Under the Three-Foot Podium

The protagonist Chen Shouzhuo was born in 1973. He graduated from Taozhou Normal College at the age of 25 in 1998 and was assigned to teach Chinese at Taozhou No. 1 Middle School (a key county middle school) in the Central Plains. He is 53 years old in 2026 and has 7 years left before retirement. He has completely covered the 28-year reform cycle of Chinese education. The protagonist of the novel is an honest and friendly person who does not curry favor with the leader or travel around to give gifts. He was once valued by the leader when he was young, but after all, he could not handle things flexibly and was excluded. He was once sent to teach in rural areas. Now he is over 50 years old. A group of young people in the work unit have grown up and become his leader. Now he can only hang around and wait for retirement. Everyone who is about his age has become a director and principal, but he is still squeezed out and suppressed everywhere. So mentally depressed.