When Su Wantang opened her eyes, she was standing by a train door with the 300 yuan allowance her husband had sent, next to a strange man.
Outside the train was her cold-faced husband, who had spent more time apart from her than together since their marriage.
Behind her were two children convinced she was going to sell them.
Only then did Su Wantang realize she had become the wicked military wife in a novel set in a bygone era. After the original owner ran off with the money, she vanished without a trace. Xiao Man, five years old, died of illness; Xiao Chuan, eight, went astray; and even her husband, Lu Chenzhou, would be severely wounded and discharged from the military a few years later.
To save her own life, she exposed the scam on the spot, took the two children with her to join Lu Chenzhou on a military island, and agreed to give their marriage three months.
Everyone waited to see the pampered, fussy woman flee in tears.
Instead, she gathered little fish, dried seafood, and made shrimp paste, turning unwanted odds and ends from the tidal flats into sought-after goods. She also organized a women’s production team, giving military wives and fisherwomen, who had once spent their days tied to the stove, the chance to earn a return through their own efforts for the first time.
The children went from hiding food from her to clinging to her on either side and calling her Mom.
When the three months were up, Su Wantang packed her bags, ready to leave the island.
But Lu Chenzhou, who was always so calm and self-possessed, locked the divorce papers in a drawer and said quietly, “The boat’s been delayed. You can’t leave today.”
Su Wantang looked out at the calm sea. “Lu Chenzhou, do you think I’m blind?”
After a long silence, he placed his salary, bankbook, and house keys in her hands.
“Then tell me, what’s missing from this home?”
“A man who can tell the truth.”
“...I’ll change.”
