Thirty-one-year-old Zhou Yuan has worked in the Qingshan County Government Office for seven years.
He can write materials, stay up late, and understands the rules, but he is still just the most inconspicuous ordinary clerk in the compound. It wasn't until a temporary survey, a report material that said "all completed", and the people of 23 households who had never received the money that they pushed him to the county magistrate.
From that day on, Zhou Yuan slowly understood: What really matters in the agency is never just what is written on the document, but who asked you to write it, why you wrote it, and what words you must never write.
Grassroots governance, investment promotion, old city renovation, financial difficulties, cadre adjustment, major projects...
He understands the rules more and more and gets closer to power.
But the higher he went, the more he discovered that people and things that seemed unrelated back then were actually in the same network.
And he must decide what kind of person he will ultimately become.
