Homecoming in a Bountiful Year

Qingshi Town was small.

To the north stood Niuer Mountain, hunched like the back of a bull. To the south flowed Baixia River, known for its white shrimp. The townsfolk went to market, farmed, and did business. Year after year, life went on without anything unusual.

Sixteen-year-old Ning Chuan had always thought so, too.

Until someone ate every last bite of a bowl of noodles left beneath Qingshi Bridge as an offering for the dead.

After that, he began to notice that the mountain paths, riverbanks, old bridges, and narrow streets he had known since childhood seemed to hide things no one could explain.

Someone heard a waterwheel that had stopped turning long ago start up again in the middle of the night;

Someone went into the mountains and found that the road back never seemed to end;

Someone held fast to a promise made decades ago, and even after death, still did not leave;

And someone simply wanted to go home, only to find that the door they remembered was gone.

Ning Chuan and the other boys kept stumbling into these strange events, and each time, they caught a glimpse of the people behind the mysteries.

They were afraid, they ran, they argued, and they made the wrong choices.

Beyond Qingshi Town lay greater mountains and rivers, older stories, and a secret slowly coming to light.

This is the story of a boy setting out from a small town.

It is also a story about leaving, growing up, and whether you can still find your way home after traveling far away.