No Heirs and a Spendthrift? The Nation Says Spend Freely

Shen Jingzhe is reborn in 1977, and she’s thrown into a predicament from the start. Because of her physical condition, doctors have declared her “permanently infertile.” Her sister-in-law is leading a crowd of military-family wives in cursing her at the door, calling her a “barren hen” and forcing her to write a divorce letter to her husband, He Ye, who is “as good as a widower” while carrying out a deadly mission at the border. They want the He family to have an heir.

Shen Jingzhe listens expressionlessly, then turns around, goes inside, and comes back with a bundle of homemade, crude explosives. She tosses them at her sister-in-law’s feet and calmly lights a cigarette. “Whether we divorce is up to me. Keep talking, and we’ll all go up together.”

A deafening blast follows, and half the courtyard wall collapses. Her sister-in-law wets herself in fright.

He Ye arrives just then, smelling of smoke and gunpowder. He sees the woman amid the ruins and, instead of getting angry, his eyes light up. “Damn, I love a woman with some fire in her!”