In the thirty-fourth year of the Jiajing reign, a graduate student of maritime studies quietly woke up.
In this era, scholars tossed aside their brushes to become pirates, while pirates sent in petitions hoping to be granted amnesty.
In this era, the emperor couldn't stop making elixirs, and the palace gates stayed shut to keep out the world's filth.
But none of them knew that this was already the Age of Exploration.
Fortune-seeking ladies crossed oceans, while poetry and song had become things of the past.
And though I prided myself on belonging to the Celestial Empire, we were no longer the center of the world.
The graduate student knew all this, so he devoted himself to research and worked hard to build a life.
His friends were too foolish and his enemies too reckless; without research, he couldn't get by.
The oceans were too vast and there were too many foreigners; without having more children, he couldn't keep up.
