Sweet Days of Striving in the 1990s

Rural daily life + farmhouse cooking + women's growth + family and neighborly affairs + childhood friends

There are no golden fingers. This is an everyday story about family life and farmhouse cooking, starting in the 1990s, with a gentle, healing tone.

The three generations have different lives, personalities, and ways of making money. The older generation's Hu Xingmei earns money from pecans, bamboo, silkworms, and more. Granny Qian makes a living by hawking goods from street to street and telling fortunes based on people's birth dates and times.

Chen Fang represents the middle generation and is the first person in the village to open a small shop. He marries Zhang Lifen, who once sang in a dance hall to make ends meet before marrying Yang Dazhuang, a pork seller. After the wedding, the couple goes to the city to work. They study accounting, work as waiters, set up stalls, and go into business. Will they manage to build a prosperous life?

Yang Xiangshang grows up in the village, left behind by her parents, and learns many ways for farm families to earn money from her grandmother. As a teenager, she goes to the city and sees the rapid changes. She begins learning and broadening her knowledge. What choices will she make as an adult?

Qian Cheng is determined to study medicine. Will he become an outstanding doctor?

And what will become of Chai Yu, Mao Panpan, Chen Tao, and the others? A story with a small ensemble cast.

As children, they learn to cook farmhouse food, fish, gather pig fodder, dig for medicinal herbs, raise silkworms, and more in the village.

As a young woman, how will she cope with her grandmother's death and readjust to life with her parents?

As an adult, when she meets her childhood sweetheart again, can they build a life together...

The story unfolds gently, and I hope every reader will see a reflection of their own past.