The Tormented Tofu Seller

[Period drama + a woman's journey toward reclaiming herself] In the height of summer in 1980, Qing Shui Village on the Loess Plateau was stiflingly hot, like a steamer. Eighteen-year-old Zhang Cuiguo pedaled an old, battered bicycle through the village streets and alleys. “Fresh tofu for sale!” Her clear, lilting voice fluttered like a warbler, making the village bachelors' hearts itch, though none of them knew the suffering behind it. When she was eight, both her parents fell from a loess cliff and died. Her frail grandmother tearfully entrusted Zhang Cuiguo and her younger brother to the couple Wang Tiegen and Li Gouzhen, who lived in the same village, handing over the family's land and home as well. But before their grandmother's bones were even cold, the foster parents showed their true colors. Li Gouzhen treated Cuiguo like a beast of burden, while Wang Tiegen was a wolf in human skin. Cuiguo had thought about running away, but her twelve-year-old brother, Zhang Qinglong, was still in school. He was the only living link to their parents and grandmother. She gritted her teeth and endured, day after day. The only person who protected her was Wang Tianzhu, the foster parents' own son, who was learning carpentry in town. He treated Cuiguo like his own younger sister, but whenever he was away, no one could keep the others in check. That day, with a storm approaching, Cuiguo was pedaling her bicycle to sell tofu when Li Sanqiang, one of the village bachelors, dragged her into a dense sunflower field...