Zhao Li, a modern elite special agent at twenty-eight, is betrayed by her own organization after a final mission and shot dead. She awakens in the body of Xiao Jiu, a sixteen-year-old girl sold for two taels of silver to become the stepmother of Gu Mohan, a widowed hunter with a broken leg. The family lives in the impoverished Xiaohe Village. Gu Mohan broke his leg in a fall while hunting during a storm, leaving the family with no income and depleted food supplies. Xiao Jiu had fallen into a high fever coma after gathering wild vegetables in the rain, and it is into this body that Zhao Li’s soul transmigrates. She wakes to the voices of Gu Mohan’s four children—ten-year-old Gu Dabao, eight-year-old Gu Erbao, seven-year-old Gu Sanbao, and four-year-old Gu Xiaohua—who fear she is dead. Overwhelmed by her new reality, Zhao Li processes the original owner’s memories and feels a surge of injustice: she was an assassin who killed only heinous criminals, yet now she is trapped in a starving, struggling household as a teenage stepmother. Despite her resentment, she accepts the situation.Gu Mohan, though bedridden, shows genuine concern for Xiao Jiu. Their marriage was not consummated because he believed she was too young. The family’s poverty is severe: three adobe rooms, little food, and the children are malnourished and thinly clothed. Neighbors quickly come to their aid. Zhao Dasao, the wife of Zhao Tie Zhu and a close friend of the family, brings a basin of gnocchi soup and six fried eggs, a precious gift in these hard times. Other villagers bring millet, vegetables, and eggs. Xiao Jiu, deeply moved, silently resolves to repay their kindness. She feels the warmth of the community and the weight of her new responsibilities.The village is not peaceful. The village chief warns of thieves and suspicious strangers in the area. Soon, a few thugs are spotted near Zhao Tie Zhu’s house. The villagers gather with hoes and clubs to confront them. Xiao Jiu, despite her frail body, steps forward and coldly orders the thugs to leave, her former agent’s fearlessness surfacing. The thugs are about to attack when a troop of patrol soldiers arrives and arrests them, dispelling the immediate danger. After the crisis, Xiao Jiu advises the village chief that all families should hide their newly harvested grain in cellars to prevent theft, especially since the year’s drought has made food scarce everywhere. The chief agrees and orders everyone to follow her plan.Walking home with Gu Dabao, Xiao Jiu notices his thin, ill-fitting clothes and his cold hands in the summer heat. She feels a pang of maternal protectiveness, determined to take care of these children as their stepmother. She understands that her previous life’s skills, such as caution and decisiveness, can be applied to survival in this harsh world. She resolves to improve the family’s living conditions, to ensure the children are fed and clothed, and to protect their grain from thieves. The story ends with Xiao Jiu returning to their dilapidated house at the mountain foot, her heart set on lifting the family out of poverty through her own efforts and the support of the village.
