Unable to endure the hardships of rural life, she returned home to arrange a marriage with a militar

Shu Yun pursed her lips, put down her chopsticks, and considered for a moment. "Auntie, I think I'll stay here. My parents are here, and I don't want to leave."

Shu Yun didn't want to trouble Shen Rujun.

Firstly, her uncle was a soldier, and Shen Rujun had gone with him. There are strict restrictions on military personnel accompanying their spouses; only spouses or minor children are eligible. The military had made an exception for her uncle's elderly mother, considering that she was the only family member available. It was already an exception, and if she went too, it would be awkward and people would talk about it. She didn't want her aunt to be inferior to others.

Secondly, since she wasn't the original owner of this body, she was afraid that if they spent too much time together, Shen Rujun would easily notice something was amiss.

Shen Rujun thought of Shu's parents, who were already buried in the suburbs, and her nose tingled. "If you don't go with your aunt, how will you, a young girl, live? Even after you recover, those soldiers will come again. How can I leave you alone?"

Shu Yun lost her parents at a young age in modern times, and she had long been accustomed to facing life's various difficulties alone, which instilled in her an optimistic and positive attitude towards life. She was not afraid of wind and rain, and always believed in the saying: "There is always a way out."

She comforted Shen Rujun instead, saying, "Don't worry, I'll think of a way to solve this."

Recalling the arrogant behavior of those soldiers, Shu Yun had reason to suspect that they had done a lot of bad things and must have some dirt on them.

But Shen Rujun didn't think so. She stopped eating and paced anxiously around the room. After a while, her eyes sparkled as she grabbed Shu Yun's hand. "If you don't want to go to your uncle's place, then go on a blind date. Once you find someone and settle down, those soldiers won't dare to cause trouble anymore."

The more Shen Rujun thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, making Shu Yun feel uneasy. Shu Yun broke free from Shen Rujun's grasp, saying, "No, no, let's not. I'm still young, there's no rush."

Shu Yun had never been on a blind date in her previous life, and now she had to go on one right away? She felt inadequate; how awkward and embarrassing it would be to be in front of a stranger!

Shen Rujun slapped her hand disapprovingly, "Your uncle and I met through a blind date, and it went really well. You're about to start working, and you're not getting any younger. It's time to think about being single. How about this, I'll take you to meet the matchmaker who introduced us before tomorrow. I don't even know if she's still a matchmaker..."

Shen Rujun was full of enthusiasm, but Shu Yun slowly raised her hand to interrupt her, "Auntie, I think this matter can be postponed. No, I'll go to the countryside instead. Didn't our great leader say that there is plenty of land in the countryside waiting for young people to build it? The stage for young people is vast, and the countryside is a stage with great potential!"

Shu Yun found it more and more feasible as she talked about it. She waved her fist, struck the pose of the working youth on the poster, and sang as she spoke, "We young people have power! Hehehe! Cough cough cough cough."

I got a little emotional and choked.

Shen Rujun calmed down and glanced at her suddenly excited niece, wondering if she had ever been this lively before. However, she still couldn't resist pouring cold water on her, "With your small frame, what are you going to do in construction? If you go, you'll just be the one being taken care of."

Shu Yun retorted, "Auntie, you look down on me."

Shen Rujun was amused. "Alright, if you really want to go to the countryside, go to the fields tomorrow and practice your skills. I'd like to see how you do it."

"Okay then." Shu Yun readily agreed, but she thought Shen Rujun was just saying it casually. However, the very next day, early in the morning, Shen Rujun dragged her out of her warm bed.

"W-what's wrong?" Shu Yun rubbed her eyes, her head slick with sleep, staring at the pitch-black outside.

"Go to work! Aren't you going to the countryside to do farm work? During the busy farming season, farmers have to get up and start work before dawn."

And just like that, Shu Yun was pulled up, a rake was stuffed into her hand, and she stood bewildered on a piece of wasteland, facing the cool breeze, looking back at Shen Rujun uncertainly, "Am I supposed to start working now?"

Shen Rujun took a sip of hot water, "Today you'll loosen this patch of ground."

"Okay, okay." Shu Yun picked up the rake and started loosening the ground. She was panting heavily after a short while, and her hands were burning with pain. Looking back, she had only raken a small area. She sighed, gritted her teeth, and swung the rake. By the end of the morning, her clothes were soaked through, and her legs were weak on the way back. Shen Rujun had to help Shu Yun back.

Shen Rujun teased her, "How about it, farm work isn't easy, is it?" As she spoke, her eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal.

Shu Yun stubbornly refused to admit that she was so bad at the game, saying, "Tomorrow, tomorrow will be better. I haven't gotten used to it yet, it's only the first day."

Shen Rujun didn't expose her. The next day, as usual, she woke up Shu Yun, whose eyelids were still swollen from sleep. The sun had just risen when she was already raking the ground.

She worked until the sun was high in the sky, sweat dripping into her eyes. Shu Yun began to reflect on why she was doing this. Hadn't she suffered enough in her past life? Why was she so eager to suffer again after transmigrating?

No, she needs to go back and rest!

Just as Shu Yun made her decision, an angry voice came from the side, "I finally caught you! You came here first thing in the morning to destroy my seedlings. What are you doing? I'll beat you to death today."

Shu Yun was startled and, grabbing a rake, quickly fled the scene with the equally bewildered Shen Rujun. Only after confirming that no one was following did she stop, panting, and ask, "Auntie, didn't you say it was your wasteland?"

Shen Rujun was embarrassed, but denied it, "How would I know? You have vegetable seedlings in your field and you don't even look at them? Look at your eyesight, you still want to go to the countryside. You should be burning incense for the villagers if you don't go and cause trouble."

Shu Yun was in the wrong. "I thought they were weeds." She recognized many vegetables, but that didn't mean she had to know what they looked like when they were young.

The two exchanged an awkward glance, and Shu Yun suggested, "Why don't we go buy some seedlings later and replant them for the old man?"

"It can only be this way."

During the day, the two dared not go out. Only in the evening did they sneak into the field and plant vegetable seedlings, one at each end.

After two days of running around, Shu Yun's desire to go to the countryside was almost gone.

The two men, covered in dust, returned to the tenement building with their farm tools, only to hear heart-wrenching cries, and a number of neighbors gathered around.

"It's so pitiful. She was a beautiful young woman when she left, alive and well. Now she can't even come back. It's a tragedy for parents to send off their children."

"Yes, how could she have drowned? Wasn't Wang Xiang supposed to be a swimmer? How could she have drowned in the lake? I heard she was in the water all night. The Wang family father and son have already rushed over, but we don't know if they'll be able to bring her body back."

Shu Yun was terrified upon hearing this. In the original owner's memories, there was a person named Wang Xiang, a lively and cheerful girl who went to the countryside two years ago. She never expected that the next news she heard about her would be such terrible news.

Feeling a pang of sympathy for her kind, she couldn't help but shudder, her hand trembled, and the rake fell to the ground.

Forget it, forget it! She'll never harrow it again; she can't even get a single bit of land out of the countryside anyway.

She looked at Shen Rujun with teary eyes, "How about we go on a blind date?" She suddenly felt that blind dates weren't so bad.

Shen Rujun was quick; she didn't let her sleep in the next day, pulling her up and saying in a flurry, "Perfect timing, Yunyun, come with me to meet the matchmaker. Let's see if we can find a suitable partner, and I'll feel at ease if we settle things as soon as possible."

Shen Rujun was also quite frightened by the news last night.

Shen Rujun handed Shu Yun a fruit basket and pulled her outside. Shu Yun stumbled along, finally stopping at the roadside. She was panting, her forehead covered in sweat. "This...this was too sudden!"

"Why so suddenly? Let's meet the matchmaker first and tell her our requirements. Finding a partner isn't like picking cabbage; you can't just say you want one and expect to find one. There needs to be time to look around."

As she spoke, she yawned, revealing her fair skin and prominent dark circles under her eyes, with bloodshot whites in her eyes, making Shu Yun unable to utter the refusal she was about to say.

"The matchmaker we're going to meet is surnamed Wang. You can call her Granny Wang. She's very famous in the south of our city. She's the one who arranged many marriages for us. Back then, she was the one who brought my uncle and me together."

As Shen Rujun continued her rambling, the two crossed the road and turned into a narrow alley.

It was early morning, and the narrow alley was bustling with activity. Women and the elderly carried chamber pots and wooden wash basins, children slung cloth bags over their shoulders on their way to school, and young people rode their old bicycles through the narrow alley, all crowding together.

A stove used for lighting a fire was moved to the outer corridor; a palm-leaf fan was used to fan it, and wisps of smoke drifted upwards...

The neighbors knew the place well, so when they saw a new face, especially a pretty girl, it was hard not to attract their attention.

Amidst the admiring gazes, Shu Yun, carrying a fruit basket, arrived with Shen Rujun at a dilapidated tenement building. Climbing to the second floor, they were greeted by rows of earthen stoves, making the narrow corridors even more cramped, with almost no room to step.

Following her memory, Shen Rujun knocked on the door. The house wasn't soundproof, and footsteps came from inside. Shu Yun saw the door open a crack, and an old woman looked at them warily. "Who is it?"

"Auntie, do you remember me? I'm Shen Rujun. You even acted as my matchmaker back then, do you remember?"

Matchmaker Wang squinted and carefully examined the items for a while. When she caught sight of the fruit basket in Shu Yun's hand, her expression softened considerably. She opened the door and said, "Come in."

As soon as the person entered, Shu Yun heard the door slam shut. This gave her the feeling that she had entered a den of thieves. Wasn't she being overly cautious?

Shu Yun couldn't help but look suspicious. Shen Rujun quietly tugged at Shu Yun's sleeve, "Be careful."

She smiled at Matchmaker Wang, pushed the fruit basket forward, and got straight to the point: "It's been a long time since I've seen you, Auntie. You still look as young as you did more than ten years ago, not old at all."

No woman dislikes hearing kind words, even if she knows they are just polite words. Matchmaker Wang smiled so much that her eyes were wrinkled and the mole on her lip twitched.

Shen Rujun pressed on, "I wonder if you still act as a matchmaker? I've come here today to ask you to act as a matchmaker for my niece."

Wang, the matchmaker, has been a professional matchmaker for over twenty years. There is no unmarried girl or young man she doesn't know, from her neighbors to the entire southern part of the city.

Shu Yun was naturally aware of this as well. She came from a good family, was good-looking, and highly educated. If she had come a few months earlier, Wang the matchmaker could have guaranteed that the relationship would have been successful. But now, how can children absolve themselves of responsibility for their parents' problems?

Once people know about Shu Yun's family situation, the marriage is definitely off. She looked at Shu Yun with regret, "It's not easy to find someone like that."

Shen Rujun said, "It's hard to find someone else, that's why we came to you. You have real skills and connections. Everyone in our neighborhood knows that you should ask Wang Guihua for matchmaking." As she spoke, she slipped a red envelope to Wang the matchmaker.

Matchmaker Wang rubbed the thickness of the red envelope between two fingers, her smile becoming much more genuine. "We've known each other for a long time. If you trust me, I'll definitely do it for you. But we need to make this clear beforehand: you know about your niece's situation, so I can't guarantee it will work out."

Shen Rujun: "That's for sure. I'll have to trouble you to put in a lot of effort, Auntie. Her parents have both passed away, and I really can't bear to see her being bullied all by herself."

Matchmaker Wang sized up Shu Yun, who had been sitting obediently since entering. She had big eyes, willow-leaf eyebrows, a delicate nose, and a pert bottom, but she looked sickly and her complexion wasn't good.

Tell me, what are your criteria for choosing a partner?