By the Lotus-Picking Lake

[Countryside] [Period] [The Land] [The 1980s] [Coal Mines] A true account of life at the very bottom, and of an ordinary person's struggle. In 1991, Zheng Qiang, born in the 1980s, grew up by Cai Lian Lake in southern Shandong. His father worked far away in a coal mine, while his mother held the family together alone. He ran through the earth-covered fields and studied on the threshing floor, learning early how heavy life could be.

In middle school, he followed his father to the mining district. The roar of coal-cutting machines, clouds of coal dust, and the soot-blackened faces of the miners formed the backdrop to his youth. At the mine entrance, he vowed to change his fate through education.

After graduating from vocational school, he chose to return home to teach. Standing at the lectern where he had once sat as a student, he told the bright-eyed village children about the world beyond their home. But his meager salary and inner discontent left him lost: was putting down roots a way to repay his debt, or yet another compromise with fate?

In his thirties, he changed careers and became a lawyer. From village teacher to courtroom advocate, he underwent a complete transformation. He defended miners' rights and spoke up for the vulnerable, navigating the high-rises of the city. Yet late at night, he still dreamed of that lake, that mine, and the childhood friends scattered far and wide.

Zheng Qiang's life was a series of farewells: to his mother's increasingly stooped figure, to his father's sweat in the darkness, to a childhood he could not hold on to, and to a hometown he could never return to.

This is an ode to The 1980s generation, dedicated to those who grew like weeds and stood firm as stone.