Sweet-Smelling Wildflowers

Wu Xiangxiang was born in 1963, a beauty who grew up steeped in hardship. She couldn’t read a single character, but she was brilliant with an abacus and saw things more clearly than anyone. At eighteen, her parents arranged for her to marry Zhang Zuoming, a man who looked decent on the surface. Little did she know they were pushing her into a living hell.

Married life brought beatings, her mother-in-law’s cold glares, and the sinister schemes of her brother-in-law, Zhang Zuoteng. She endured three days and nights of labor, nearly dying along with her baby, only to be met with her husband’s disgust and her mother-in-law’s curses. She also discovered that a pair of scissors and some gauze had been left inside her body. She gritted her teeth and swallowed every bit of suffering for the sake of her son, Zhang Li.

She thought enduring it all would bring her peace, but instead things only got worse. Her husband was ill for twelve years, and she worked like an ox to care for him. Once he recovered, all she got in return was even more vicious gambling and beatings. Her brother-in-law was like a venomous snake, always looking for a chance to bite her. He even tried to pull up the seedlings she had worked so hard to plant. The whole village waited to laugh at the mother and son, saying Zhang Li was destined to be a bachelor for life.

Then one day, when all the suffering had piled up to its breaking point and her son Zhang Li had been driven into a corner as well… the account Wu Xiangxiang had been keeping in her heart for decades was finally due to be settled! She couldn’t read, but she knew how to keep accounts: accounts of lives, accounts of grudges and debts!

This is the story of a meek woman pushed to her limits, who uses the most primal wisdom and resilience to take ultimate revenge on a twisted era and the wicked people in it. Watch as she plans each move carefully and joins forces with her son to turn this cruel world upside down!