A Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law at the Market Stall

Mother-in-Law and Daughter-in-Law at the Vegetable Stall takes you straight to the heart of the tensions between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law in real families!

Lin Wei has just undergone surgery, and the gnawing emptiness in her stomach is unbearable. For three meals a day, all she gets is millet porridge so thin she can see the patterns on the ceiling through it. Her husband, Chen Qiang, tells her to be patient, saying his mother, Liu Guiying, has rheumatism and sore feet. But when her mother-in-law comes in, leaning against the wall and carrying green beans she bought out of her way instead of the greens the doctor told her to get, the sting in Lin Wei's heart hurts more than her wound.

There are no cartoonishly evil mothers-in-law here, only a more painful reality: a mother-in-law's “favoritism” and “self-centeredness” can wound deeply in small ways. Her husband's constant attempts to smooth things over only push his wife further into isolation. Like a mirror, this story reflects the hidden troubles that may exist in countless families. Its understated yet tension-filled narrative invites you to empathize and reflect on what it really means to be “family.”