The Old Gardener of Funiu Mountain

[Elderly protagonist, farming, extraordinary encounters, tearjerker, everyday retirement]

After being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, Zhang Dezhong, a teacher at a private rural school, secretly returned to his village to spend his final days there, determined not to burden his children. While sorting through his bookshelves, he found a special horticultural handbook he had collected in his youth. After learning the methods it contained for caring for all kinds of flowers, plants, and trees, Zhang Dezhong began treating the hometown where he had spent his entire life as his own garden. As he fought cancer, he tended every plant and tree in the village.

Gardener: an occupation that has fallen out of fashion. Originally, the word referred to the old men who carried enormous shears and went around trimming the branches and leaves in gardens. They cared for every plant and tree, using their hard-working hands to cultivate one beautiful scene after another!

Later, people compared teachers who educated and nurtured their students to diligent gardeners. Each student’s healthy growth was like a flower or tree carefully tended by a teacher, and every student was the most beautiful sight in their eyes.

To every child, their parents are their gardeners! Every small step forward is the loveliest sight in a parent’s eyes! When they watch their children grow up, marry, and have children of their own, they’re as happy as little kids!

[Slow burn, not a power fantasy] [Go home and visit often]