At an archaeological site under excavation somewhere in northern China.
On the edge of the Loess Plateau, wind blew in from the Gobi Desert.
A cluster of ancient buildings jutted halfway out of the earth.
Grayish-white stone pillars stood at crooked angles, their carved patterns so badly eroded by the wind that their shapes were almost impossible to make out.
Jackie Chan crouched beside a stone pillar, carefully brushing dirt off its base with a soft-bristled brush.
Beside him crouched a middle-aged man with glasses and graying hair, wearing the archaeological team's standard vest. He held a notebook, his brow knotted.
"Mr. Chan, what period do you think this dates from?"
Jackie kept his head down and continued brushing.
"Hard to say."
"These stones are severely weathered. At least... three thousand years old."
"Three thousand?"
The archaeologist adjusted his glasses.
"That was our initial thought too, but the masonry of this base and these patterns don't look anything like the Shang or Zhou style."
"I wonder if it's from the Xia dynasty."
He flipped through his notebook, its pages densely covered in sketches.
"Several of our senior experts have been arguing for days. Some say it's a late Neolithic ritual site, while others say it's the remains of a foreign culture."
"They still haven't reached a conclusion."
Jackie stopped brushing and looked around.
The ruins were much larger than they had expected.
They stretched from the edge of the excavation square to the foot of the distant hills, where more pillars and more bases were faintly visible, half buried in the yellow earth.
"It really is strange."
He stood up and patted the dirt off his knees.
"A building complex on this scale isn't something an ordinary settlement could have afforded to build."
"But there are no bronzes, no inscriptions,