"The Watch on the Other Side of the Mountain" is a full-length realistic rural novel that spans forty years. The story starts from 1975 to 2015. It takes the Bailang Mountain in southeastern Hubei as the starting point of the narrative. It revolves around the two brothers Chen Shou'an and Chen Wangping who stayed and wandered, unfolding the changes of the times in rural China after the reform and opening up.
The elder brother Chen Shou'an clung to his hometown, guarding the barren mountains and old houses with his family members. He stayed rooted in the countryside all his life, mediating neighborhood trivial matters and witnessing the hollowing out of the village and the separation of people. The younger brother Chen Wangping was unwilling to be shackled by the mountains. After failing the college entrance examination, he went to work in Ninghai, East Zhejiang to make a living. He made a living as a dock coolie and wrote poems while wandering. He became acquainted with Su Hui, editor of the provincial capital newspaper, because of his writing, and the two fell in love across class boundaries. Su Hui suddenly encountered a flash flood while going to the countryside to do local documentary interviews, and sacrificed her life to rescue the orphans left behind.
After the death of his beloved, Chen Wangping lived alone on the beach of Sanmen Bay, devoting his life to pen and ink. Many years later, in order to rescue a child who fell into the water, he jumped into the turbulent sea, committed himself to charity, and settled his life in the sea. Li Mengru, who had a mutual affection with Chen Shou'an when he was young, was trapped in a loveless marriage in the county town and endured it for half his life. Zhou Mingshan, a grassroots cadre, has been rooted in the countryside for decades, building roads and alleviating poverty, and witnessed the transformation of mountain villages from isolation and poverty to revitalization and rebirth.
The farewell, perseverance, love, hate and destiny of a generation illustrate the fateful reincarnation of local children fleeing the mountains and remaining attached to their homeland for the rest of their lives, interpreting the everlasting goodwill and watchfulness in human nature. Use realistic words to record a mortal epic that has been enveloped by the times.
