Where the Skyscrapers End, the World Begins

Lin Xiping, the son of a private-school teacher, had hoped to change his fate simply by passing the college entrance exam. For various reasons, he had no choice but to return to the mountain village and take up the teaching profession he despised. Deeply disheartened, he happened to meet Li Ruofeng, a beautiful and flirtatious woman. He soon fell in love with her, and they married and had a daughter. But before long, the impoverished life of a rural teacher drove Li Ruofeng to rekindle her old romance with Geng Wende, general manager of Dade Woolen Mill, and she and Xiping went their separate ways. Meanwhile, Lin Xiping's romance with Xie Bihan, the music teacher at his school, enraged Liu Duancheng, the school principal, who had long coveted her and schemed to make her his daughter-in-law. During the sweeping reform of the Four Systems education program in the countryside, Liu Duancheng finally abused his authority and forced Lin Xiping out of his teaching post. Lonely and helpless, Lin Xiping left for a distant land alone.