The story of Lu Jingzhe and his twenty girlfriends
Eighteen-year-old Lu Jingzhe is about to start college. An average student with a quiet personality, he lives on the fringes of every crowd. His parents are ordinary workers in a small city, and his first eighteen years have held no shining moments. His only hobby is curling up in his rented room to read every story under the sun. He has always felt that his life is nothing more than a terrible book that no one wants to read.
In the summer after his college entrance exams, he finds a battered ancient text from the pre-Qin era at a secondhand bookstall, along with a tiger-shaped pendant covered in verdigris. The moment his fingertips touch the tiger tally, thunder crashes, and he is swept into the tide of five thousand years of Chinese history.
From Zhao territory on the border during the Battle of Changping to the flames of rebellion at the end of the Qin dynasty; from the northern deserts where the Han Empire fought the Xiongnu to the mighty waters of Red Cliffs during the Three Kingdoms; from the southward flight of the gentry during the Yongjia upheaval to the lonely fortress at Tong Pass during the An Lushan Rebellion; from the shattered remnants of the Jingkang disaster to the storms over Nanjing during the Xinhai Revolution; from snow-covered mountains and grasslands on the Long March to the battlefields of Triangle Hill in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea... Armed with memories of the modern world, Lu Jingzhe transmigrates again and again to pivotal moments in history. He knows how events will unfold, yet has no power to change the course of history. All he can do is remain an anonymous passerby in the rushing tide of his era, doing whatever he can to protect this land and the people struggling to survive in times of turmoil.
He lives for five thousand years, witnessing the rise and fall of China and becoming an unknown hero hidden from history. At last, he returns to the summer when his story began, where he completes the five-thousand-year loop of his destiny as a narcotics officer.
