Shen Jinxiu is reborn in 1983. The moment she opens her eyes, her stepmother is forcing her to marry a border guard in Tibet in her older sister's place.
A husband she's never met, a leaky mud-brick house, a sister-in-law as thin as a reed, and barely ten yuan in her pocket.
Her ex-boyfriend sneers, "A military wife? You might as well be a widow."
She smiles.
Taking the sewing machine her stepmother gave her as compensation, she uses modern design sketches from her three-cubic-meter storage space as her trump card.
She sells at a street stall in town, making aprons and sleeve covers, and nets seven yuan and twenty cents in just three days.
Her first shop, Jinxiu Tailoring, opens, bringing in three hundred yuan a month. The county Women's Federation honors her as an exemplary woman entrepreneur.
The Huamei Company in the provincial capital signs a long-term contract with her: three hundred children's outfits every quarter, not a single one missing.
Her competitors cut off her suppliers, copy her designs, and report her anonymously?
She responds by putting up a sign: "Original designs. I will take action against imitators." Then she launches a series of bold moves: partnering with competitors, training workers, and expanding production.
Someone jealously asks, "What makes an outsider like you think you can put down roots in Linxi Town?"
She nails the county Women's Federation's bronze plaque and the provincial company's authorization letter to the wall.
"My skill, my rules, and..."
Before she can finish, the man who has spent years guarding the border on the snowy plateau suddenly appears at the door. He takes off his military coat, drapes it over her shoulders, and tells everyone:
"And me."
