What if your phone held a version of yourself from a thousand years in the future?
In the third year of Emperor Jingyuan Li Chang’s reign, a warning of the nation’s impending fall jolts him awake. A strange object appears in his sleeve and lights up. Calling itself [Future Me], it sends him a map of the enemy’s defenses: “Give them a little taste of scientific shock.”
From repeating crossbows to crude gunpowder, from phonetic letters to punctuation marks, Li Chang follows guidance from across time to forge divine weapons, quell rebellions, enlighten the people, and build schools. The court officials kneel and proclaim that he is destined to rule, while his old enemies in the Northern Di are utterly routed.
But the blueprints sent by [Future Me] grow increasingly dangerous:
Flying iron birds, blast-furnace steelmaking, a comprehensive legal code...
When the Institute of Practical Studies begins teaching “questioning authority,” and the Jiangnan gentry use the new learning to counter imperial power, Li Chang finally realizes that what he has unleashed is not only a cure to save the nation, but also a raging fire capable of consuming the entire age.
“Your Majesty, the people should be made to follow, not to understand!” the old minister weeps.
“If the people remain unenlightened, what is a powerful nation but rotting timber?” Li Chang sweeps out his sleeve. Behind him, the blackboard is covered in strange symbols.
Where will this cross-temporal contest with himself ultimately lead the dynasty? When cold technology collides with a thousand-year-old imperial system, will it usher in the dawn of industry or the dusk of imperial power?
