Remembering the First Half of His Life

The story of a young man who left the countryside in the 1970s and the life he lived afterward. In August 1972, the air in Yanghe, Siyang County, Jiangsu, still held the humid heat of late summer. Cicadas chirped in waves from the old locust tree at the village entrance. In the Du family's earthen house, Chen Xiulan lay on a kang covered with a coarse cloth mattress, beads of sweat on her forehead and her lips clenched tight. Beside the kang, her husband, Du Qingfu, paced back and forth, rubbing his hands. He still smelled of the medicinal herbs from treating Old Wang's cow in the neighboring village. He was the only veterinarian in the village...

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.