"Between White Mountains and Black Waters" is a long scroll about the fate of educated youth that spans forty years. In the autumn of 1968, thirty-six young intellectuals from Beijing, Shanghai and other places rushed to "Xiangyangtun" on the edge of Xiaoxinan Mountains in Heilongjiang Province, where they collided with ideals, love and scars in the harsh environment of the Great Northern Wilderness.
The novel features six core characters throughout: the idealist Zhou Weidong gave up his return to the city, took root in the black soil and married Sun Xiulan, the daughter of the village party secretary; the tenacious Lin Xiaomei became permanently disabled to save people and eventually became a public interest lawyer; the realist Zhao Jianguo abandoned his wife and daughter in the countryside when he returned to the city and sought redemption in his later years; Wang Yuanchao, who was convicted for his words, ended his life in madness; and the weak and compromising Li Zhiqiang was burdened with lifelong guilt due to an exposure.
The story surges with the times - the choices in the tide of returning to the city tear apart families, the ups and downs of reform and opening up rewrite destiny, and the waves of market economy wipe out youth. The grudges and grudges continue in the second generation: Zhou Weidong's son Zhou Beijiang fell in love with Zhao Jianguo's daughter Zhao Xiaoxue and discovered the past buried by his father's generation; Wang Yuanchao's adoptive queen Niannian became a psychiatrist and healed the trauma of history.
For forty years, they reclaimed the black land, were separated, and reunited. From passionate youth to vicissitudes of life, from collective ideals to individual redemption, this work is not only the joys and sorrows of individuals, but also the spiritual portrait of a generation - how those ordinary people who were swept away by the torrent of the times left indelible marks on their lives in the white mountains and black waters.
