Transmigrated into a Pitiful Little One in the 1960s, Using Wood-Type Powers for Farming

Lin Qi is a soul from a post-apocalyptic future who transmigrates into the body of a sixteen-year-old girl in 1970s China. The original host was considered simple-minded and mute, living in poverty with her parents and three older siblings. After a year of inhabiting this body, Lin Qi has learned to cook, speak in a halting manner, and cultivate plants using a mysterious wood-type ability that allows her to accelerate plant growth. Her family struggles to survive in the aftermath of recent famines, relying on wild vegetables and homemade ketchup to stay fed.

The central conflict arises when Lin Qi’s second sister, Lin Miaomiao, orchestrates her removal from the household. Lin Miaomiao believes Lin Qi’s perceived mental deficiency is ruining the marriage prospects of their eldest brother, Lin Mo, who has been rejected six times because potential brides refuse to share a home with a dependent sister. Despite Lin Mo’s refusal to accept this condition, Miaomiao secretly registers Lin Qi as an educated youth to be sent to the countryside. Lin Qi, aware that her presence is a burden and valuing her bond with Lin Mo, accepts her fate without resistance, taking only a small tomato seedling and the savings her brother secretly gave her.

During the train journey to Yao County, Lin Qi faces hostility from fellow educated youths who discover her background. Zhao Haiyan, a rival of Miaomiao, exposes Lin Qi as a fool, inciting the other passengers to demand her removal. However, the train cannot stop mid-journey, and her paperwork is valid, so she is allowed to remain. Lin Qi uses her ability to grow large, high-quality tomatoes and trades them for food with two boys, Sun Zhigao and Ming Kangjian, establishing a tentative, transactional relationship with her peers.

Upon arrival at Jiahe Commune, Lin Qi is assigned to the Anliang Brigade alongside Ming Kangjian, Ma Guizhi, and others. The locals are skeptical of the city youths, and Ma Guizhi openly labels Lin Qi a burden. On their first morning, a boy named Xu Hexiao, the son of a landlord and an outcast in the village, rescues Ming Kangjian and others who are trapped by underwater weeds while trying to save a drowning child. Lin Qi retrieves the broken rescue rope from the river, an act that saves the group but goes largely unnoticed by her peers, who continue to underestimate her.

Lin Qi is assigned to gather pig grass with a group of children, led by a girl named San Ya. Using her ability, she harvests more than the required amount and gifts wild vegetables to San Ya, earning the child’s friendship and protection. She also encounters an elderly man, Old Xu, who is near death, hinting at deeper connections to the village’s outcasts. As she adapts to rural life, Lin Qi hides her true intelligence and abilities, using her wood-type powers to sustain herself and slowly build a new life while navigating the rigid class structures and social hierarchies of the commune.