Searching for Ye Liya

Name: Searching for Ye Liya
ISBN: 9787545914948

杨晓升Lujiang Publishing House · ChinaMay 2026

3.9

Word count: 157K words
Chapters: 11
ISBN: 9787545914948

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Summary

Ye Liya was my first love, but she had long since left this world.

In 1990, Ye Liya and I were both admitted to a prestigious university in Beijing, and the moment we left our hometown, we officially began dating. In our graduation year, I followed my heart and stayed in Beijing to work at a newspaper, while Ye Liya, on her mother's advice, chose to return to our hometown for work. From then on, we lost touch.

Ten years later, during the Spring Festival, I brought my wife and daughter back to our hometown to visit relatives, only to learn unexpectedly that Ye Liya had fallen to her death from a building at the public security bureau where she worked, and that Ye Liya's mother had also mysteriously disappeared. The public security bureau announced externally that Ye Liya had jumped to her death due to depression, but various signs indicated that there was more to her death.

How exactly did Ye Liya die? My wife and I set out on the road to find the truth...

This book is a collection of novellas and short stories by the famous writer Yang Xiaosheng, writer and president and executive editor-in-chief of the monthly journal Beijing Literature. It includes ten representative works, such as "Searching for Ye Liya," "Losing Face," "The Blood-Spattered City," and "The Gambling Village." The stories' subject matter spans nearly thirty years, from the 1990s to the present. With sincere strokes, the author expresses his attitude of sharing breath and destiny with the masses, and the lines reveal distinct characteristics of the times. His continuously advancing language-construction paradigms and modes of linguistic expression also bring readers a peculiar reading experience.

Editor's review

Searching for Ye Liya is a collection of novellas and short stories by Yang Xiaosheng, comprising ten representative works whose subject matter spans nearly thirty years, from the 1990s to the present. The title piece uses an unfinished first love as its thread, weaving personal memory together with a deeply suspicious death; as the narrator pursues the truth, he also reexamines choice, fate, and the shaping force of the times on human lives. The collection's value lies in the author's consistent focus on the circumstances of ordinary people: he neither evades the grit of reality nor gives up on observing the subtle recesses of the human heart. In language, the author can be seen continually adjusting narrative rhythm and modes of expression, and some pieces read with an experimental,跳跃 quality that gives readers a somewhat different reading experience. It suits reading piece by piece in quiet, uninterrupted stretches of time, to feel the echoes of the times across different stories; it also suits readers interested in contemporary novellas and short stories who like to discern the texture of reality within fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy contemporary novellas and short stories and hope to read many fine pieces at once
Readers interested in the relationship between social change and individual fate since the 1990s
Readers willing to experience characters' emotions and the complexities of human nature through suspenseful threads
Readers following Yang Xiaosheng's work who want to understand the shape of his fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer only light, sweet, warm fare and avoid heavy realistic themes
Readers expecting pure formal detective fiction with rigorous puzzle-solving structures
Readers unaccustomed to the narrative leaps of a short-story collection and needing a single long storyline

Reading tips

Read the title piece "Searching for Ye Liya" first to establish the overall tone, then choose the remaining pieces according to interest.
Pause briefly after each piece and note the historical background and characters' choices behind the story.
Keep paper and pen handy to record the time clues in each piece and appreciate the social changes of nearly thirty years.
If time is fragmented, read the pieces independently; there is no need to finish them all at once.

About the publisher

Lujiang Publishing House China · Founded in 1985

Lujiang Publishing House publishes in the fields of humanities and social sciences, applied psychology, finance and management, inspirational growth, and classic works. Its in-house titles include Zeng Shiqiang's books on emotion management and parent-child education, as well as several records by the Wang Zhigang Studio (Zhigang Think Tank) on strategic planning and the tourism industry, such as Searching for the Soul, Industry from Play, and Restoring the Mountains and Rivers. In social fiction there is Temptation: A Beautiful Bureau Chief's Prison Confession, while finance and psychology titles include works by authors such as Alain Braconnier. Its author resources include Yang Xiaosheng, Tang Dawei, Wang Dazhi, Wu Xinyan, and Wang Qi. Overall, the publisher's strengths lie in combining practical experience with general knowledge for a broad readership. Public information is limited, so specific publication scale and awards are not addressed here.

版权信息
寻找叶丽雅
丢人
溅血的城市
赌村
生生息息
男人·女人（小说二题）
冬日
偶然事件
枯树
宝贝女儿

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short-story collection?

It is a collection of novellas and short stories, including ten works such as "Searching for Ye Liya," "Losing Face," "The Blood-Spattered City," and "The Gambling Village." The title piece is longer, while the other pieces are relatively independent and can be read separately.

What is the title piece "Searching for Ye Liya" mainly about?

The narrator and his first love, Ye Liya, were once admitted together to a prestigious university in Beijing, but after graduation they went their separate ways. Ten years later, he returns to his hometown and learns that Ye Liya has died by falling from a building and that her mother has disappeared. The authorities say it was suicide due to depression, but there are many suspicious points, so he and his wife set out to find the truth.

In what era are the stories set?

According to the materials, the stories' subject matter spans nearly thirty years, from the 1990s to the present, and the lines carry distinct characteristics of the times, allowing readers to feel the living circumstances of ordinary people in different periods.

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About the author

杨晓升 Author

Yang Xiaosheng is a Chinese-language author whose works span categories such as social science, social fiction, and classic works. Eight of his titles are recorded in our catalog, including "Shidu: The Pain of Chinese Families," "Searching for Ye Liya," "Out of Line," "Dragon Head Incense," "Involuntary," "Begonia Blooms," and "Sunrise and Sunset." Because public information is limited, details such as his nationality, birth and death years, and personal biography cannot be confirmed. This introduction therefore relies only on catalog records and focuses on the character of his writing. These titles suggest an attention to social reality and family issues as well as to fictional narrative, with subject matter that carries a sense of real-life concern and texture. His works are representative in the directions of social-science reading and social fiction and are suited to readers interested in contemporary social themes and realistic narrative.