Lin Heguang traveled from the present to the past. After a great deal of effort, he made a name for himself in the ancient world, gained a little security in life and enough to eat and wear, and made a few close friends.
Friend One: a young general who lost his position and was confined at home after offending the powerful.
Friend Two: a newly graduated metropolitan scholar who got caught up in court politics and was exiled to the miasma-ridden lands of Lingnan. It was anyone's guess whether they'd meet again in his lifetime.
Friend Three: a new generation of master physicians, born into a family with a long tradition of medicine...
Lin Heguang had just visited Friend One, then gone to the pavilion by the roadside to see Friend Two off. They were clasping hands and gazing at each other through tears.
Then, with a sudden pop, the world changed.
He blinked, staring in disbelief at the high-rises and the dense crowds on the streets around him.
Where had my friend gone? The refined, handsome, graceful, well-read one who knew music, chess, calligraphy, and painting!
A passerby walked past, head down as he watched a livestream. The streamer's shrill voice came through his phone: "Folks, guess what I've just seen! A 1.9-meter-tall, nine-heads-tall cosplayer in black armor and a red robe, riding a white horse and carrying a silver spear, has boldly charged into a square-dancing event!"
Lin Heguang's gaze shot over.
Black armor, red robe, white horse, silver spear. Wasn't that Friend One, with his love of clashing colors?
Lin Heguang rushed to rescue Friend One from the square-dancing grannies, then found Friend Two in a park, surrounded by people taking pictures.
Seeing the bewildered confusion on his two friends' faces, Lin Heguang suddenly shivered.
Wait, could Friends Three, Four, Five... have come through time too?
A TV on the roadside announced: "Archaeology, What Fun: The Friends Deeply Missed by a Famous Sage of Medicine. Three full chests of letters, and repeated mentions in all his medical writings. Who was this friend surnamed Lin?"
Lin Heguang whipped around like a sunflower, eyes brimming with tears.
As it turned out, talented people shine wherever they go, even when they travel from the past to the present.
His friends one after another made their mark in literature, calligraphy and painting, history, martial arts, medicine, social media and entertainment...
Lin Heguang, the man whose friends' fans call "the mysterious friend shared by rising stars in every field," is still out there today, searching high and low for his closest friends.
Click to read: A beautiful friendship between kindred spirits with an ancient sensibility.
1. No romantic pairings. Light and cheerful throughout, with a happy ending.
2. The protagonist and his friends share the ancient bond of kindred spirits who would risk their lives for one another. Think Li Bai and Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen, or Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.
3. The protagonist travels from the present to the past and back again. Don't get hung up on how he can travel so much.
4. Both the ancient and modern worlds are fictional.
The outline isn't set yet. It may just follow them making their mark in various fields, or my imagination might run wild and turn this into a spiritual qi revival story, where they defeat an invasion from another world and gain extraordinary abilities, such as cultivating the Dao through Confucianism, military strategy, or medicine. That would give his friends an even bigger stage.
Let me look into what's popular and see what you all prefer (dog with a rose in its mouth.jpg)
Blurb written on May 14, 2023
Theme: The friendship of kindred spirits who would risk their lives for one another. Talented people shine wherever they go.
