This is the story of many years ago, the past of everything that happened afterward.

At that time, Sidi Busse in Tunisia was a romantic blue town, and white jasmine flowers were tied into small bunches pinned to the ears of the town's men; The ancient city of Sana'a in Yemen is a symphony of honey, coffee, hand-fingered lamb and carter leaves, a reflection of the bright moon and a scimitar; The small city of Hama in Syria is an ancient watermill country with unforgettable vanilla-flavored ice cream; Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, is a museum of mummies and gold masks, and an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage that attracts tourists on the Nile and riverside roads with its seductive lights and shadows at night; The green square of Tripoli, Libya, is the smell of Arabic shisha on a noisy night.

At that time, my company was quietly focused on the single market of telecom operators, quietly working for a better future world. While there is already talk of its leadership and management in bookstores at airports and stations, most people outside the telecommunications industry don't know its name. There is no inexplicability on the Internet that "boiled" this and "shocked" that, and there was no tireless questioning, investigation, hearing, veto, ban, and entity list on the other side of the ocean.

At that time, I met so many young faces, simple and vivid, easy-going and stubborn; They come from China's east, west, north, south, big cities and small towns; They don't have fresh clothes, they just have black computer bags, and the care of the people who love them; They carry heavy computer bags and heavy worries on their backs, and walk all corners of the world.

They are insignificant little people, but they are also witnesses and witnesses of an era, and they are their own creators.

What I have written is not a diary that can be matched, but a "workplace novel" that tells the story of the struggles of Chinese technology companies going overseas, a "youth novel" that records the growth process of young people struggling elsewhere, and a "style novel" that depicts the customs and customs of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

This is the first decade of the 21st century, Chinese enterprises and Chinese suddenly encountered the era of "globalization", and the workplace, youth and customs are very different from the past.

The companies and characters in the novel are "pure fiction, and if there are similarities, it is a coincidence".

What I want to pay tribute to is not an elephant, but to the little ants who have passed by silently on the road over the years, to their youth and youth, to their joys, angers and sorrows, and to this imperfect world.

All the past is prologue.

BTW，

2022 follow-up:

"Dancing with the Sand" is the first part of my heart's trilogy, which is about the novelty and courage of the first decade of this century.

Since December 2021, my second "Dancing with the Clouds" has also begun to be serialized in "Reading at the Starting Point", "WeChat Reading", "QQ Reading", etc., which talks about the passion and anxiety of the second decade.

"Dancing with the Sand" feels like a half-novel, half-essay, right?

"Dancing with the Clouds" strives to portray the characters more fully and tell the story more vividly on the basis of "Dancing with the Sand", so that everyone can see more things.

Thank you for continuing to read and continue to listen to my stories about Qian Dan, Lao Xie, and Lu Wentao.

Thank you for comments, retweets, recommendations, likes, tips, and so on.