Cast out of their family and left with nothing, they had a drafty shack, no rice for the stove, and only a few old clothes to their names.
People said the poor couple wouldn’t last three months.
But starting with a borrowed chick, they saved penny by penny and built their lives brick by brick.
In their first month, all they owned was:
Three old garments, two chipped bowls, a wooden spoon with a broken corner, and thirty-two copper coins.
Wen Zhiyun divided the coins into four piles. Eight bought coarse grain, eight went toward salt, eight were saved for seed, and the last eight were sewn into a hem. They were their emergency money, and neither of them was allowed to touch it unless there was no other choice.
Shen Yanqiu kept accounts in the dirt with a stick, tracking every transaction down to the last coin.
In their first year, they got their first hoe, their first vegetable patch, and their first chicken of their own.
By the fifth year, they had their first acre of poor farmland, their first thatched cottage that didn’t leak, and their first piglet.
By the fifteenth year, their granary was full, and their neighbors respected them.
In the twentieth year, Shen Yanqiu joined the county yamen as a low-ranking clerk.
No miraculous encounters, no benefactors, no golden finger falling from the sky, just an ordinary, peaceful life.
The early days were too hard. When will we be able to live a better life?
The plot is realistic and watchable.
I enjoyed reading it and thank the author for his hard work
The story is told in a straightforward manner, and the story of the difficult days of survival for couples of small figures in ancient times is warm and heart-warming.