The river rushes down from the upper reaches, flowing through villages, towns, city walls, docks and wars, quietly quenching the skin, flesh and mind of everyone who walks on it. Jiang Heng, a scholar from a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, saw the abolition of the imperial examination, walked into the door of the new school, and looked up from the classroom to see revolution, warlords, artillery fire and smoke. He writes in a newspaper office and teaches at night schools. With a bit of scholarly determination, he walks close to the rough edge of reality. Lin Youqing, a girl who dared to untie her feet and go out to study medicine, with her gentle and tenacious heart that she found out between needlework and potions, met Jiang Heng in school. Different from the war, when they met again, they were separated by the character of an era and many words. Wei Shaowen, from a passionate young man to a character on the wave of the times, his changes and stability are like the rapids of another river. The dignity of the elders in the old home, the desire induced by the neon lights in the new city, the relatives separated in the war, every change in the newspaper, all moved away in the shadow of the river. The ten-chapter story reflects forty years. It writes about people's hearts and the fireworks in the streets. It writes about love and hate, but also writes about the bones and lives of a generation. There are no gods and monsters, only the mutual shaping of time and people.
