Words by the Hearth (48 episodes) - AllShorts
In the late 1980s, Su He marries into the Lin family. On her wedding day, she quickly realizes her mother-in-law, Zhang Guifen, favors sons over daughters and…
In the late 1980s, Su He marries into the Lin family. On her wedding day, she quickly realizes her mother-in-law, Zhang Guifen, favors sons over daughters and cruelly blames her twelve-year-old daughter, Lin Yu, for her late husband's death. Lin Yu heads into the mountains before dawn to forage mushrooms and save up for tuition, but her earnings are repeatedly confiscated and she is left with nothing but coarse cornbread to eat. Under the guise of keeping household accounts, Su He secretly teaches Lin Yu to read and helps safeguard her tuition money, standing up for the girl time and again while slowly inspiring her timid husband, Lin Jianjun, to find his backbone. After facing the heartbreak of stolen tuition money and bitter confrontations between mother and son, Zhang Guifen finally lets go of her resentment and agrees to let Lin Yu attend school. Su He pawns her dowry silver hairpin to cover the remaining school fees, paving the way for Lin Yu to enter the classroom, eventually pass the entrance exams for normal college, and become a proud scholar from their rural village.