Through the Drought of the ’60s to the Modern World, the Whole Family Eats Their Fill Every Meal

Lin Xiaohe is a six-year-old girl living in Linjia Village during the severe drought of 1960. After her family is forcibly separated from the main household by her step-grandmother Qian Sancao and grandfather, they are left with barely any resources. When their dilapidated house collapses, Xiaohe’s parents are crushed by falling beams and left bedridden with high fevers and injuries. Abandoned and starving, Xiaohe takes on the role of the primary caregiver for her two younger sisters, Xiaogu and Xiaoman, as well as her incapacitated parents.

While foraging for wild vegetables to survive, Xiaohe touches a shattered jade pendant around her neck and is transported to a mysterious mountain valley filled with abundant, giant wild vegetables. She discovers that her left palm bears a mark that allows her to enter this realm, while her right palm transports her to a modern city with large trucks and advanced infrastructure. Realizing these two places can provide the resources she desperately needs, she begins shuttling between them to secure food and medicine for her family.

In the modern city, Xiaohe and Xiaogu navigate the overwhelming environment of traffic and tall buildings. They sell the wild vegetables from the other world to a kind shop owner named Chen Fang, who pays them fifty yuan. With this money, they purchase ibuprofen for their parents’ fever and twenty catties of rice. During their trip, Xiaogu finds a discarded chicken leg in a trash bin, which the sisters take home to cook for their parents, marking the first time the family has eaten meat in years.

Back in the historical setting, Xiaohe encounters a girl named Yu Ya, who lives in the Great Yan Dynasty. Yu Ya shares her knowledge of the mountain, leading Xiaohe to patches of superior wild vegetables and even helping them catch fish and find pheasant eggs. The sisters return home with a surplus of food, allowing them to cook nutritious meals and improve their parents’ health. Meanwhile, in the main household, Qian Sancao continues to abuse her grandchildren, particularly Er Ya, while boasting falsely about her own children’s success. The villagers mock Qian Sancao’s lies, causing her to faint from rage.

Xiaohe’s family begins to thrive under her management. She uses the money from selling wild vegetables to buy more rice, salt, and meat, rendering the fat into lard to store for the future. She also secretly shares food with Er Ya, who risks beatings from Qian Sancao to bring them grass roots. The brigade captain, Lin Jun, notices the family’s improved condition but remains unaware of the source of their luck. As the drought persists, Xiaohe’s ability to access two different worlds becomes their only hope for long-term survival, setting the stage for her continued efforts to build a stable future for her family while navigating the dangers of both eras.