Novel by Sheng Keyi.

"Northern girls" is what the people of Shenzhen call migrant worker girls who come to the city looking for employment. Qian Xiaohong is one such, and through her experiences we see both the cruelty of Shenzhen's underclasses, and the extraordinary society of support that the northern girls create among themselves. Well-developed for her age, Qian is particularly susceptible to the fate that befalls most girls in her position, but somehow, almost alone among her sisterhood, she succeeds in maintaining her few small principles, and her self-respect.