MidReal Story
Timeless Trials: A Journey Through Ancient China
Scenario: I traveled to ancient times and had nothing. This was the darkest era in ancient China. I don’t know why I traveled here, and I don’t know where I am. I only know that what awaits me will be a difficult survival.
Create my version of this story
Hua Mei
daughter of the village chief and love interest of Zhang Wei, slender with delicate features, courageous and compassionate.
Zhang Wei
local villager who befriends Li Wei, becomes a close ally of Li Wei, sturdy build with traditional Chinese attire, loyal and wise.
Li Wei
the modern person transported to ancient China, no significant relationships, average build with modern attire, resourceful and adaptable.
I woke up to the sound of a rooster crowing.
I opened my eyes and found myself lying on a bed in a room with no windows.
The room was dimly lit, and the walls were made of mud.
There was a small table next to the bed, and on it was a candlestick made of brass.
I sat up and looked around, but I couldn't see anything else in the room.
I got off the bed and walked out of the room.
I found myself in a small courtyard with a well in the middle.
There were several rooms around the courtyard, and I could hear people talking inside one of them.
I walked over to the door and listened carefully.
The people inside were speaking in Chinese, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.
I tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside.
I knocked on the door, but no one answered.
I knocked again, but still no one answered.
There were two men in the room, and they were both wearing traditional Chinese attire.
They looked at me with a mix of surprise and suspicion.
I looked at them and tried to say something, but my words came out in a language I didn't recognize.
The two men exchanged a few words, then one of them walked over to me and said something in Chinese.
I shook my head and said, “I don't understand.”
The man's eyes widened in surprise, and he said something to the other man.
The other man nodded and left the room.
I followed him out and found myself in a small village.
The air was heavy with the smell of livestock, and the houses were made of clay and thatch.
I stood there for a moment, trying to make sense of my surroundings, but nothing looked familiar.
I walked through the narrow streets, and the villagers stared at me as I passed by.
Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and suspicion, and they spoke to each other in hushed tones.
I couldn't understand what they were saying, but it was as if they were speaking a different language altogether.
Panic started to set in as I tried to remember how I ended up here and where “here” even was.
I walked around the village for a while, but I couldn't find anyone who spoke English or any modern language that I recognized.
Finally, I saw a group of elderly men sitting outside a tea house, and I decided to ask them for help.
I walked over to them and said, “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”
The men looked at me with blank expressions, and I realized that they didn't understand what I was saying.
I sighed and tried again, “Can you tell me what this place is called?”
The men continued to stare at me in silence, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes.
I turned away from them and walked to the center of the village square.
I stood there for a moment, feeling more lost and alone than I had ever felt in my life.
This wasn't just a foreign land; this was a different time altogether, and I had no idea how or why I ended up here.
Tears streamed down my face as I looked up at the sky and silently prayed for help.
Just then, I heard someone calling my name, and when I looked down, I saw a young girl running toward me.
She was slender and delicate with long black hair tied in a ponytail.
As she got closer, I realized that she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life.
“Li Wei, are you all right?”
she asked as she came to a stop in front of me.
“I'm fine,” I said, wiping away my tears.
She smiled and said, “You're really amazing!How did you jump from such a high wall without hurting yourself?”
My body stiffened when she mentioned the wall, and I realized that it must have something to do with how I ended up here.
What just happened?
The girl looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Are you feeling all right?”
she asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Just a little disoriented.”
She nodded sympathetically.
“That's understandable,” she said.
“This must be your first time visiting our village.”
“I guess so,” I said.
“Can you tell me where I am?”
“You're in Donglin Village,” she said.
“It's quite a distance from your home to our village.I'm surprised to see you here.”
“Me too,” I said.
“I'm not sure how I got here.”
The girl looked at me with an odd expression, as if she couldn't decide whether to believe me or not.
After a moment, she smiled and said, “Well, now that you're here, you might as well make the most of it.Welcome to Donglin Village!”
She held out her hand to shake mine.
My body was trembling with shock as I reached out to take her hand.
For a moment, I thought I was dreaming.
But then I realized that this was real.
This really happened.
I was stuck here.
In a strange village.
In a strange place.
In a strange time.
After talking to the girl for a while, I learned that her name was Hua Mei and that she was the daughter of the village chief.
She also told me that her family owned a small inn in the village, so I decided to go there to see if I could find out more information about where I was.
The inn was a two-story building with several rooms on each floor.
The ground floor consisted of a lobby with a few tables and chairs for guests to sit while they waited for their rooms to be cleaned.
There were also two large wooden columns with hooks on which to hang lanterns during the night.
The air in the lobby was heavy with the smell of incense from a small shrine dedicated to a couple of deities—probably for good business—beside one of the columns.
As soon as I entered the inn, I noticed that everyone there was speaking in Chinese.
I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but I had no choice but to try to communicate with them as best as I could.
I walked over to the counter and asked the innkeeper if he could tell me how I ended up in Donglin Village.
He looked at me with an odd expression on his face before he turned away without saying anything further.
I was about to ask him again when someone came up behind me.
I turned around and saw that it was Hua Mei.
The innkeeper looked at her with a smile as he said something in Chinese.
Hua Mei listened to what he had to say before she turned to me with a smile.
She opened her mouth to speak then stopped as she glanced at the people in the lobby.
She grabbed my hand and led me toward one of the tables in a corner of the room.
As we sat down at one of the tables, she started to tell me something in Chinese.
I couldn't understand what she was saying at all.
Instead of answering her question, I said in Chinese, “I don't understand what you're saying.”
Hua Mei's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at me.
I could see that she was trying to process what I just said before she asked in halting English, “You—speak—Chinese?”
However, now it was no longer just a picture I had to analyze and memorize for boring exams and tests—it was real.
I stepped out of the inn and into Donglin Village.
This time around I took my time to explore my surroundings and take in everything that I could see and hear and smell and feel.
The village was like something straight out of a history book: rustic and charming in its simplicity.
The buildings here were much lower than any of the high-rises you’d find in any city today.
Their roofs sloped at a gentle angle and were covered with tiles that had long since faded and cracked from years of exposure to the elements.
Intricate carvings adorned every roofline and gable, their delicate patterns a testament to a bygone era when such craftsmanship was still valued and appreciated.
The walls of each building were made of clay and covered with plaster that had been painted white then aged to a dull off-white over time.
As I walked along the road, I noticed two women sitting on a low bench outside one of the buildings.
They wore similar clothes: long skirts that reached their ankles and loose-fitting blouses with sleeves that stopped just above their elbows.
I had a feeling that I would be seeing a lot more people dressed this way as I continued on my journey.
Before long I realized that everyone in the village was dressed like that—everyone except for me.
As I took it all in, my heart sank.
There was no doubt about it: I was not in a foreign land—I was in a different era altogether!
I don’t know if it was the shock or the realization of what had happened to me, but I suddenly felt dizzy and stumbled forward a few steps before I managed to catch myself and stop myself from falling to the ground.
As I stood there trying to catch my breath and steady myself, I felt a sudden wave of nausea wash over me and turned and ran back into the inn just in time to throw up on the smooth clay tiles of the lobby floor.
I don’t know how long I stood there trying to gather my wits about me after that, but when I came to my senses again, I found myself surrounded by people.
I had no idea how they had gotten there or how long they had been standing there watching me as I struggled to come to terms with what had happened to me.
They were all speaking at once and pointing at me and looking at me with expressions of horror and disbelief on their faces.
I couldn’t understand what they were saying at all—I didn’t even know what language they were speaking!
I looked around frantically for Hua Mei or her father but couldn’t see them anywhere among the crowd of people who had gathered around me.
The heavyset man with deep lines creasing his sun-baked face and dressed in a simple blue linen robe spoke very little, if any, Mandarin, but was able to convey to me through a series of gestures that I was to follow him back to his home.
I nodded numbly and let him lead me through the crowd.
The man’s home was a modest building much like the others I had seen here, but with one noticeable difference.
Near the entrance to the home was a small shrine that held a statue of a smiling Buddha and small bowls filled with offerings of fruit and incense.
Before I could get a closer look, the man opened the door and stepped inside, motioning for me to enter behind him.
It was much cooler inside the building, and I couldn’t help but sigh with relief as I stepped into the shade and out of the hot afternoon sun.
The room was lit only by the light that filtered through the open door and a small window high on the wall on the opposite side of the room.
The air inside was thick with the smell of incense and something spicy that I couldn’t quite place.
The man motioned for me to sit down on a low stool near the entrance then disappeared down a long hallway at the back of the room, leaving me alone in the room with nothing to do but wait.
I don’t know how long I sat there waiting, but when I heard footsteps coming down the hallway toward me, I stood up and turned toward them with a bright smile on my face, eager to prove that I could be a good guest even if I couldn’t speak the language.
However, when I saw who it was that had emerged from the hallway, my smile faded into a look of confusion and surprise.
It wasn’t the elderly man who had led me here, but a much younger man with a sturdy build and a stern expression on his face who looked like he was somewhere in his mid-thirties.
He looked me up and down as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and said something to me that I couldn’t understand at all.
“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Chinese.
I said, raising my hands and making an apologetic gesture with them.
The man scowled at me and shook his head then said something else to me in what I assumed was Mandarin but still couldn’t understand.
I opened my mouth to try to explain things again or maybe ask him what was going on or where I was but quickly realized that it would be pointless.
I didn’t speak his language and he didn’t speak mine, so there would be no understanding between us today or anytime soon for that matter.
I looked down at what I was wearing: a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with the logo for a popular band from back home on it.
There was no doubt that I was dressed very differently from everyone else here and looked very out of place.
I pointed down at my clothes and opened my mouth to say something—but then immediately remembered that anything I said would be completely incomprehensible to him.
“Do you speak English?
