A delicate, helpless young woman with no strength to fight marries a cold-faced military officer in a whirlwind wedding, only to be sent to a remote island where supplies are scarce. Everyone waits for her to go hungry, to cry and beg for mercy.
But she refuses to give them the satisfaction. While everyone else can barely get a bite of coarse grain, she knows exactly where to go on the mudflats at low tide, pulling giant red razor clams half a foot long from between the rocks and feeling around in the reefs for weighty stonefish. Her neighbors band together to ostracize her and cut off her last chance to borrow food. She simply turns around and sets up a huge iron pot. The rich seafood simmers in a glossy, savory sauce, and the sweet smell of fresh meat fills the whole courtyard. She won't do hard labor, and she won't let herself be cheated. Always dressed in spotless clothes, she hires people to do the heavy work and directs them from shore, turning baskets of premium seafood no one else can recognize into piles of cash.
From earning her first bit of pocket money to building a spacious brick factory, she won't just eat meat at every meal on this isolated island. She'll also open up sea routes and send rare delicacies from deep waters no one has ever explored to the outside world. Who could have guessed that the delicate young woman everyone on the island once expected to see humiliated would eventually become the richest woman in these waters?
Theme: On an isolated island plagued by material scarcity and prejudice, true resilience doesn't have to be proven through hardship and self-destruction. With wisdom and resourcefulness, it's still possible to maintain one's dignity in desperate circumstances, shatter prejudice through one's own strength, and build a prosperous life full of warmth and abundance.
