In the winter of 1980, at the foot of Mount Xiao in western Henan, lay Zhenjia Village.
Six-year-old Zhen Yi stood in a drafty pit courtyard and made a promise to himself before an earthen wall plastered with certificates of achievement. He had no idea how difficult the road to changing his fate through education would be.
At fifteen, he was forced to leave school. Faced with his father’s illness and a family with nothing, he tearfully tore up his high school acceptance letter, boarded a green train heading west, and became the youngest male worker at a sanitary napkin factory in Lanzhou. Amid prejudice and sweat, he honed his resilience and earned his first nest egg, along with valuable connections.
At eighteen, he returned home with honors. Reunited with the village beauty, Xiao Lili, he won her heart with his sincerity and knowledge. To shoulder his responsibilities, he seized a business opportunity and made a name for himself across the townships with his secret recipe for meat jelly. Soon, customers were lining up at the pit courtyard. But wealth built at the expense of his health could not last.
Three transformations, three new beginnings. He gave up his thriving business and, despite being branded a wastrel, bet everything on importing a new variety of “Tianwang No. 1” apple trees. He used scientific farming methods and established a cooperative, not only lifting his own family out of poverty but also doubling the entire village’s income. He became a true leader in helping people prosper.
From the assembly line at a factory in Lanzhou to the smoke-filled stove in his own home;
From the bustling meat-jelly workshop to a thousand acres of orchards heavy with fruit;
He grew from a poor country boy into a model of his era, rooted in the earth and devoted to his home.
This is a story of integrity, foresight, and loyalty.
This is an inspiring tale of an ordinary man using his own hands and wisdom to rewrite the fate of his life and the land around him!
