Earning Money to Raise Cubs and Embrace a New Life

Su Qiao, a successful award-winning professional, dies in her previous life only to awaken in 1981 as a seventeen-year-old girl. She finds herself in her eldest uncle’s courtyard, having just jumped from a wall to escape a forced marriage arrangement. The memories of her past life flood back, revealing a tragic history: her younger sister Su Lan was abducted by human traffickers, her eldest brother Su Wei was imprisoned and later committed suicide, and her youngest brother Su Peng was disfigured and deafened before eventually taking his own life. Su Qiao realizes she has returned to a critical turning point before these disasters occurred, giving her the opportunity to save her siblings and alter their fates.

Her immediate priority is rescuing her three-year-old sister, Su Lan, who is currently staying with her paternal aunt, Su Sanmei. In her previous life, Su Lan disappeared while under the aunt’s care, leading to the cascade of tragedies that destroyed the family. Su Qiao confronts her cousin Li Zhuang, who admits to tying Xiao Lan to a tree when unsupervised. Realizing the child may have been taken by traffickers, Su Qiao rushes to the back mountain, armed with a kitchen knife. She is intercepted by Xiao Qifeng, a PLA officer who has just returned from military hospital treatment. Xiao Qifeng had been summoned by his mother, who believed her son was permanently disabled and arranged a marriage with Su Qiao to care for him. However, Xiao Qifeng’s leg has healed, and he is not aware of the full extent of the arrangement until he arrives.

Xiao Qifeng accompanies Su Qiao to the mountain, where they discover Su Lan hidden in a stone pit, gagged and bound. He rescues the child, and Su Qiao reunites with her sister, vowing never to let her out of her sight. Upon returning to the village, Su Qiao publicly exposes her aunt’s negligence, revealing the bruises on Su Lan’s body and the rope used to tie her. The village secretary, Jin Guiyou, and the community witness the abuse. Su Qiao declares her intention to take her three younger siblings—Su Wei, Su Peng, and Su Lan—out of their relatives' homes to live independently. She also refuses the engagement to Xiao Qifeng, citing her youth and the lack of proper military approval for the marriage.

Xiao Qifeng supports Su Qiao’s decision, clarifying to the villagers that his mother acted impulsively based on false information about his disability. He agrees to cancel the engagement, though he expresses a personal interest in knowing Su Qiao better. The village authorities intervene, ordering Su Qiao’s uncle and aunt to return the betrothal gifts and the monthly orphan stipend that they had been withholding. Su Qiao also claims the family’s allotted land, but strategically decides to return it to the village collective rather than farm it herself, knowing the agricultural burdens of the era and her own future plans to move to the city.

The siblings move into their late father’s empty house, starting a new life together. Su Qiao takes charge, ensuring her brothers and sister are fed and cared for, determined to break the cycle of poverty and trauma that defined their previous existence. She plans to focus on her education and future career while protecting her siblings from the exploitation they previously suffered. The story concludes with the family establishing their independence, setting the stage for Su Qiao to navigate the challenges of the 1980s while preventing the tragedies that once doomed her family.