In the thirteenth year of Jian’an, in the great prison at Xudu.
The peerless physician Hua Tuo is about to be put to death in bitter regret, and his extraordinary medical text, the Book of the Blue Bag, is on the verge of being burned to ashes.
Wu Fan, who has just transmigrated into the body of a lowly prison guard, touches the mysterious copper bottle he bought for twenty yuan, hanging around his neck, and makes a decision:
“Doctor Hua, the Book of the Blue Bag will never be lost to the world.”
With the copper bottle that lets him travel between two worlds, Wu Fan escapes Xudu under cover of night.
He discovers that whenever his bank balance in the modern world grows, the passage through time and space inside the bottle expands!
And so begins a vast trade in civilization spanning two thousand years.
In the Three Kingdoms era
He wins over the great clans with glass, befriends Gan Ning with liquor, and recruits the renowned physician Dong Feng with modern medical knowledge.
Traveling south to Jiaozhou, he launches an industrial revolution in this wilderness, a leap in technology that leaves the locals utterly outclassed:
Waterwheel generators, concrete walls, crucible steel with a high carbon content, three-man fire teams...
He never claims the throne, yet his “Heaven-Connecting Trading House” holds a firm grip on the lifeblood of the realm, where three powers stand in a delicate balance.
In the modern world
He trades all kinds of antiques, gold, and pollution-free medicinal herbs from the Three Kingdoms era.
He even patents the lost formulas in the Book of the Blue Bag!
His bank balance skyrockets into the hundreds of billions, and the passage through time and space grows from the size of a palm to that of a warehouse.
This copper bottle will also become a vital asset for the development of Longguo, and even for all of humanity.
When Sima Yi secretly visits Jiaozhou and sees searchlights piercing the night sky, he falls silent for a long while.
“This... does not belong to the mortal world.”
Years later, standing at the pinnacle of a financial empire that has reshaped the global order, Wu Fan faces the “Space Civilization Contribution Award” presented by the nation and says just one thing:
“I don’t want an official title. I just want a permanent business license. After all, I’m only a trader.”
