Whispers from Cangshan

This is a realistic novel about the dramatic transformation of mountain villages in a new era. The author visited more than 40 villages and interviewed over 200 farmers, spending ten years developing and refining the story.

Deep in the Laoyeling Mountains of Northeast China, at the foot of Guanyin Mountain, lies a small village called Zhashugou. Cut off from the outside world, its people are simple and rugged, and life is desperately hard.

Qiao Fulin is the head of security at a bank, and his wife works there too. He quits his job and returns to his hometown to grow black fungus, hoping to help the villagers prosper and escape poverty and ignorance. But his wife cannot understand him, and his son is practically a stranger. His mother, who lost her husband because of black fungus; his elder brother, crippled by a black bear while gathering wild fungus; and Liandie, his first love who later becomes a widow, all oppose him! They call him a madman!

He has no capital, technical expertise, or land, and his plans for development run counter to the village's. Making the fungus spawn nearly costs him his life. Pests, drought, floods, typhoons, and other natural disasters strike. His own pesticide poisons his mother to death, his elder brother vanishes mysteriously, and some villagers act without conscience. Although Liandie teaches herself to make spawn, her beloved child is crushed beneath a cultivation rack right before her eyes. To support the campaign to aid Tibet, Qiao Fulin's black fungus crop suffers another loss. The black fungus industry takes off, but problems follow: pesticide residue, outdated traditional cultivation methods, and severe environmental pollution...

Qiao Fulin's son, Bi Decai's daughter, and the granddaughter of an old enemy set in motion an extraordinary human drama. Through all the bitterness and sweetness, love and hatred, sweat, tears, and blood, happiness, sorrow, and hardship, they eventually resolve the conflict between the black fungus industry and ecological preservation, using their youth and blood to reveal the truth behind the saying, "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets!"