The Sky Over the Hongshui River

1. The environment and atmosphere are created very well, and the sense of place is sufficient. The red water river, the grassland on the hillside, the wild hawthorn trees, the pond, the honey locust, the foxtail grass, and the sweet smell of the sun-drenched grass, the whole set of local imagery is coherent, fully unfolding the summer afternoon in the mountain village of Xi Guangxi. The environment is not just a background, but also plays a role in setting off the emotions of the characters: the hot wind, the scent of grass, the smell of mutton, and the moonlight are all bound to the restless and shy psychology of young girls, so that "the scene changes with the emotion." The inscription "Wind Chime Whispers" at the beginning also sets the narrative tone of nostalgic retrospection. 2. The characters are three-dimensional, and the sense of proportion of the sixteen-year-old boy and girl is well grasped. The personalities of the two characters, Wei Zhifeng and Wei Yanfang, are clearly distinguished: the boy has read books and understands textbook knowledge, but when faced with reality, he is ignorant, embarrassed, and easily blushes and panics; the girl grew up in the mountains, is bold and straightforward, naive and precocious, dares to tease, but is also shy. The behavior of the characters is in line with the times and status: washed and faded floral shirts, buttons with red thread, plastic sandals, bamboo sticks for herding sheep, and the details of the props are suitable for rural girls; the male protagonist holds dog tail grass in his mouth and fills his head with textbook knowledge but is blank in the face of reality. The sense of fragmentation of a scholarly boy is very realistic. 3. The description of eroticism is restrained and advanced, and animals are used to profile people's adolescent throbs. There is no straightforward and vulgar description, but the mating scene of rams, goats and ewes is used as an introduction to trigger the hazy inner desires of boys and girls. It is a very classic method of using objects to describe people. The pull between two people: unintentional elbow touching, body stiffness, flushed face and hot ears, fingertips touching when pulling out thorns, all are physical details driving psychology, and the ignorance, panic, curiosity, and pounding heartbeat of adolescence are delicately written. Lust is not for curiosity, but for the growth of the character: I touched my heart for the first time at the age of sixteen, and the physical throbbing and spiritual joy were intertwined. 4. Rich sensory descriptions and strong immersive reading experience It fully mobilizes the sense of smell (the bitter aroma of soap locust, the sweetness of grass, the smell of mutton, the smell of sweat), the sense of touch (the coolness of grass roots, the thin calluses on fingertips, the pricking pain in the back, the hot skin), and the sense of hearing (bleeping of sheep, heartbeat, frog croaking, wind blowing in the grass), readers can easily immerse themselves in the scenes of hillsides and ponds. 5. The nostalgic sense of fate at the end sticks. At the end, "I gained the whole world, but also lost the whole world", which directly lays the hook of the story: this period of teenage first love has a regrettable ending, echoing the title of the book "The Bottom Chip", implying that this period of youth is the earliest bargaining chip in life, which is gained and lost, leaving a huge suspense for the subsequent story. The image of "the wind remembers everything" is wrapped up, and the literary quality is very good.