My head hurts. That was Li Baoling’s first sensation upon waking.
As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw a ceiling made entirely of wooden beams. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Something was wrong—was this a hospital?
She remembered waiting for a bus by the roadside when a red sports car came charging straight at her. She had just locked eyes with the driver before losing consciousness. But after such a major accident, if she wasn’t in a hospital, where could she be?
Li Baoling pinched herself. Confirming she wasn’t dreaming, she slowly propped herself up against the wall behind her and began to observe her surroundings carefully.
Good heavens. She was sleeping on a communal bunk, the kind you only see on TV. There was another bunk opposite hers, though it was smaller—likely meant for two people, as it had two pillows. On the bunk where she sat, she counted one, two, three… including herself, there were five pillows. At the foot of the bed sat a large chest and several smaller, miscellaneous boxes.
Nails were driven into the walls to hang clothes. Near the door stood a wooden table holding a thermos, bowls, chopsticks, and a soap box. Li Baoling scanned the room with a sense of eerie calm.
Everything was a relic of the past. She had seen that style of thermos at her grandmother’s house in the countryside, but those had been phased out ages ago. Unless she had been kidnapped and sold into the deep mountains, there was only one other answer.
“Sister Baoling, you’re finally awake! Are you alright?”
A girl suddenly entered the doorway. She wore two shiny, braided pigtails and drab, grayish clothes, looking at Li Baoling with concern.
Oh, Lord. I really have traveled through time, haven’t I?
Unwilling to accept this reality, Li Baoling let herself fall backward with a “thud,” hitting her head again.
“Baoling? Sister Baoling, what’s wrong?”
As Li Baoling clutched her head, a flood of memories rushed into her mind. Good grief, this wasn’t just a simple transmigration—she had transmigrated into a book!
The original owner of this body was also named Li Baoling, a native of Beijing. There were three children in her family; she was the middle child, with an older brother and a younger brother. Her family had always favored sons over daughters. To make matters worse, her sister-in-law had recently given birth to a “fat grandson” for the Li family, making the household tension even sharper.
Seven people lived in the Li family’s apartment, which was less than eighty square meters. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say there was barely enough room to step.
Then came the crisis: after the younger brother, Li Xiaodi, graduated, he had no job and faced being “sent down” to the countryside.
Li Xiaodi was the apple of the eye for Zhang Hongmei and Li Dayong—the original Baoling’s parents. The thought of their youngest son, who had just reached adulthood, going to some “godforsaken” rural area to do farm work every day was unbearable. They even worried he might end up stuck there forever by marrying a local village girl.
The son from the building in front of theirs had done exactly that; he married a village girl who could help him out locally, and now it was uncertain if he’d ever be able to return to the city.
This prospect was a death sentence to the couple and their son. No, it was absolutely out of the question.
Consequently, they set their sights on their second daughter, who had a formal job: the original Li Baoling. The family gave her two choices: either marry someone immediately and give up her job to her brother, or find a job for her brother. If she couldn’t find one, she still had to hand over her job and go to the countryside in her brother’s place.
How the hell is that a choice? To avoid being sent down, the original Li Baoling had studied day and night and worked incredibly hard to pass the exam for the machinery factory.
In the current climate, a formal job was something a hundred families would beg for. Most families would spend money and effort to secure one, but the Li family? When asked, they claimed they had no money—the money had to be saved for the youngest son’s wedding and to raise the grandson.
As for putting in effort, they didn’t even consider it. they just pointed at Li Baoling because she already had a job.
Besides, they viewed her as just a girl who would eventually marry off. If Li Baoling took her job with her to her husband’s family, the Lis would lose it forever. The wicked Li family even thought this was a great opportunity: they could get a formal job for their son without spending a single cent.
So, recently, the entire Li family had mobilized. Their mission was to drive Li Baoling away. Her mother sat by her bed crying in the middle of the night; they tried to set her up with an old widower who had children. Li Baoling didn’t even want to finish the memory—thinking about it made her want to get up and blast them all.
In the end, the Li family succeeded. Li Baoling was sent down.
The reason she knew this wasn’t a simple transmigration was because two other people had been sent down with her: Shen Xiangyang and Zhang Lihua. This Shen Xiangyang was the male lead of the novel.
The novel was titled Shen Xiangyang’s Countryside Chronicles. It was a plain, unadorned name that made it clear who the protagonist was and that this was a “Great Male Lead” story.
The story followed Shen Xiangyang’s various experiences in the countryside. At the start, he had two childhood friends accompanying him—one was Li Baoling, and the other was Zhang Lihua.
As the plot progressed, Shen Xiangyang’s talents would slowly shine, attracting the village party secretary’s daughter, other female youths at the educated youth station, the backbone of the “Women’s Army” in the Victory Brigade, and many other “outstanding” women.
Basically, every capable girl in the story fell for him. And the male lead never refused anyone. If Li Baoling remembered correctly, she had given him all the meager savings and food stamps she had managed to scrape together. The other girls who followed did the same, competing to see who could treat Shen Xiangyang better.
Wonderful. A typical male-fantasy power trip.
She recalled that in the end, a girl named Lin Xuefang from the Women’s Army won out. The novel called her the female lead—so she’d call her that for now—because she was the one who actually registered her marriage with him, giving the middle-aged, “reformed” playboy a home.
Give me a break. The whole “reformed playboy” trope is disgusting at any age. Also, this shouldn’t be called Shen Xiangyang’s Countryside Chronicles; it should be called The Life of Shen Xiangyang Being Carried by Everyone Else.
Li Baoling had read this book because her best friend shared it with her after seeing that the “cannon fodder” childhood friend shared Li Baoling’s name. After reading it, the two of them had cursed the book together. Li Baoling had been so angry she even left a flaming review in the comments section.
Is the author getting revenge on me?
As things became clear, Li Baoling felt even more desperate.
“Are you okay now, Sister Baoling?” Zhang Lihua asked, looking a bit frightened by the way Li Baoling’s expression kept shifting.
“Zhang Lihua, was it you who told my parents I liked Shen Xiangyang?” Li Baoling realized who the girl in front of her was. This was Zhang Lihua, the other “sucker” childhood friend of the male lead.
Why did she ask? She had just remembered that those shameless people in the Li family weren’t satisfied with stealing her job and forcing her to the countryside; to save face, they told all the neighbors that she was going to the countryside because of her devotion to Shen Xiangyang.
Now, no one in the residential compound said the Li family favored sons over daughters. Instead, they all said Li Baoling was foolish—giving up a good job for a man.
It was because of this rumor that Shen Xiangyang believed Li Baoling was head-over-heels for him. Whenever he saw her, he would complain about his hardships to manipulate her into giving him money. He knew very well that Li Baoling hadn’t handed over her entire salary to her family and had saved quite a bit.
And the person who gave the Li family this idea was Zhang Lihua.
Zhang Lihua had run to Li Baoling’s house and begged her parents, Zhang Hongmei and Li Dayong, to stop introducing suitors to Baoling, claiming Baoling already had someone she liked. When the Lis pressed her, she “hesitantly” suggested it might be Shen Xiangyang.
The Li family realized this was perfect. They could get the job and avoid neighborly gossip at the same time. They then began loudly publicizing that Li Baoling loved Shen Xiangyang so much she was willing to abandon her family and her job to follow him to the countryside.
“I… I did that for your own good! Look at those men your family was introducing to you. Could any of them compare to Brother Xiangyang?” Zhang Lihua panicked when she realized the first thing Baoling did upon waking was confront her.
She certainly hadn’t done it for Li Baoling’s sake. She knew the Lis wanted the job and were pressuring Baoling to marry. Zhang Lihua was terrified that Li Baoling might actually find a decent match and marry, as she was the right age.
If that happened, wouldn’t Li Baoling continue living a good life?
Why was it that they grew up together, yet Li Baoling could pass the exam for the machinery factory while Zhang Lihua had to scramble for temporary work to avoid being sent down? In the end, Zhang Lihua had been caught and assigned to this godforsaken place anyway.
What angered her more was that not only did Li Baoling seem interested in Shen Xiangyang, but Shen Xiangyang liked her too. He was always asking Zhang Lihua about Li Baoling. Having liked Shen Xiangyang since childhood, Zhang Lihua was naturally furious.
That’s why she pulled that stunt. She figured if the Li family thought Baoling liked Shen Xiangyang, they’d stop the matchmaking. Since Baoling couldn’t conjure up a second job, she’d have no choice but to go to the countryside with Zhang Lihua. She wasn’t going to suffer alone.
“Cut the crap. You know exactly what kind of ghost you’re hiding in your heart.” Li Baoling didn’t want to talk to this fool. She knew Zhang Lihua was jealous of her—first of the job, and second because Shen Xiangyang showed interest in her.
But did Shen Xiangyang really like her? He had his eye on her job.
That bastard had hinted more than once that she should give the job to him, and then they could get married. Shen Xiangyang was also reaching the age limit; he hadn’t been sent down earlier because the policy wasn’t as strict then, and his parents had sent his younger sister instead, keeping him home until he was twenty-one.
But Li Baoling didn’t understand why Shen Xiangyang had fixated on her. Logically, with his “male lead halo,” if he couldn’t find her, he could find someone else. Why did he end up being sent down anyway? Wait… the book is called Shen Xiangyang’s Countryside Chronicles. If the male lead doesn’t go to the countryside, the story can’t happen. So, she, Li Baoling, was just a supporting prop to get him there, wasn’t she?
“Sister Baoling, I really did it for your own good. Don’t overthink it. The food and sleep are terrible here, and the three of us are the only ones who know each other. We have to support one another.” Zhang Lihua was terrified of Baoling being angry; she still needed Baoling to help her with her work.
Furthermore, there were cliques at the educated youth station. The early arrivals stuck together, and then there were the locals. She couldn’t afford to be alienated from Li Baoling.
“Who’s your sister? I don’t have a sister like you.” Li Baoling grew angry again. Zhang Lihua, taking advantage of being two years younger, constantly called her “Sister Baoling” to manipulate her into doing her chores. The original Baoling wasn’t even good at farm work herself, yet she had slaved away like an ox for Zhang Lihua.
Then, while walking back to the station after work, passing the river at the west end of the village, she had lost her footing and fallen in.
And then this Li Baoling had arrived.
What a disaster!