I am the deputy director of the county transportation bureau, and I am also an abandoned child. By chance, I am sent to a poor village to help alleviate poverty. In Yueliang Village, I meet Jiang Chunman, a poor villager whose son was kidnapped and who keeps petitioning the authorities. I help him qualify for poverty assistance, renovate his dilapidated home, apply for a public-service job, and search for his son. I also meet Wang Desheng, a chef who makes things difficult for me over distributing chicks, applying for minimum-living allowances, planting oil-tea trees, building roads, and repairing houses. I want to help poor households escape poverty and increase the village's collective income. To that end, I carefully identify those in need, determine that the village should develop an oil-tea industry, improve the varieties grown in the village orchard, and introduce daylily cultivation. I keep making moves in the village. Some people praise me, while others resent me. Beneath the surface calm, a storm is brewing. Wang Desheng wants to drive me out, while Jiang Chunman keeps petitioning the authorities, putting me in an awkward position. A huge conspiracy lies behind my identity as an abandoned child, and the truth about Jiang Chunman's missing son is beginning to emerge. Who is the person everyone longs for? What identities do the people around me conceal? There will be no answers until the very end.
This is a book full of positive energy, as well as a work grounded in lived experience. The author has worked in townships since graduating and spent seven years as a member of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization teams in poor villages. Through vivid, realistic writing, the author weaves together the great campaign to eliminate poverty and a gripping story about searching for a missing child. The light of emotion and reason shines throughout. The book also offers deep reflections on the current state of rural areas and the realities of farmers' lives, making it an encyclopedia for understanding grassroots officials.
