The day a notice of expropriation went up on the north wall, the lives of five households were turned upside down. Food-delivery rider Zhou Zi'an wants to save enough to move away from the old neighborhood, but in his father's old tin box he finds a scorched photograph. On the back are the words, “Fang Xiulan, March 1996.” Breakfast-shop owner Su Qing finds her shop inside the demolition boundary, and her daughter's medical bills are crushing her. On an old IOU, the guarantor's name is one she never expected to see. Security chief Old Zhou has guarded an old ledger for twenty years. On the phone, he says he needs to “settle an old score.” Middle-school teacher Chen Mo crouches before a burned-out old building, looking at a photograph burned halfway away. Retired worker Zhao Tiezhu leads the refusal to sign, saying they need an explanation. Night-shift nurse Lin Xiaonan carries an old photograph with her everywhere, left to her by her mother.
Five households, thirty years of hardship. Some want to leave, some want to stay, and some want to use the demolition to burn the truth from twenty years ago to ashes.
There are no heroes, only people doing their best to get by; no miracles, only glimmers of light. A million-character epic, telling the story of ordinary people fighting with all the dignity they can muster.
