Su Xiutao, the Village Girl

Su Xiutao is the prettiest girl in the village, but she's also the least valued daughter in the Su family. Her parents accept a lavish bride-price from Li Xiangdong, a commune official, to raise the money for her younger brother's wedding. But on the eve of the wedding, Xiutao catches Li Xiangdong in bed with the daughter of the supply and marketing cooperative's director!

To make matters worse, Li Xiangdong wants the bride-price back for nothing, while her own parents are scheming to sell her off to a crippled old widower in the neighboring village.

Su Xiutao won't stand for it! In front of the entire village, she produces irrefutable proof of Li Xiangdong's sexual misconduct and infidelity, takes the compensation for the damage to her reputation, slings a fertilizer sack over her shoulder, and boards the green train to the provincial capital without looking back.

The provincial capital in the early 1980s is full of opportunity. There, she meets Cheng Tiejun, a demobilized soldier who's penniless but hardworking and dependable. Together, they scrape together enough money to open a breakfast stall.

Grinding soybeans, making tofu, frying dough sticks, wrapping big pork buns...

From a street food cart to the provincial capital's first privately owned restaurant, and then to a chain of grand restaurants spanning the country.

Years later, the scumbag is fired for misconduct and returns to his village to live off his parents. Su Xiutao, meanwhile, has long since become a famous businesswoman across the province. When a reporter asks her the secret to her success, she points to the taciturn man beside her, peeling a tea egg for her. "I owe it all to my old ox, who never minds turning the mill for me."