In their three years of marriage, Shen Qinghe worked like a beast of burden for her in-laws.
She did the laundry and cooking and worked in the fields. She even sold part of her dowry to help pay for her husband’s studies.
But in the end, her mother-in-law blamed her for not having a child in three years, her husband called her crude and useless, and her sister-in-law stole her jewelry and wore her new clothes. After draining her dry, the whole family thought a letter of divorce would be enough to kick her out.
On the day she was divorced, the whole village came to laugh at her.
Everyone thought she would cry, kneel, and beg the Li family to give her a chance to live.
But Shen Qinghe took the divorce letter and immediately began settling accounts.
Hand over the money from my dowry!
Give back the stolen silver hairpin!
And don’t think you can get away with a single coin for the three years I worked like a beast of burden for the Li family!
She exposed her in-laws’ false respectability in front of everyone, forced her wicked mother-in-law to cough up money, humiliated her sister-in-law, and laid bare her worthless ex-husband’s plans to marry into a wealthy family.
The divorce left the Li family disgraced, while she returned to her parents’ home in triumph, money in hand.
Everyone said that a divorced woman returning to her poor family, so poor they couldn’t afford to eat, would eventually starve to death.
But Shen Qinghe turned around and set up a little food stall.
One pot of braised snacks filled half the street with its aroma, and a single bowl of cold noodles sold out across an entire alley.
From a street stall to a shop, from a small courtyard to a trading company,
she led her frail mother, honest father, and weak younger siblings in turning their dirt-poor family into the wealthiest in the village.
Later, her shameless former mother-in-law came begging to make up, her sister-in-law wept and pleaded for help, and her ex-husband regretted it so badly that he knelt outside, begging her to come back.
Seated in her new home, Shen Qinghe smiled faintly.
“When I was down on my luck, you couldn’t wait to trample me to death.
Now that I’m rich, you want a piece of the pie?
Too late.”
The plot of the novel is delicate, and the more you read it, the more addictive it becomes.
It's a good read, the plot is well written, it's a very inspirational novel, and the ending is good. It's worth reading. I recommend it.