Jiangcheng, an ancient city steeped in literary culture.
Smoke rises from an old well, and an old Daoist makes a prophecy: a writer famed across the land will emerge here, but he will be a “broken man.”
Meng Yifei, the leading figure in Jiangcheng’s literary world, is already famous across the country at forty-two. Yet the height of his fame is also when his inspiration runs dry. He spends whole days in his study without writing a single word; he sits at the table with his wife without being able to say a thing. He loses himself in lust, numbs himself at drinking parties, and gradually rots beneath the adulation of capital.
Then he loses a lawsuit, his lover leaves, his wife’s heart turns cold, and his mother falls critically ill: “You’ve lost your own soul.”
He decides to flee the city. At the station, he suddenly falls gravely ill and collapses. His final words remain unfinished.
The flute still plays, and the city walls still stand. A boy picks up his book at a secondhand bookstall and opens to the first page beneath a desk lamp. The desolate city is not barren; someone will always wake up.
A contemporary novel of human affairs about a literary prodigy’s downfall, a cultural legacy on the verge of ending, and the glimmer of light that remains among the ruins.
