Zhou Li once talked with the author about the original intention of writing this book. "I can't contain the great passion accumulated by life. I can't let myself not write. " In writing this biographical novel, Zhou Li agreed with Ullen Nikis, a professor at Columbia University and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for biographical literature: a truly outstanding biographer always has enough courage to choose his own rules, and the most important thing is to reflect the characters profoundly and positively from the great background of the times. Zhou Li said: What I read in the book is not only Zhou Li, but also some stories of my contemporaries. Other people related to "I" in the book, such as Yang Pei, don't all come from a single or realistic life prototype.