Lychee Row

In the twelfth year of Tianbao, Chang'an. Yan Jinglun, a ninth-grade official, took on an errand that everyone avoided: to deliver fresh lychees from Lingnan to the imperial concubine's palace across a 5,000-mile road within the limit of "one day for color change, two days for fragrance, and three days for taste." It was a gamble that was destined to be futile - everyone was waiting to see how he failed. However, Yan Jinglun had no retreat. Carrying a silent female guard, a volume of Lingnan maps and a dense book of experimental records, he embarked on the road south. In Guangzhou, he met all kinds of people: Zheng Buzheng, who controlled the maritime trade routes, Meng Shouzheng, who lived in seclusion in the countryside but had a map of the rivers and rivers in Han Dynasty, Yidong, a mountain girl who could distinguish the good and bad fruits with one pair of eyes, and Gongshu Xuan, a craftsman with special skills but a mystery of his origin. Either for profit, for righteousness, or for a breath, these people finally gathered under a sign that had not yet been hung up - "The Story of the South China Sea". The lychees were finally delivered to Chang'an as scheduled. Yan Jinglun did not stop. When the war of the Anshi Rebellion swept across the Central Plains, he chose a more difficult path: using business roads as his meridians and faith as his bones, he re-weaved a network connecting the north and the south on the ruins of the empire. From lychees to salt, from medicinal materials to cloth, from a small boat to a fleet across the rivers and seas - wherever the banner of "Nan Hai Ji" goes, not only goods are circulated, but also the most scarce thing in troubled times: trust.