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Ma Minqing was an undergraduate student in the second class of Normal University after the college entrance examination was resumed. When he entered college, he was 23 years old and had been a farmer in Xima Village for seven years. People in the village were more surprised and envious that he was able to go to college after growing crops for eight years. He was more grateful and relieved that he could leave the countryside, as if he was escaping from a tiger's mouth. Every time he returned to the village during the summer vacation, Ma Minqing had a nightmare-like feeling when he looked at the villagers sweating profusely in the cornfields, and their haggard faces and stiff expressions. I thought, thank you for passing the exam. In 1981, Xima Village was still a production team, and its official name was the Fourth Production Team of Liancun Brigade of Sangquan Commune. Three years ago, Ma Minqing was a member of this production team. He had to work in the fields as the bell sounded every day. On the second day of summer vacation, Ma Minqing was awakened by the bell again, as he had done every time he was at home during the past three years.

When I was twelve years old, I could just turn the wheel. A dark, thin and frail boy cannot yet be called a man. If he can turn the wheel, it means that he has begun to do the work that a man should do. In our dry and heavy loess plateau, it is a heavy physical labor to pick up a bucket, turn the windlass, and carry water from the well platform. In any house, if the men are outside and the women are walking down the alley with hunched shoulders, staggering, and splashing water, even the houses on both sides will cast pity on them. When a man comes back, the first thing he does is carry a bucket to the well to fetch water. A man who lives not far from home must fill up his water tank when he returns home after a while before he can leave with peace of mind. To measure whether a man is diligent or lazy, just look at the water in the tank.

Arriving at the entrance of Xima Village, the wedding car stopped. Three miles from Dongma Village to Xima Village, Yue Qiao felt like she just got on and off the bus. The wedding car was rented by Yulong from the city. It was very long and bright, and its appearance was no different from the wedding cars Yue Qiao had seen when she was working in Beijing. It's a pity that I only sat there for a while, maybe ten minutes at most. Behind the wedding car is a large bus that can seat fifty or sixty people. All the relatives from the mother's family who are sending their daughter off are sitting in it. In front of the car was a double-cab car, with a majestic salute like a rocket launcher mounted in the car. Further ahead, there was a pickup truck. Several young people stood on it, lit firecrackers with cigarettes in their hands, and threw them to the roadside. With a crackling sound, a burst of green smoke filled the road and went into the fruit trees beside the road. The dowry car was a three-wheeled agricultural vehicle. It had arrived a little early and was parked on the roadside. It was colorful and particularly brilliant in the sun.

When Ma Yang drove his electric tricycle to Sangquan Town, the noise immediately hit him. The vendors were seizing the time to gather and selling at the top of their lungs, and their voices became louder and louder. The performance venue of Jiangnan Style Song and Dance Troupe is in an empty field on the west side of Zhennan Station. A building is going to be built there. The site has been leveled for more than a year and construction has not started yet. The song and dance troupe used red and blue striped plastic sheets to form a circular tent on the east side of the venue, like a yurt, leaving only a door in the direction of the station. Outside the door, a high shelf was built with steel pipes, a few wooden boards were placed on it, and a red carpet was laid out to form a high platform. There were two large speakers on the left and right, and a background advertising board towered behind the platform. Several half-naked girls stood on it, doing various dance moves to the rhythm of the music.