Xia Yuan, a doctorate in archaeology, accidentally transmigrates while clearing a shipwreck in the old course of the Yellow River. He wakes up as the unluckiest county magistrate on the frontier of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The Yellow River has changed course, silt is burying the city, the court has cut off food supplies, and the people are preparing to eat dirt.
The annotated edition of the Commentary on the Waterways Classic, unearthed a thousand years later, is now the only key to survival in his mind.
He rebuilds the Zhengguo Canal and diverts water to flush away the silt. He surveys the passes of the Liupan Mountains and uses the terrain to repel the enemy.
While powerful men at court impeach him for "abusing the people's labor and recklessly tampering with the dragon veins," Xia Yuan quietly digs the first rice harvest out of the mud. He then uses discarded river engineering plans to build an ironclad defensive line in the Hexi Corridor, guarding the Western Regions.
Years later, when the chief examiner of his day stands before the supposedly "impossible" water-control hub and asks in a trembling voice, "Who could have created such a wondrous feat?"
Xia Yuan gazes at the ceaseless river flowing beneath his feet and answers softly:
"I didn't build it. The mountains and rivers themselves hold the answer to changing the world."
The mountains and rivers say nothing, yet conceal the secrets of dynastic succession. Their ravines and ridges are all unfinished letters left by those who came before.
