When the wildfires of the global food shortage devoured the last wheat field, Qingshiyu at 37 degrees north latitude became a forgotten island. Local farmer Chen Mai was guarding the remaining half-acre of drought-resistant grain seeds in the village, but on a rainy night he bumped into refugee Su Jin carrying moldy bean cakes - this woman who knew about soil improvement had something more dangerous than food hidden in her pocket: a map marking underground water sources.
Hunger entangled the entire village like a vine, and conflicts between foreign refugees and local farmers fermented in the distribution of every seed. Chen Mai used ancestral farm tools to measure the land, and Su Jin used chemical test paper to detect moisture. They must plant three crops before the locust plague passes through. And when the plunderers on motorcycles came following the smoke from the cooking stoves, the people of Qingshiyu finally understood: it was never the hoarded surplus grain that could fight hunger, but the clenched palms.
