I’m Not a Robot, I’m a Traveler Across Worlds

In 2187, the cold gleam of metal has swallowed the world. Robots take care of every “unnecessary kindness.” Lin Yan, a programmer and former national sanda champion, clutches the old inkstone his mother left him. The green nutritional supplement tastes nothing like a home-cooked meal. He knows this frigid future is the inevitable result of modern society losing its human touch.

To recover the warmth devoured by efficiency, Lin Yan dismantles future technology to build a time machine and travels back through time with a miniature inkstone. He will visit Weiyang Palace in the Western Han dynasty and deliver a letter from an ordinary family, so Emperor Wu can see how state monopolies on salt and iron have harmed the people. He will journey along the Silk Road in the prosperous Tang dynasty, protecting a female merchant's silkworm eggs as they cross the sands, so the bond between two distant places won't be severed by bandits. He will also go to Bianjing in the Northern Song dynasty and help Zhang Zeduan capture the warmth of everyday life in Along the River During the Qingming Festival...

From a spearman in the Warring States period to a copyist's bamboo slips in the Ming dynasty, Lin Yan's outgoing nature helps him open the doors of history, his sanda skills protect key figures, and his programmer's logic helps him unravel the crises of each era. Each time he corrects a pivotal decision, another “piece of human connection” appears on the time machine's dashboard, and a ray of warmth seeps into the metallic future.

He isn't a cold machine, but a traveler who pieces the ages together. With five thousand years of everyday life, he will warm a brand-new future filled with laughter, tears, and people who care for one another.