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In a remote mountain village, the teacher must leave for a month, and the
mayor can find only a 13-year old girl, Wei Minzhi, to substitute. The teacher
leaves one stick of chalk for each day and promises her an extra 10 yuan if
there's not one less student when he returns. Within days, poverty forces the
class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, to leave for the city to work. Minzhi,
possessed of a stubborn streak, determines to bring him back. She enlists
the 26 remaining pupils in earning money for her trip. She hitches to
Jiangjiakou City and begins her search. The boy, meanwhile, is there, lost
and begging for food. Minzhi's stubbornness may be Huike and the village
school's salvation.