Sīwang Town

This is an 800,000-character, 210-chapter coming-of-age novel set in a bygone era, written by Xia Libaren. Its central story follows Jia Shunsheng, from failing the 1980 college entrance exam and enlisting in the army, to earning military honors, becoming an officer, attending military academy, and serving in the armed forces. He later leaves the military, works in the state sector, ventures into business, and becomes an entrepreneur with a strong sense of social responsibility. The novel also tells the love story between Jia Shunsheng and Peng Hui, his childhood sweetheart from the same village. Against the backdrop of the late period of the people's commune system through to the present day, the story unfolds across the cities and villages of an ancient city with a thousand-year history in the heart of the Wuling Mountains, tracing its transformation from a traditional agrarian society into an urbanized, industrialized, and information-based one.