Is our fate really in our own hands? What is the meaning of life? Love and family: if we had neither, would we question our own existence? Yongsheng is not Yang Laowu’s biological son. He is a tragedy of the new world, rejected by the old one as well. His fate is like that of an ox, laboring until its voice gives out, with no reward in the end, before bidding the world farewell. Fortunately, he meets the love of his life, Qiaoyun.
When Danni was little, her father, Yang Laowu, doted on her. But after he had a son in middle age, Danni suddenly became a bargaining chip in securing the family fortune for her little brother. In the end, she was forced to marry a bricklayer from town. Others seemed to have a long road ahead of them, but Danni’s life appeared to be over before it had even begun. Her future seemed set: marriage, children, then old age and death.
Yang Laowu had a younger brother. The family was poor in their early years, and after their father died, Yang Laowu treated him as a drudge. He never received anything in return for his toil. Just when he finally experienced the feeling that hard work could bring rewards, he died in an accident. Erfeng was on the verge of becoming the first woman from Yunshan to attend university, but Yang Laowu forced her to marry a stranger seven years older than she was. In the end, Erfeng took poison and killed herself, choosing death rather than give in to her father.
The last time I returned to Yunshan, I saw Brother Yongsheng. I spent a night in his earthen house. That night summed up decades of blood and tears. I knew he would remain in the mountains forever. He wasn’t from the mountains, yet in the end, he was buried there. What is freedom, really? Does every love have to be constrained by money to survive? I think we are all living in Yunshan.
