Assets are the different attributes of money over time; essentially, they represent the exchange between present and future money. Buying is using the present to exchange for the future, while selling is exchanging the future for the present. The key is to understand which is more valuable, the future or the present.
The market serves as a basis for this judgment. Of course, for a very small number of outstanding companies, the future will always be stronger than the present, which is a greater force than the bull or bear market.
Capital and the people behind it are diverse; they have different costs and return expectations, and under various market conditions, they will have different expected factors and discount rates. These can lead to significant differences based on the calculations of multipliers and compound interest. This also explains why rational individuals with symmetrical information can engage in transactions and achieve win-win situations, as they have different values, needs, and satisfaction levels.
Economic fluctuations are like shearing sheep; when they grow well, they are sheared, and once sheared, they grow again. Forming good trading habits is crucial, as is one's understanding of trading and the market's money.
Doing anything requires hard work and a long process, which is the most common understanding in society. However, the belief that effort will always yield great rewards is a misconception. Most of the time, effort and reward are often disproportionate, at least in the financial investment market. Most traders do not come to the market to spend money for thrills; the excitement of financial trading and the wealth creation effect are enough to motivate most traders to invest wholeheartedly. Nevertheless, the 80/20 rule remains the most enduring law in this market. Most traders work very hard, but after their efforts, only a few at the top of the pyramid can be said to have reaped substantial rewards.
Systematic trading thinking is the "Dao," and the materialization of the "Dao" is the "tool." A trading system, as a "tool," should have the following basic characteristics:
It must reflect the characteristics of the trading object, trading capital, and trader.
The trading system must reflect the price movement characteristics of the trading object, including the trend and price levels of price movements. The former provides the strategic direction for trading decisions, while the latter provides the tactical entry and exit points for trading. Therefore, the trading system must have a market judgment subsystem, which must at least include two basic components: a trend judgment module and a price level judgment module.
The market trading system must reflect the risk characteristics of trading capital. Regarding the price movement characteristics of risk trading objects, the randomness of individual price movements at a specific time and space and the regularity of overall price movements are a dialectical unity of chance and necessity. Therefore, while acknowledging that the laws of price movement can be revealed, it must also be recognized that random disturbances in prices are inevitable and coexist with their regularity.
Due to the existence of random price disturbances, the market judgment subsystem is bound to make judgment errors, leading to trading risks. Trading risk is specific; it manifests as the potential or actual loss of trading capital, and the magnitude of risk is measured by the proportion of losses to trading capital. Moreover, capital itself has unique risk characteristics, such as the duration of capital occupation, the source of capital, investment purposes, etc., all of which affect the risk attributes of capital.
Therefore, a trading system must not only have market judgment functions but also risk control functions. The trading system must structurally include risk control and capital management subsystems to meet the risk characteristics of capital while achieving precise quantitative control of risk and protecting capital, thereby fulfilling the requirements for capital growth.
The trading system must also reflect the human characteristics of the trader (investor). Trading methods are a scientific art, a science with artistic qualities. Trading methods are constrained by the characteristics of price movements and capital, which is a manifestation of scientific constraints. However, trading methods must also be constrained by human nature, reflecting the personality traits of aggressive, conservative, or stable investors; otherwise, the trading system cannot be accepted by people. The human characteristics of the trading system lead to the artistic nature of trading methods, specifically manifested as different trading strategies with human characteristics.
Thus, if the trading system is private, it must possess the cultural, personality, and experiential characteristics of its developers and users. If the trading system is semi-open and used as a trading tool for fund investment, it should have a library of trading strategies that can accommodate different human characteristics to meet the selective requirements of the fund's board or specific trading management layer.
The cost of financial freedom is the constraints of market psychology and the market behavior of both buyers and sellers.
Identify the overall situation of the financial system, clarify the direction of the trading market, and focus on risk details. Good thinking habits determine tactical success, constructing a trading system suitable for buying and selling oneself.
In investment, what you pursue is the value of the enterprise. Go fishing where there are fish, go fishing where there are bargains.
Think about problems in reverse, and consider the perspective of others. Don't think about what you want; think more about what you want to avoid (what the opposing side is thinking).
First, there is the inertia of thought and body.
The principles of success are actually quite simple: follow common sense, utilize compound interest, maintain a margin of safety, have a moat, stay rational, and operate within your circle of competence... In short, 50 words are definitely enough. But the specific components of successful investment are quite complex.
First, maintain extreme vigilance during the market's frenzied periods and historical high-pressure valuation zones; retreat is the first strategy to keep in mind.
Second, all successful investments are not predicated on "guessing the top." Those who have been well-fed at the foot of the mountain for the past two years will have the fullest qualifications not to "guess the top."
Human society resembles a vast waterworks, with pipelines crisscrossing and money flowing through them.
The outer perimeter of the waterworks is surrounded by a circle of the financial world—
Central banks, commercial banks, the Ministry of Finance, the tax system, the stock market, public and private funds, pension funds, Western economic education.
Inside the waterworks is a pyramid-shaped real economy, with the real estate and industrial systems resembling the solid structure of the pyramid. Within it, the household sector and the corporate sector are nested together.
The financial world delivers money to the top of the real economy pyramid through various pipelines, then irrigates, recycles, and stores it throughout the system.
The financial world and the real economy are separated by white high walls, on which slogans about "building a better world" are written.
From the perspective of the real economy, the white high walls appear so simple, as if the world operates just as those beautiful slogans suggest.
However, behind the high walls, the entire system operates in a complex and precise manner, with those in power in the financial world looking down from high conference rooms over society. Almost half of the 50 largest and most powerful companies globally are financial enterprises.
The entire system is so large and complex that its operation is a mystery to most people.
Moreover, anyone who cannot speak this complex financial language will be excluded from the public debate on how the monetary system should operate. The interpretive power of the financial world is held by a small group of people with financial knowledge.
Money is like water; money is power, and economics puts a rational veneer on production relations.
This work metaphorically represents the entire system as a waterworks system, aiming to make the world of money more accessible through simple and understandable imagery.
You can ask the bank.
✅ Several thick water pipes extend from below the central bank's water tower, providing commercial banks with base currency and various term liquidity, a pipeline for distributing money to the household sector during crises, and a direct supply pipeline to the government through bond purchases, as well as a pipeline used for quantitative easing during crises.
This is the helicopter used to distribute money; it is usually locked:
The central bank also monitors price changes, as maintaining moderate inflation (2%) is one of its core objectives.
At the same time, the central bank monitors the market, with three searchlights directed at commercial banks, the corporate sector, and the household sector, using this to determine the volume and price (interest rates) of water.
This is the central bank's core objective, where maintaining price stability is always the top priority.
This means that the water level cannot be too high, as it would lead to inflation, just like from 2021 to the present.
But it cannot be too low either, as the damage from deflation is more severe than inflation. Just look at the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933; the deflationary spiral can lead banks to tighten lending, even causing the entire waterworks system to collapse.
The central bank's second objective is to ensure full employment, but it seems this goal has already been abandoned.
Instead, it supports government economic policies, and later policymakers added a line below: "At all costs."
Here's a joke: the central bank is independent.
The central bank's monetary toolbox research room is also studying digital currency, and you can see experts adjusting the attributes of digital currency.
The notes on the board reference the digital currency "LIBRA" that Zuckerberg initially promoted, with a note saying, "If you can't beat them, join them."
Digital currency is highly anticipated, as its advantages in promoting currency internationalization, replacing the money-distributing helicopter, and precise targeting are evident.
When economic problems arise, all parties in the waterworks will demand that the central bank open the valves and increase the water flow. When the entire system encounters issues, it often means a reduction in water flow and a slowdown in water movement. Thus, the central bank has developed various unconventional monetary tools—they are given various complex names, but essentially, they are all about injecting liquidity.
Government departments
Next, let's take a look at the government departments adjacent to the central bank; this is their full picture:
Digging into the details:
✅ The "monetization of fiscal policy" in the image below is considered a taboo; the very thick pipe in the image originates from the "direct supply to the Ministry of Finance" pipeline in image 2.
"Monetization of fiscal policy" means that when the government faces a fiscal deficit, it does not finance its deficit by borrowing money (such as issuing bonds in the market) but instead prints money to finance the deficit. The "printing money" here means that the government instructs the central bank to print money, which can take the form of the central bank permanently holding government-issued bonds.
Some proponents of "monetization of fiscal policy" argue that these bonds issued to the central bank do not need to be repaid, and the government does not actually need to pay interest; even if interest must be paid, it can borrow money from the central bank to do so.
The difference between "borrowing money" and "printing money" to cover the deficit may seem like just one word, but the long-term impact on macroeconomics, fiscal sustainability, and financial stability is vastly different.
Images often convey information more clearly than words; the peculiarity here is—if "monetization of fiscal policy" is a taboo, then why is there such a thick pipe here? It should not exist.
Government departments collect various suggestions and opinions from the real economy, hold internal meetings to discuss, and then launch various policies and resolutions, followed by press conferences to synchronize with society.
Government departments collect various suggestions and opinions from the real economy, hold internal meetings to discuss, and then launch various policies and resolutions, followed by press conferences to synchronize with society.
Government departments prepare budgets every year, planning how to spend money.
For finance, expenditures are rigid, and the actual spending is always more than planned, so fiscal deficits are the norm, and the overspending is covered by "national debt," which connects directly to the real economy:
The "fiscal expenditure" pipeline flows directly into the real economy:
Tax system
The tax system has always been the main source of fiscal revenue, aimed at preventing excessive distribution within the pyramid of the real economy. Theoretically, the higher the income, the heavier the tax burden.
The government then spends the collected money through fiscal expenditures, taking from the people and using it for the people.
This is the full picture of the tax system:
Looking closely at its internal structure, interesting details emerge:
✅ The tax burden across three major classes
The tax pyramid in the image below reaffirms the approximate layering ratio of the household sector:
1% wealthy - 9% middle class - 40% middle-income - 50% low-income groups
The pie charts in the image below display key data on income, wealth distribution, tax rates, and surplus rates for the household sector.
The 50% low-income group holds 2% of total wealth, 8% of total income, and bears over 50% of the actual tax burden and an unclear surplus rate.
The 40% middle-income group holds 22% of total wealth, earns 40% of total income, bears 40% of the actual tax burden, and has a surplus rate of around 24%.
The 9% middle class holds 38% of total wealth, earns 33% of total income, bears 36% of the actual tax burden, and has an 8% surplus rate.
The 1% wealthy group holds 38% of total wealth, earning 19% of total income, with tax burden and surplus rate unspecified.
Looking closely at this wealthy platform, they own companies and social resources, using various means to interact directly with tax authorities rather than paying the taxes they owe.
They arrange the social ranking, and even built a helicopter landing pad. Wait! Where did the helicopter come from? Oh! It turns out to be the helicopter responsible for distributing money in image 3.
✅ An important reason for the unfair tax burden is:
Capital gains tax rates < personal income tax rates
In other words, if your core production resource is yourself and your main income source is labor income, then the tax rate you bear is higher than those who profit from capital!
At the same time, it is well known that capital return rates > wage income growth rates.
Every crisis moment in the world of money is precisely a good opportunity for the 1% wealthy to significantly increase their wealth, and the K-shaped divergence since 2020 is a reflection of this pattern.
Because when problems arise, liquidity must be injected, and the pipeline system determines that water drips from the top of the pyramid downwards.
The trigger condition for capital gains tax is selling; therefore, as long as one does not sell, there is no tax to pay.
However, if one does not sell, how can they have money to spend? They can pledge their stocks and then use low-interest loans to extract money!
This is the two public secrets of the wealthy:
① No sell, no tax.
② Buy, borrow, die. Each step avoids taxation.
The distribution system and pipeline system determine that most people in the real economy will not benefit when the financial world operates well, as profit recognition and asset price increases belong only to a small group. However, the real economy will certainly bear the costs when the financial world is in a drought.
✅ The middle class is always eager to calculate personal income tax deductions to see how much they saved, but when they look at the comparison of the thickness of the "income tax" and "capital gains tax" pipes in image 16, they will realize the absurdity of the middle class...
Real Economy Pyramid
Next, let's shift our focus to the interior of the waterworks and examine this pyramid symbolizing the real economy.
Just as water nourishes plant growth, money is like water; it drives the operation of the entire economy.
The flow of water within the real economy pyramid starts from the largest companies at the top. Being at the top of the industrial chain, they continuously extract water from the real economy (yellow line), then spend necessary costs, expenses, and capital expenditures (blue line), storing the remaining water.
At the same time, different major shareholders, professional managers, and small shareholders all demand that the company allocate a significant portion of retained profits for dividends or buybacks (red line)—this money flows into the hands of those in the household sector who hold stocks like a stable and ever-widening river.
✅ The costs, expenses, and capital expenditures (blue line) paid by large enterprises flow down layer by layer, driving the operation of the industrial system. However, with each layer of cost-cutting (refer to the distribution in image 15), the water flow becomes thinner as it goes down.
Wages flow little by little through the waterworks pipeline into the savings jars of the household sector, and in exchange, the vast majority of people must work.
** To survive and live, everyone must sell their time and labor to earn money, and then use that money to exchange for goods.
Every commodity has two kinds of value: one is "use value," and the other is "exchange value."
The use value of a commodity means that a loaf of bread can fill a stomach.
The exchange value of a commodity means that if you have no money to buy bread, you either have to find a kind person to give it to you for free or starve to death. Even though the bread is right there, you will starve to death.
✅ Professional managers will formulate the company's operational and production plans.
✅ Middle-class white-collar workers in cubicles will implement the leaders' plans one by one:
✅ Finally, blue-collar workers earning middle incomes will be responsible for fulfilling the circulation:
The production of goods comes from almost non-stop assembly lines.
The people here have no names; they are referred to as factory brothers and sisters. Their greatest advantage is called "labor cost," and their consumption aggregation is referred to as the "lower-tier market."
They are the groups that are not covered by Xiaohongshu; they are rarely seen except when people within the Fifth Ring Circle report on the lower-tier market with curiosity. Most of the time, they are just a number in consumption reports.
The most arduous and heavy work is often completed in the harshest environments.
✅ Many people in the low-income group cannot cover the most basic survival needs—housing, medical care, education, and hot meals.
Life is not easy for the middle-income group either; they can always vaguely feel that the increase in prices and rents outpaces income growth, and they often find themselves in tight situations as the end of the month approaches.
Many still want to believe in the simple and beautiful wish that "as long as you work hard, you can live a good life." They hang some totems on the wall to motivate and comfort themselves.
There are also many who believe that the narrative of struggle and success has collapsed; reality is too bitter, and they prefer to resort to cyber mysticism and those quick dopamine hits.
Of course, there are those who have no idea what they should be calling for or opposing.
✅ The middle class, as shown in image 21, lives relatively well, anxiously concerned about class descent or ascension, while believing that they will do better and can obtain more passive income through investments.
The financial market seems to operate independently of the real economy, but this work has clearly told us that both are parts of the system.
An asset has valuation because a part of the system is responsible for it—
A person's "passive income" often means that another person has to work actively.
The profits that large enterprises return to shareholders come from goods or services provided by others.
The rental income of landlords comes from tenants working hard and paying rent.
✅ The wealthy class seems generous, but their willingness to consume is far less intense than their willingness to invest and manage wealth.
Holding the most wealth, they continuously invest money into the two major wealth storage containers: "real estate" and "financial markets," forming an exceptionally stable investment river throughout the pyramid.
Financial professionals like to call it "the great era of wealth management."
✅ The wealthy class is never stingy with their educational investments for the next generation, describing it as "educational capital expenditure."
Compared to income inequality and wealth inequality, the most brutal injustice in the world is opportunity inequality.
✅ Of course, descendants from all classes are participating in peer competition to the best of their abilities, competing with each other under the meritocratic system.
"Enduring hardship" is to succeed without considering oneself human, while "being above others" means not treating others as human after achieving success:
The slope of economic growth and cycles will determine people's paradigms of thought, leading many commonly accepted beliefs to present vastly different meanings under different historical contexts.
Pension Funds
✅ Another major task of this waterworks is to ensure the pensions of the household sector as much as possible.
To this end, the tax system mandates that the labor force pay social security, which is equivalent to forced savings for their future pensions.
This portion of money is generally divided into two directions: one part is directly transferred to the retired generations, while the other part becomes the principal for long-term investments of the social security fund, simultaneously credited to individual pension accounts.
✅ Unsurprisingly, the pension levels of different classes also vary significantly.
✅ Under the trend of an aging population and fewer children, the pressure on social security is immense, which is a challenge for most economies:
With the development of financial markets, many countries' pension funds invest more externally than internally.
For example, to achieve a long-term annualized return of 6-7%, pension funds will diversify their investments across assets with different risk-return ratios.
In a low-interest-rate environment, the returns on government and low-risk corporate bonds are decreasing. To achieve target returns, pension funds will increase the proportion of equity investments and entrust various external institutions to invest, with this money competing for higher returns through financial channels between Amsterdam, Shanghai, London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
In the equity portion of pension fund investments, you will find many familiar names:
In addition to those well-known large companies, there are also renowned investment institutions like BlackRock, Vanguard, Bridgewater, Blackstone, KKR, 3G Capital, and Hillhouse.
Large mutual funds and hedge funds manage complex investment portfolios, and some have a "too big to fall" flavor. They are often invited as guests by banks and other financial heavyweights (as shown in the hidden door below), and the policy advice they provide directly impacts their investment portfolios, making the conflicts of interest self-evident.
Just like Bridgewater, which has recently been embroiled in conspiracy theories, the New York Times financial reporter Copeland's witch hunt against Dalio cannot be confirmed or refuted, but people tend to believe that there is some dark operation involved...
Public mutual funds are also an important avenue for household wealth to invest in the stock market, serving as a wealth storage container.
✅ There are also private equity funds, which, besides being more flexible, diverse, and opaque in their investment targets and methods, many large private equity firms will acquire companies, then lay off and restructure, packaging valuable businesses for IPOs or sales. Meanwhile, those worthless businesses will self-destruct with their debts. This is also why private equity is referred to as vultures or vampires.
Professional investors will also steadily and subtly extract substantial management fees and performance rewards from clients' investment flows, becoming wealthy in the process, often buying yachts before their clients do.
Stock Market#
The stock market segment of this illustration has inspired me significantly; the author vividly depicts the principle of stock price fluctuations—buyers and sellers stand on a seesaw, and whoever has more weight determines the price level's rise and fall.
As stock prices rise, they inflate the balloon above until the bubble bursts, causing the water level to drop.
It also showcases the different investment schools' approaches—
Some focus on the water level column in image 38, studying the balance of buying and selling forces and price trends.
Some focus on the corporate reservoirs in image 19, examining the inflow and outflow of funds, studying who has significant water flow changes (economic conditions) and who has stable water flow.
Some study the positions of different companies in the pyramid (moats), determining at which order they can access the water flow and how much they can save.
Commercial Banks#
Let's shift our focus back to the financial market and examine the commercial banking system.
✅ On the left side of image 40 is the commercial bank, and on the right side is the real economy pyramid. The passage between them is the most obvious link between the real economy pyramid and the financial world—
Commercial banks provide financial leverage to households and businesses, but their attitudes and pricing differ significantly across classes.
Low- and middle-income groups can only apply for high-interest credit loans or student loans.
The middle class can apply for low-interest mortgages or secured business loans with their property deeds.
The common characteristic of these two groups is that they both need to approach the bank to apply.
Banks will review them—where they come from, where they work, their income, whether their credit is clean, whether they have other assets or debts, and whether they can rely on family support, etc.
In contrast, the wealthy class can wait for banks to proactively approach them with low-interest credit offers.
Yes, commercial banks excel at providing additional benefits but are rarely (due to policy pressure) able to provide assistance in times of need.
Banks will offer low-interest rates for companies with good collateral, high loan limits, and strong repayment capabilities, but they will not raise interest rates for companies that do not meet ESG standards or pollute the environment.
✅ Commercial banks are the amplifiers of the entire waterworks system. Through the deposit and loan activities of the real economy, the entire system's water flow increases out of thin air (money creation).
Similarly, deposit and loan activities also allow the real economy and the banking system to complete a "balance sheet" swap—
Deposits made by the real economy in banks constitute the bank's liability side, for which banks must pay deposit interest.
Conversely, loans applied for by the real economy from banks constitute the bank's asset side, for which banks must collect loan interest.
The difference between deposit interest rates and loan interest rates is the main source of profit for banks.
A large amount of loans from commercial banks flows into the real economy pyramid, primarily stored in the form of real estate and industrial capacity, which continuously drives up real estate prices.
For example, from 2006 to early 2023, the price increase in China's four major first-tier cities was at least 10%, which is a very attractive return.
The wealth of landlords and tenants diverges in this process, and many people's fates change accordingly. The enormous profit-making effect and economic development have encouraged more middle- and high-income individuals in large cities to take out loans to buy homes.
From another perspective, these loans do not contribute to productivity and economic growth. On the contrary, while they drive up housing prices, they also widen the wealth gap, increase urban living costs, and rising housing prices lead to higher rents, forcing tenants to pay more rent and subsequently demand higher wages from employers—if they have bargaining power.
Since 2021, the proportion of real estate loans in China has steadily decreased from a peak of 28.7% to around 23%, while the proportion of loans flowing to the industrial system, agricultural system, and small and micro enterprises has steadily increased.
In terms of new loans, the flow to industry and small and micro enterprises has significantly surpassed that of real estate.
When viewed annually, this change in water flow is evident and dramatic.
✅ The loan behavior of the real economy has also placed a stable debt flow on the entire pyramid:
Outside the balance sheets of commercial banks, there exists a similarly large "shadow banking system."
These entities perform financial activities similar to banks to some extent but do not belong to the traditional banking system and are not subject to the same regulations and oversight.
Shadow banking activities often involve various financial derivatives, investment funds, brokerages, and other non-traditional financing tools. These activities are typically executed through legal structures or financial engineering methods, making them difficult to track directly on traditional banks' balance sheets.
However, they also have a significant impact on the financial system and may lead to systemic risks.
For example, in the United States: the rise of new shadow banks during this interest rate hike cycle has not attracted much attention.
The low-interest-rate assets of the past decade and the current high-interest-rate assets have created a massive arbitrage space—
For instance, money market funds with rates of 5% or more, approximately $6 trillion in size, over $2 trillion in reverse repos on the Fed's balance sheet, quantitative funds, banks' intermediary businesses, and various bizarre financial derivatives...
In other words, the high-interest-rate environment brought about by rate hikes has not led to a return of funds from finance to the real economy; rather, the shadow banking system has a stronger ability to lock in interest rates.
Narrow Door
Let's take a look at the narrow door through which the real pyramid enters the financial world—economic education. The passage is directly built on the upper social layer of the real pyramid; it appears magnificent, leading straight to the hall of rational individuals. However, it suddenly narrows as it approaches the end...
Next, prepare to accept the brainwashing ceremony of economics!
In terms of expression, I love the treatment of the image below; note the painting illuminated by searchlights on the wall, which embodies the essence and totem of economics, as economics cloaks production relations in a rational guise:
Next comes a series of selection processes:
First, those rebellious young people who do not love to study are deemed unworthy of receiving respectable economic education and will be eliminated (right 1).
Then, classic books and theories will be stamped into everyone's minds, aligning their thoughts for future uniform recitation (right 2).
Next, they will be shaped uniformly through rules and frameworks (left 2).
Finally, they will pay money to enter the economics pipeline, beginning their ascent (left 1).
Following the planned route, they study and kneel, accompanied by classic theories and masters, growing increasingly distant from reality and more "rational."
On this "orthodox" path, a multitude of Nobel laureates illuminate the way for you:
The market is fair, money is neutral, we believe in rationality...
Although this pyramid structure feels wrong, these are all the results of the natural rational evolution of the market. The "essence of poverty" must be attributed to individual flaws and adverse local environments; otherwise, what else could it be?
Economics is not physics; it is sociology and also political science. No matter how brilliant your theories are, can they surpass those of Nobel laureates?
Don't think about it; as long as you are willing to walk this path, you can obtain a ticket to the financial world, possess the interpretive power over financial markets, and either engage in money-making or publish academic papers, achieving fame and success.
Meanwhile, those rebellious individuals, rejected by the orthodoxy, discover that there is a narrow path of economics waiting for them, along which they can also ascend:
✅ This is a relatively niche and challenging path compared to the grand hall, but there are also masters accompanying them—Veblen, Minsky, Schumpeter, Keynes, Hayek, Marx...
The three authors are:
Carlijn Kingma - Illustrator (left) Thomas Bollen - Economist, Writer (middle) Martijn van der Linden - Finance Professor (right)
In early 2021, during the peak of the Federal Reserve's fourth round of quantitative easing, this project was initiated, taking 14 months of research, interviewing over 100 individuals, including central bank governors, pension fund managers, bankers, politicians, and monetary scholars, sketching hundreds of drafts and verifying with relevant parties, before finally starting to draw, which took nearly 5 months and over 2,200 hours to complete this work.
Chinese version
Ultra-clear large image Chinese version