It was the winter of 1972. I was sitting in my dilapidated home, quietly looking at the snow outside. Thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind. I didn't know how long I sat there, but there was only one thought left in my mind now. I want to go home, I want to go back to the place where I was born and raised, I want to go back to Sichuan. 'I' am an educated youth, an educated youth who followed the party's call to move from the city to the countryside to build a beautiful motherland. It has been five years since I came from Beijing to a rural area called Pheasant Township under this small town called Qian'an. During these five years, my inner fear and uneasiness tortured me all the time. I knew that by 1977, I would be able to successfully pass the college entrance examination and return to Sichuan, but I couldn't wait any longer. From the age of 17 to 23, no one knew how much suffering I suffered in the past five years. I miss my family and friends all the time. I have to go back and take a look, even if it's just a glimpse, even if it's not the hometown I expected.
This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.
