The novel mainly tells the story of farmer Wang Hedong's tragic half-life and his continuous struggle for advancement in a special era. The eldest of six sisters in the family assumes the responsibility of supporting the family, but due to a feud with the village chief Li's family, he witnesses his father being forced to commit suicide. From then on, his fate was like an out-of-control millstone: he was fostered, his mother married a butcher, his stepfather cheated on her and caused her mother to drink poison, and the brothers turned against each other due to a romantic debt and stayed away from each other for half their lives. He made a lifelong private contract with his enemy's daughter but was separated. His lover got angry and married another, and he gradually lost his fighting spirit and sank. He was forced into a marriage, and was surrounded by rumors because of his childlessness. In the long collective production life, Wang Hedong was full of confusion about the future, and continued to grow up in the process of exploration. After the reform and opening up, he started a chicken business but was wrongly imprisoned, and his life fell into another trap. In the backwater, his wife and daughter were struggling to survive. After being released from prison, Wang Hedong was unwilling to live like this all over again, so he asked the government for a loan to support the project of "Establishing a Rural Characteristic Canned Export Company" and officially started his own entrepreneurial journey. Amidst the difficulties of starting a business, he gradually faced the difficulties, and finally created his own happy life with his own hands.
Purpose: A life of suffering