Transmigrated into a Famine Year, Busy Raising Eight Cute Children

Gu Qiaoqiao, a successful modern executive, dies in a traffic accident and transmigrates into the body of a widow in the Great Zhou dynasty. The original host, also named Gu Qiaoqiao, is the mother of eight children—seven sons and one daughter—and has endured three years of war, locust plagues, and drought following her husband Hu Xiangqian’s conscription and death. Starving and desperate, the original owner attempted to sell her youngest daughter, Ba Ya, to the Li brothers for five taels of silver. The transaction took place in a dark forest, but when the original owner overheard the brothers plotting to resell the child to a brothel, she intervened in a struggle that resulted in her fatal head injury. Gu Qiaoqiao awakens moments before the Li brothers search her body, realizing she has inherited not only the woman’s memories but also a dire situation: a malnourished toddler, hostile neighbors, and a family on the brink of collapse.

Confronting the Li brothers, Gu Qiaoqiao displays a ferocity that terrifies them into fleeing. During the chase, she activates a System that gifts her an electric stun baton and provides storage space. She uses the device to subdue Li Laoxi, allowing her eldest sons—Da Wa, Er Wa, and San Wa—to arrive with villagers and beat the intruder. When Li Laoxi claims the child was legally purchased, Gu Qiaoqiao realizes the silver is evidence of the original owner’s guilt. To protect her family’s reputation and her daughter’s future, she secretly stores the five taels of silver in her System space, causing it to vanish when the Li brothers search for it. Facing exposure, Li Laoxi fabricates a story that Gu Qiaoqiao is possessed by the spirit of her deceased husband, Hu Xiangqian. The villagers, superstitious and desperate, accept this explanation, and Gu Qiaoqiao plays along to secure her family’s safety.

Returning home, Gu Qiaoqiao assesses the household’s poverty. The family possesses only two hundred copper coins and a meager supply of wheat bran. She discovers a silver hairpin hidden by her late husband and stores it in her System. Investigating the System’s functions, she learns she can sell wild goods for points and buy grain, but the System rejects the ill-gotten silver. The next morning, she changes the family’s routine, insisting on three meals a day and cooking flatbreads from their last flour. She leads her children to the mountains to forage, where the System helps her identify valuable plants. She discovers a nest of wild rabbits and a patch of sweet potatoes left from a failed government planting initiative years prior. Recognizing the crop’s potential to solve their famine, she instructs her sons to dig up the vines for replanting.

Gu Qiaoqiao’s modern knowledge and the System’s assistance begin to transform the household. She sells wild purslane and bladder cherries for copper coins, which she uses to buy millet and rice from the System. The family eats well, including roasted river crabs caught by the younger sons, shocking the village and her skeptical in-laws. She sends food to her parents-in-law, attempting to repair strained relationships. Her eldest son, Da Wa, begins hunting, bringing home pheasants and rabbits. The discovery of the sweet potato vines offers hope for a sustainable food source, promising to lift the family out of starvation. Gu Qiaoqiao balances her new role as a mother and manager of a large household with the strategic use of her System, aiming to secure a stable future for her children in a harsh, ancient world.