The prologue is great, very powerful.

  "He's here!" Xu Yifan jumped out of a Dongfeng truck loaded with sheep wool and thanked the Mongolian driver.

  The Mongolian driver had a silly face and was still waving the pack of Chinese cigarettes that Xu Yifan gave him.

  "Zamudun—Seain—Yaba!" (Have a good trip!)

  The Dongfeng big truck rolled away with a cloud of dust. Xuyi Fan also slung the big bag over his shoulder, squinting as he gazed out at the vast expanse of the Xilinguole grasslands before him.

  He is a 24-year-old young man, from the south, but graduated from the finance department of Renmin University in Beijing. As soon as he left school, he entered the National Development and Reform Commission and became a civil servant. From an early age, he always had a somewhat incompatible appearance with the people around him. This society makes children very realistic from a young age, but he has some unrealistic idealism that is not strong enough to make him sacrifice everything for his ideals. He can only spend more time reading books and traveling. Due to sufficient exercise, 24-year-old him looks sturdy and agile, and his height of 176 cm also appears particularly well-proportioned, plus a very bookish and elegant face. His relationships with women are not bad.

  Taking advantage of the annual leave benefits enjoyed by national civil servants, he ran to Inner Mongolia again to visit an old classmate.

  In the distance, two horses appeared on the horizon. Xu Yifan, sitting on the ground, took out a pair of binoculars from his bag. This old classmate was still so outdated and didn't know how to use a mobile phone. He had told him to wait at the first wind turbine he saw when heading north from Tokto, and they would meet there without fail!

  Such waiting in the vast world may be something that young people who are already bound by their mobile phones in modern cities are no longer accustomed to.

  It was the time when autumn was high and the grass was long, with clear skies and sunshine sprinkled on the prairie. The wildflowers swayed gently, and the air was so fresh it seemed like it could be bottled up and sold as a commodity. Looking at the familiar figure on horseback, Xu Yifan put down his binoculars, waving his arm wildly towards him and shouting: "Yo——Ho——Ho!"

  At the sound of his call, he added a whip. His big black horse suddenly galloped, with another yellow horse in hand. In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Xu Yifan, and a sturdy young man jumped down from the horse, opened his arms and hugged him: "You little devil is really on time!"

  Xu Yifan punched him: "I'm telling you, when have I ever not been on time? Now I'm relying on you. For these seven or eight days, you handle it."

  That sturdy young man burst out laughing: "Roast meat, mutton, good horse, donkey's hind legs, that's enough for you! When have I ever wronged you? Get on the horse!"

  This sturdy young man is Xu Yifan's classmate, named Zhou Xiang. He is a genuine high-ranking official's son, but more idealistic than Xu Yifan and also an environmentalist enthusiast! When those high-ranking officials became the new nobility, monopolizing the resources of the Republic at the top of the pyramid, he graduated and ran to the Inner Mongolian grasslands to work on wind power generation. Apart from work, he avoids modern things as much as possible. In college, he got along best with Xu Yifan, who liked history. The two of them often came up with silly ideas and looked down on their classmates who only read textbooks and spent all day in internet cafes flirting with girls. Whenever Xu Yifan was free, he would run to Zhou Xiang's place to relax for a few days.

  The sun has moved to the center, and a few white clouds are casting shadows on the ground, slowly moving forward. Chasing after the two small human and horse silhouettes on the vast grassland. Except for the sound of the wind passing over the grassland, there is only the most natural face of nature.

  Xu Yifan swung his whip and sang a popular song in a loud and off-key voice, looking carefree. Zhou Xiang looked at him with a smile and asked, "Do you have someone special?"

  Xu Yifan snorted: "Forget it, ask her to put down her airs and adapt to me, it's not her habit. If I have to coax her, I'm not happy about it either. What's wrong with women nowadays? Why has our place suddenly become a feminist society? Women who are pretty and young are treated like treasures?"

  Zhou Xiang burst out laughing: "Looking for a wife with four virtues, go to ancient times! Otherwise, I'll introduce you to a Mongolian girl? At home, the husband is the greatest. You're idle and fond of drinking and horse riding. She shears wool, grazes sheep, milks and supports you."

  Xu Yifan burst out laughing: "I just don't believe that I won't be able to find one who is both beautiful and obedient!"

  "Your ideal of changing society? In university, with a mouthful of wine, you would talk nonsense. Pointing at the sky and saying how things should be done. Now in that unit, still the same temperament?"

  At this time, what was exchanged was Xu Yifan's bitter smile: "Still temperamental, in two more years, seeing me will be gloomy! In this era, we were all born in the wrong place!"

  He just smiled faintly at this crazy classmate and sworn brother, like an older brother. What he should see through, he had seen through long ago. Now it seems that his good friend is also about to see through him. But on the surface, he was still teasing him: "When we graduated and drank farewell wine, didn't you swear in front of everyone that a woman must be a stunning beauty, the more the better? This society should change according to your ideals. A great man cannot be without power for a day, drunk sleeping on a beautiful woman's lap, waking up with the power of the world in his hands. Aren't these all your crazy words?"

  Xu Yifan looked at him and said, "You know what's going on here. Can you save some things? How much of the Xilingol Grassland is left? There are huge sand dunes right next to Beijing. You're developing wind power to protect the environment, but more coal-fired power plants are being built. You've built so many wind turbines, aren't you just a modern-day Don Quixote? I tried every way to get into the Development and Reform Commission, but it's all just for show. What can I do? I'm left here talking nonsense with you... I have ambitions, but life is just too heavy. You're a high-ranking official's son, an insider, but you don't want to stay in that circle of new nobility. Besides making yourself feel a bit more noble, what else can you do?"

  The wind still silently sweeps across the grassland, but two young people with discordant hearts can only stare at each other. In the end, they both smile and give up on this originally meaningless topic. Zhou Hua smiles and opens a new topic: "To the Qing Dynasty? You really have guts. I remember that was also the peak of feudal autocracy, right? To be Cao Cao in the Qing Dynasty? A thousand years ago there were no powerful ministers. You're really daring to say this. If you were in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty, tens of thousands of banner people would stone you to death with just one brick each."

  Xu Yifan burst out laughing: "You haven't seen the popular time-traveling shows, have you? There are even more exaggerated ones than this! Out of a population of 400 million, there are only tens of millions of banner people and an equal number of officials. It's still better to deal with than a group of interests that needs to be supported by dozens of people for the benefit of one public servant! What's so special about Cao Cao? That era coincided with a great change that had not occurred in 3,000 years. Otherwise, how could an imperial dynasty that was at its peak of centralization collapse all at once, without even leaving any ashes behind? If changes were made from then on, it would be much better than the more than 100 years of crooked and twisted path that followed, with every step being bloody!"

  It's rare for Xu Yifan to be so outspoken and confident.

  But I can only vent my frustrations.

  Drunk and sleeping on a beauty's lap, awake and holding power over the world... Now thinking about it, I feel like I've been living like a joke.

  Go back and burn the book. Pack up all the things that are out of place. Find a woman to marry and live a life... Of course, she has to be good-looking.

  At the moment of absent-mindedness and low mood, Zhou suddenly pointed to the back with a whip, and his eyebrows also had a strange expression: "Look at that dark cloud behind!" Xu Yifan turned around and saw that under the clear sky, in the direction behind him, a huge dark cloud was rolling up. It was tumbling like a living thing, with flashes of lightning flashing in the gaps of the cloud. It seemed to be hiding a giant monster inside. This strange cloud was flying quickly towards the north. The boundary between light and shadow on the grassland could be clearly seen. But this cloud and the surrounding clear sky looked completely out of place. You roll your way, I'll be clear my way. It's eerie to the extreme!

  Dark clouds passed by, and there was heavy rain. The long grass was bent down. Two people stared blankly at everything in front of them. After a while, Xu Yifan murmured: "What kind of place is this? Putting on such a natural spectacle for tourists to see?"

  Zhou Xiang only stared at the approaching dark clouds, dazedly using his whip to draw a circle: "This place is called Da Ebo according to Mongolian legend... It's said that these Ebo heaps were built by Genghis Khan himself, and have long since lost their shadows. It's a good place for Mongolians to make wishes to the sky, and it's also said to be very effective... What wish did you make?"

  Xu Yifan slapped the horse's buttocks: "Make a wish to find seven or eight beautiful wives! Let's go quickly! If we get wet, we'll catch pneumonia and I won't be able to play for the next few days!" Zhou Xiang shouted loudly and also spurred his horse to run. But the dark clouds came so quickly that they soon caught up with the two men's shadows. The heavy rain soaked them all at once, and the strong wind under the dark clouds made the two horses neigh and turn around constantly, as if they had sensed something terrifying. The strong wind made it impossible for the two to open their mouths, and the heavy rain made it almost impossible for people to open their eyes. Through the violently swirling rain curtain, however, one could still see that outside the dark clouds, it was still a sunny day!

  At the moment of inexplicable panic, lightning suddenly struck down, tearing out strange shapes in the darkness. The thunder was like an explosion in his ears. The two horses lay down, letting out long whinnies that were drowned out by the thunder. Xu Yifan climbed down and wanted to get closer to Zhou Xiang. Who knows what's going on now? Let's see if this guy has any tricks up his sleeve! Just then, a coarse bolt of lightning struck right above his head, and Xu Yifan's last feeling was that every single hair on his head stood upright!

  Great, very powerful...... I was also struck by lightning......

  In 2007, a minor official of the National Development and Reform Commission, Xu Yifan, went missing. His university classmate Zhou Xiang was unable to explain why he had gone missing and accepted police investigation.

  Where is this? Dark clouds rolled in layers. The mountains and rivers in front of him turned into a dark world. A flash of lightning tore through the dark sky. Faces rose and fell before his eyes, coming and going without end. There were also some strange and desolate cries that filled the heavens. He seemed to be standing on the banks of a great river, watching the white waves roll in exhaustion, with countless heads surging in the waves. A great river flowed backwards! The scenery along the river changed constantly as the water flowed backwards, trees withered and flourished, people turned from white-haired to youthful. Everything was running in reverse. In this strange and fantastical world, everything before Xu Yifan's eyes made his heart tremble with fear!

  A majestic voice resounded in the sky: "I give you this chance!"