The Locust Flowers Fall on the Other Side of the River

In 1964, there was no new bridge on the Qingyu River, and the nights in Huaiwan Village were kept up by kerosene lamps. Xu Changshun, a young mason, heard Qin Opera for the first time downstairs at the old opera house, and also met Chen Yulan for the first time. In the Guanzhong Plain at that time, wheat fields were connected to dirt alleys, and work points weighed heavily on the rice bowl. A bowl of white flour, a new piece of clothing, and a marriage could save a family for many years. Later, the years changed little by little. Farms were distributed to each household, and bicycles entered the yard; black-and-white TVs were placed in the brigade headquarters, and the whole village crowded to watch them; children played in the dirt alleys bouncing glass balls, jumping rubber bands, taking pictures of foreign paintings, and saving noodles cards; later, tapes, VCDs, telephones, motorcycles, and people who went south to work brought the outside world into Huaiwan. But the Xu family's life did not get better easily. Xu Changshun used his injured hand to support a home, while Chen Yulan used needlework, hot buns and a lifetime of forbearance to sew up the hard days over and over again. Xu Wangchuan walked from Huaiwan to the county town and then to Xi'an, where he grew up stumbling among poverty, self-esteem, love and failure; Xu Xiaoman left his childhood laughter in the wheat fields and dirt lanes, but when he grew up, he chose to return to the village and became the light in the eyes of the children. From 1964 to 2000, from kerosene lamps to electric lights, from the old bridge to the new bridge, from the old theater to the new century, this is a long novel about the local environment, the reform years and the fate of ordinary people. The locust flowers fall every year, and the river flows every year. Some people go far away, some people come back; some people are bent down by life, but they never lower their heads. The day never lights up all at once. It is a lamp, a lamp, lit with gritted teeth by those who refuse to accept their fate.