Chapter 1: Save him, save him—how am I supposed to save him?!

May 5th, 1976, by the lunar calendar.

On a day meant for the joyous Dragon Boat Festival, there was an air of squalor and desperation.

A pair of rough, aged hands were unbuttoning Lu Youyou’s blouse, giving her chest a harsh squeeze as they passed.

The old woman’s voice was thick with resentment. “Such a good-looking girl, and it’s all going to waste on that brat Gu Qingye! Ancestors, bless us—let tonight bring a son, so our Gu family will have an heir!”

Lu Youyou’s head spun, her eyelids too heavy to lift. She could only feel someone groping her body, hands moving with impunity. She tried to twist and land a kick, but her limbs were limp and powerless, as if all her strength had been sapped. Terror seized her—she opened her mouth to call for help, but only muffled whimpers escaped.

“Oh my, you scared me, little girl. Has the drug already worn off?” The old woman’s words were laced with suspicion.

Though Lu Youyou couldn’t move, her hearing remained intact. Realizing something was wrong, she feigned unconsciousness, lying utterly still. The old woman leaned in close to examine her, shaking Lu Youyou’s face a couple of times. Only when there was no reaction did she sigh in relief and resume undressing her, the coarse fingers scraping Lu Youyou’s skin raw.

Gu Qingye… That name sounded so familiar...

Wasn’t he the innocent brother of the male lead in “Seventies: The Highly Fertile Wife Is Loved to the Heavens by the Heirless Tycoon,” the one who was killed off by the author?

Just last night, Lu Youyou had finished that venomous period romance novel, so infuriating that she cursed the author in her dreams—the author’s veins must run not with blood but pure poison.

The male lead, believing himself incapable of fathering children, schemed to have his fiancée bear his brother’s child for the sake of the family line. The brother, Gu Qingye, died never knowing he’d left behind an heir. The male lead then lived it up on his brother’s death benefits, got into university, climbed the social ladder, and had his own child. The village wife and illegitimate child became useless—she was worked to death, and the child was sold to traffickers.

Lu Youyou was so appalled she could barely finish the novel, only to find in the comments section that others shared her outrage. One comment with ten thousand likes read: “Can some great writer please write an extra where Gu Qingye survives? Give him a cheat, anything—this hero shouldn’t die out!”

Lu Youyou clicked Like in indignation—and somehow, she ended up inside the story herself.

And to make matters worse—

She had become the ill-fated village wife doomed to suffer eight lifetimes’ worth of bad luck.

The original Lu Youyou had caught the eye of Gu Shuchen the very first day she was sent down to the countryside. A pampered city girl, innocent and naive, she believed her parents’ words that the Gu family would take care of her, placing her trust entirely in the Gu couple—especially Gu Shuchen.

Handsome and well-spoken, Gu Shuchen stood out from the other country folk with his looks, manner, and cultured air. To the anxious, displaced Lu Youyou, his scholarly bearing was a source of unconscious comfort.

In the original book, Gu Qingye returned home on the day of the engagement banquet. But this time, perhaps because of her unexpected arrival, the timeline had shifted: Gu Qingye came back a month early, catching Gu Shuchen and his mother Zhang Caifeng off guard.

Just as in the book, the Gu family’s plan was to borrow his seed. Yet, with no engagement banquet and nothing revealed between Lu Youyou and Gu Shuchen, they had to trick the naive girl into their home with the excuse that the eldest son was back on leave and wanted to share a meal. The foolish original gladly agreed.

Afraid of any mishaps, the Gu family drugged Lu Youyou before Gu Qingye entered, and Zhang Caifeng even stripped her down to her undershirt and shorts.

At that moment, a grinding mechanical noise echoed in Lu Youyou’s head, like a century-old machine desperate for oil.

[Side Character Uprising Mission Binding: Mission Objective—Save Gu Qingye. Please confirm!]

What the hell was this?!

Can I… not confirm?

[Refusal Penalty: flaying, waist-cutting, quartering by chariots, death by a thousand cuts, poisoning, spinal severance, molten lead, pipa torture, riding the wooden donkey…]

Sorry, I was wrong, I confirm, I’ll save him!

[Confirmation reward is being issued. Please check and collect. Good luck, goodbye!]

A burst of static and then utter silence, as if nothing had happened.

Was that it? Where was her reward? Where could she check for it?

Such arbitrary coercion, with no regard for her will at all!

She had been a perfectly ordinary heiress, waiting to inherit a fortune. How had she ended up in this mess?

Save someone? How?

All she knew was Gu Qingye’s name, his military unit, the year, and manner of his death—nothing else.

Before transmigrating, she’d been a veterinarian. She might dare wield a scalpel, but would anyone here let her?

The college entrance exams wouldn’t resume for another year. She couldn’t do a lick of farm work—if she had to earn work points, she’d starve to death.

The farming heroine route was out. She couldn’t just sit around and wait.

What now?

With worries twisting her insides, and with someone drugging and undressing her, Lu Youyou only wished she could faint and die all over again.

Creak—

The old wooden door’s sound was enough to shatter one’s heart.

The humid summer breeze did nothing to relieve the stifling air inside, and goosebumps prickled Lu Youyou’s exposed shoulders.

“Ma, Ma, are you done yet? Come help me, I can’t carry him alone…”

Gu Shuchen struggled to support Gu Qingye, his back pressed to the doorframe, sweat beading on his forehead.

Compared to Gu Qingye’s sturdy six-foot-two frame, Gu Shuchen was barely over five foot seven—a weakling by any measure.

No, not a chicken—just weak, nothing more.

Aside from a passable face, he was feeble in every way. No wonder he was sterile.

The plot was advancing, and Lu Youyou couldn’t hit pause. She was a reluctant participant, unable to even figure out where to begin.

Suddenly, she realized she could move her fingers, but now was certainly not the time to act.

She needed to save Gu Qingye; perhaps, in this moment, the only one she could trust was this soldier.

“He’s so heavy!” Gu Shuchen gritted his teeth and let go, his eyes burning with jealousy as he looked at the powerful muscles beneath Gu Qingye’s shirt.

No man wants to be made a fool of.

To deliver a beautiful young woman to his elder brother’s bed—Gu Shuchen’s eyes blazed with hatred.

“Ma, how long before the aphrodisiac takes effect? Don’t let anything go wrong…”

“Don’t worry, your father found that medicine himself. It’ll work, no doubt.” Zhang Caifeng followed his gaze, her eyes falling on Lu Youyou’s bare shoulders, which glowed like the finest jade in the moonlight.

She spat inwardly.

What a little vixen. If her son didn’t fancy her, she’d never let such a girl marry in.

“Shuchen, if you don’t let go of the child, you’ll never catch the wolf. Think of the future—once you’re married, she’ll be yours entirely. You can do whatever you want then.”

The wooden door creaked again, the sound grating and heartrending.

Beside her, the man radiated heat like a furnace, his surging hormones scorching the air between them.

Lu Youyou felt even hotter.

On one side, creamy, flawless skin; on the other, powerful, bronzed muscles—a contrast of lamb-fat jade and rolling wheat-colored mountains. If not for the chaos, she’d have taken her time appreciating the view.

She clenched her fists, bones limp as noodles but at least able to struggle upright.

No time to look around—she had to see for herself what kind of man Gu Qingye really was.