[1] The Chinese title directly translates as "the duck-carrying boy," which is a motif recurring throughout the film.

Their village in Sichuan province is about to be relocated to make room for a government industrial zone, and Xu Yun declares that he will search for his father, who has been gone for six years, in the city of Zigong.

As he walks back to the hospital, he sees the scar-faced man get beaten by a gang and taken away in a van.

With the loss of both father figures that helped him survive in the city, Xu Yun returns to the river and sets the ducks free.

The movie switches to black & white to show footage of flood waters filling the city, which likely wash away any trace of the murder.

On the bus back to the village, Xu Yun catches a pickpocket and earns a reward, closely mirroring the earlier scene where the scar-faced man did the same.

He returns to his village and buries a lock of his father's hair along with some money, which represents everything that he brought back from the city.