The Live-In Son-in-Law Strikes Back: I Became a Middleman in 1983

In the winter of 1983, Beizhai Town was so cold it could freeze you to the bone.

Zhang Liben was the only son of the grain station chief, born to a life of privilege.

Then a car accident took both his parents.

He inherited the family fortune, but the cement factory he set up failed, leaving him penniless.

In just two years, he became the poorest live-in son-in-law in the whole area.

His father-in-law pointed at him and called him a good-for-nothing, while people in town sneered behind his back that he lived off his wife.

Only Zhao Xiulan never complained, even when they were so poor they could barely scrape by.

She even pressed the gold bracelet her own mother had left her into his palm.

“Liben, take it and turn things around. If you lose, I’ll take the blame. If you win, we’ll live well together.”

Clutching the bracelet, he pawned it to Chen Liu for two hundred electronic watches.

For the next two years, he carried his dream with him, squeezed onto the green trains heading south and camped out in wholesale markets, until his eyes became as sharp as an eagle’s.

The county’s first shopfront opened its doors.

No one believed he could rise from rags to become the first man in town with ten thousand yuan, but against all odds, he did.