In the middle of the night, An Ran woke to repeated phone calls. The caller said a document was urgently needed tomorrow—no, this morning—and ordered her to finish it quickly and hand it over.
An Ran had been woken up and was expected to work in the middle of the night. Anger flared in her chest. If the other party had not hung up so quickly, she would have cursed them out.
After hanging up, An Ran contorted her face and unleashed a stream of curses, but she still got up to work. If not for the high salary, she would have resigned long ago.
Even the high salary was no longer enough to make her endure it. But it was already May, with half the year nearly gone, so she planned to wait until the end of the year, collect her annual bonus, and resign afterward.
As she worked, An Ran collapsed onto the desk. Her breathing grew rapid, and she clutched her heart, her face contorted with pain. She tried to reach for her phone, but the pain was too intense for her to move.
At the same time, a shining, unidentified object passed through the window outside and landed on her.
【Ding, the Myriad Realms Livestream system requests permission to bind. Host An Ran, do you agree?】
An Ran was in too much pain to make out what was being said beside her. She only managed a hum—a moan of pain—but the other party evidently took it as consent.
【Ding, host An Ran has agreed. Binding successful. The host’s life is in critical danger. The System has advanced Points on credit to save her. The System lacks sufficient energy and is entering dormancy. A machine assistant will manage the Livestream. Host, please earn enough Points as soon as possible to repay the debt.】
As the mechanical voice faded, An Ran’s consciousness faded with it.
Meanwhile, an App installed itself on An Ran’s phone without a sound.
Early the next morning, An Ran woke and felt as though her arm no longer belonged to her. It was sore, aching, swollen, and numb. Her spirits, however, were good, and she felt as if she had slept soundly.
Slept soundly? An Ran jolted upright and picked up her phone to check the time. It was already past ten, long after work had begun. Her supervisor had called several times.
She had slept through it—or rather, she had passed out. She had not heard anything at all.
Since she was already late, there was no need to hurry. Besides, recalling what had happened in the middle of the night, she still felt shaken. The terror and agony of death approaching continued to haunt her.
She could not go on like this. She would not wait until the end of the year; she would resign now. Before that, though, she would use all the Annual Leave she had failed to take.
After requesting leave, An Ran put down her phone, unconcerned about whether the company approved it, and went to wash up. Once she finished, she lay on the bed and enjoyed her rare vacation.
Come to think of it, before passing out, she had heard some kind of voice. Had it been an Auditory hallucination? She could not remember what it had said, so An Ran dismissed the matter.
For now, the most urgent matter was ordering some takeout. She was starving.
She opened a food-delivery App and began selecting dishes one by one.
The people of The Various Dynasties saw images appear on the black curtain that had hung in Heaven for several days. One dish after another appeared on it.
When they first saw it, everyone assumed the strange black sight was an ominous sign. But several days passed without anything happening, and they returned to their usual lives. In any case, even if it was an omen, they could not escape it—especially the Common people living through eras of great Famine. Some thought dying like this would not be so bad. They never expected it to show movement today.
“What is that?”
“Heavens! Have the immortals manifested?”
“Could that be immortal food eaten by the immortals?”
“As expected of food eaten by immortals. Every dish looks delicious.”
Some impoverished Common people knelt and begged Heaven to give them something to eat. They did not demand anything so fine; leftovers would do.
In the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang reviewed Bamboo Slips when he heard an uproar outside. He frowned and asked in a deep voice, “Why is there such a commotion?”
A panicked eunuch rushed in. “Your Majesty, there has been movement on that black curtain in Heaven!”
“What?” Ying Zheng rose and went outside the hall. Several Court Ministers stood beside him as he looked at the food that had appeared in Heaven.
Zhao Gao was the first to recover. He flattered Ying Zheng, saying, “Such exquisite delicacies must be Heaven’s congratulations to Your Majesty on the Unification of the Six States!”
The others recovered and echoed him. Compared with the black curtain from before, this scene looked more like an auspicious sign.
Ying Zheng looked at the strange sight in Heaven and listened to the congratulations from the Court Ministers beside him. He burst into laughter and ordered people to spread the news.
Whether it was truly a Divine Miracle did not matter. If he said it was, then it was.
The Han Dynasty emperors Liu Bang, Liu Che, and the others also saw the strange sight in Heaven.
Naturally, they spoke of another Divine Miracle, Heaven protecting the Great Han, and congratulations to Your Majesty. Then they watched the food in Heaven and drooled. It looked far too delicious.
Even they, as emperors, had never seen such food. Still, that was only natural—it was food belonging to the immortals.
Liu Che said to the chief eunuch beside him, “Have the food official see whether they can make this food in the same way.”
Before the Tang Dynasty, people almost exclusively boiled and stewed their food. Since they lacked both the methods and the ingredients, recreating these delicacies would be difficult. After the Tang Dynasty, especially during the Song Dynasty, stir-frying became popular. Wealthy households that saw these dishes sent their servants to make them.
They even demanded that the dishes be exactly the same. That way, they would eat the same food as the immortals. Perhaps they would become immortals themselves one day! They eagerly looked forward to it.
After ordering her Takeout, An Ran opened Douyin and scrolled through Videos to pass the time.
【Which Historical figure do you feel the most sorry for?
Everyone condemned him as a tyrant, yet ignored his achievements. Without him, China would no longer be Huaxia, and Huaxia would no longer be China. — Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng.
As beautiful as jade beneath a stranger’s moon, the Young master was unmatched beneath Heaven, yet he took his own life because of a forged Imperial Edict. — Qin Fusu.
He could have lived in wealth, fine clothes, delicious food, freedom, and abandon, yet he went to war for the Nation. He died young at twenty-four. With the Xiongnu still undefeated, how could he have a home? — Western Han Huo Qubing.
The high-speed rail from Chengdu to Xi’an takes no more than four hours. The Chancellor could not complete that journey in an entire lifetime. — Shu Han Zhuge Liang.
After I die, do not carve any words on my tombstone. Let my Examination Honors be judged by my Descendants. — Wu Zhou Wu Zetian.
A scholar unmatched in combat and a military commander who composed poetry and literary couplets—they should have been Heaven’s favored sons, but they were born at the wrong time. — Southern Song Xin Qiji.
He devoted himself to serving the Nation and reclaiming the lost lands. He could shatter the Jin army’s iron hooves, but not the slander of treacherous ministers. He died with his name unjustly tarnished. — Southern Song Yue Fei.
…………
In the Comments:
“My fascinating Revered Ancestor! He only wanted longevity, so why would Heaven not grant it to him? Why? I do not want to learn English!”
“Tang Sanzang, you useless fool, could you not have walked into Qin Shi Huang’s mouth?”
“That useless Xu Fu could not even find the Longevity medicine. Come to think of it, would he have lived a few years longer if he had not taken Alchemical Pills? I forget where I read it, but Qin Shi Huang’s early death may also have been caused by an illness of his own.”
“Perhaps even if illness killed him, the Alchemical Pills still played a role. They contained so many Heavy Metals. Anyone who ate them every day would die. How many Emperors in history did Alchemical Pills poison to death?”
“Give our Revered Ancestor a few more centuries, and the whole world will speak China’s language.”
“What a pity about Fusu. If he had not died, Qin would not have undergone collapse in the second generation.”
“Xin Qiji and Yue Fei. Great Song had many famous ministers and generals, but its Emperors were all unreliable.”
“Great Song, Great Coward, Great Giveaway, ha-ha! It had the best economy of any dynasty, and three of the Four Great Inventions came from the Song Dynasty. It was dealt an excellent hand and still played it into a complete mess.”
“The Emperors of the Song family were all Fatuous Rulers and oddballs. Have you ever seen someone win a war and still pay the other side an Indemnity? No wonder it was called the Great Giveaway.”
“My chancellor!”
“Young General Huo Qubing! Fenglang Juxu, at only twenty-four, and he died far too young.”
“The only Female Emperor in history was truly magnanimous. If her Heir had been a woman, would women in the later dynasties not have faced fewer constraints?”
“That would require many later generations of Emperors to be women. Only a larger number of female rulers could make that possible. Otherwise, once men seized political power, women’s status would remain just as low. Men who lack ability can defend their own position only by oppressing women and preventing them from rising—the arrogant, insecure, petty men!”
】
The people whose names appeared were all somewhat shocked.
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