Pretty Wife of the 70’s 七零俏娇妻 by 靳大妮 Jin Da Ni (HE)

This is not an exceptional story, but it is a good read nonetheless. A rural Chinese village in the 70s is not glittering or exciting, but it is an apt background for a story on escaping poverty. Tang Mi is the adopted daughter of a poor farmer and after being possessed by an older learned soul from the 2000s, she slowly rises above poverty, leaves her hazardous “family”, and builds a life for herself, her mute brother and biological father.
Tang Mi - if you invert her name, it becomes Mi Tang or ‘Honey’ – is pretty and smart. She has as many enemies as she has admirers or friends, and thanks to these irritating flies, the plot becomes interesting as Tang Mi navigates challenge after challenge. She is similar to Wei Yang in “The Concubine’s Daughter is Poisonous” but the pitfalls that she navigated are much less bloody and dramatic.
I love some parts where her enemies storm out of her life with gnashing teeth and frustrated tears. I don’t quite follow some of the local context but it is not a big deal. The ending is too abrupt but at least it is happy and I’ll just have to use my imagination to fill in the gaps for the ending for the interesting side-characters.