My Tears Stream from the Corners of Your Eyes

The story begins in the early 1980s. After graduating from high school, the male and female protagonists part ways to pursue their studies and other necessities. Thus begins a long journey through life, from understanding each other to falling in love, and finally to a breakup, filled with love and hate. The male protagonist is named Zhao Xiaodong, and the female protagonist is named Qin Xuemei. Drawing on popular elements from Tomato Novel, the story uses China’s social transformation from 1980 to 2000 as its backdrop. Through the twenty-year emotional entanglement between Zhao Xiaodong, a rural man who rises above his roots, and Qin Xuemei, a talented young woman from a small town, it portrays the ups and downs in the lives of ordinary people amid the wave of reform and opening up. The story revolves around three central conflicts: “love out of step,” “class divides,” and “individuals struggling beneath the tide of the times.” The image of “locust blossoms” runs throughout, heightening the tragic beauty of the tale.