The Courtyard: Bound to a Farm Space at the Start

The year is 1961. Supplies are scarce, ration coupons are worth more than cash, and a bowl of cornmeal mush can keep a person alive. Li Yang is reborn into a rural village on the outskirts of Beijing. With a technical secondary school diploma, he secures a stable job at a steel rolling mill, earning fifty-six yuan a month—and owning houses both in the city and the countryside. More importantly, he awakens a farm space: crops mature in a single day, and livestock and poultry are raised and harvested at will. But in the courtyard, old neighbors like Qin Huairu, Silly Zhu, and Xu Damao are still pulling every trick to get their next meal. Qin Jingru keeps sidling up to him, dead set on marrying a city man. While everyone else tightens their belts to survive, Li Yang faces a different puzzle: how can he let those around him share a bit of the good food without ever revealing his secret?