Li Yi, a graduate student in history, wakes up after an electric shock to find himself in Nanjing in the first year of Hongwu. Ahead lies the grim atmosphere of Zhu Yuanzhang's iron-fisted accession to the throne; behind him, a land torn by chaos, with starving corpses everywhere. Drawing on his modern knowledge, he dazzles Qinhuai beauty Su Wan'er with a bowl of iced jasmine tea, outwits tax collectors, finds a solution to the grain shortage, and wins a place at court by presenting a shrewd plan to develop farmland.
When Hu Weiyong's sinister scheme unleashes a plague across the city, Su Wan'er ventures into danger at night and is poisoned. When Xu Da's northern campaign runs into the cavalry of the fallen Yuan dynasty, Li Yi turns the tide with a “fire ox formation.” From improving chain pumps to control floods to inventing penicillin to save an imperial heir, he must tread carefully amid Zhu Yuanzhang's suspicion and favor. Su Wan'er's intelligence network and poetic talent give him the confidence to stir up the political world.
He protects Jianwen's surviving descendants amid the flames of the Jingnan Campaign, charts maps of the world during the seven voyages to the Western Ocean, and quietly plants rubber seeds and steam-engine blueprints in the river of history. But when he stands beneath the locust tree on Jingshan Hill where Chongzhen hanged himself, he realizes that he has long since become part of history
A golden finger collides with political intrigue, while love and family entwine with duty to the nation.
Six hundred years of triumphs and tragedies, laughter and tears, are finally distilled into a blank stele beside Lake Tai:
“The bright moon once shone on the return of the clouds of color.”
The narrative rhythm and emotional core of this story are very special, and every page has an attraction that makes people unable to stop turning.