The Rose Queen [The 1980S]

A feel-good, career-focused novel about a technically skilled heroine building her success from the ground up. Shen Yimei was a gardening blogger with hardly any followers, but she had a gift for growing flowers. Any rose she raised bloomed luxuriantly in her hands. Unfortunately, no matter how beautifully she grew them, there was no one to appreciate her flowers. "I wish I had a flower farm of my own, where I could cultivate unique roses that belonged only to me." Before bed, Shen Yimei made her usual wish. When she woke up, she had transmigrated into the body of a poor orphan girl with the same name in the late 1980s. Her family had nothing but an elderly grandmother to rely on, along with a pack of greedy uncles and cousins watching hungrily, waiting to take everything after her death. People in the village gossiped behind her back: "A delicate little girl like her has only one way to survive: get married." The next day, the matchmaker came to her door, beaming. "Wonderful news! The old bachelor in the next village doesn't mind taking you. Just bear him a son to carry on the family line, and you'll have enough to eat." Shen Yimei smiled gently. "An old bachelor has a life, too. I'm a hard-luck girl who'll bring her husband to an early grave." Then she picked up a bucket, slung a hoe over her shoulder, and went to tend her flower fields. She had seen through their schemes long ago. They thought they could force her into marriage and seize her family's land? No chance! Her grandmother gave Shen Yimei a tattered illustrated book about ancient roses, and from then on, the farm girl embarked on the road to entrepreneurship. From selling flowers by the roadside out of a basket, to founding her own flower brand; from ensuring her own family's basic needs, to driving the development of a range of industries; from improving native roses, to cultivating rare varieties renowned around the world; from exporting seedlings, to sharing cutting-edge biotech... Shen Yimei broke the long-standing monopoly of European and American breeding companies, propelling China's rose cultivation technology to the top of the world! When Xie Ci, a top student from a prestigious university, learned that he had been betrothed before he was even born, he declared, "I'll fight to my last breath against feudal customs like arranged marriages!" When he found out his fiancée was Shen Yimei, he secretly rejoiced. "Well... I guess I could give it a try." When he heard that Shen Yimei had turned down the marriage, he pleaded, "Teacher Shen, could I get a chance to retake the exam?" Theme: Weave fragrance into poetry and inscribe it in the pages of an era.