But the good times didn't last long. When Guan Peipei was seven months pregnant, the town received notification that the sent-down youths could return to the city.
When Liu Derong received the notification, he felt startled, overjoyed, yet hesitant. He was excited to be able to return to the city, certain that a brighter future awaited him there, no longer having to endure the backbreaking rural labor of facing the loess and turning his back to the sky every day. The hesitation came because he had settled down here, with a beautiful wife and a lovely child on the way. He had been very happy with Guan Peipei for these past two years. But he also had his own relatives and friends in the city.
