Backlit Wheat Ears

This book tells the story of Ma Xiaoxi, a girl in the late 1990s, who stubbornly pursues herself like a wheat ear growing against the light in the shadow of the "patriarchal preference for sons over daughters" in the rural areas of southwestern Shandong. As the second daughter in the family, her childhood was filled with competition for resources and emotional neglect. With her unyielding determination, she squeezed into the best high school in the county, but failed in the 2018 college entrance examination. After a hard struggle, she won the opportunity to re-study, so she decided to change, and carefully obtained ignorant love during the re-study. Finally, in 2019, she struggled to open the door to university and started college life. After graduation, she stayed in a certain bank in a big city to work as she wished, thinking that she had finally broken away from the shackles of her original family. However, fate is unpredictable, and a rare disease took away the sight of her right eye, forcing her to return to her hometown. In the darkest moment of her life, on that familiar land, amidst the clumsy and silent actions of her parents, she unexpectedly re-examined and felt the unspoken love deep in her heart, and finally completed her reconciliation with her family, her fate, and herself.