Jiang Du, a graduate student in Chinese literature, suddenly transmigrates into The Lane as Lin Dongzhe, a mischievous little rascal who can do anything except study.
In a seven-year-old’s body, he carries a mind full of books. Using a naughty boy’s appearance to conceal the soul of a writer, he quietly records the bitter taste of snake gourds, the anxiety of the college entrance exams, and the joys and sorrows of his neighbors in the bustling lanes around the Suzhou Cotton Mill. One diary entry leaves Zhuang Chaoying suspicious; then his essay “At the End of the Lane” shows the first signs of promise. He travels to Shanghai for his studies and witnesses the tides of change, then heads north to become a writer of a new generation. When the lane faces demolition, he returns to the south-facing window and spends three years writing the inner history of an entire generation.
He is no literary giant, just the lane’s chronicler. Through his writing, he tells Zhuang Xiaoting: I wrote down everything you went through.
