In 1998, when the Yangtze River flooded, Chen Mo, a young boy from rural Hubei Province, walked into the examination room of Peking University with his bare legs covered in mud, carrying tuition fees raised by the whole village and a debt note written in chalk on the wall. In the next twenty-seven years, he went from "boiling water officer" to "clay sculpture and golden body" - this is not a counterattack fairy tale, but an honest record of a man who repeatedly fell, climbed up, and fell again in the torrent of the times. He has learned the rules and broken them; he has helped many people climb up, and he has also forgotten the way he came when he was at a high place; he finally peeled off the mud from the golden body, planted it back into the soil, and grew into a tree that can provide shade for future generations. This book is written for all those who are struggling in the mud but still want to stand up straight and look at the sky: Mud is not the end, but a place to take root.
