The protagonist, Li Mu, is thirty-three years old and an ordinary graduate of the Department of Ecology and Bioengineering at Hehai University. He is making a living on his own in the provincial capital, renting a cheap little house with a courtyard in the suburbs. In his spare time, he enjoys working with stones and often takes walks by a suburban river, bringing home any beautiful stones he finds to make ornaments. He is always dreaming of becoming wealthy enough to retire in the mountains.
One day, while collecting stones by the river as usual, he finds an unusual landscape stone. It is made of white marble, snowy white all over and patterned with black landscapes. While polishing the strange stone, he accidentally cuts his finger, and his blood drips onto it. This opens a secret realm spanning about 35 square kilometers. He plants grass, trees, vegetables, and flowers there, digs a pond and raises fish, and begins a life of seclusion. Later, he brings his family into the secret realm, and together they build an idyllic rural life. One autumn, a mishap sets fire to the realm's dry grass, dead branches, and fallen leaves, sparking a series of events. The strange stone becomes a national treasure, making enormous contributions to lunar missions and interstellar exploration. With its help, humanity explores all ten planets in the solar system, including two newly discovered and named planets, and opens up a network of routes connecting the entire solar system, allowing people to travel freely among the ten planets and explore. In the end, they sow the seeds of life throughout the Proxima Centauri system.
The story involves farming in the early stages, and then handing the land over to the state later. Overall, it's a pretty good story.