The first thing Li Wei became aware of was pain. A dull, throbbing ache that seemed to encompass his entire skull. The second was the musty smell of damp earth and old wood. Slowly, hesitantly, he opened his eyes.

Darkness. Not the absolute black of unconsciousness, but a dim, shadowy gloom pierced by thin shafts of light. As his eyes adjusted, shapes began to form out of the murk. Rough wooden beams overhead. Earthen walls. A dirt floor beneath him.

For a moment, Li Wei thought he was still dreaming. This couldn't be real. Any second now, he'd wake up in his Beijing apartment, or perhaps in a hospital bed, the victim of a nasty car accident. But the throbbing in his head persisted, and with it came other sensations. The scratchiness of coarse fabric against his skin. The bitter taste in his mouth. The gnawing emptiness in his stomach.

This was real.

Panic surged through him as the memories came flooding back. The bamboo forest. The wild boar. The strangely dressed people on the dirt road. Li Wei tried to sit up, only to find his movements restricted. Looking down, he saw rough hemp ropes binding his wrists and ankles.

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

His words echoed in the small room, met only with silence. Li Wei strained his ears, trying to catch any sound from beyond the walls of his prison. Faint murmurs of conversation drifted in, too distant and muffled to make out clearly.

As the initial surge of panic subsided, Li Wei forced himself to take deep breaths. "Think," he muttered to himself. "Analyze the situation. Find a solution." It was the same mantra he used before difficult sales pitches, but it felt hollow in the face of his current predicament.

He tried to piece together what had happened. The people on the road—they had looked like something out of a historical drama. Their clothes, their speech... it was as if he had somehow stumbled onto a movie set. But the ropes binding him and the very real pain in his body told a different story.

Li Wei's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. A moment later, a door he hadn't noticed creaked open, flooding the room with light. Li Wei squinted against the sudden brightness, making out the silhouette of a man in the doorway.

As his eyes adjusted, details came into focus. The man was middle-aged, with a weather-beaten face and calloused hands. He wore a simple, ankle-length robe of coarse brown fabric, cinched at the waist with a rope belt. His hair was tied back in a topknot, and a wispy beard clung to his chin.

The man said something, his tone gruff and impatient. Li Wei stared blankly, the words as incomprehensible as if they were in a foreign language. And yet... there was something familiar about the cadence, the tonal qualities. It sounded almost like an incredibly archaic form of Chinese.

"I... I don't understand," Li Wei said, his voice trembling. "Please, where am I? Why am I tied up?"

The man's brow furrowed in confusion, then suspicion. He spoke again, more forcefully this time, gesturing at Li Wei with what looked like a crude wooden cup.

Realization dawned. Li Wei nodded vigorously, making drinking motions with his bound hands. "Yes, water. Please."

The man approached cautiously, holding the cup to Li Wei's lips. The water was lukewarm and had a slightly metallic taste, but to Li Wei's parched throat, it was the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted. He gulped it down greedily.

As he drank, Li Wei's gaze darted around the room, taking in more details. The space was small, maybe three meters by four. A single window, little more than a narrow slit in the wall, let in a beam of sunlight. The floor was packed earth, and the walls appeared to be made of some kind of wattle and daub construction. Everything about the place spoke of a level of technology centuries behind what Li Wei was used to.

The man pulled the cup away and stepped back, saying something in that strange-yet-familiar dialect. When Li Wei didn't respond, the man shook his head in frustration and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Li Wei called out. "Please, I need help. I don't know where I am or what's happening!"

But the man was already gone, the door slamming shut behind him. Li Wei heard the sound of a wooden bar falling into place, locking him in.

Alone again, Li Wei slumped back against the wall, his mind reeling. This was no movie set. The dirt, the smells, the construction of the building—it all felt too real, too lived-in to be a fabrication. But if this wasn't some elaborate hoax, then what was it? The impossible thought that had been lurking at the edges of his consciousness began to take shape.

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Had he somehow traveled through time?

The very idea was absurd. Time travel was the stuff of science fiction, not something that happened to mid-level sales directors on business trips. And yet, what other explanation was there?

Li Wei's thoughts were interrupted by a commotion outside. Through the narrow window, he could see people moving about, carrying boxes and bundles. Their clothes were all in the same style as his captor's—simple, homespun garments that looked like they belonged in a museum.

As he watched, Li Wei saw two men hunched over what looked like a pile of silk bolts, arguing in hushed tones. One of them pulled out what appeared to be a string of copper coins, carefully counting them out. The other shook his head, gesturing emphatically at the fabric.

A chill ran down Li Wei's spine as he realized what he was witnessing. These weren't just people living an agrarian lifestyle. This was some kind of black market operation. Smugglers, perhaps, or thieves.

And he, Li Wei, was a witness they couldn't afford to let go.

The gravity of his situation hit him anew. He was trapped not just in a strange place and time, but in the hands of criminals who likely saw him as a threat to their operation. His modern clothes, his inability to communicate—everything about him was a liability to them.

Li Wei closed his eyes, trying to quell the rising tide of panic. He needed to think, to plan. But what could he do? He didn't speak the language, didn't know where he was or even when he was. Escape was out of the question until he could at least understand his captors.

A familiar weight in his pocket caught his attention. His phone! Somehow, miraculously, it was still there. Li Wei's heart raced. If he could just access it, maybe he could... what? Call for help? He almost laughed at the absurdity of the thought. Even if he wasn't trapped in what seemed to be ancient China, he doubted there'd be cell service in this remote location.

But then reality set in. His hands were bound. Even if the phone could help, he had no way to reach it, let alone use it. Li Wei bit back a curse, frustration welling up inside him. He tugged at the ropes, wincing as they chafed against his already raw wrists.

Think, he told himself. There has to be a way.

Li Wei scanned the room, searching for anything that might help. His eyes fell on the edge of the narrow window sill. It looked rough, with small splinters sticking out at odd angles. It wasn't much, but it was all he had.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Li Wei awkwardly maneuvered himself to the wall. He turned his back to the window, reaching up with his bound hands. The position was awkward, and his shoulders screamed in protest, but he managed to catch the rope on a particularly jagged splinter.

Time seemed to crawl as Li Wei worked the rope against the wood. Each movement sent jolts of pain through his arms, but he persisted. He had to. It was his only chance.

Minutes stretched into what felt like hours. Li Wei's arms burned, his wrists bleeding from the constant friction. Just as he was about to give up, he felt a strand of the rope give way.

Encouraged, Li Wei redoubled his efforts. Strand by strand, the rope began to fray. Finally, with one last, desperate tug, the bindings fell away.

Li Wei collapsed to the ground, gasping. His wrists were a mess of blood and raw flesh, but he was free. He allowed himself only a moment's rest before turning his attention back to the phone.

With trembling, aching hands, Li Wei managed to extract the device from his pocket. The sleek, modern design looked utterly alien in this primitive room. He pressed the power button, squinting as the screen lit up, casting a faint blue glow on his dirty, tear-streaked face.

No signal, of course. Low battery too—only 42% left. Li Wei's mind raced. He had to use this resource wisely; who knew when or if he'd ever be able to charge it again?

He swiped through his apps, looking for anything that might help him in this impossible situation. Email? Useless without internet. Maps? They wouldn't do him any good here. Calculator? Unless he needed to do complex math to escape, probably not helpful.

As he scrolled, a little-used app caught his eye. The icon was a simplistic rendition of a brain, with the letters "Q.S." beneath it. Quantum Sage. The offline AI assistant he'd been beta testing for his company's MLOps initiatives.

Li Wei's breath caught in his throat as the memory surfaced. In his role driving Machine Learning Operations for the sales department, he'd been approached by a tech startup. They were developing an advanced AI assistant that could function entirely offline, and they wanted to test its applications in sales and market analysis. Li Wei had agreed to be a beta tester, more out of curiosity than any real belief in its usefulness.

He'd played with it a few times, asking it to analyze sales data or suggest negotiation strategies. It had been impressive, but in the fast-paced world of his normal life, Li Wei hadn't found much practical use for it. He'd almost forgotten it was on his phone.

But now... in this place where all his modern knowledge seemed useless, could this AI be the key to his survival?

Li Wei's finger hovered over the icon. He glanced nervously at the door. Using the phone was a risk. If his captors saw it, there was no telling how they might react to such an alien device. But what choice did he have?

Taking a deep breath, Li Wei tapped the icon. The app loaded, its interface clean and simple. A text input box beckoned, the cursor blinking steadily.

What should he ask? How to escape? How to communicate with people from ancient China? How to build a time machine and get back home? Li Wei almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.

Finally, with shaking fingers, he began to type: "I think I've somehow traveled back in time to ancient China. I'm being held captive by people I can't understand. What should I do?"

The sudden sound of approaching footsteps sent a jolt of panic through Li Wei. His fingers fumbled, nearly dropping the phone as he hastily shoved it back into his pocket. The weight of it pressed against his thigh, a reminder of the impossible choice that lay before him.

As the door creaked open, casting long shadows across the earthen floor, Li Wei's mind raced with possibilities and dangers. In the space between one heartbeat and the next, he realized that his next actions could irreversibly alter the course of his fate. The figure looming in the doorway was more than just a captor now—it was the harbinger of a future Li Wei couldn't begin to fathom.