3:17 a.m. was the hardest time to endure during the night shift at the electronics factory.
As Chen Mo collapsed at that hour, the last thing he thought was: "Remember to submit another equipment report on Thursday."
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying beneath a canopy embroidered with dragons.
He had become a baby. He heard someone say beside him, "Fourth Prince."
His name was Hongli. His father was Yinzhen. His grandfather was Xuanye.
A father who had spent thirty years breeding wheat, a mother who had worked in a spinning mill for twenty-six years, and a line supervisor who had spent seven years on the assembly line...
What they taught him would now be used for something else: surviving until tomorrow in a household where one misspoken word could get you killed.
He remembered Qianlong's life. He remembered how everything ended.
He tried to change things. He tried three times, and all three times history pushed everything back into place.
Only later did he understand:
What he'd brought with him wasn't the future, but a different way to live.
A modern man's story in the Qing Dynasty begins here.
