu Guifang, and has a younger brother, Ruan Xiaohai, who is disabled after a fall. The family is impoverished and facing severe famine. Immediately upon awakening, Ruan Xiaotang learns that the Wang family, consisting of Wang Xianghe and her son Wang Qiang, has arrived to demand the return of betrothal gifts and to break off an engagement. The Wangs are tyrannical bullies who have previously oppressed the Ruan family. When Ruan Xiaohai attempts to defend his mother, Wang Qiang beats him brutally. Ruan Xiaotang emerges from her room wielding a kitchen knife, displaying a fierce and commanding demeanor that shocks her family and intimidates the Wangs. She slaps Wang Xianghe and kicks Wang Qiang, asserting her dominance. She reveals that Wang Qiang is having an affair with the village chief’s daughter-in-law, causing the Wangs to panic. She accepts the return of the betrothal gifts but declares the engagement null due to their misconduct, effectively ending the feud through public exposure and force.
To secure her family’s future and protection against further bullying, Ruan Xiaotang agrees to a blind date arranged by a matchmaker. She is introduced to Zhou Xingze, a twenty-eight-year-old regiment leader in the military. The match occurs in a state-run restaurant in the city. Zhou Xingze is initially reluctant due to his mother’s pressure but is struck by Ruan Xiaotang’s beauty and quiet demeanor. Ruan Xiaotang, though initially shy, observes Zhou Xingze’s disciplined and upright nature. They share a meal, during which she notices the stark contrast between the city’s relative abundance and her village’s starvation. She vows to improve her family’s living conditions. As they walk together after the meal, Zhou Xingze asks for her opinion of him, signaling the beginning of a romantic connection. Ruan Xiaotang begins to integrate her modern knowledge and spatial resources into her new life, aiming to build a prosperous future for her family while navigating the political and social complexities of 1958 China.
