I Got Qin Shi Huang to Send Me Money

In 221 BCE, Ying Zheng proclaimed himself emperor and offered sacrifices to Heaven. That night, after the ceremony, as he chatted with Li Si and Meng Tian, the bamboo slips on the table suddenly blazed with light. A line of text appeared:

[Hello, I am Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng. I have been framed by treacherous men and trapped in my mausoleum. Give me 50 coins, and I will appoint you a great general on the spot. Once I lead my terracotta army to rebuild the dynasty, you will be one of its founding heroes!]

Someone was impersonating him. Ying Zheng was furious, and Meng Tian and Li Si were indignant as well. But amid their anger, the three of them picked out the key phrases:

The real First Emperor, Ying Zheng: Rebuild the dynasty?

The real Great General, Meng Tian: Fight with terracotta warriors?

The real Founding Hero, Li Si: Framed by treacherous men?

After much discussion, the three decided to take a chance for the future of the Qin dynasty.

Li Si fetched fifty new coins, and Ying Zheng laid them out carefully on the desk, one by one...

At the same moment, university student Qin Beiyu was scrolling on his phone in bed when an image suddenly popped up:

Round coins with square holes, inscribed with Ban Liang.

Fifty brand-new copper coins lined up on a white jade table.

As an archaeology student, Qin Beiyu instinctively began appraising the artifacts. The more he looked, the more astonished he became. These Qin Ban Liang coins seemed to be genuine! But they were all so new, with no trace of age...

"Fakes, definitely fakes! I must not have studied hard enough. I can't fall asleep in my next artifact appraisal class!"

Qin Beiyu closed the image and lay back down. As usual, he opened WeChat to complain to his friends, only to find three inexplicable friend requests in his list, with eerily similar usernames.

[Ying Zheng] [Meng Tian] [Li Si]

Qin Beiyu instinctively assumed these were internet users playing along with his joke. He immediately got into character, accepted all three requests, and enthusiastically chatted with each of them at once.

[Ying Zheng]: I have sent you the coins. Tell me, how many generations did my Great Qin last?

[Fish in the Northern Sea]: Congratulations, it fell in the second generation.

[Meng Tian]: How can I fight with terracotta warriors and wooden puppets?

[Fish in the Northern Sea]: Forget terracotta warriors. Wooden oxen and horses work too.

[Li Si]: Could you tell me the name of the treacherous man who harmed His Majesty?

[Fish in the Northern Sea]: Good question! Li Si was one of them!

As they chatted, Qin Beiyu grew bolder and bolder:

"Send me 50 gold, and I'll send you five peerless talents!"

"Hello, could you send me a picture of the Imperial Seal?"

"Hello, person of destiny. Send me a picture of your abs, and I'll teach you the secret to immortality!"

Until one day, he accidentally learned that the internet users playing along with him were actually his ancestors.

By then, thanks to the pictures his ancestors had sent him, Qin Beiyu had already become a famous Chinese artifact appraiser.

After thinking it over, Qin Beiyu decided to delete his account and run.

But to his surprise, it seemed his ancestors had all followed him...

[Reading Guide]

1. No romance, a feel-good power fantasy. The protagonist and his ancestors are each other's cheat codes.

2. The protagonist won't receive any actual artifacts, only high-resolution photos of them.

3. Officials and ministers from other dynasties will join the chat later. There will also be modern activities such as taking ancient people to visit a science and technology museum and watch a military parade.

Theme: Across five thousand years, China is full of legends