Mind Reading in the ’70s: Emptying the Family’s Assets to Find Her Husband and Follow the Army with Fubao

In the winter of 1972, Su Nian, a woman from a family of physicians branded as rightists, gives birth in Shilianghe Village after being sent down for re-education. Her husband, Chen Yaozu, appears caring but is secretly greedy. During her confinement, Su Nian discovers she can hear the inner thoughts of her newborn daughter, Fubao. The child reveals that Chen Yaozu attempted to freeze their baby to induce pneumonia, intending to use the medical emergency as leverage to steal gold bars Su Nian had hidden in a spatial pendant inherited from her great-grandmother. Su Nian realizes Chen Yaozu orchestrated the incident that led to their marriage; he had hired a fake hooligan to assault her and then claimed credit for rescuing her, while the actual savior was Chen Zhiyuan, the brigade party secretary’s son.

Confronted with this betrayal and the Chen family’s insatiable greed, Su Nian decides to divorce Chen Yaozu and reclaim her assets. She learns from her daughter that her father and brothers are suffering in a reform labor farm, where they are likely dying from illness and starvation due to lack of medical care and food. Determined to save them, Su Nian plans to use the gold bars from her spatial storage to purchase supplies for her family. To achieve her divorce and protect herself from Chen Yaozu’s escalating threats, she sets a trap. When Chen Yaozu and his mother, Chen Pozi, plot to rape Su Nian under the guise of "training" her, Su Nian invites a fierce neighbor, Aunt Niu, to sleep in her room instead. Chen Yaozu, sneaking in through the window in the dark, mistakenly attacks Aunt Niu, who beats him severely in self-defense.

The incident draws the entire village. Chen Pozi attempts to cover for her son by faking a fainting spell, claiming Su Nian forced her to catch fish in the freezing river, which caused her illness. Su Nian counters this by exposing her severe allergy to fish, proving she would never have requested fish soup. She also reveals that Chen Pozi was faking her unconsciousness by using acupuncture to wake her, causing Chen Pozi immense pain. The brigade party secretary, pressured by Su Nian’s threats to report the unfair handling of the case to higher authorities, punishes Chen Pozi and her accomplice Wang Chunhua with public criticism and labor reform.

Despite the victory, Chen Yaozu remains a threat. Su Nian continues to outmaneuver him, using her daughter’s precognitive insights to anticipate every scheme. She prepares to leave the village with her daughter, aiming to reach the reform farm before her father’s condition becomes fatal. The story follows her strategic efforts to dismantle the Chen family’s grip on her life while utilizing her medical skills and the hidden resources of her spatial pendant to secure a future for herself and her child.