[The print edition is now available on major websites. We welcome you to buy it. Thank you for your support along the way. Elephant Tower is with you.]
[The story is complete, so feel free to enjoy it. Please support the official release. If you've bought the whole story, please leave a rating. Love you all. / Scarf: @Socrates' Lover / Please support other Elephant Tower series stories, including Dream in Silk and Breaking Dawn. The next story is Drinking in the Green Mountains of Spring. / No speculation about real-life inspirations. Please keep the discussion civil. Thank you!]
Youth and coming-of-age / A touch of ensemble cast / Intense push and pull / Slow burn
Also known as The Ultimate Push and Pull Between Two Small-Town Exam Takers
*You are the gust of wind I searched for in the dreams of my youth.
*Since then, I've chased so many winds. Some gently lulled me to sleep in March, some roared across the sky. They circled the world, but none could ever compare to you.
[Searching for the Wind]
An openly flirtatious, unruly science genius x a gifted, clear-headed top student who has always excelled
He'd seen or heard her name in so many places: in teachers' glowing praise, on the list of outstanding students each semester, and in speeches beneath the flag.
He'd seen her 140-point math exam, with the remaining ten points lost on conic sections and derivatives.
He really wanted to tell Hua Lan that she could score even higher.
"Don't stubbornly stick to the usual methods."
She knew he had exceptional talent. The signs had been there from early on. In elementary school, for instance, he'd taken sick leave for nearly half a semester and still come first. He always managed to solve the final multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. And if he wasn't interested, he could turn down his teacher's invitation to join the math competition.
She really wanted to tell Su Zhan that she was different from him, and had been different ever since they were little.
Also, pay attention in class. Stop looking at her all the time.
"Su Zhan, you can't stare at me and figure out the answer to that English continuation-writing question."
"Actually, we're very alike."
We have similar talents and work ethics, similar social circles, similar habits.
Because we're both from Anchuan, and ever since we first became aware of the world, we've been searching for the same gust of wind.
Its name is Dream, and it carries people up into the clouds.
"This time, shall we fly together?"
[No one knows where the wind first begins to blow. Some things can't be explained by Sartre's existentialism, and neither can some people.]
[Elephant Tower]
Anchuan sits in a remote corner of southern Zhejiang. To the south, it doesn't reach the Fujian coast; to the north, it doesn't connect to the bustle of northern Zhejiang or Shanghai. You can tell from the size of its highway toll station that it's unmistakably a county town.
"It's backward and provincial, but the prices are absurdly high. Social conventions hold too many things hostage, and the place is very closed off. There's only one good thing about it."
"What?"
"There's an Elephant Tower."
The four gilded characters for Anchuan Middle School have been emblazoned on the county town's shoulder for 120 years.
From a top scholar in the late Qing dynasty to today's students, who aim for Tsinghua and Peking University year after year, the changing fortunes of two centuries have crowned this Elephant Tower time and again. The students of Anchuan Middle School and the whole town of Anchuan have done nothing to deserve such an honor, yet they bask in it together.
In Anchuan, students at Anchuan Middle School enjoy many things others envy. Elephant Tower will carry their dreams. During those three years, they won't need to look back or worry about what's behind them.
Hua Lan once read in The Last Words to Bolivar: Humanity's two greatest tragedies are building towers on quicksand and farming in the sea.
Elephant Tower doesn't believe in such tragedies. For 120 years, thousands of teachers have come and gone here, doing precisely that kind of work.
"These children of mine are born with extraordinary talent, and Anchuan is too small for them. I have many rules that may seem almost harsh, but every one of them is there to help them fly farther."
[You were born with extraordinary talent, and for these three years, I will shield you from the wind and rain. Please, make sure you keep dreaming.]
Notes:
1. This is part of a series and leans toward everyday life. The early chapters may feel rather quiet and ordinary, but there's a clear outline and a steady central plot, and the characters all grow. That's why I've made 30 chapters free. I hope you'll give Zhan and Lan's story a chance! There are no romantic or intimate scenes before the characters reach adulthood.
2. The story is set in a small city in southern Zhejiang. The leads take the new Zhejiang college entrance exam, using the old textbooks from 2019 to 2022, the final cohort to do so. They're competition students directly affected by the replacement of independent admissions with the Strong Foundation Plan and the Three-in-One program.
3. This story has a small ensemble cast and several side couples, including one male-male couple. They have little page time here, but I may write a separate story about them later. Please don't read this if that bothers you.
4. I'm terrible at writing blurbs. Overall, this is a story about pursuing dreams and growing up. You won't regret giving it a chance. I hope I haven't scared everyone off, haha.
5. I'm a college student, and I'll do my best to update regularly. This is my first time writing, so please feel free to offer criticism and suggestions. Malicious attacks are a no-go~
6. Note from December 2024: The story has been complete for over a year, and I'm currently preparing it for publication. Looking back at the old comments, I saw that many readers had concerns about the nickname "Brother Hua." When I first came up with the setting, I wanted it to reflect real life. In a competition class where there are only a few girls, this nickname is fairly common and part of the group's slang. Everyone is close, and calling someone "Brother So-and-so" or "Master So-and-so" shows affection. It isn't meant to blur gender or make excellent qualities seem masculine. In a humanities class with only a few boys, close female friends might also call a boy "Sister So-and-so." That's what happened in my class, just as Jiang Tong gets called "sister" by Hua Lan and Qianqian. Most importantly, Xu Zhichao is deliberately trying to get under Hua Lan's skin here, while Lan is still in a phase where she doesn't care enough to argue with anyone. I think readers can see what that says about her state of mind.
When I first wrote this story, I'd only just graduated from high school. I had simple ideas, and when I came up with this nickname, I didn't consider that it might make people uncomfortable. I should have thought it through more carefully.
That said, I don't plan to change it now. First, changing it would be a huge hassle, and I'd have to change Jiang Tong's nickname too. It's just a joke among people who are close. It isn't about gender, so there's no need to blow it out of proportion. (Of course, I understand readers who feel uncomfortable, and I understand if you choose not to keep reading because of it. I'm also grateful you pointed out the issue. You have every right to leave. I'm only sharing my own perspective.) Second, even if I changed it, the phenomenon would still exist. Although this story isn't about blurring gender or making excellent qualities seem masculine, my changing the setting wouldn't make that issue disappear. On the contrary, leaving it here may encourage people to pay more attention to gender issues and discuss whether gendering words as masculine or feminine reinforces gender stereotypes. Only by continuing the discussion and paying attention can this phenomenon possibly change in real life.
Theme: Circle the world, dreaming as you search for the wind.
After reading "Looking for the Wind", I really had a lot of emotions. Teacher Mo Yan really achieved the realistic style that he said. While reading the book, tears filled my eyes countless times. I dreamed of going back to high school countless times, thinking of the time when each of us devoted ourselves to it with all our strength. Although the high school rules are strict, they have indeed created an ivory tower for us to dream about. We are born with excellence, please just dream, we can be worthy of everything we hope for. I admire Lanlan for firmly choosing her major instead of a better school. "Looking for the Wind" is a good article that can bring endless power to people. I also hope that Teacher Mo Yan will not forget his original intention and everything will go smoothly. We will always be your most loyal readers. After reading this book, I feel a bit cut off, so I plan to study hard for a while! Next time I open Jinjiang, I will follow "Qimeng"
I will always be moved by this kind of teenage emotion. When reading the introduction. I was surprised when the heroine went to high school. After careful calculation, I found that I happened to be in the same class as Lan Lan and the others. So I feel very immersive when watching it. There is also the aspect of being approved in advance for failing the high school entrance examination, which partially overlaps with my life experience. I have never experienced the high school entrance examination. The time in the "connection class" can be regarded as the most indulgent and undisciplined time I have experienced since I was in school. Seeing the content of the competition later also brought me a very novel experience. It's a private school that's not very high-level. The overall level of our school is not up to the level of people who can participate in competitions. At least not in our class. Watching Lan Lan go from early approval to the end of the college entrance examination, it can be regarded as experiencing the hard high school life of a competitive student.
Another point that impressed me deeply was the episode of playing volleyball, which was one of the few highlight moments in high school. It was also in high school. In my senior year of high school, in order to reduce the pressure, the teacher briefly held a volleyball match. The venue was very simple, and a new white line was drawn on the cement floor between the middle school and high school to serve as the competition field. At that time, our class was competing with Class 1, and it was our class's turn to serve. It was also the "Eight Golden Flowers". As a girl who had never played on the court before, I came up as a substitute and served with one hand.
As the plot progressed, I was fascinated by the girls' balcony conversations and the sweet relationship between the young lovers. Although there were some misunderstandings between the two of them later, it was really uncomfortable when I saw Lan Lan saying that her boy had finally changed. I even complained a little about Zhanzhan's decision at the time. But fortunately, the two finally solved their misunderstanding, and Brother Zhan still transferred Dawu.
When I was in high school, I also loved writing novels, with various plots. I secretly wrote them in self-study classes. Now I am studying a major in college that I don't like very much. I pick up a pen to write something, but I feel like I can't write anything no matter how hard I write. After watching "Xunfeng" today, I feel like I might not be able to sleep in the middle of the night, and I'll be thinking about the things I did in high school over and over again. I feel that my writing is really not as good as my original, unimaginative self. There seems to be a lot of emotion that I haven't been able to express after writing, deleting and deleting. This is my first time to write a long review. To put it bluntly, the feeling after watching it is similar to the feeling I had after watching Hello Old Days. I was deeply immersed in the story, and it felt like I really got to know a bunch of noisy and cute classmates. I also recall many memories similar to the plot. Okay, let's stop writing here. See you in the next Qimeng~[][]
This is my first time writing a review for a novel, and I think this novel is worth it! After reading the entire book, I felt like I had really seen the three years of high school belonging to the class of 2019 in Anchuan, Zhejiang. Because I am in grade 17, and when I saw the passages in the book describing the 20-year epidemic, I felt like I was back when I was taking online classes in my senior year of high school. The hesitant, uneasy but looking forward to liberation emerged in my mind. The whole novel is very realistic and will remind me of my three years in high school, looking for characters such as Hua Lan, Su Zhan, Lin Junyu, and Yu Qianqian around me. All in all, I really like this novel by the author, and I am also looking forward to the formation of the Yaskawa universe!
After thinking about it again and again, I still want to leave a comment here.
The first time I saw Xunfeng was because of the promotion of Big Fish's new book. Some readers commented that it was very interesting and true. So I came to Jinjiang to read the copy and fell in love with it. I endured it for a few days and read the physical book first.
After I finished reading the physical book, I subscribed to the full version, read the extras, and then finished subscribing to Qimeng. How can I describe my feelings after reading the book? It's probably a bit shocking.
Especially when I saw Dada's views on the character Zhuo Yimian in the extra chapter and interpreted herself from her perspective, my eyes lit up when I saw Dada's views on Zhuo Yimian. Part of the content was deleted from the physical book. Oh, speaking of which, the two in Qing Yizhong, the author, didn't you call them a little couple! ! ! Where are the lovers😭 By the way, the physical book only has Yunjiang Ten Years' new extra story, Wrath.
It can be said that the extra story between Senior Sister Qingfan and Yiman surprised me even more. And my initial feelings for Yman were very... How should I put it, more complicated, because in a sense, Yman and I were very similar. I remembered Yman from the scene when she first appeared in the dormitory. As for me... I tend to be internally consumed and self-doubtful, and I can't help but imagine bad consequences when receiving praise from others. This once bothered me. The mental stress may not be great, but I can easily suffer from insomnia due to it. In the end, because of some people, I was like what the book said, "We meet again after a long separation, shake hands and make peace." This sentence is so great🥹 It's really so great, I really want to use "great" to describe it, or to evaluate it.
I am truly grateful to every character in the book and to the author for creating such a book. This book really gave me a lot of thinking and inspiration. Everyone in the book does not simply promote the plot, but has their own pursuits and shining points. Hualan, Lin Junyu, Ling Xiaoxiao, Yu Qianqian, Zhuo Yimian, Li Qingfan, Li Danni, Zhao Xinyi, Xiao Zihuai... There are many, many people. If I want to mention an example, I will choose Lin Junyu. I failed completely, so I was restless for several days. When I was anxious, I liked to read books to kill time to avoid wrong questions. But that day, I happened to pick up Xunfeng and happened to turn to that page. It was such a coincidence that I saw what Lin Junyu said to Hualan: "Don't leave yourself a way out. If you leave a way out, you will take a way out." It was so touching. At that time, I thought, no matter how bad it is, how bad can it be, so I tried my best.
I am really grateful to beauty Junyu and Xunfeng. On July 9, 2026, I received the admission notice from my favorite high school. Really super excited. In fact, I have wanted to write this long article since then, but due to various reasons, I finally postponed it until today. Fortunately, I caught the last train in July which is not too late (well, it is not called the last minute until the last day)
My age has been exposed by writing this [fear] So let's do it (displaying emojis) Just like many comments on the Internet think that the main audience of campus articles is underage. I don't deny this view, but I don't think this is something very... Difficult to understand (?), Because some people just like the people and things created in the author's words. I think this has nothing to do with the age of the audience itself (? Why does it feel like I am excusing myself (swoon)
But hey, boss, you see, this is an unfortunate thing. I am fascinated by your writing. Yinshan Green Bookstore has seriously read the latest and will follow up on it seriously, and I am seriously looking forward to Ling Xiaoxiao! (Shake the author to save the manuscript. Jpg)
After writing this in circles, I can't even remember what I originally wanted to write.
Boss, forgive me for my verbose nonsense, I don't know where to post it qaq
Anyway, thank you Xunfeng. Ever since I watched Xunfeng, I feel like every character in it has been with me through a difficult time.
Looking for the Wind is a very qualified and vivid group portrait story!
Everyone is an exception to existentialism, and so are you. I wish you an extraordinary life [Let me be healthy]
I hope the author can create more and more such vivid and beautiful stories.
I can't count how many times I have watched TvT. I wish everyone in Class 3 eternal happiness, everlasting friendship, and long live friendship. I also hope that everyone who likes this book as much as I can find their own style.
This is the most beautiful campus novel I have ever read. It is so real. Everyone in the story is good and everyone is working hard for their dreams. It is obviously not deliberately sensational, but I was moved to tears several times. In fact, what I envy the most is that Wang Yankai can lend the screened information to the heroine. This is really impossible to happen in our school. Everyone is selfish and competitors with each other. It is absolutely impossible to tell others what classes and questions you take. Also, Manman actually carried Lanlan on his back when she had gastroenteritis, and did not turn against her because she fell in love with the same boy. It was very heartwarming... Every character is so cute, and I am also looking forward to the story of Lin Yu and her sisters hahaha!
Chuanzhong, like my dream school, is the best high school in the city. It is very similar to my dream school in every aspect. Even after reading this book, I was so excited that I wanted to learn to compete, hahaha. Although my little piggy brain may not be able to learn it. My dream school will recruit one or two people from our school for the final exam this year. I hope I can get into it. Thank you to the author for writing such a good book. I wish you a great success!
Best wish to everyone. So many emotions are flooding into my heart that I don't know where to start. I only leave the most sincere blessings: I hope that everyone, all of you and I, can have the courage, determination and perseverance to find the wind, and that there will be people of the same frequency on this road to go together. Of course, after searching for the wind, you are still looking for the beginning at the end. Stay true to your original intention.
I stayed up late looking through the bookshelves and found out that the cover of this book had been changed. I clicked on it and found out that it was a physical book.
After watching it, I just felt it was very real. I rarely feel like this. I also like everyone in it. I really like this kind of group portrait. I also look forward to seeing the story of Lin Yu and Jiang Tong soon.
Ahhhhhh? ? ? ? ? ? ? !!!! I'm done reading this? ? ? I can't let it go, I can't let it go
After reading "Looking for the Wind", I really had a lot of emotions. Teacher Mo Yan really achieved the realistic style that he said. While reading the book, tears filled my eyes countless times. I dreamed of going back to high school countless times, thinking of the time when each of us devoted ourselves to it with all our strength. Although the high school rules are strict, they have indeed created an ivory tower for us to dream about. We are born with excellence, please just dream, we can be worthy of everything we hope for. I admire Lanlan for firmly choosing her major instead of a better school. "Looking for the Wind" is a good article that can bring endless power to people. I also hope that Teacher Mo Yan will not forget his original intention and everything will go smoothly. We will always be your most loyal readers. After reading this book, I feel a bit cut off, so I plan to study hard for a while! Next time I open Jinjiang, I will follow "Qimeng"
I will always be moved by this kind of teenage emotion. When reading the introduction. I was surprised when the heroine went to high school. After careful calculation, I found that I happened to be in the same class as Lan Lan and the others. So I feel very immersive when watching it. There is also the aspect of being approved in advance for failing the high school entrance examination, which partially overlaps with my life experience. I have never experienced the high school entrance examination. The time in the "connection class" can be regarded as the most indulgent and undisciplined time I have experienced since I was in school. Seeing the content of the competition later also brought me a very novel experience. It's a private school that's not very high-level. The overall level of our school is not up to the level of people who can participate in competitions. At least not in our class. Watching Lan Lan go from early approval to the end of the college entrance examination, it can be regarded as experiencing the hard high school life of a competitive student. Another point that impressed me deeply was the episode of playing volleyball, which was one of the few highlight moments in high school. It was also in high school. In my senior year of high school, in order to reduce the pressure, the teacher briefly held a volleyball match. The venue was very simple, and a new white line was drawn on the cement floor between the middle school and high school to serve as the competition field. At that time, our class was competing with Class 1, and it was our class's turn to serve. It was also the "Eight Golden Flowers". As a girl who had never played on the court before, I came up as a substitute and served with one hand. As the plot progressed, I was fascinated by the girls' balcony conversations and the sweet relationship between the young lovers. Although there were some misunderstandings between the two of them later, it was really uncomfortable when I saw Lan Lan saying that her boy had finally changed. I even complained a little about Zhanzhan's decision at the time. But fortunately, the two finally solved their misunderstanding, and Brother Zhan still transferred Dawu. When I was in high school, I also loved writing novels, with various plots. I secretly wrote them in self-study classes. Now I am studying a major in college that I don't like very much. I pick up a pen to write something, but I feel like I can't write anything no matter how hard I write. After watching "Xunfeng" today, I feel like I might not be able to sleep in the middle of the night, and I'll be thinking about the things I did in high school over and over again. I feel that my writing is really not as good as my original, unimaginative self. There seems to be a lot of emotion that I haven't been able to express after writing, deleting and deleting. This is my first time to write a long review. To put it bluntly, the feeling after watching it is similar to the feeling I had after watching Hello Old Days. I was deeply immersed in the story, and it felt like I really got to know a bunch of noisy and cute classmates. I also recall many memories similar to the plot. Okay, let's stop writing here. See you in the next Qimeng~[][]
This is my first time writing a review for a novel, and I think this novel is worth it! After reading the entire book, I felt like I had really seen the three years of high school belonging to the class of 2019 in Anchuan, Zhejiang. Because I am in grade 17, and when I saw the passages in the book describing the 20-year epidemic, I felt like I was back when I was taking online classes in my senior year of high school. The hesitant, uneasy but looking forward to liberation emerged in my mind. The whole novel is very realistic and will remind me of my three years in high school, looking for characters such as Hua Lan, Su Zhan, Lin Junyu, and Yu Qianqian around me. All in all, I really like this novel by the author, and I am also looking forward to the formation of the Yaskawa universe!
After thinking about it again and again, I still want to leave a comment here. The first time I saw Xunfeng was because of the promotion of Big Fish's new book. Some readers commented that it was very interesting and true. So I came to Jinjiang to read the copy and fell in love with it. I endured it for a few days and read the physical book first. After I finished reading the physical book, I subscribed to the full version, read the extras, and then finished subscribing to Qimeng. How can I describe my feelings after reading the book? It's probably a bit shocking. Especially when I saw Dada's views on the character Zhuo Yimian in the extra chapter and interpreted herself from her perspective, my eyes lit up when I saw Dada's views on Zhuo Yimian. Part of the content was deleted from the physical book. Oh, speaking of which, the two in Qing Yizhong, the author, didn't you call them a little couple! ! ! Where are the lovers😭 By the way, the physical book only has Yunjiang Ten Years' new extra story, Wrath. It can be said that the extra story between Senior Sister Qingfan and Yiman surprised me even more. And my initial feelings for Yman were very... How should I put it, more complicated, because in a sense, Yman and I were very similar. I remembered Yman from the scene when she first appeared in the dormitory. As for me... I tend to be internally consumed and self-doubtful, and I can't help but imagine bad consequences when receiving praise from others. This once bothered me. The mental stress may not be great, but I can easily suffer from insomnia due to it. In the end, because of some people, I was like what the book said, "We meet again after a long separation, shake hands and make peace." This sentence is so great🥹 It's really so great, I really want to use "great" to describe it, or to evaluate it. I am truly grateful to every character in the book and to the author for creating such a book. This book really gave me a lot of thinking and inspiration. Everyone in the book does not simply promote the plot, but has their own pursuits and shining points. Hualan, Lin Junyu, Ling Xiaoxiao, Yu Qianqian, Zhuo Yimian, Li Qingfan, Li Danni, Zhao Xinyi, Xiao Zihuai... There are many, many people. If I want to mention an example, I will choose Lin Junyu. I failed completely, so I was restless for several days. When I was anxious, I liked to read books to kill time to avoid wrong questions. But that day, I happened to pick up Xunfeng and happened to turn to that page. It was such a coincidence that I saw what Lin Junyu said to Hualan: "Don't leave yourself a way out. If you leave a way out, you will take a way out." It was so touching. At that time, I thought, no matter how bad it is, how bad can it be, so I tried my best. I am really grateful to beauty Junyu and Xunfeng. On July 9, 2026, I received the admission notice from my favorite high school. Really super excited. In fact, I have wanted to write this long article since then, but due to various reasons, I finally postponed it until today. Fortunately, I caught the last train in July which is not too late (well, it is not called the last minute until the last day) My age has been exposed by writing this [fear] So let's do it (displaying emojis) Just like many comments on the Internet think that the main audience of campus articles is underage. I don't deny this view, but I don't think this is something very... Difficult to understand (?), Because some people just like the people and things created in the author's words. I think this has nothing to do with the age of the audience itself (? Why does it feel like I am excusing myself (swoon) But hey, boss, you see, this is an unfortunate thing. I am fascinated by your writing. Yinshan Green Bookstore has seriously read the latest and will follow up on it seriously, and I am seriously looking forward to Ling Xiaoxiao! (Shake the author to save the manuscript. Jpg) After writing this in circles, I can't even remember what I originally wanted to write. Boss, forgive me for my verbose nonsense, I don't know where to post it qaq Anyway, thank you Xunfeng. Ever since I watched Xunfeng, I feel like every character in it has been with me through a difficult time. Looking for the Wind is a very qualified and vivid group portrait story! Everyone is an exception to existentialism, and so are you. I wish you an extraordinary life [Let me be healthy] I hope the author can create more and more such vivid and beautiful stories.
I can't count how many times I have watched TvT. I wish everyone in Class 3 eternal happiness, everlasting friendship, and long live friendship. I also hope that everyone who likes this book as much as I can find their own style.
This is the most beautiful campus novel I have ever read. It is so real. Everyone in the story is good and everyone is working hard for their dreams. It is obviously not deliberately sensational, but I was moved to tears several times. In fact, what I envy the most is that Wang Yankai can lend the screened information to the heroine. This is really impossible to happen in our school. Everyone is selfish and competitors with each other. It is absolutely impossible to tell others what classes and questions you take. Also, Manman actually carried Lanlan on his back when she had gastroenteritis, and did not turn against her because she fell in love with the same boy. It was very heartwarming... Every character is so cute, and I am also looking forward to the story of Lin Yu and her sisters hahaha! Chuanzhong, like my dream school, is the best high school in the city. It is very similar to my dream school in every aspect. Even after reading this book, I was so excited that I wanted to learn to compete, hahaha. Although my little piggy brain may not be able to learn it. My dream school will recruit one or two people from our school for the final exam this year. I hope I can get into it. Thank you to the author for writing such a good book. I wish you a great success!
Best wish to everyone. So many emotions are flooding into my heart that I don't know where to start. I only leave the most sincere blessings: I hope that everyone, all of you and I, can have the courage, determination and perseverance to find the wind, and that there will be people of the same frequency on this road to go together. Of course, after searching for the wind, you are still looking for the beginning at the end. Stay true to your original intention.
I stayed up late looking through the bookshelves and found out that the cover of this book had been changed. I clicked on it and found out that it was a physical book.
After watching it, I just felt it was very real. I rarely feel like this. I also like everyone in it. I really like this kind of group portrait. I also look forward to seeing the story of Lin Yu and Jiang Tong soon.
Ahhhhhh? ? ? ? ? ? ? !!!! I'm done reading this? ? ? I can't let it go, I can't let it go