1991, Jintang, Chengdu, at the foot of Longquan Mountain.
After a serious illness, Li Jing, a senior provincial official, opened his eyes and returned to the spring of his twentieth year: he was a junior clerk in a township government compound, not even qualified for a proper office.
At the time, Sichuan was in flux: township enterprises rose and fell, the peach-growing town sat on mountains of gold yet remained poor, and Longquanyi was still a suburban county right under Chengdu's nose. But he remembered every question, every pitfall, and every shift in the winds of the next thirty years.
In this life, he would take no shortcuts, cultivate no connections, and engage in no money-for-power deals.
He would understand policy inside and out, carry out reforms properly and in compliance with the rules, and solve practical problems one by one for the people. Starting in the peach town at the foot of Longquan Mountain, he would pass through Jintang and enter Longquanyi, govern Chengdu, and eventually lead an entire province, clawing back, inch by inch, the opportunities Sichuan had missed.
He would have companions along the way: Lu Zheng, a demobilized political and legal affairs officer, managed public security, cracked down on organized crime, and responded to emergencies. He cleared obstacles for reform and even took a blade for Li Jing. They fought on two fronts, united by one conviction, protecting each other without competing for the other's battlefield.
No golden finger, no romance-obsessed leads, no contrived melodrama.
Just a true believer in hard work, spending twenty-three years from 1991 into the new century on the red road of Sichuan.
Theme: Hard work builds the nation. Serve as an official and benefit the people of your region. Follow the righteous path and put the people's interests first.
