In 1978, educated youth returned to the city.
Cheng Yunyun's husband, an educated youth, took away all her savings and ran away, leaving her with a 5-year-old oil bottle and three adobe houses with air leakage.
She is plump and fair, and people in the village call her "fat woman" behind her back. Her mother comes to visit her asking for money to support her younger brother.
Just when she was cornered, veteran He Changjin moved next door. He was a 30-year-old man with evil spirits all over his body and a long scar on his face. The children in the village took a detour after seeing him.
In order to accommodate him, the brigade designated his private land next to Cheng Yunyun's house.
The two got into a dispute over a collapsed courtyard wall.
He Changjin took one look at her frozen hands and thin cotton-padded jacket, and repaired the roof of her house without saying a word the next day.
Cheng Yunyun wanted to give money, but he didn't want it. I wanted to give him food, but he wouldn't take it.
She was anxious: "Then what do you want?"
The man was chopping firewood with his back to her, and it took him a long time to mutter out: "How about... You marry me. I need a cook."
Her 5-year-old son tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Mom, marry him. If there's a flood next summer, his house will be the only one that won't collapse."
