North of the Northeast is a realist novel about youth, love, family, and growing up.
In the summer of 2005, Fang Shuyan, a teenager from a small city in Northeast China, sits the national college entrance exam. An average student with a sincere, humorous nature, he loves football, literature, and music, and has a secret crush on his classmate Lin Xiaoxia. After the exam, he gets into the law department at a university in the provincial capital, while Lin Xiaoxia, whose exam performance falls short, goes to a different city. They stay in touch amid unspoken feelings and long waits, and after the exam, their youth truly begins.
University opens up a wider world to Fang Shuyan. From meeting a senior student during orientation, playing in campus football matches, and raising sponsorship money for the student union to dealing in secondhand phones, following the 2006 World Cup, forming a campus band, selling original songs, and losing himself in the nightlife of bars, he gets a taste of freedom, money, desire, and being seen. Meanwhile, his roommates Xu Hao, Qin Bo, and Chen Youqi each take their own paths in life.
Lin Xiaoxia loves Fang Shuyan earnestly, knitting him a sweater, calling him, buying long-distance bus tickets, and keeping a little ledger. But as Fang Shuyan gets caught up in the excitement around him, he is increasingly absent from her life. In his fourth year, his father, Fang Weidong, suddenly dies of illness, and Fang Shuyan hits rock bottom. Liu Manshi's clear-eyed departure, Lin Xiaoxia's silent look back, his mother's decision to reopen her stationery shop, and the return of his childhood friend Su Qing all help him gradually understand: growing up is not about going farther, but finally being willing to take responsibility for where you came from.
