"This book emphasizes historical atmosphere and the passing down of ideas. The pace is slow, and it's not a mindless power fantasy. If that's not your thing, don't read it.
Shen Xi transmigrates into the lowest-ranking interpreter in Zheng He's fleet, opening his eyes at a turning point in history.
Calls to "abandon the Western voyages" are already rising at court. In his old age, Zheng He overrules the opposition and sets out on his seventh voyage, which may also be his last.
Shen Xi knows this is the final glimmer of China's age of oceanic exploration.
He also knows that in the distant West, Portuguese ships are rounding Africa. A new and aggressive age of oceanic expansion is about to arrive.
No System. No futuristic technology.
All he has is a vision of geography beyond his time, a scientific way of thinking, and a clear understanding of how history will end.
Saving ships from storms, outsmarting powerful foes in Malacca, breaking a commercial deadlock in Calicut, and speaking with the world in Hormuz...
On this final voyage, all he wants is to plant a few different seeds for an empire battered by the waves.
Years later, when the Western barbarians' gunboats finally reach China's shores, they discover in horror...
The sleeping giant they thought they knew already holds the stars and oceans of the whole world reflected in the depths of its eyes."
It wasn't one of those mindless, feel-good stories; it was interesting, a bit bland, but also made me look forward to it.