Siheyuan: I Just Keep Picking Up Trash Like Crazy

In 1970s Sijiu City, Ma Shan dragged his heavy luggage into the crowded courtyard that would be his new home. The uniform of a retired soldier looked a little out of place on him, but the determined look in his eyes had not changed. He had just finished several years of military service and now returned to the courtyard he once knew, carrying a touch of weariness and a measure of anticipation.

Everything in the courtyard felt unfamiliar. Standing at the gate, he looked at the dilapidated place, his heart awash with complicated emotions. This was a typical old Beijing siheyuan. In the middle of the courtyard was a patch of overgrown weeds, surrounded by a few aging houses whose mottled walls told the story of time. Ma Shan knew that this place had once been home in his eyes. Now it had become his new beginning.