In 1978, Zhou Xiulan married into the Chen family, and the clay sculpting tools she had hidden for years were thrown into the stove by her mother-in-law. Standing her ground publicly, she secured her first order with a clay dog used to coax children, but her biological father refused to teach her on the grounds that craftsmanship is passed down only to men, not women. Her grandmother stepped in to back her up, guiding her to become the apprentice of veteran clay artisan Hu Youshui. From a two-yuan Qilin Delivering Children figurine to an eight-yuan God of Longevity statue, and finally to the Pine and Crane centerpiece for the cultural center that saved her whole family from crisis, she repeatedly slapped the faces of those who looked down on her. When the Guanyin statue was smashed, she transformed the broken piece into a divine creation overnight, earned the full eighty-yuan betrothal gift, bought a flatbed cart back for her husband, and received the keys to manage the Chen household in front of the entire village. A pair of muddy hands supports an entire family.