Shen Zhixing, a Ph. D. In phonology, was squatting by the Qinhuai River writing a thesis when he stepped on the air and fell into the water. When he opened his eyes again, the distribution of initials and finals in his ears told him: this is the living Yongle Mandarin.
In the third year of Yongle, Zheng He made his first voyage to the West. Sixty-two treasure ships sailed out to sea like floating cities, and the only thing he could bring to bear was one thing: he remembered what all the languages looked like.
With an ear like a phonological analyzer, he got on the treasure ship from the dock, and was appointed by Zheng He as a general; he disassembled Cham characters in Champa, deciphered the palace secret language in Managa, and touched an ancient door that should not exist at the bottom of Guli Mannar Bay - behind the door was the ironclad evidence left by people who had arrived in this sea earlier than Zheng He.
But the door comes with a price. Everyone who stays to guard the gate will be slowly forgotten by this era.
He can go back. He chose not to go back.
He uploaded his language memory from ancient times to the present to the door, in exchange for a promise: when the next door opens, the travelers will no longer be randomly captured chess pieces - but people who can understand "foreign languages".
"Language is not what separates people - language is what connects people who have been separated again."
A doctor who fell into the water, a treasure ship that should not have returned to port, and a door that operates on forgetfulness.
He is not the starting point, but the chain.
