Xiangbeidaihe

"Xiangbeidaihe" tells the story of Xiao Si, a boy from Yuanbu Village, who is looking for his father and the exit of his destiny. There is a strange fate in Yuanbu Village: men cannot live past fifty. Shortly after his birth, Xiao Si's father, Xiao Shen, learned about Qin Shihuang's search for immortality and went to Beidaihe in search of "immortality", and then disappeared. When Xiao Si grew up, he no longer wanted to listen to the vague explanations of his mother and villagers, so he set out on his way to Beidaihe alone. Xiao Si found out the truth in Beidaihe: his father Xiao Shen died in a traffic accident the night he arrived and was treated as an unclaimed person. Twenty-two years of waiting turned out to be just one day. Xiao Si did not return to the village, but stayed at the beach and met Zheng Jieyan, who sold corn. From sharing a house, setting up a stall to getting married, the two hung "Xiao Si Tofu" on the streets of Beidaihe, as if they had truly escaped from Yuanbu Village. However, the shadow of death in his hometown has not disappeared. Li Yong, Xu Huoshuo and other old people approached one after another and died at the age of fifty, and news kept coming. Xiao Si has lived in Beidaihe for many years, and has begun to age, his hands shake, and he realizes again: Beidaihe has no immortality, and the sea cannot answer people's questions. In the end, he took his wife to look back at the original village and realized that escaping was just a matter of continuing to live in another place. The novel depicts the struggle and survival of a group of ordinary people in the face of fate with an absurd, cold and black humorous style. They talked about death like talking about the weather, and talked about love like talking about eating. In the barren and long years, they used weak desire and family affection to resist the destined end. And "Beidaihe" has gradually changed from a real place name to everyone's illusion about escape, immortality and hope.