Qin Shufen was reborn. When she opened her eyes, she was kneeling outside a state-run restaurant, clutching the resignation letter that had just been torn to shreds. Only moments ago, she had frozen to death in the bitter cold, driven out of her home by her husband and her so-called best friend working together, with even her son snatched away from her. But in this life, she felt the wrinkled ration coupon in her pocket, and remembered the shining cookbook in her mind. The next day, she set up a pot in the south of the city, and its aroma wafted three streets away. A purchasing agent from the supply and marketing cooperative followed the smell, then came the black-market middlemen. Even the frosty neighborhood office worker brought her daughter to join the line. As Qin Shufen tossed the food in the wok, she mused: Everything I was owed in my last life, I'll get back in this one. She just hadn't expected that before she could collect her first debt, the woman who had stolen her son was already standing in front of her stall.
