In a land of rolling loess plateaus, winding ravines, and villages where cooking smoke drifts into the sky, the half-grown boy Shitou gazes every day at the dark blue mountains in the distance, his heart full of curiosity about the world beyond them. He has watched the villagers repeat the same routine: carrying hoes to the fields at sunrise and returning home dust-covered at sunset. His grandfather has told him about the “iron snakes that belch smoke” beyond the mountains, but Shitou has never known whether there are even taller mountains on the other side, broad flat plains, or lights as densely scattered as stars. This longing for the unknown becomes the most persistent dream in his otherwise ordinary life, quietly planting the seed of his escape from the loess plateau.
