The Circle of Fate

The life of Zhang Ai, a rural woman, was filled with one tragedy after another. Her parents arranged her marriage, and she married the wrong man. In middle age, her husband had an affair and openly lived with another married woman from the village. None of her three sisters-in-law helped her unless there was something in it for them. When they fought over the money left behind by the old man, they came to blows and bit off one of Zhang Ai's fingers. Her younger brother-in-law went to prison because of gambling. She gave birth to two sons: the elder, Zhao Dezhi, was clever but became embroiled in a murder case; the younger, Zhao Xuanzhi, had a fiery temper and developed a serious illness not long after his father's death. As a result, Zhang Ai was burdened with debt and spent her later years in misery. Faced with all the misfortunes life handed her, Zhang Ai always believed that this was her fate, that what was destined could not be changed. Even though she knew there were nothing but pitfalls ahead, Zhang Ai still chose to leap into them without hesitation...