Iron Flower Story

Lin Zhuo has not been back to Tiehua Town for seven years. Seven years ago, my mother died unexpectedly during a blacksmithing performance. She resented her father's silence and stubbornness, as well as the skill called "iron-smithing", so she changed her name and fled to Shanghai, never watching fire again. Until her father fell ill and she had to return to her hometown. The town is bustling with the "Iron Flower Cultural Tourism Festival", and there are simulated iron flowers and electronic fireworks everywhere, but the real iron flowers have been canceled due to "safety hazards." His father, Chen Shoulu, the last real heirloom of iron flower in the town, suffered from pneumoconiosis and still stubbornly worked alone in the abandoned kiln. Lin Zhuo followed his father to the river beach and saw for the first time molten iron exploding into millions of golden sparks in the air. She saw her father calling her mother's name to the sky after the fire rain had stopped. She gradually learned that there was another hidden reason behind her mother's death, and her father would write letters to "the people in heaven" with iron flowers late at night every year on her mother's death anniversary. When foreign capital wanted to profit from "iron flowers", when fake performances caused fires and public opinion judged this ancient skill as "dangerous and backward", my father fell seriously ill. Lin Zhuo had to make a choice: escape again, or take the wooden board that hit the molten iron from his father's hand. Amid the burns and fire, she put on the cowhide skirt left by her mother for the first time.