[Countryside] [Era] [Soil] [80s] [Coal Mine] Describing the most real experience, the life at the lowest level, and the struggle of the little people] In 1991, by the Cailian Lake in southern Shandong, Zheng Qiang, who was born in the 1980s, grew up here. The father is far away in the coal mine, and the mother supports the whole family alone. He ran in the dirt, read on the threshing floor, and understood the weight of life early.
When he was in middle school, he followed his father into the mining area. The roaring coal machines, the diffuse coal dust, and the dark faces of the workers formed the background of his youth. At the entrance of the mine, he vowed to use knowledge to change his destiny.
After graduating from technical secondary school, he chose to return to his hometown to teach. Standing on the former podium, facing those clear-eyed country children, he told them about the outside world. But his meager income and inner reluctance made him confused - is taking root to repay his kindness, or is it another compromise with his destiny?
At the age of thirty, he transformed into a lawyer. From a rural teacher to a court defender, he completed his transformation. He defended the rights of miners, spoke for the weak, and walked among the high-rise buildings in the city. But late at night, he would still dream about the lake, the mine, and the group of young friends who had scattered to the end of the world.
Zheng Qiang's life is always about saying goodbye. Say goodbye to my mother's curving back, my father's sweat in the darkness, my childhood that I can't keep, and my hometown that I can't go back to.
This is a hymn that belongs to those born in the 1980s - dedicated to those born in the 1980s who grow like weeds and are as hard as stone.
