Waiting in the Scent of Wheat tells the story of the tender romance between Lin Xiaoman, a country girl, and Chen Yuan, a young man who left home to find work, their love hidden beneath the waves of wheat and the locust trees.
Summer in Wang Family Village is always steeped in the scent of wheat, and Lin Xiaoman’s feelings grow quietly plump with each passing day, like kernels of grain. Chen Yuan is the boy next door, who grew up with her. Three years ago, he headed south to make a living, leaving behind only a vague promise: “Wait for me to come back.” During those three years, Xiaoman tended the fields in her hometown and her elderly relatives. She also kept the jar of locust blossom honey she brewed for him every year, tucking her longing away in the daily grind.
When Chen Yuan returns on his old motorcycle, travel-worn, his skin tanned and a new plan in hand, the feelings they never voiced finally take shape beneath the old locust tree by the threshing ground. Should she go with him and seek her fortune far away, or stay in her hometown and live a peaceful life? On the field paths filled with the scent of wheat, they use the simplest words to measure the distance between love and life, gradually realizing that the best place to settle down is neither far away nor where they started, but wherever “we” are together.
