Six Trumpet Creepers

Period setting / six sisters / opportunities of the times / excellence / family unity and patriotism

- **Historical background**: The early years of reform and opening up, showing the social changes during the transition from a planned economy to a market economy

- **Geographical setting**: A dual narrative spanning a family compound at a northern military district base and the water towns of Jiangnan

- **Social conflicts**: The conflict between the special status of military families and the nascent individual economy, and the clash between traditional views on childbirth and modern women's consciousness

### Story synopsis

- **Years of hardship**: Lin Xiulan, a military wife, struggles to raise six daughters during a time of shortages. Despite the neighbors’ mockery, she holds firm to the belief that “daughters should stand on their own.”

- **A way to break through**: She starts by raising pigs on slops from the military district cafeteria, then unexpectedly spots a business opportunity in growing medicinal herbs and feels her way toward prosperity along the edge of policy restrictions.

- **A double dilemma**: Her husband’s battlefield injury and subsequent transfer to civilian work bring upheaval to the family. Later, after making her mark as a township entrepreneur, she faces a crisis over the division of company shares.

- **Passing it down through generations**: The six daughters choose different paths in life amid the tide of reform and opening up, eventually forming a family business empire.

We will focus on the arduous journey of the heroine secretly raising pigs and starting a business in the military family compound while bringing up her six daughters to succeed. This story depicts the wisdom women used to overcome a double dilemma in a special era, as well as military culture.