Candle Shadow in the Sea

525 BC, autumn. Outside the capital city of the state of Lu, there was a severe drought for three years, and the land was bare for thousands of miles. Refugees are like ants, crowding outside the closed city gate, waiting for relief that will come at an unknown time. In the city, a middle-aged man named Kong Qiu was struggling with disaster relief - the granary had bottomed out, and the powerful refused to open it. All he could do was carry it bit by bit within his ability. At this time, a young man named Ziyu walked three hundred miles from the Song Dynasty. He is not here to escape. He's here for answers. His father was a historian of the Song Dynasty. He spent thirty years researching a genealogy of the Yin and Shang royal families. Before his death, he gave it to his son and asked him to go to Zhongdu City to find a man named Confucius. "I want to know," Ziyu stood at the gate of the city and said to Lao Dan, the Shou Zangshi, "how can a person live like a human being in this troubled world where rituals have collapsed and music has collapsed." Lao Dan did not answer. He only said: "Go and ask him." Ziyu entered the city. I met Confucius, became his disciple, bought ten strips of dried meat and made bundles for repair, and then lived in the backyard of the Zhongdu official office. This is where the story begins.