Guarding Quiet Joy

In the forest of steel and concrete, Shuai Dabao is an urban office worker trapped in a cubicle. The mechanical grind of nine-to-five work and the endless overtime rat race have crushed his life into monotonous gray. Countless times, he has gazed at the skyscrapers outside his window, longing for the peaceful rural courtyard of his memories: a vegetable garden beaded with morning dew, a stove sending up curling smoke, and the carefree summer nights spent fanning himself and counting stars. An accident sends him transmigrating to a small village in ancient times. While other transmigrators busy themselves with the imperial examinations and officialdom or make waves in the world of commerce, he throws himself into country life, searching among the fields and curling kitchen smoke for the poetry and distant horizons he has always dreamed of.