On the train heading for the countryside.
Her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Yaozu, was crawling all over the table, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Her seven-year-old eldest daughter grabbed him, yanked him down, and pinned him firmly in place.
The five-year-old twin sisters, the second and third children, munched on biscuits while watching their eldest sister beat up their little brother, giggling nonstop.
Ye Qingyun stared at the chaotic scene before her and couldn’t help falling into deep thought.
Why did she have four little troublemakers?
The memories left behind by the original owner of this body suddenly flooded into her mind.
Right… she was married!
The original Ye Qingyun had married Fu Linchuan, the adopted son of the Fu family, when she was eighteen.
Fu Linchuan had been carrying out a secret military mission for three years without a single word of news.
His adoptive parents favored their biological younger son and never cared much for Fu Linchuan, their adopted eldest son.
Their dislike extended to his wife and three granddaughters as well. Only their grandson received a bit of kindness.
The moment they believed the adopted son had most likely died, they immediately drove Ye Qingyun and her three daughters out of the house.
Forced into widowhood, the original owner had thought her well-off birth family would at least take her in.
Who would have imagined that she wasn’t their biological daughter either?
The double blow of discovering her true identity and believing her soldier husband had died left her utterly heartbroken. She eventually died from grief.
Then Ye Qingyun, a sword cultivator whose ascension had failed, arrived in her place.
She had been born during the late Ming Dynasty and was an orphan.
At the age of seven, her master had taken her into the Hehuan Sect. After cultivating diligently for three hundred years and leaving all her fellow disciples in the dust, she had finally become the second sword cultivator in the Hehuan Sect to achieve ascension.
The first had been her senior sister, the sect’s very first sword cultivator.
Two ascended cultivators emerging within a single century had thrown the entire sect into celebration.
What Ye Qingyun had never expected, however, was that halfway through her ascension, she saw the seven-character message her senior sister had left behind—
“No ascension after the founding of the nation!”
Before Ye Qingyun had even a moment to react, heavenly lightning struck mercilessly.
And just like that, the sword cultivator of the Hehuan Sect became Ye Qingyun—a married woman with children living in the 1970s.
To avoid exposing that she was no longer the original owner, Ye Qingyun decided to return to her original family and begin a new life.
Of course, she had promised the original owner that she would take good care of her four children.
So before setting off, she paid one last visit to her in-laws.
She kicked their front gate clean off its hinges, forcibly took away her mother-in-law’s precious grandson, Yaozu, and left with all four children.
Wait!
She suddenly remembered that when her ascension had failed and the heavenly lightning came crashing down…
…it seemed to have blasted apart the mountain where her sect was located.
So… were her master and her four senior brothers and sisters all right?
…
The rumbling train finally arrived in Chuanning County.
Carrying two large bundles and leading her four children, Ye Qingyun struggled through the crowded train station before boarding a tractor bound for Hongyan Commune.
The spotless clothes without a single patch, along with the fair and delicate complexions of the mother and her four children, quickly attracted everyone’s attention.
Ye Qingyun remained expressionless, with no desire to socialize.
After reminding her eldest daughter to look after the younger three, she finally closed her eyes for a nap. Having barely rested during the three-day, two-night journey, she desperately needed it.
She stood one meter seventy tall, weighed about one hundred thirty jin, and possessed a strong, athletic build.
Her short hair stopped neatly at her ears. She wore a white shirt tucked into green military-style trousers, black cloth shoes with buckles, and clean white socks peeking above the tops.
In the city, it was an ordinary outfit.
But inside the dull, dusty tractor, she stood out like a famous singer.
The four children all felt that their mother was still the same beautiful mother.
Yet somehow…
She felt different.
The tractor bounced violently over the rough road, and everyone had to clutch onto something to avoid being thrown around.
Only their mother sat perfectly upright on the edge of the trailer, dozing peacefully.
Every time the tractor lurched especially hard, the four children nervously looked toward her.
Each time they confirmed that she remained firmly planted on the edge of the trailer, all four let out a sigh of relief together.
An hour and a half later, the tractor stopped at the main crossroads of Hongyan Commune.
Wu Younian, who had been waiting by the roadside, immediately hurried over.
He first scanned the passengers.
In truth, he didn’t even need to search.
He recognized Ye Qingyun and her four children at a glance.
There simply wasn’t anyone else in the entire commune with skin that fair.
Their region sat at a high altitude with intense sunshine. Everyone in the production team had skin tanned as dark as coal.
Only people raised in major cities like the capital could remain so pale.
Ye Qingyun’s biological parents had four children.
Wu Younian was the eldest. He was thirty years old this year.
Ye Qingyun was the second child, with a younger sister and a younger brother beneath her.
Their parents had passed away one after another several years ago, and the twenty-four-year-old third sister had long since married.
Now Wu Younian was the head of the family, living together with his twenty-year-old unmarried younger brother, Wu Youyu.
However, Wu Youyu was an apprentice at the commune’s state-owned restaurant and only came home occasionally.
Guessing that his younger sister from the city might have trouble walking the rugged mountain roads, Wu Younian had brought the team’s only handcart.
Because the information had been incomplete, he had received only a telegram estimating when she would arrive at the commune.
So when Ye Qingyun appeared before him with four neatly lined-up children, all calling out in unison,
“Uncle!”
he stood frozen for a full three seconds.
Then he thought it over.
His second sister was already of marriageable age. Having several children was perfectly normal.
Since they were already here…
They might as well get on the road.
Perhaps because of poor nutrition while growing up, Wu Younian wasn’t particularly tall, standing about the same height as Ye Qingyun.
But years of farm work had given him tremendous strength.
With a hearty grunt, he pushed the handcart carrying all four children and the two heavy bundles with surprising ease.
If there had been enough room on the cart, he would have wanted Ye Qingyun to climb aboard as well so he could push everyone together.
From the commune to the Qiling Village Production Brigade, they first had to wade across a river, climb a steep slope, and then walk another hour and a half along winding mountain paths.
The road was narrow, barely wide enough for a single animal-drawn cart.
On both sides stretched endless forests of Chinese fir trees.
The fallen branches blanketed the ground like a carpet, soft beneath their feet with a slight springiness.
Wu Younian secretly observed Ye Qingyun and was surprised to find that she easily kept pace with him.
It seemed this younger sister from the city wasn’t nearly as delicate as he had imagined.
Since it was the first time the siblings had ever met, every time their eyes met, the atmosphere felt awkward and unnatural.
Noticing the straw sandals woven by her elder brother himself, Ye Qingyun took the initiative to ask about the production team.
At the mention of Qiling Village Production Brigade, Wu Younian looked rather embarrassed.
Their brigade had ranked dead last in per capita production value throughout the entire commune for five consecutive years.
One word summed up Qiling Village—
Poor.
The villagers worked hard all year long, but after handing over grain taxes and setting aside their own rations, each household was left with at most twenty or thirty yuan.
Going hungry was the norm.
A family that could stay half-full throughout the year was already considered fortunate.
The brigade was divided into two smaller production teams.
Team One.
And Team Two.
The Wu family belonged to Team Two, where Wu Younian served as the team leader.
Even mentioning his position made him feel a little embarrassed.
Still, he comforted Ye Qingyun.
“Life in the countryside can’t compare with the ration supplies in the city. But don’t worry. As long as your sister-in-law and I have a bite to eat, we won’t let you and the children starve.”
Gratefully, Ye Qingyun replied,
“Big Brother, you and Sister-in-law are truly good people!”
Wu Younian successfully received a “good person” card…
Yet somehow, the whole exchange felt a little strange.
Why hadn’t she even bothered to politely refuse?