Jin Hai County lay south of Guangqing Prefecture, situated on the Luoyang Plateau, whose elevation steadily climbed. Although the county land was flat, it was a place of yellow earth and wind-blown sand, marked by drastic temperature swings between day and night. Rain fell almost exclusively in autumn.
As a result of this harsh environment,
The people here truly lived a life of toil on the land, most of them surviving by planting a superior strain of wheat, one resistant to both drought and cold.
Every early autumn,
When the wheat was on the cusp of ripening, standing tall and robust,
Viewed from the vast sky above, the endless tracts of golden wheat fields resembled ocean waves—a magnificent sight that gave Jin Hai County its name.
RUMBLE—
A sea of thunder roiled as the sky turned black as ink.
Across the yellow earth, a gale howled, carrying clouds of sand. As far as the eye could see, the world was dim and hazy.
This autumn was far too strange.
