Five Years of Marriage, Always Separated [1970s]

Ye Fan worked hard for decades, and now has a house and a car. One day, she suddenly dies and finds herself back over fifty years ago, faced with three options: becoming a soldier, going to the countryside, or getting married! Ye Fan doesn’t want to struggle too much, so she chooses to marry a high-salaried officer and let him support her.

After getting married, Ye Fan lives at her parents’ home, with them helping to take care of the children while she enjoys a lavish lifestyle on her husband’s salary. Ye Fan thinks this is how her life will be forever. However, in the fifth year of her marriage, a young intellectual arrives at the Ye family and claims to be Ye Fan’s sister, stating that her biological parents are ordinary workers, and they were switched at birth.

Embarrassed to continue living off her parents, Ye Fan decides to take her children to find her husband, who lives in a different location due to military duty. Her husband is stationed on an island where the infrastructure is lacking. When he’s away, she has to fetch water herself and cook for the family. Having never lived in the countryside in either life, Ye Fan slips and falls into a well shortly after arriving on the island.

Having struggled to live a full life, Ye Fan is determined not to die and learns life skills. Unknowingly, she learns more and more, earning money while taking care of her children. As her earnings increase, so does her reputation, and she unintentionally becomes a big shot.

Years later, when a reporter asks Ye Fan if she has any regrets, she ponders for a long time before responding: Yes, I regret not being able to just eat and wait to die.