Reborn to Riches

"Yuan Baozhu, a 21st-century Nobel Prize-winning scientist, revolutionized Chinese medicine by extracting trace elements from cowtail grass. However, on the night of her award ceremony, she was struck by lightning and died, only to wake up reborn in the 1980s as Yuan Baozhu—a notorious, selfish woman from a rural village with the same name. The original Yuan Baozhu was widely despised for her wicked behavior, especially toward her own family. She constantly exploited them, stealing food and household resources to support her ex-husband, Chen Xiang. Unbeknownst to her, Chen Xiang was a scoundrel who left her for Su Wenxin, the daughter of the wealthiest family in town. He even pushed Yuan Baozhu, causing her to miscarry, and then heartlessly abandoned her at her family’s doorstep. Despite her past misdeeds, Yuan Baozhu’s family never gave up on her. When the modern-day Yuan Baozhu awakens in her new body during the miscarriage, her sister-in-law blames her for burdening the family and tries to drive her away. To prove her worth, Yuan Baozhu uses her medical expertise to cure her nephew, Xiao Ye. After hearing from him that many children in the village are suffering from coughs, she senses a business opportunity. Discovering a vast patch of cowtail grass on the mountain, she prepares a medicinal cough syrup and begins selling it in the village, earning her first pot of gold. Her success, however, sparks jealousy in her ex-husband, Chen Xiang. He reports her to the local inspection bureau for selling medicine without authorization, but Yuan Baozhu fiercely confronts him and wins the support of the bureau chief. Noticing Chen Xiang’s bicycle—originally stolen by the former Yuan Baozhu from her sister-in-law’s dowry—she decides to right the wrongs of the past. Yuan Baozhu crashes Chen Xiang’s wedding, retrieves the bicycle, and teaches him and his malicious mother a lesson. Enraged, Chen Xiang hires local thugs to prevent her from harvesting cowtail grass. In a show of unwavering support, Yuan Baozhu’s family uproots their crops to cultivate cowtail grass instead. Using the homegrown herbs, she develops a fever-reducing medicine that helps the entire village combat a flu outbreak. Through her intelligence and determination, Yuan Baozhu eventually drives off in her own Santana sedan and opens a successful clinic, transforming from a despised figure into a respected healer and entrepreneur.