“We cut down the sandalwood trees and stack them by the riverbank. The river flows clear, its waters rippling. You neither plow nor sow, so how can you claim all that grain?”
In Shenzhen’s tech industry, the protagonist, Tan Zheng, was once a brilliant programmer. The AI algorithm he developed was forcibly acquired by the capital giant Riverbank Group, which then countersued him for “stealing trade secrets,” taking everything from him. Like a sandalwood tree cut down and abandoned by the river, he seemed left with nothing, yet in silence, he put down roots.
Those who cut down the sandalwood trees will one day have their own methods turned against them. Revenge is not a roar. It is making the exploiters hear the echo of their own “reaping without sowing.”
