Under the Catalpa Tree

The story takes place between a lightning strike accident in a rural middle school in northern Jiangxi and the memory of hunger among candidates in Inner Mongolia, integrating the scars of two generations into a suspenseful narrative. Objects such as copper bells, detonators, and piano keys carry historical memories, and the relay of three generations of teachers hints at how knowledge penetrates the iron curtain of the times - just like the catalpa tree that is still growing tenaciously with the word "injustice" engraved on it, and is still sheltering a new generation of teenagers forty years later.