At the turn of the millennium, Cai Jun, a young literature enthusiast, met a mysterious peer named Zhang Hai, sparking a strange friendship and a web of grudges. Both children of workers at the Chunshen Factory, they secretly investigated the mystery surrounding the engineer's murder and searched for the missing factory director-only to witness the ancient factory reduced to ashes. Time has taken its toll; though the place remains, the people have changed. the two reunited after a funeral, rekindling their obsession to "bring the plant manager back." Guided by the "dreams" of a departed soul, Cai Jun led a group of retired workers-the "elders and young ones" of the Chunshen Factory-on a harrowing journey spanning a century of Shanghai's history, across most of China, and even halfway around the globe, to uncover a truth woven with love and desire, culminating in the flames of Notre-Dame de Paris... From a pair of teenagers to two men, two funerals ignite a twenty-year journey of mystery and fantasy. From a large blue-and-white porcelain jar, a series of entanglements is unearthed-long, final, and eerie. From Shanghai to Paris, from dreams to the real world, red and black, love and redemption...
