The novel opens with the protagonist, zhu, asking the reader when he sent the first volume of the story to his friend. The protagonist tells zhu that his pen name is so outdated that he never dreamed that he would be famous. He also tells the reader that the name of the protagonist's character in the story is the same as that of a character in a martial-arts movie that he was watching at the time. This is the first chapter of the novel, and the protagonist asks zhu when he is going to finish the story. zhu tells him that the wind is blowing so hard that he can't even see the finish line. He asks the protagonist to leave him with his job, and zhu says that he'll bring the second volume later if he wants. He tells the protagonist that he doesn't like to read on the pc, so he had the novel printed out on the paper. He says that it's hard to see the finished product when the wind blows so hard, and that he has to wait until he has time to finish his story. When zhu asks when he's going to complete the story, the protagonist says that they are going to paddle, and he asks them to drop their boats. They're exceeding them, and they need to stop. They all want to be fired, but the protagonist tells them that they're wasting their time. He calls them all "burdens" and says that the race organizers must have cheated, because they didn't have enough fuel to keep their boats going. He wants to call the organizer, but he refuses to listen to him, saying that he