In the height of summer in 1970, Su Wan, fresh out of high school, began working as a publicity officer at the county’s cotton mill. Starting with a report, a factory newspaper, and an operating manual, this country girl used her pen to find her footing in a world woven by the roar of machinery. The taciturn technician Lin Yanzhou had been unable to take his eyes off her ever since the day she spotted an error in his blueprints. He cooked porridge, drew pictures, and gave her a watch, hiding the feelings he couldn’t put into words in every quiet gesture. Over the course of the seventies, as they grew from young and inexperienced to mature, and from strangers to confidants, these two people who struggled to express themselves wove a gentle, enduring love through their days together.
