Awakening on the River Chapter 1: Memories of the River Town This was a small town embraced by the river, nestled between steep mountains on both sides. It was 2003, and the Yangtze River flowed slowly past the stilt houses by the riverbank, though they were making their final farewell to the water. The Three Gorges Project was about to start storing water soon. Everything was falling apart because of it. The familiar streets and houses now seemed forcibly pieced together, only to be toppled by the roar of machines and buried into deep pits. At the docks, demolition sites and moving vehicles were mixed together, with people bustling in the dust. The shouts of workers and the roar of machinery intertwined, making the place especially noisy. The crowd and the commotion made Li Mingyuan, standing on the rooftop of his high school building, even more restless. He gazed out at the scene, once familiar, now strange. Memories surged like a tide. When he was young, life in his hometown w...