“Your Majesty, I come from the future. I’ll trade my life for twelve years of yours.”
In the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor’s reign, a young man appeared out of nowhere at the gates of the Xianyang Palace. He said he came from two thousand years in the future. He said he knew the First Emperor would die, that Zhao Gao would forge an imperial edict, Fusu would be killed, and the Qin dynasty would fall in its second generation. He said he knew about Nanjing, and how the blood of three hundred thousand people would stain the Yangtze.
Ying Zheng didn’t believe him. Not until the young man described an illness he had never told anyone about.
That night, the seven-star lamp burned for seven hours. The young man died. Ying Zheng lived.
He didn’t know this was only the beginning. Over the next fifty years, one ordinary person after another came from the future: doctors, welders, carpenters, even people who had been playing games in internet cafes. They knew nothing, but they each had a life to give.
They gave their lives so the First Emperor could live. So the Qin dynasty would not fall. So people in the future would never again suffer the humiliation of rivers stained with blood.
“Your Majesty, I don’t want to die. But if I’m given another life, I’ll come again.”
It was well-written, but the feeling it evoked was so depressing; I actually cried while reading it 😢
How come twelve years have passed between the first chapter describing the twenty-sixth year and the twenty-eighth year? [What?] The beginning was alright, but the later parts were mostly repetitive, so it might really be AI writing it 🤦. The content was also inverted, and it didn't match the claim that it was written by someone who had extended their life by ten years.
You know, this is the only book I've ever actively reviewed. Although the responses seemed pre-programmed—like "300,000 people in six weeks," or "The Yangtze River turned red"—I still patiently read through it. I didn't see many comments or interactions, but I know there must have been other readers.
Very realistic, with that heavy sense of history.
The subject matter and theme are excellent, and the historical materials are detailed, but there is a bit too much repetitive content, and the writing style for a historical drama needs improvement.
It looks nice, but it's too repetitive.
I hope that the First Emperor exists in a parallel world, just like in the book...
It's so good! (Crying sounds)
It's so calm, yet so deeply moving! Beautiful!
I cried several times while reading chapter fourteen. People from later generations traveled back in time to extend the First Emperor's life so that future generations would not suffer further bloodshed.