The 2038 Water-Rights War

In 2038, the global order has been reshaped, and “entropy” has become the central principle guiding power struggles among nations and across every field. Increasing entropy throws an opponent's order into chaos; reducing it secures one's own foundations. A smokeless “entropy war” sweeps through politics, business, scientific research, and finance. Born in 1995 to an ordinary family, Tang Yuzheng has a university doctoral supervisor for a father and a grassroots military doctor for a mother. With solid research skills and a steady approach, he rises step by step through a research institution in the aerospace system. He becomes a deputy division chief at 36 and a full division chief at 41. In 2038, at a crucial promotion juncture, he becomes the focus of competing forces. The contest over his promotion has long since outgrown the bounds of one man's career. Within the research system, factional rivalries surge beneath the surface, with control over core technology development and resource allocation at stake. Among the top 50 state-owned enterprises, cross-sector incursions bind capital to research resources in an attempt to disrupt existing research plans by “increasing entropy.” In the securities investment world, financial magnates use the logic of the entropy war to manipulate markets and reap industrial profits, while also intervening in research and political decisions. Within the political arena, different camps clash over whether to “reduce entropy and stabilize the situation” or “increase entropy to break the deadlock.” International forces seize the opportunity to intervene, escalating commercial and political power struggles into a cross-border entropy war. Caught in a triple vortex of internal infighting, cross-sector encirclement, and international rivalry, Tang Yuzheng must defend the core principles of aerospace research while finding a way through the chaos. With the mindset and vision of a new generation born in the 1990s, he writes an epic of governance, power, and political maneuvering for the young generation amid an entropy war sweeping the globe.