[A guileless, naturally airheaded bottom and a mentally unstable, corrupted widower top]
Shi Yuan has a terminal illness and no more than six months to live.
One day, an odd package arrives. Inside is a miniature diorama.
The diorama is home to a group of tiny people, each no bigger than his palm. They are all starving, their faces gaunt and their bodies little more than skin and bones.
Unable to bear the sight, Shi Yuan puts a steamed bun inside.
Only when the tiny people cry out in gratitude for the gods’ gift, and he takes in the hyper-realistic scenery, does Shi Yuan realize: could this diorama be connected to another world?
*
The tiny people in the diorama are suffering through a famine and can barely fend for themselves. Knowing his own life is almost over, Shi Yuan has no desire to become a trader between two worlds. He takes what little savings he has, buys food and supplies, and puts them in the diorama.
He can’t make his own life any better, but he can make things better for someone else.
Shi Yuan helps the tiny people build irrigation works and city walls, defeat invading beasts, and choose talented people as their lords so they can develop on their own.
That should let the tiny people survive the apocalypse, right?
Lying in his hospital bed, Shi Yuan thinks this just before losing consciousness.
*
Shi Yuan never imagined he would wake up again.
Before him stand towering mage towers and a majestic royal city that reaches into the clouds. He hasn’t even taken a step when a familiar black-haired man blocks his way.
The man smiles warmly, his voice utterly convincing:
“Hello. Are you from outside? My mage tower is short-staffed. How about coming to work for me?”
The world beyond is outside, too.
Theme: Keep a kind heart
