Xu Xiake's Journey Across Mountains and Rivers

When the last bamboo slip was buried beneath the windblown sands, who would still remember the figure that strode across mountains and rivers? He was Xu Hongzu, a young man from Jiangyin who never sat the imperial examinations, yet traveled across all of China. He measured the land with his footsteps and carved wind and rain into ink, writing an account of journeys unlike any in a thousand years amid misty landscapes and lonely travels.

Fresh out on his own, he was robbed by bandits, and his friend was gravely injured. In the night rain of Xiaoxiang, he struggled to survive amid raging waves. On the perilous peaks of the Shu Road, he journeyed alone with his pack, every step fraught with danger. Every hardship was a question posed by fate; every turning point, an awakening deep within his soul. He once touched the breath of antiquity in a cave, and listened to the whisper of camel bells at the edge of the desert. The price was loneliness, scars, and the silent erosion of his youth by the years.

Now, with the clamor of the mortal world far behind and the mountains and rivers fallen quiet, who can still hear the echo beneath this wanderer's soles? If heaven and earth are silent, how can people find a place to belong as they journey on?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.