On an autumn night in the Taihang Mountains, the darkness is so thick it could swallow a person whole. Thirteen-year-old Wang Erxiao leads his old ox, carrying the hopes of the entire village, onto a deadly supply route to an arsenal. Japanese soldiers are searching the road, collaborators are watching, and one wrong move could mean certain death.
The old ox understands people, a copper whistle carries signals, and the mute girl A Xing risks her life to deliver a warning. Trapped with no way out, the boy takes each step with care: he uses the ox's bell to draw off the pursuers, lures the enemy into an ambush with a fork in the road, and fights rifles with a woodcutter's knife. He wasn't born a hero, but he learns courage amid the shellfire. He isn't a towering warrior, yet his young shoulders bear the weight of responsibility.
“I'll come home once I've delivered the grain!” One promise, one bloody battle. See how a boy from the Taihang Mountains outmaneuvers the Japanese among cliffs and precipices, struggles on the edge of life and death, stains the supply route with his blood, and lights up the darkness of the Taihang Mountains with his courage!
