The Divorce Papers Hidden Beneath My Paralyzed Mother's Pillow

Set in a northern Chinese town in the 1980s, this is the story of Deng Meng, a reborn woman, and “Mama's boy” Zhuo Xianjie, whose arranged marriage turns into a lifelong partnership.

Deng Meng returns with memories of being framed by her stepsister in her previous life and dying a miserable death in a ruined temple. At the marriage-swap ceremony, she turns the tables and makes her own demands, getting the match she wants: Zhuo Xianjie, the quiet canning-factory worker who gives his entire paycheck to his paralyzed mother and whom everyone dismisses as a deadbeat. When she first moves in with the Zhuo family, she has to deal with her difficult mother-in-law and a sister-in-law who keeps trying to trip her up. She must also guard against revenge from her stepsister and the scoundrel she loved in her previous life, all while uncovering the secret behind Zhuo Xianjie's cold exterior: he was a discharged soldier wounded while saving someone, and he had silently shouldered the burden of supporting his family.

From knitting sweaters by kerosene lamp to supplement the household income, to founding the Mengya Knitting Cooperative and creating work for the neighbors; from clearing Zhuo Xianjie's name after he was wronged at the factory, to standing by him as he rose from quality inspector to factory manager, Deng Meng uses her resilience to defy the usual “get rich after being reborn” formula and weaves a warm life amid everyday family affairs. Zhuo Xianjie's devotion is never spoken aloud: he carries her through a stormy night to seek medical help, uses his veterans' pay to redeem her silver wedding bangle, and tells her detractors, “No one else gets to talk about my wife like that.”

When her paralyzed mother-in-law clutches her hand on her deathbed and says, “You're better than my own daughter,” and her stepsister receives a coat she anonymously sent during a time of hardship, this couple, whose marriage began with calculation, finally understand: happiness simply means having someone to turn hard days sweet and plain years warm.