A Female Military Doctor in the 1950s

Xu Wanchun, a twenty-eight-year-old female military doctor in modern times, dies following a chaotic hospital dispute and transmigrates into the body of an eight-year-old girl named Daniu in 1950s rural China. The original owner of the body had been an orphan living with cruel relatives who starved her until she collapsed and died. Xu Wanchun awakens to find herself rescued by Xu Hehua, a divorced woman in her early thirties who lives in Xujiatun with her deceased husband’s parents. Xu Hehua had spent fifteen years caring for her absent husband’s family after he went missing during the war, only to be abandoned when he returned as a low-ranking government official with a new wife and children. Despite her own hardships, Xu Hehua adopts the starving child she finds near a grave, naming her Xu Wanchun after the late spring season.

Struggling to adapt to her frail new body and the extreme poverty of the era, Xu Wanchun relies on her medical knowledge and adult mindset to survive. She quickly identifies the year as 1950 and realizes she has twenty-eight years before the reform and opening-up. Determined not to burden her adoptive mother, who works tirelessly farming two mu of land and weaving cloth, Xu Wanchun seeks a way to earn money. She notices the local herbalist, Doctor Cao, processing medicinal herbs and begins secretly observing him. Through careful study, she learns to identify over a dozen herbs and understands their preparation methods, aiming to gather and sell them to improve her family’s financial situation.

A critical turning point occurs when a villager is severely injured by a wild boar and Doctor Cao is away on a house call. Xu Wanchun steps in to assist Su Nan, the doctor’s wife, by correctly weighing and preparing a prescription of honeysuckle and dandelion to prevent infection. Her precise knowledge shocks the adults, revealing her exceptional memory and natural aptitude for medicine. Doctor Cao and his wife, impressed by her talent and character, agree to let her sell herbs through them, providing a legitimate path for her to earn income. This event also solidifies the bond between Xu Wanchun and her adoptive mother, who is deeply moved by her daughter’s maturity and desire to help.

The family faces external pressures from Xu Hehua’s traditionalist parents, who disapprove of her divorce and attempt to interfere with the child’s upbringing. Xu Hehua firmly rejects their demands to give Wanchun to relatives or arrange a child marriage, choosing instead to protect her daughter and maintain her independence. As Wanchun recovers physically, gaining weight and health through proper nutrition, she looks forward to enrolling in the local primary school in September. The story follows her integration into village life, her growing relationship with her neighbors, and her strategic use of modern medical knowledge to navigate the challenges of 1950s rural China while building a stable future with her adoptive mother.