In the autumn of 1978, Su Zhuo, a private teacher at Hongxing Primary School in Mengdai County, married Zhao Tieshuan, the company commander of the border defense force. On the big day, the third sister-in-law, Luo Sanmei, took all the gifts according to the old rules of the Dai people: "Before the family separation, the daughter-in-law's handicraft money and private money all belonged to the family." My sister-in-law Cai Jinfeng even took away the sewing machine that her mother's family had given her as a dowry. Su Hao wanted to supplement the family income, so she secretly stayed up late at night to embroider Dai brocade and asked someone to sell it in the county town. However, her mother-in-law found out and scolded her for being "unruly" and almost had her husband transferred from the army. The hierarchy of the compound is very strict, and the words and deeds of military families are directly recorded on their husbands. Su Hao did not dare to resist openly, so he could only use his identity as a private teacher to buy mountain goods in the Dai village where he taught, and asked Yu Wangxiang and Yan Wenhan to help resell them. The first batch of Dai cultural and creative schoolbags she designed were sold out through supply and marketing cooperative channels, but all the money she earned was withheld by her mother-in-law in the name of "safekeeping." Until the border defense troops were in urgent need of a batch of condolences with ethnic characteristics, Su Zhuo seized the opportunity and led all the embroiderers in the village to produce hundreds of Dai brocades. The head of the army personally commended her, and the county government also invited her to participate in the border trade pilot project. Only then did her mother-in-law panic, and she teamed up with her sister-in-law to frame her for having "liaisons with foreign businessmen." On the one hand, the honor of the army is above all else, and on the other hand, the bottom line of "no stealing, no robbing" in the Dai Buddhist culture. In front of the whole compound, Su Zhuo took out all the account books and receipts: "I, Su Zhuo, am worthy of the vow I made when I became a Buddhist, and I am worthy of my military family. If anyone wants to force me to violate my conscience, I will go to the Army Discipline Inspection Commission and the County People's Committee to speak clearly." Zhao Tieshuan stood in front of his wife for the first time. And the real battle has just begun.
