Settling Down in Shanghai at the Turn of the Millennium

Zhou Ying was a small-town girl. Her family wasn't well-off, but they weren't particularly poor either. She had several siblings. They weren't especially close, but they got along well enough.

Like her siblings, Zhou Ying wasn't much of a student. After scraping through middle school, she went with her older sisters to work at a wool sweater factory in Shanghai. She lived in a huge dorm with over a dozen people, and every day followed the same routine: cafeteria, dorm, factory.

When she reached marrying age, her family called her home to meet potential matches. She met Gu Weiming, who also worked at a factory. He was tall, with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a pair of deep, handsome eyes. She blushed the moment she saw him.

They dated for a year, then naturally got married. A year later, they welcomed a daughter.

With their daughter's arrival, expenses increased. The two of them discussed starting their own business, bought some machines, and began taking orders from the factory to knit wool sweaters themselves.

Their small family workshop didn't make them rich, and it was less stable than working for someone else, but they were diligent and steady. They built up their savings bit by bit, took on more and more orders, and gradually expanded the business. At last, they bought a home in Shanghai and settled down.

(Note: The leads will not become rich and powerful. This is a warm, slow-paced story about raising a daughter, with disagreements and ups and downs, as they move forward hand in hand through the tides of their times.)

Theme: Freedom and love.