1970s Mediator: All Couples Divorced!

1970s Mediator: All Couples Divorced! Plot:

In a 1970s small county town, Lin Wan, a freshly graduated normal school student, is assigned as a neighborhood mediator, determined to “bring warmth to every family’s kang (heated bed).” But her first mediation for Aunt Zhang’s marital cold war ends up listing her husband’s “crimes” of not washing dishes for a decade; when mediating Sister Wang’s conflict with her mother-in-law, she points out, “You didn’t marry him—you married his family’s washboard.” Instead of reconciling couples, she helps them realize: a forced life is worse than being single. Just as she fears being fired, veteran Zhou Ming comes with dried sophora flowers: “You helped them tear down their rotten tents; I want to build a warm house for you.” And those “divorced” couples even secretly pooled money to make her a new coat with patches, saying: “You made us live clearly—this is our thank-you gift.”

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