In early 1977, at the No. 13 Factory of Luzhong Telecommunications, the young female worker Lu Xiao Qing is widely recognized as an outstanding model worker. In that passionate era when “the best people and the best horses went to the Third Front, offering their youth and even their entire lives,” she meets and falls in love with a fellow worker, Hong Yuan Shan. However, their relationship faces strong opposition from Hong’s mother. After enduring numerous setbacks, Lu Xiao Qing eventually comes together with Gong Tian Liang, while she and Hong Yuan Shan part ways and drift apart.
That same year, the long-suspended national college entrance examination system is restored. Lu Xiao Qing, along with Zuo Hong Wei, Zhao Cun Gen, and others, all choose to take on the challenge of the gaokao, entering universities to further their studies and realize greater self-worth. They devote the best years of their lives and their youth to the Small Third Front and to socialist modernization, witnessing the factory’s journey through the Third Front construction period, the Reform and Opening-up era, Hong Kong’s return, and other historical continuities—experiencing glory, decline, and rebirth—ultimately becoming a proud imprint of an entire generation.
(Source: Chinese = iQiyi || Translation = MyDramaList)
~~ Adapted from the novel "Qing Shan Zhe Bu Zhu" (青山遮不住) by Wang Yi Li (王沂力).
