Su Banxia worked herself to death pulling all-nighters. When she opened her eyes, she'd become the universally despised wicked stepmother of the 1960s. She was standing there with a broom, chasing three skinny children, while the whole village gathered to watch and her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law shouted that they would throw her out. The rice jar was nearly empty, the house leaked, her stepchildren hated her, her husband Gu Yuanzheng was a spineless wreck, and the original owner had left debts and problems everywhere.
Luckily, she'd brought her modern-day knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine with her. Her ancestral jade pendant had become a portable spiritual spring space, complete with fertile fields and storehouses full of medicinal herbs. In front of the whole village, she put her sisters-in-law in their place. Then, in the delivery room, she used a single acupuncture needle to turn a breech baby into the proper position, saving both mother and child and making a name for herself. She taught those who treated her well everything she knew, down to the last stitch. As for anyone who bullied her or the children, she called them out to their faces and turned their own tricks against them, leaving greedy relatives empty-handed. Her formerly spineless husband stood tall again, and her resentful stepchildren gradually opened their hearts and began chasing after her, calling her "Mom." From wild greens porridge to a medicine-pill business, from barefoot doctor to home workshop, she led her family from poverty to become the commune's celebrated model of prosperity.
Those who had kicked her when she was down now regretted it, while the people who had once looked down on her rushed to curry favor. Just when she thought life had finally settled down, an unfamiliar carriage stopped at the village entrance. Someone was asking for Su Banxia by name, but she didn't know who they were. The original owner had left behind far more than the messes she'd already uncovered.
