In the 1970s: Picking Up a Madman as My Husband

Ming Dai, a thirty-five-year-old woman from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, lived a carefree life after inheriting her grandparents' wealth. Following their deaths, she opened a medicinal restaurant and spent her days traveling and enjoying leisure. Her peaceful existence ended abruptly when a shifty young man, a newly appointed Black Wuchang, mistakenly summoned her soul to the Underworld Service Hall. Upon arrival, she discovered that her body had already been cremated by her neglectful parents, who viewed her as an obligation rather than a daughter. The Underworld officials informed her that her soul was not scheduled to die for another seventy years, leaving her with no reincarnation slot and only three days before her soul would dissipate.

To resolve the bureaucratic error, the Underworld Travel Agency offered Ming Dai a compensation package: a transmigration experience into a novel titled A Sweet and Pampered Little Wife in the 1970s. Although she suspected it was a trial scheme, she agreed, negotiating for a wealthy background, a storage space, and her converted life savings. She was sent into the body of a fourteen-year-old girl with the same name, who had died of a high fever just moments before Ming Dai’s soul entered. The original owner was an orphan raised by her adoptive grandfather, a retired military doctor, and was being harassed by her greedy uncle’s family, who sought to seize her inheritance and force her into a marriage with a foolish man in the countryside.

Upon waking, Ming Dai assessed her new reality and her personal space, which contained ample food, supplies, and gold. Realizing she had the medical knowledge of a lifetime and the resources to survive, she decided to take control of her fate. She first sold her adoptive father’s pharmacy job to a hospital director for seven hundred and fifty yuan, securing medical supplies and a new identity. She then sold her family’s courtyard house to a local troublemaker, Ma Liu, for four hundred yuan, instructing him to cause trouble for her uncle’s family as a parting gift. To ensure her uncle’s plans failed, she registered her cousin, Ming Yaozu, for the countryside program in the remote northwest, using her cousin’s name on the paperwork while securing a placement for herself in Hei Province.

As Ming Dai prepared to leave, her uncle’s family discovered her empty house and rushed to the train station, only to find her cousin being forcibly dragged onto the train instead. Ming Changjiang, furious and humiliated, beat his wife and daughter, unaware that Ming Dai had orchestrated the swap. Ming Dai boarded the train quietly, watching the chaos from a distance. On the train, she encountered the novel’s original female lead, Fang Rou, and the second male lead, Liu Yan. Fang Rou, who had been reborn with memories of a tragic past, was determined to change her fate by marrying the rural doctor Luo Cheng. Ming Dai, aware that she was merely a background character in Fang Rou’s story, chose to stay out of the main plot.

Arriving in Hei Province, Ming Dai settled into the Hongqi Commune. With her medical skills, hidden wealth, and storage space, she planned to live a comfortable life away from the schemes of her relatives. She intended to avoid the original storyline entirely, focusing instead on her own survival and well-being. The novel follows her as she navigates the hardships of rural life in the 1970s, using her modern knowledge and resources to build a secure future, while the original protagonists pursue their own romantic and ambitious goals in the same community.