When Li Housheng went to the market to sell bamboo baskets, Zhao Laosan, a local bully who had long thrown his weight around, kicked over his stall in front of everyone. The baskets rolled into the mud as onlookers gathered to laugh, but his father simply bowed his head and picked them up one by one.
As a young boy, Li Jinxi could not understand why his father, a strong man, never dared to answer back. It was only when he reached thirty and looked back on the past, recalling the mountain roads, the market, cold lunchboxes, old account books, and a large weighing scale, that he slowly came to understand: the poor do not endure because they were born spineless, but because their whole family’s livelihood rests on their shoulders.
From Nanling Village to Qingshi Town, from the town’s classrooms to the county market, Li Jinxi studies hard to bring honor to his family, makes money selling local produce, and builds up the Li family with nothing but an account book. In doing so, he also carves out a path leading out of the mountains.
Years later, he realizes that the road he has walked through half his life has long since become part of the story of countless rural people, written as an old tale of Nanling deep in the heart of the land.
Authenticity is strong, helpful, good people are rewarded, publicity is full of positive energy, great