★ By a Hans Christian Andersen Laureate: Written by Cao Wenxuan, the first Chinese author to win this prestigious award in 2016. His works have been translated into over 40 languages and published in more than 70 countries.
★ Proven Market Success: The series has sold over 1.5 million copies! Focusing on themes of love, courage, dignity, and growth, it is deeply humane and uniquely poetic. As the HCAA jury praised, he writes with "a poetic, water-like touch, capturing real and sorrowful moments of life."

★ Rights Already Sold: Japanese!
★ In a bold narrative challenge, the author constructs a complete and emotionally resonant story using only two characters and a ruined city. It explores the contradictions and choices on the path to goodness, as well as the mutual influence and growth of the two protagonists, granting readers a deeply immersive, almost physiological reading experience.
★ The story is driven by diverse cinematic techniques. From sweeping panoramic views of the ruined city to intimate close-ups of the characters' reunion, and flashbacks that unravel their pasts, reading this book feels like watching a brilliant film.

Series Overview (8 Volumes)
Draft Through the Alley,The Bat Aroma, The Firefly King, Grass Shoe Bay, In Search of a Bird, A City Without Streets, Su Wu Tends Sheep, Who Took My Grandpa Away

This is a fateful encounter that changes two lives within a ruined city:
An imprisoned convict and a girl who has lost the protection of her family. In this unprecedented crisis, they rely on each other, help each other, and influence each other as they survive one crisis after another: food shortages, nocturnal attacks by wild dogs, and getting lost on rainy nights... The fragile girl grows stronger and more sensible, while the outlaw, who had gone astray due to a momentary lapse in judgment, is continuously touched by the girl's kind and upright heart.
In the end, people return to their homes. Beneath the sweet osmanthus tree, the girl sees the silhouettes of her parents, and the trumpet melody that had accompanied her for days continues to echo over the ruins...

Cao Wenxuan
Member of the Council of the China Writers Association; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Peking University.
Winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award (April 2016) and the Outstanding Chinese Influencing the World Award (January 2017).
Recipient of over 50 major literary awards, including the National Book Award, the Chinese Government Award, the National Outstanding Children's Literature Award, and the Gold Award of the Soong Ching-ling Children's Literature Award.
His works have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Serbian, Arabic, Persian, and more.

Notable Novels: Straw House, Root Bird, Ximi, Bronze and Sunflower, Fire Mark, as well as the King's Book series, My Son Pika series, and Ding Ding Dang Dang series.
Selected Literary Collections: The Melancholy Pastoral, The Red Gourd, Following Eternity, The Sweet Orange Tree, etc.
Academic Works: A Study of Literary Phenomena in China in the 1980s, The Second World: A Philosophical Interpretation of Literature and Art, A Study of Literary Phenomena in China at the End of the 20th Century, The Door of Fiction, etc.

The Empty City
Under the Moonlit Sky
The Water Vat
Five Persimmons
The "Snake" Under the Ruins
The Basket
The Mouse
The First Bucket of Water
A Tiny Silhouette
The Orange Blossom Cottage
The Locked Rice Shop
The Black Clay Pot
"I Am Not a Thief"
The Kitten
A Pack of Wild Dogs
Repelled Once Again
The Flying Rope
Little Ya, Where Are You?
The Osmanthus Tree
Medicine
The Dove
The Hammer
The Solemn Wall
Uncle Jin's Fairy Tale
The Echo of the Trumpet
Afterword