80s: Come and Pick Up Your Wife and Kid

Shu Yuan awakens in 1980, having transmigrated into the body of a minor character in a novel she once read. She finds herself in a cramped, three-room apartment in the Hongxing Electronics Factory residential compound, living with her stepmother Li Hongxia and younger sister Shu He. The original host was an unemployed twenty-five-year-old woman who had returned from the countryside after giving birth to a son, Xiao Man, whom she had abandoned with a farming family. In the novel, Xiao Man suffers a tragic fate: he is sold by his foster family, injured by human traffickers, and grows up crippled and resentful, eventually becoming a successful but dark writer who destroys his biological father, a renowned surgeon. Shu Yuan realizes she must alter this trajectory to prevent the child’s suffering.

Immediately upon waking, Shu Yuan faces a blind date arranged by her stepmother. She rejects the suitor, a technician whose family views her solely as a vessel for producing a male heir, and decides to prioritize rescuing Xiao Man. She learns that the Spring Equinox, two days away, is the date when Xiao Man is sold to the Zhang family and subsequently targeted by traffickers. Lacking a letter of introduction and funds, Shu Yuan sells her wool coat for forty yuan and obtains a introduction letter from the neighborhood committee. Her eldest sister, Shu Ping, provides additional financial support and helps cover for her absence, unaware of the full scope of Shu Yuan’s plan.

Shu Yuan travels to Bingcheng and then to Baihua County, hiring a local man on a bicycle to reach the Xiaohe Production Team. She observes Xiao Man from a tree, noting his emaciated state and the abuse he endures as a child husband to a mentally disabled girl. Xiao Man, who has been waiting for his mother to rescue him, is overjoyed when she reveals herself. Shu Yuan carries him away from the household, navigating through mountain paths to avoid detection. Their escape is interrupted by human traffickers, but Shu Yuan, utilizing her combat skills, defeats two attackers. Public security officers, who were tracking the traffickers based on Xiao Man’s prior report, arrive and apprehend the criminals.

At the township substation, Shu Yuan confronts Zhang Laocai, the man who bought Xiao Man. Zhang attempts to frame Shu Yuan as a trafficker, but she exposes his crimes, including his involvement in selling other children. Xiao Man provides testimony confirming Zhang’s guilt. The public security officers arrest Zhang and the traffickers. Shu Yuan ensures that Lin Dahu, the son of Xiao Man’s original foster family who sold him, is also investigated. She then takes Xiao Man to the county hospital, where he is diagnosed with synovitis rather than a permanent injury. Relieved, Shu Yuan buys him new clothes and prepares to return to the city, having successfully intercepted the tragic events of the original plot.

The story concludes with Shu Yuan and Xiao Man beginning their journey back to Lucheng. She is committed to raising him properly, despite her initial reluctance to mother a child. The immediate danger has passed, and the key figures responsible for Xiao Man’s misery are in custody. Shu Yuan’s actions have shifted the narrative from tragedy to redemption, setting the stage for a new life for both mother and son away from the harmful influences of the past.