To the north of Beihe City, the ancient river channel turns white in the wind, the grass on the embankment is withered, and salt boats and pack teams pass by. In the late Qing Dynasty, when the New Deal was swinging, the railway line was like a strange and cold spine crossing the wilderness, bringing with it craftsmen and survey flags from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, as well as disputes, confusion and opportunities. Lin Fengsheng was a small clerk in the state department, copying documents and copying lawsuits. He cherished the dream of being a scholar that he had been stuck in for half his life, and was shaken by the news of the abolition of the imperial examination. Yu Wan, a female student who returned from Fucheng, burdened with unbound feet and ridicule, tried to use pen and paper to influence her destiny. Xu Zhenkui, a businessman who made his fortune from salt, is used to seeing wind and waves, but he is cautious about the balance between the old and the new; Chen Erhei, who grows out of the grass beside the river, licks blood from his knife edge, and breathes in the gap between recruitment and rebellion; Oda Keigo, a young Japanese engineer sent to measure the road, stands strangely in the wind, trying to understand the earth and water here with a ruler and compass. Ten people, ten fates, brushing against each other in the north wind. Floods, embankments, strikes, gunshots, old debts and new debts, people are looking for a way to stand among the soil and paper and ink. The frost falling on Beihe is not the end, but just a deep breath in the cold air.
