In 260 BC, with the smoke of the Battle of Changping not yet cleared, a man named Jing Jiu lays the first stone in a desolate valley on the northern slopes of Mount Jing.
He is a transmigrator, a geological engineer, and a man born with the strength of a giant and bones like stone. He could have become a marquis, served as a general, and contended for the realm. But he does only one thing: build a city.
A jar-shaped valley ringed by cliffs on three sides, horse-face walls ahead of their time, underground rivers and granaries, and a system that turns farmers into soldiers... He transforms a barren valley into the strongest fortress under heaven.
When the Qin army attacks, it fails to take the city in seven days. Before withdrawing, it leaves behind four words: This city cannot fall.
When Qin Shi Huang builds imperial roads and orders the city demolished, Jing Jiu submits an engineering report that makes the emperor change course.
When Xiang Yu comes to burn the city, Jing Jiu opens the gates and invites the Hegemon to drink with him all night. No one knows what they discussed.
When Liu Bang passes through and asks for a bowl of water, Jing Jiu looks at the Pei Duke, a man of humble origins, and says, "This man can win the realm."
Zhang Liang comes to the city wall and plays a game of Go. Then he says the most insightful words in the whole book:
"You seek no dominion, sir, yet the realm owes you a city."
He does not age. He watches his wife grow white-haired in his arms and die of old age. He watches his son grow old and die, and his grandson grow old. He watches generation after generation laid to rest on the hills outside the city. A thousand graves, a thousand trees, each one raised by his own hands.
At the age of one hundred and sixty, he climbs the city wall one last time, leans against the old locust tree, its trunk wide enough for two people to embrace, and watches the sunset for the last time.
He says:
"This city is my realm."
There is no name on his tombstone. Only four words: Bones Bear Mountains.
A thousand years later, the city still stands. The people call it the City That Never Falls.
