The Moon Over the Mountains

In the early 1980s, Chenjia'ao, a hilly village in central Zhejiang, was so poor that even chicken feathers could fly there. Chen Shan, 28, had been an honest man in his previous life, running a shoe-repair stall at the end of an alley. He married Lin Sui, a sharp-tongued but kindhearted woman from the same village, but an accident made him miss the wave of itinerant traders. He spent half his life trapped in the mountain village. As he lay dying, he watched a neighbor make a fortune selling buttons and clutched his wife's calloused hand in regret. “If I could do it all over again, we should have tried our luck on that sea route...”

The rebirth begins at Jingzhe in 1981. Chen Shan jolts awake in his own leaky earthen house. Before him, his wife Lin Sui is crouched by the stove, cooking a thin wheat porridge. Bits of straw cling to her hair as she grumbles, “You repaired someone's shoes yesterday and didn't charge them again.” This is the day he missed his first business opportunity in his previous life: Chen Jinshui, an older man from the village, took a few young men to Jiangxi to sell brown sugar and invited Chen Shan along. Afraid of the risk, he didn't dare go. This time, he clenches his calloused fist and decides to be the first “chicken feather” to take flight.