Twenty Years of Qingqing

The story follows Cao Qingqing's life from the late 1980s to the early 2000s: four years at university, a winding path through jobs after graduation, and the twists and turns of her relationships with Yuan Ye, Guo Pan, and Gao Yuan. Whatever life throws at her, she never gives up. With the support and encouragement of family and friends, she climbs out of her lowest moments and ultimately finds lasting happiness with Gao Yuan. Yuan Ye is a university military training instructor and a hero. He meets Cao Qingqing when she is punished for arriving late to training. Their initial resentment gradually gives way to understanding, affection, and love. But university rules forbid students from dating, so their relationship remains “underground.” They are nevertheless determined to stay together and face the future as one. After graduation, a series of setbacks derail their plans. New to the working world, Cao Qingqing is naive and inexperienced, and soon finds herself trapped in a mire. No matter how hard they try, they cannot overcome the difficulties of reality, and eventually they go their separate ways. By a stroke of fate, Cao Qingqing gets the chance to leave her hometown. She decides to make a new life far from home, becoming one of the “southern drifters” in a city at the forefront of China's reform and opening up. Once the envy of everyone around her, she ends up working as a shop assistant. Later, on a friend's recommendation, she joins a curtain company as an accountant and meets its owner, Guo Pan. He comes from a wealthy family, is mild-mannered, and carries himself with grace. They fall in love over time and marry. But fate is cruel: Guo Pan dies suddenly, and the company goes bankrupt. Cao Qingqing, who had been a full-time housewife, is plunged into hardship, and her life of luxury proves to have been nothing but a dream. Meanwhile, her classmates' careers are thriving, and she finds herself unemployed. She firmly refuses Yuan Ye's help and sets out alone to start over. But