Li Wei's head throbbed as consciousness slowly returned to him. The first sensation he became aware of was pain—a dull ache that seemed to encompass his entire body. The second was confusion. Where was he? What had happened?

He tried to open his eyes, but even that small movement sent a wave of nausea through him. Li Wei groaned, the sound escaping his lips before he could stop it.

"Mr. Zhao?" he called out weakly, his voice hoarse. There was no response.

Slowly, carefully, Li Wei forced his eyes open. Instead of the plush interior of the company car he expected, he found himself staring up at a canopy of bamboo leaves. Sunlight filtered through the green, dappling the ground around him.

"What the hell?" Li Wei muttered, trying to sit up. His body protested, muscles screaming in agony. He looked down at himself, noting with dismay that his once-crisp suit was now torn and caked with dirt. A large bruise was forming on his left forearm, visible through a rip in his sleeve.

As the fog in his mind began to clear, fragmented memories surfaced. The business trip to Huangshan. Mr. Zhao, the potential client he had been courting for months. The rain-slicked mountain road. A truck appearing suddenly around a bend. The car swerving, tires losing traction. Then... nothing.

"Mr. Zhao?" Li Wei called out again, louder this time. Still no answer. Fear began to creep in. Where was the car? Where was Mr. Zhao? Where was he?

Li Wei forced himself to his feet, swaying slightly as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He leaned against a bamboo stalk for support, taking in his surroundings. He was in a dense bamboo grove, with no sign of a road or the wreckage of a car crash. In the distance, he could hear unfamiliar sounds: the clopping of hooves, voices speaking in a dialect he couldn't quite place.

"Hello?" he shouted, his voice cracking. "Is anyone there? I need help!"

The only response was the rustle of leaves in the breeze and the continued murmur of distant voices.

Panic began to set in. Li Wei patted his pockets, searching for his phone. Relief flooded through him as his fingers closed around the familiar shape. He pulled it out, hands shaking slightly as he pressed the power button.

The screen lit up, displaying the date he expected: September 14, 2024. Li Wei let out a long, shuddering breath. The tension in his shoulders eased slightly. At least the date made sense, even if nothing else did.

"Okay," he muttered to himself, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "It's just a traffic accident. I must have been thrown from the car. That's all this is."

The rational explanation calmed him somewhat, even as a nagging doubt lingered in the back of his mind. If it was just a car accident, where was the road? Where was the car? Where was Mr. Zhao?

Still, Li Wei clung to this explanation. It was far more palatable than any alternative his imagination might conjure. He was about to try calling for help when a sound from nearby snapped him out of his thoughts.

Something was moving through the bamboo, heading in his direction. The rustling grew louder, accompanied by grunting that sounded distinctly... inhuman.

Li Wei's heart began to race. Wild boar? He had heard stories of aggressive boars in the mountains. Adrenaline surged through him, temporarily dulling the pain in his body. He looked around frantically for something—anything—he could use as a weapon.

The rustling grew closer. Li Wei backed away slowly, his eyes darting between the moving bamboo and the ground, searching for a sturdy branch or a rock. His foot caught on an exposed root, and he stumbled, barely catching himself before he fell.

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Just then, the source of the noise burst into view. It was indeed a wild boar, its tusks gleaming wickedly in the dappled sunlight. Its small, dark eyes fixed on Li Wei, who stood frozen in terror.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Li Wei's mind raced, years of sales training and business negotiations suddenly useless in the face of this primal threat. He had closed million-yuan deals, had stared down ruthless competitors, but nothing had prepared him for this.

The boar pawed at the ground, preparing to charge. In that instant, Li Wei's survival instinct kicked in. He turned and ran, crashing through the bamboo grove with no regard for direction or stealth. Branches whipped at his face and arms as he fled, the sound of the boar's pursuit spurring him on despite the protests of his battered body.

Li Wei's lungs burned as he ran, his expensive leather shoes slipping on the uneven ground. He could hear the boar gaining on him, its grunts growing louder. In desperation, he veered sharply to the right, hoping to throw off his pursuer.

Suddenly, the bamboo grove gave way to open space. Li Wei found himself on the edge of a dirt road, the unexpected transition causing him to stumble. He fell hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop in the middle of the road.

Dazed and gasping for breath, Li Wei looked up to see a group of people staring at him in shock. His relief at finding other humans quickly turned to confusion and fear. The people were dressed in clothes he had only seen in historical dramas—long robes and cloth caps that belonged to another era entirely.

The wild boar burst out of the bamboo grove, still in pursuit. The group on the road scattered, shouting in alarm. One man, older than the rest, stepped forward, brandishing a walking stick. With a series of sharp movements, he drove the boar away, sending it squealing back into the underbrush.

As the immediate danger passed, Li Wei became acutely aware of the bizarre situation he found himself in. The people, the clothes, the dirt road with no sign of modern development—it all stood in stark contrast to the date he had just seen on his phone. Had he hit his head harder than he thought? Was this some kind of elaborate prank or movie set?

The old man who had driven off the boar approached Li Wei, speaking in a dialect that sounded like, yet unlike, any Chinese Li Wei had ever heard. The man's expression was a mix of suspicion and hostility as he looked at Li Wei's strange clothing and battered appearance.

Li Wei opened his mouth to speak, to ask for help or explanation, but the words that came out seemed to hang in the air, alien and incomprehensible. The faces around him twisted in confusion, then hardened with something darker—fear, suspicion, or perhaps a mixture of both.

The old man barked out what sounded like orders. The circle of strangers tightened around Li Wei, their expressions unreadable in the fading light. Rough hands grasped at him from all sides. Li Wei tried to protest, to explain, but his voice was lost in a rising tide of unfamiliar sounds and sensations.

Colors blurred, voices melded into a cacophonous roar. The world tilted and spun around Li Wei, reality seeming to fracture at its edges. In his last moments of consciousness, a single, crystal-clear thought cut through the chaos—the image of his phone's screen, displaying a date that no longer held any meaning.

Then, like a candle extinguished by a gust of wind, everything went dark.