In 1962, Mu Zhiqing, a high school girl from a small town in southern Sichuan, should have had a future filled with studies and love. Instead, her mother, who favored sons over daughters, forced her to marry Liu Daqiang, a farmer with land in the countryside. After giving birth to two daughters, she suffered domestic abuse and a mental breakdown. Her in-laws abandoned her, and her sister-in-law sold her to human traffickers for thirty yuan. More than once, she teetered on the brink of life and death.
She wandered the streets begging, looking like a madwoman. Everyone thought she had been left to rot in the mud. Then Luo Jun, a man who made his living collecting junk, took her home. With the simplest kindness, he slowly helped her heal from her madness and trauma. In return, she used the books she'd read to teach him scientific farming and animal husbandry, helping him rise out of poverty.
He went from being the king of junk to a prosperous farmer known for his generosity. She went from a mad beggar to a self-taught woman with a university degree, becoming the respected village teacher, Ms. Mu.
With no biological children of their own, they adopted an abandoned baby to keep them company. A lifetime of storms and hellish trials finally gave way to years of peace and warmth.
Mu Zhiqing said, “Even in hell, you must hold tight to every glimmer of light, and bloom into the most dazzling flower there.”
