In the 1960s: A Vicious, Alluring Beauty Is Forcibly Claimed

In the summer of 1963, Qin Yunxi, a woman driven by self-preservation and social ambition, remarries Bai Anrong, the director of a textile factory in Harbin, to escape the impending labor reform that threatened her and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Qin Sang, after Sang’s biological father was politically implicated in Shanghai. Sang, a strikingly beautiful and calculating adolescent who mirrors her mother’s cold pragmatism, adapts quickly to their new life, viewing relationships through a lens of utility and advantage. The family’s integration is tested during a visit to Bai Anrong’s elder brother, Bai Anhua, a steel factory director, where Sang engages in a verbal and physical confrontation with her new step-sister, Bai Tingting. Sang strategically manipulates the situation, causing Tingting to injure herself while avoiding blame, a victory that is soon overshadowed by the revelation that Tingting is not the biological daughter of the Bai family but was swapped at birth with another child by a resentful wet nurse.

Months later, Sang encounters a fugitive man named Pei Che in an alley while waiting for her mother; he is wounded and being hunted by armed men. Although she initially helps him by bandaging his wound, her true nature emerges when she tightens the bandage to inflict pain and kicks his injury before fleeing. This encounter leaves a lasting impression on Pei Che, who recognizes her as the malicious child who outsmarted him. As time passes, Sang excels academically and forms a transactional friendship with her deskmate, Yuan Yuan, who provides her with food and favors in exchange for companionship. However, the political landscape shifts dramatically in May 1966 when the college entrance examination is suspended indefinitely, shattering Sang’s plans for university and forcing her to seek employment in a restrictive planned economy.

Struggling to find a position that meets her high standards, Sang faces pressure from neighborhood committees to send a family member to the countryside for labor reform. Her mother, Qin Yunxi, successfully manipulates her husband into believing that Sang is willing to sacrifice herself for her stepbrother, Bai Zhixin, prompting Bai Anrong to use his connections to secure a job for Sang instead. Meanwhile, the secret of the switched babies comes to light when the biological daughter of the wet nurse, Bai Lanlan, is identified and brought into the Bai household, creating a complex dynamic between the two girls who were raised in swapped circumstances. Tingting, having secured a clerical job through family connections, becomes a point of comparison and resentment for Sang, who refuses to accept any position she deems beneath her, leading to a period of unemployment while her mother spends savings to buy her a more prestigious role.

Three years after their initial encounter, Sang and Yuan Yuan meet Pei Che and his friend Zhao Hongsen at a state-run restaurant. Sang openly criticizes Pei Che’s appearance and character to Yuan Yuan, unaware that Pei Che can hear her and recognizes her as the same girl who had previously tormented him. The narrative highlights the growing tension between Sang’s calculated social climbing and the unpredictable forces of political turmoil and personal history that threaten to disrupt her carefully constructed life. As the Cultural Revolution intensifies, the family faces new challenges, with Bai Zhixin becoming involved in radical activities and the household dynamics fracturing under the weight of past secrets and present hardships. Sang’s beauty and intelligence remain her primary assets, but her ruthless approach to survival places her in direct conflict with those around her, including the increasingly volatile Pei Che, setting the stage for a collision between their divergent paths.