Reconnaissance soldier Shen Zheng is transferred to Baishi Town to serve as its mayor. On the day he reports for duty, his office chair has only three legs, and the Party secretary doesn't even set out chopsticks for the welcome dinner. He says nothing, tips back three cups of liquor, then says, “I can serve tea at the grassroots level. It depends on who I'm serving it to.”
After going through the old account books three times, he finds the name “Zhou Dehou,” signed by Wei Demao before he changed his name. On a stormy night, Shen leads his people in hauling sandbags through the night. Before dawn, the county Discipline Inspection Commission arrives. Wei Demao is brought down. Shen becomes acting Party secretary, but doesn't move into that big office.
When his father is hospitalized after a stroke, Shen can't come up with 100,000 yuan. Geng Lie presses 80,000 yuan in logistics receipts into his arms. Grandpa Tian rushes over from Liushugou with 23,000 yuan in a blue-floral cloth bundle: 51 bundles of bills, 21 stacks, and coins worth one yuan each, spread across an entire hospital bed. When the Audit Bureau receives a tip-off, Shen sits in his office and hands over the loan paperwork. The documents are complete, and the process was compliant.
At the countywide officials' meeting at year's end, he gives his report without notes: “Not a single resident died in the flood, and not a single child dropped out of school. That's all.”
On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, an order arrives transferring him to Qinghe County to oversee the coal mines. The night before he leaves, his father writes on a piece of cardboard: Never forget the mud beneath your feet. Shen crouches to tie his shoelaces. His old army boots are still there. The sides are worn through, the heels split, and the dried mud still leaves its marks.
A mayor who never changes his shoes comes to Baishi Town...
