Jinghua Qimai

On the central axis of Beijing, the crooked-neck tree in Jingshan has been silent for three hundred years. Chen Yanting, an ancient book restorer, guards a small courtyard in the folds of this city, and also guards a secret that only he knows - he often drinks with the last man who hanged himself, Emperor Chongzhen, across time and space. The grandfather is guarding the "li'er", even if the family is in ruins, his integrity cannot be lost; the father is guarding the "face", even if the restaurant closes down, the situation cannot be forgotten; the grandson is thinking of the "future", but loses his way home amidst the roar of the bulldozers. When the dust of demolition blocks the sunlight, and when the ancient locust trees are cut down, the fates of the three generations of the Chen family and that of the subjugated king strangely overlap. They suddenly understood that the cultural heritage of Beijing was not in the admission ticket to the Forbidden City, but in the rules of every brick and every breath. This is a novel about "keeping". A common man is like an ant, but he can also protect the soul of the country.