Jin's first novel, In the Pond, was also set in Dismount Fort. The novel centers on Shao Bin, an amateur calligrapher who works at a fertilizer plant, and tells of his hopes and struggles to move into a new "workers 'compound."
《池塘》是哈金第一部長篇小說，故事又回到「歇馬亭」，寫的是在化肥廠工作也是業餘書畫家的邵彬一家人，對住進「工人之家」的引頸期盼及奮力搏鬥的過程。