You Can't Change It

In the seventeenth year of Yongchang, there was a severe drought. The cracks in the Hebei Plain can swallow a child's fist, and the last line of water in Xiaohe Village is about to be cut off. Wang Shitou squatted on the field ridge, mediating the seventh water dispute this spring as he had for the past five years. He calculates water, grain, and every detail of human relationships, as if the world is the size of this small field. The outside world is undergoing drastic changes. The "magic craftsmen" in the south of the Yangtze River, the "talented women" in the capital, and the "thunder generals" in the border areas are stirring up the storm, and their names are like thunder. Wang Shitou just listened and continued digging his ditch. Until a strange carriage stopped at the entrance of the village, bringing a brass machine engraved with foreign characters and a calm message: the "female farmer" who tried to grow food using a new method had been executed. Wang Shitou held the slightly cool metal and stood under the sun for a long time. Then he walked back to the field and dug three more feet of ditch. He knows that the ambition to change the world will always usher in the answer of the times. And his answer is to let the land under his feet have one more acre of life at this time next year. This is the only thing a time traveler can do after giving up on saving the world - to lean down and build a shallow ditch for the ants before the giant wheel of history runs over him.