In the fall of 1985, Chen Xiuxiu has just crawled back from the gates of death when her wicked mother-in-law decides to abandon her own granddaughter to save on food.
Her husband's leg is broken, the eldest brother's household has pocketed his injury compensation, and the whole family faces a hefty 30-yuan fine for having an extra child.
No System, no storage space. Chen Xiuxiu grabs a firewood stick and settles every old score then and there!
She writes up a severance agreement on a scrap of cigarette-box paper, claims half a mu of poor farmland, and sets up a household of her own with her disabled husband and infant daughter.
She earns five fen washing a basket of pickled vegetables, 12 fen sorting and peeling Chinese cabbages, and eight fen weaving a bamboo basket.
A jin of cornmeal costs 13 fen, a jin of cooking oil costs 84 fen. Every last coin is carefully counted on the abacus.
From struggling to survive on 30 yuan, to earning a 50-yuan monthly salary with food and lodging, then building up savings and joining the ranks of families with hundreds and thousands of yuan to their name.
With a pair of hardworking hands and a mind like a meticulous ledger, Chen Xiuxiu carves a golden path for her family through years of hardship and poverty!
