The Ballad of Twelve Holes

In 1972, continuous heavy rains in Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan, washed away the mountain road leading to the outside world from Mengka Village, and completely extinguished the last hope of Beijing educated youth Li Weidong. An urgent telegram came across the mountains, and the tragic news that his mother was critically ill was written in tears. But when he was sent to the border, he couldn't even ask for a pass to return to the city. The old Miao king who lived in seclusion in a bamboo house pointed out a dead end for him: deep in the Wusuo Mountain, there are twelve caves in southern Xinjiang. It is a living archive left by the ancient Yunnan civilization, and it is also a dangerous road that can reverse time. The deeper the hole, the slower time flows. As long as he reaches the end of the twelve holes, he can see his mother one last time before the separation of life and death. But the moment he stepped into the cave, all rational understanding collapsed. The rainforest hangs upside down, the echoes that condense into entities, the fog that gnaws at memories, and the iron rules carved at the bottom of the cave: the cave will engrave your obsessions, swallow up your past, and the deepest regret in your heart will eventually turn you into a solid stone inch by inch. Accompanying him are Ahe, a Miao girl who carries the secrets of her clan's rules, and Adie, a purple-haired girl whose origins in the cave are unknown and whose smile hides endless thoughts. They thought they were here to compete for a miracle of time, but they didn't know that the real test of the twelve holes was never the danger of a narrow escape, but the heavy price of remembering and letting go.