In the spring of 1992, the least promising of the three Shen brothers from the west end of the village married the smiling daughter of the Hu family from the east end. The villagers all said that with one taciturn man and one cheerful fool together, their life was bound to end in disaster. Shen Yaokun listened to the gossip in silence as he took stock of the three acres of poor farmland, a pot nearly rusted through, and twenty yuan he had received in the division of the family property. Hu Xiaoyun simply smiled and pressed the twenty yuan back into his hand. “What are you worried about? I've got hands, you've got strength. We won't starve.” That year, the winds of reform reached Xiaogang Village, stirring the two young people's refusal to settle for an ordinary life. No one knew that this little couple, written off by the whole village, were about to become some of the first to get rich...
