Chapter One: Back to the Three Kingdoms

Section One: The Call of the Distant Mountains

May 1999. The sky was gloomy. I was playing bridge with a few friends in my house. At that moment, a scientific documentary, “Exploring the Mysteries of Shennongjia,” was airing on TV. The enchanting scenery made us lose interest in the game, and we all put down our cards at the same time.

I am a businessman, born into a family of educators. I was originally a high school chemistry teacher, but an incident three years ago made me resign and go into business. At that time, my parents were planning to move overseas to join my elder brother, who was teaching in the United States.

Three years ago, my parents wanted me to go to America with them, but I was in the midst of a passionate romance and refused their kind offer. Helpless, my parents left me this apartment and some money before setting off on their own. But what happened afterward left a mark on me for life.

After my parents left, my girlfriend, who had expected to move to America with me, left in disappointment. I had thought she didn’t care about such things, that we could be together for life, that she loved me...

In the days that followed, I didn’t even know how I got through them. Unconsciously, I quit my teaching job and used the money my parents left to start a company and go into business.

Three years passed just like that. As time went by, I became more and more grateful for the experience she left me. Oaths of eternal love can’t be trusted, let alone the so-called friends in business. With this vigilance, and relying on business contacts my parents introduced from overseas, I became an agent for several brands, and my business gradually got on track.

I was raised with a proper education by my parents and, after years in business, didn’t pick up any bad habits. Apart from being close with a few secretaries, I just liked to play bridge with a few friends. Anyone who’s played bridge knows it’s a game with complex calculations, and few people know how to play. Plus, there are always people who like to cheat and collude with partners. So, in my circle, it’s really hard to find friends who play by the rules, are reasonable, and don’t cheat.

These bridge friends are the ones who remained after years of testing and adjustment. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but they’re all teachers—perhaps because life in the ivory tower keeps them less tainted by the world. After years of my guidance, they finally share my philosophy: rules are rules, and without rules, nothing works. If you don’t plan to follow the rules, then don’t play. If you want to play, you must follow the rules of the game.

However, awkwardly, ever since they understood this principle, their situations at work haven’t been great. I often think, perhaps this principle doesn’t fit this era, doesn’t fit today’s China...

The documentary on TV was coming to an end, and by now none of us felt like playing cards anymore. William Bennett, a mechanical engineering instructor at X Steel Plant, was the first to speak: “A paradise on earth.”

David Clark, who had just finished his master’s in medicine and stayed on to teach, said with a professional eye, “It’s truly a treasure trove of Chinese medicine.”

Brian Cooper, a high school physics teacher with a special interest in mysterious things, said passionately, “The Shennongjia wild man is one of the four great mysteries of the world today. Thousands of years have passed, the human genome has been mapped, humans can travel to the moon and Mars to explore the secrets of space, but right here beside us, we still don’t understand a single mountain.”

I couldn’t resist the temptation either and said, “I’ve always paid attention to Shennongjia. It’s said to be the place where the Han people, in their primitive days, had Shennong taste hundreds of herbs. Because of Shennong’s herb tasting, the Han people developed agricultural and herbal medicine techniques, which led to the development of Han culture. Strangely, the only epic of the Han people was also discovered there.”