Shen He is forced by her stepmother to take her sister's place and marry into the Lu family, who are exiled to the northwest, embarking on a desperate journey with the agricultural books and rare seeds left by her mother. Recognizing soil and water, she saves the dying Lu Yan and his mother, grows top-grade cotton using "iron-stem golden-silk cotton" on the saline-alkali land of the southern slope, and enlists the thousand-household official's help to eradicate bandits. When building brick kilns, she faces the corrupt merchant Zheng Bancheng cutting off firewood and water, but uses the "internal combustion method" to burn dark-gray bricks harder than iron. The governor personally inspects to investigate corrupt officials and merchants, grants the status of imperial merchant, and clears the exile charges. Three years later, the Shen commercial route connects the northwest and the capital, and Shen He and Lu Yan stand shoulder to shoulder, carving out a brand-new world on the wasteland.