Crickets in Lin'an

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Xiaoliu, a minor official in Lin'an Prefecture, was forced to accept the death order of the powerful Prime Minister Jia Sidao to "find ten top-quality crickets in seven days" in order to save his seriously ill wife. When he sneaked into the "Insect Garden", a private garden of powerful people, he encountered crickets in golden nanmu cages drinking ginseng soup and listening to the piano and harp, while the common people in the market even shed blood fighting for one insect. Behind this absurd scene, there was a treasonous conspiracy of Jia Sidao to use the secret technique of "Secrets of Promoting Weaving" to feed insects and secretly communicate with Mongolia to pass the border defense map. Under the guidance of a folk insect master, Chen Xiaoliu captured "Tietouqing" and transformed from an "insect slave" seeking survival into a rebel who uses insects as blades. He used the insect-fighting gambling game to implant micro-gunpowder into the belly of the insect to blow up the hypocritical feast of the powerful; he established the "Insect Society" in Taihu Lake and used "heralding crickets" that could understand the whistle to weave an intelligence network against the enemy; even when Lin'an City was destroyed, he fought a decisive battle with the Mongolian coach to fight the insect, hiding explosives in the insect's body, and perished with the powerful enemy. The story uses crickets as a thread to connect the absurdity and tragedy in the dusk of the dynasty: when the powerful are holding the "Universal Conference" for the insects, the humble officials are using the chirping of insects to convey the beacon fire; when the golden nanmu cage reflects the moonlight of the West Lake, the power that shakes the building is dormant in the pottery cricket jar. Chen Xiaoliu's life, from an ant forced to catch insects, to a legend that rewrote history with insect records, finally left an inscription on the bank of the West Lake, "One insect's chirp can lead to prosperity and decline." The decay and struggle of the Southern Song Dynasty are condensed in the insect chirp that penetrates ancient and modern times.