The protagonist, Ma Xiaodong, was born in the 1970s to an ordinary family in the countryside of Hebei. Set in the 1980s and spanning his coming-of-age years through the economic hardships of the 2000s, this novel has no System, no connections, and no golden finger. Just a country boy! Climbing trees to raid birds’ nests, catching fish in the river, stealing melons from a melon shed, sneaking a peek at the neighbor’s auntie while she bathed, and secretly dating the village beauty.
