A Delivery Guy's Secret Conversations with Fifty Thousand Ancients

The Secret Conversations Between a Delivery Guy and Fifty Thousand Ancients is an imaginative fantasy tale built around a modern courier who transmigrates through time, weaving fantastical conversations spanning five thousand years. The courier unexpectedly gains the ability to travel between past and present and takes on the mission of delivering special packages to fifty thousand historical figures. From the “red dust raised by a single rider” delivering lychees to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, to a “golden cup reflecting the moon” carrying celebratory wine to Huo Qubing; from the comical task of delivering sanitary pads to Hua Mulan to returning hidden clothes to the Weaver Girl in a “seamless celestial robe,” every delivery conceals a historical Easter egg.

The author deftly blends historical research with absurd comedy, bringing the courier into interactions across time with figures such as Qin Shi Huang, Yang Guifei, and Li Bai. The book faithfully recreates ancient postal relay systems, including the “800-li express,” with Han Dynasty couriers covering four hundred li a day and Tang Dynasty express stations relaying messages. It also offers a playful take on the origins of private delivery: the Song Dynasty’s “private letters sent by relay” pioneered personal mail, while the Yuan Dynasty’s “relay dogs” raced across the snowy Northeast.

Even more astonishingly, through the courier’s eyes, the book reveals ancient logistics “high-tech”: the secrecy methods of clay seals and signets, the efficiency of relay stations, and even a method of keeping lychees fresh by transporting them with live crabs. When a modern delivery guy meets his ancient “colleagues,” from the tight-lipped “mute courier” depicted in a courier-station mural brick to the rules of the road upheld by escort agencies, a conversation about logistics across time begins. Readers will laugh out loud while discovering the wisdom that has helped Chinese civilization pass things down through the ages.