The Adopted Daughter Returns [1970s]

Lin Wanqing, a wealthy woman from the future, awakens in the body of an eighteen-year-old girl with the same name in rural China during the spring of 1977. The original host had been mentally disabled since childhood, confined to her room and treated with kindness by her adoptive parents, Lin De and Liu Xiuying. Lin Wanqing quickly realizes she has traveled back in time and possesses a mysterious spatial dimension containing food, medicine, clothing, and gold. Her immediate priority is to avoid being sold into marriage by the greedy village matchmaker, Liu Dajuan, who has arranged a union with Butcher Wang, a violent second-married man from the city.

Liu Dajuan deceives the Lin family by claiming Butcher Wang is a suitable match, hiding his abusive nature and the fact that his previous wife left him due to his temperament. She hopes to earn a ten-yuan commission and a bag of peach cakes. However, when Butcher Wang and his family arrive at the Lin household, they openly insult the rural family, calling them dirt-legged peasants and displaying arrogance. Lin De, a retired veteran with a disability, refuses to tolerate the disrespect and drives them away. Liu Dajuan returns the next day to cause a scene, accusing the Lins of being ungrateful and picky, but the situation changes dramatically when Lin Wanqing emerges from her room.

Lin Wanqing has regained control of her body and appears healthy and beautiful, shocking the villagers who believed she was an idiot. She calmly exposes Liu Dajuan’s deception, revealing that Butcher Wang has a history of violence and that the matchmaker failed to disclose these critical details. The villagers, realizing the danger they were saved from, turn against Liu Dajuan. Lin Wanqing uses the incident to assert her independence, telling her parents she will choose her own husband and requesting to go to the city to find work and study, rather than remaining a dependent at home.

While in the city, Lin Wanqing visits a scrapyard to search for textbooks, hoping to prepare for the upcoming restoration of the college entrance examination. There, she encounters Wang Peng, the grandson of the scrapyard keeper, who is immediately attracted to her beauty and intelligence. She also crosses paths with Zhou Zhengbai, a police officer and the son of the local steel plant director. Zhou Zhengbai is known in the community as a fierce and rebellious figure, but he displays a moment of unexpected restraint when he encounters Lin Wanqing late at night. Later, he intervenes to stop domestic abuse against Chen Yanhong, a woman married to Liu Bing, Liu Dajuan’s relative, showcasing his sense of justice despite his rough reputation.

Lin Wanqing’s recovery and newfound assertiveness confuse and delight her parents. Lin De reflects on his past as a soldier and the circumstances that led him to adopt the abandoned infant eighteen years prior. As Lin Wanqing navigates her new life, she plans to use her spatial resources to improve her family’s living conditions and secure her own future. The story sets the stage for her to build a new life in the 1970s, leveraging her modern knowledge and supernatural advantage while dealing with the complex social dynamics of the village and the emerging opportunities of the era.