The villagers say, "Li Zhengliang is finished. At forty, his wife kicked him out, and now he's back in the village living off his parents."
His cousin says, "With so little going for him, he's too clumsy even to farm."
His ex-wife says, "Following him was the biggest mistake of my life."
Li Zhengliang doesn't say a word.
He simply sharpens that old chipped plow and opens the half-book on farming passed down through his family.
Later, his cabbages sell for sky-high prices, his peaches make old women young again, and luxury cars from the city fill the road outside his orchard.
Beneath the old tree at the village entrance, the people who laughed loudest back then line up, money in hand and smiles plastered on their faces.
"Brother Zhengliang, do you... have any more of those vegetables?"
