In 2008, Kuiling, the county seat of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.
Xu Mingchuan, a clerk in the county party committee office, started from a meeting list with names missing, and saw how a county really operates: someone leaves suddenly, someone takes over temporarily, the project cannot be stopped, and the position will not always be empty.
He is good at remembering lists, seats, documents and changes in sentences, but he often comes up with answers earlier than the facts.
For more than ten years, the new city continued to grow taller and the old city sank to the bottom of the river. Cadres, businessmen, families and old relationships intersect repeatedly in one county.
As people move forward, some things never really sink.
