May, 1976.

Sun Aiju had just returned from the supply and marketing cooperative, carrying a basket in her hand. She walked hurriedly, and the basket covered with blue cotton cloth swayed with her steps.

"Aiju, where did this come from?"

Under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village stood two elderly women, one with slanted eyes and the other with high cheekbones, and they looked difficult to get along with.

Sun Aiju took a quick look and found that the people who called her were none other than the two gossipy old women who were famous for being in Shangang Village.

Sun Aiju kept walking and laughed with a fake smile, "Just taking a walk."

After saying this, there was no trace of her on the path.

The woman with droopy eyes rolled her eyes and said, "Tsk, what are you pretending for? You're carrying a big basket and heading in that direction. You can tell at a glance that you're back from the supply and marketing cooperative."

The high-cheeked woman spat out melon seed shells from her thin lips: "Sun Aiju is so lucky. She married the village chief of our village. The village chief's family is so rich."

A woman in a gray jacket came over and said, "Of course not. Otherwise, who would buy these old things from the supply and marketing cooperative during this festive season?"

Speaking of this, the woman with droopy eyes rolled her eyes again, "Tsk, lucky? Lucky, how can the two daughters of the Ning family of this generation not be able to get married at this age?"

"You are talking about the two girls Ning Xue and Ning Tang, right?" The gray-clad old woman became interested in talking and said excitedly, "It's OK that Ning Xue is having trouble getting married after getting divorced once, but what's wrong with Ning Tang? She's a virgin girl, why can't she get married?"

The gossipy light shone from the small black bean-like eyes of the woman with drooping eyes. She stretched out her voice and said, "You don't know this, right? Ning Tang is a young lady. She has a good family background and looks good, but there are two points -"

"Which two points?"

"She's lazy and greedy." The tall woman patted the melon seed shells off her hands. "She's 24 years old, can't cook, and can't even wash her own clothes. Tell me, which woman in our Shangang Village can do such a thing? If this reputation gets out, who would be willing to come and propose marriage?"

The woman with drooping eyes said, "That's right. What's the point of having good looks? The masters in our mountain village are all cunning. Marrying Ning Tang is like marrying a big Buddha to worship."

"What about her cousin Ning Xue?" The old lady in gray jacket happened to have a son who was about the same age as the two Ning sisters, so she couldn't help but ask a few more questions.

"Ning Xue, Ning Xue is a good girl, except that she looks a little weird, but she is very capable at home and outside, and she cooks delicious food. It's a pity that she is divorced, so whoever marries her will be a second marriage."

These idle chatter, like fallen leaves, are blown by the wind, bend a few times, and then disappear without a trace.

At this time, Sun Aiju had already returned home.

The Ning family's house was a group of six large tiled houses, with a yard in the front, the four rooms in the middle were for living, and the two outermost rooms were the stove and bathroom.

Sun Aiju walked straight to the second brick-walled house from the front and lifted the cotton curtain. "Girl, are you up yet?"

Ning Tang sat up from the kang, stretched his waist, and said lazily, "Just woke up, Mom, you're back."

Sun Aiju was angry and amused. She put the basket on the table and said, "It's already so late. How can I not come back? But you, you didn't get up until the sun was shining on your butt."

Ning Tang jumped out of bed and walked to Sun Aiju's side in his cotton shoes. "It's so warm today. I couldn't help but sleep a little longer."

Sun Aiju looked at Ningtang's pretty little face, and her love penetrated her heart.

Sun Aiju is not exaggerating, there is no one in this area who is more beautiful than her.

Ning Tang had an oval face, porcelain-white skin, curved willow-leaf eyebrows, almond eyes and rosy cheeks, especially the red mole between her eyebrows, which was the finishing touch. Sometimes Sun Aiju would be stunned when looking at Ning Tang's face, wondering if the golden boy and jade girl under the seat of Guanyin had been reincarnated into her family.

Sun Aiju was stunned for a while before she remembered what she wanted to say. She patted the back of Ning Tang's hand and said, "The two blind date candidates your brother introduced will come to our house tomorrow. Mom will help you to look at them. You should also choose carefully. Don't get angry and drive people away like before."

"Blind date?" Ning Tang's mouth was wide open enough to fit an egg.

Sun Aiju couldn't help but pat her. "Didn't I tell you before that your brother has two comrades-in-arms who are serving in the army on Hailang Island? Your father wrote a letter a few years ago, asking your brother to introduce you and your cousin to a date. Your brother agreed, but they were busy serving in the army. It was not until they took a vacation that they came to our Shangang Village to see each other."

Ning Tang thought about it and it seemed that Sun Aiju had indeed told her about this. However, at that time she was thinking about doing a small business in the city. She heard Sun Aiju's words but did not remember them.

Ning Tang is actually not from this era, she traveled from 2024.

In 2024, she is an ordinary office worker, dominated by the 996 work schedule every day, getting up earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs.

But it was not until 1976 that Ning Tang realized that there was a second meaning to this sentence, which is that the food is worse than that of pigs.

In those days, material things were scarce, and food and clothing were certainly not better than in later generations. The corn grit porridge, steamed buns, and dishes cooked without oil would all make your throat choke after eating.

So after Ning Tang came here, she has been thinking about doing business to improve her family's life. She wanted to start from scratch and strive to become a new generation of female billionaire. Maybe she can even be on a rich list in the future.

But after trying several times, Ning Tang found that it simply didn't work.

She wanted to resell something, but even if you dig three feet deep in the ground in this mountain village, you can only find agricultural products such as chickens, ducks and goose eggs. And no one knows what's going on. As long as Ning Tang wants to set up a stall, there will be people who come to sweep the street.

You want to make delicious food with your own cooking skills and sell it? Haha, Ningtang used to order takeout for three meals a day, and she could only cook instant noodles at most. She couldn't even make noodles, let alone cook rice or make snacks.

After struggling for a few times, Ning Tang gave up and decided to lie down.

I'm so tired in 2024, now it's the 70s, let her salt fish for once.

After traveling for a while, Ning Tang found that she had traveled to a novel she had read before.

She no longer remembered the name of the novel, but she remembered that it was a period piece and the heroine was none other than her cousin Ning Xue.

Ning Xue is simply the typical female protagonist: she is beautiful, a good cook, can make clothes, and is a high school graduate.

——These days, graduating from high school is considered very educated.

The only pity is that she met the wrong person and got divorced once.

But soon a top man appeared and brought Ningxue to a good life.

According to the content of the novel that Ning Tang read, this top student named Su seemed to be the target of this blind date.

According to the description in the novel, Ren Jianzi is very handsome and is extremely kind to Ning Xue. Apart from being divorced and having two children, he has no other shortcomings.

Ning Tang went on a blind date with her cousin Ning Xue, and married another widower with three children who lived on the island with Ren Jianzi, and became their stepmother.

She is a particularly bad stepmother, in stark contrast to Ning Xue, the good stepmother.

However, she only read the novel roughly and could not remember the specific plot.

I only remember that the entire novel was basically describing how good Ning Xue was to her two step-sons, and how bad Ning Tang was to her three step-sons and step-daughters.

Ning Tang finally came to his senses after realizing that he was in a novel.

No wonder she always encounters numerous obstacles no matter what she does. This is probably the force majeure of the plot. There is always a force that pulls the plot back on track.

Could it be that she really wants to be a stepmother?

Ning Tang shook his head, threw all these thoughts out of his mind, and said to Sun Aiju, "No wonder, I thought you went out early in the morning and came back with a big basket. There must be a lot of delicious food in it, right?"

After saying that, Ning Tang went to lift the blue cotton cloth on the basket in a frivolous manner.

Sun Aiju patted her hands gently and said, "These are all for entertaining guests. Besides cigarettes, there is wine. If you want to eat more, I will give you two yuan later. You can go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy cakes by yourself."

Ning Tang took Sun Aiju's arm with a playful smile and said coquettishly, "It's a deal then."

The mother and daughter were talking when they suddenly heard a gentle female voice coming from outside the house, "Aunt, cousin, the food is ready, come out and eat."

——It was Ning Xue’s voice.

Sun Aiju quickly responded, "I'm coming."

Sun Aiju put the basket in the closet, and left the house with Ningtang. Sun Aiju went to the main room for dinner, while Ningtang went to wash up first.

After she finished washing up, she entered the main room and glanced at the dining table. Except for her, everyone else from the Ning family was present.

"Ningtang, you're really accurate in predicting this. It arrived just as the food was placed on the table." said a woman with dark skin, triangular eyes, and high cheekbones, wearing a floral dress.

The person who was speaking was none other than Ning Tang's second aunt, Zhou Yin, the younger brother of Ning Tang's father Ning Weiguo and the wife of Ning Weidang.

Ning Weidang hunched over and tapped the bowl in front of Zhou Yin with his chopsticks, "Say less."

The Ning family has a simple population, with a total of eight people.

There are two brothers in the Ning family, the eldest is Ning Weiguo, and the second is Ning Weidang. Ning Weiguo and Sun Aiju gave birth to Ning Tang and her brother Ning Jun. Ning Weidang and Zhou Yin gave birth to Ning Xue and her brother Ning De.

Ning Jun went to serve in the army, and there were only seven people living in the family.

Ning Tang turned a deaf ear to Zhou Yin's words. If this second aunt didn't say something sarcastic to her one day, she would feel that the sun rose from the west.

But Ning Tang felt awkward again if he didn't say a few words to Zhou Yin. He turned to Ning Weidang and said, "It's okay, Second Uncle. Second Auntie probably has her period these past two days and is in a bad mood. You can comfort her later."

"Bullshit!" Zhou Yin spat, "I'm already this old, why would I have my period?"

Ning Xue, who was sitting next to her, pulled Zhou Yin's sleeve and said, "Mom——"

The Ning family has only these two precious daughters. Zhou Yin's attitude towards Ning Xue is exactly the same as Sun Aiju's attitude towards Ning Tang.

After being pulled by Ning Xue, Zhou Yin lost her temper. She rolled her eyes and finally stopped.

No matter what Ning Xue and Zhou Yin were doing, Ning Tang was really hungry, so he sat down and started to eat.