$7.50 A Month: My Husband Returned to Back Me Up

Song Xianglan lives alone in the countryside while her husband, Lu Weiguo, has been stationed away from home for two years. Although he sends a generous monthly allowance, her brother-in-law, Lu Mandong, pockets almost all of it, leaving Xianglan with only seven yuan and fifty cents a month. Forced to care for her partially paralyzed mother-in-law and raise her young daughter, Niuniu, she works tirelessly in the fields and does odd jobs late into the night just to secure food. Despite all her efforts, she barely manages to keep them fed. The little girl suffers from chronic malnutrition and recurring high fevers. Furthermore, the mother-in-law's condition deteriorates because someone replaced her painkillers with ineffective medication. Helpless and with nowhere to turn, Xianglan also has to endure malicious rumors spread by her brother-in-law and the gossip of the entire village. Driven to desperation, she begins considering remarriage, hoping only that her daughter can have even a single bowl of porridge to eat. After a long-distance phone call, Lu Weiguo rushes back home in the middle of the night. His return coincides with a major family conflict: members of the clan, manipulated by others' lies, attempt to cast Xianglan out of the family and take her daughter away. As the truth unfolds, it is revealed that Lu Mandong, a gambling addict, embezzled the money intended for Xianglan and committed other misdeeds. Once the crisis passes, Xianglan does not forgive her husband easily. She asks for a divorce and gives him a one-year period to make amends and prove his sincerity. During that time, Weiguo truly makes an effort to compensate his wife and daughter, eventually bringing them to live with him. Meanwhile, Xianglan relies on her own skills to become financially independent. Step by step, they begin to rebuild the family that lies, greed, and neglect had torn apart.