Chapter 4

It was very clear that this Ah Fei was a穿越者 (time traveler), but his arrival was rather disastrous. Just a moment ago, he was crossing the road by jumping over a barrier, when a large eight-wheeled truck came roaring by with a terrifying gust of wind. The next moment, when he opened his eyes, he had already been transported to another time.

The first impression after the穿越 (time travel) — "Damn, at least give me a home with four bare walls... What's this, not even complete walls?" He could barely tell from the clothing and appearance of his new family that he was in ancient China, but he couldn't determine which dynasty it was. The only clue was that his father didn't have a bald spot on the front of his head and no braid at the back, so it couldn't be the Qing Dynasty.

After figuring out his bizarre experience, he started to act dumb, not saying a word, and just listened to his new family to gather the information he needed. However, he soon didn't need to think too hard because the original consciousness of this body, or rather, fragments of it, gradually surfaced in his mind, filling in the gaps of his past life.

It turned out that this new body was a thirteen-year-old boy named Ah Fei — or maybe Ah Fei, Ah Fei, Ah Fei, or Ah Hui, as no one in the family could read. The most critical issue was that he wasn't even Han Chinese, but he had no idea which ethnic group he belonged to. He only knew that he was a local native, living among the Han people, and gradually adopting their clothing and language, with only some customs remaining different.

Ah Fei's family was a tenant farmer, with a father, a mother, and himself, farming less than ten acres of the most barren land in the mountains near a nearby county. They had to pay 70% of their annual harvest as rent, and the remaining 30% had to cover the interest on high-interest loans. After a long winter, they often couldn't even afford seeds for the next year, so they had to eat wild vegetables year-round.

At first, he couldn't stand the food at home; the smell alone made him want to vomit. But there was no choice. After three days of hunger, he realized that he would even eat dog feces if he could. Of course, Ah Fei's family couldn't afford a dog; it belonged to their Han Chinese neighbor, Old Wang...

About half a month after arriving in this strange era, he finally understood some things beyond the fact that his family was very poor. First, this place was likely north of the Yellow River, as it was very cold in winter. By early October, the temperature was definitely below zero, and the family of three were always wrapped in dirty animal skins, huddling around a fire pit.

Second, this boy named Ah Fei had fainted when a branch fell on his head while he was out collecting firewood. Old Wang found him in the woods and brought him back, nearly frozen to death. Somehow, he had taken over this body and become the new Ah Fei.

Third, Old Wang's dog was very fierce, and he raised it to hunt in the woods during the off-season. And, the dog feces were really smelly and couldn't be eaten...

There were still many things he couldn't understand, especially the specific era and location. The farming tools and household items were mostly made of wood, clay, or stone, with almost no metal, not even a kitchen knife, which was replaced by a stone blade. This didn't mean much, as he knew that rural areas in remote parts of China had seen little progress for thousands of years. Even in the 20th century, such poor families, though rare, could still be found in remote corners.

He asked his parents what era it was, and they only told him it was the Year of the Rabbit. When he asked which dynasty and which emperor was in power, they looked at each other in confusion and asked him if the emperor was something to eat.

"Damn, did I travel back to the primitive society?"

Old Wang was more knowledgeable. He could at least tell him the name of the nearby county, which was called Nahan — a name that was quite puzzling. He once suspected he had traveled to a different world. Old Wang also knew that the highest official in the county was the County Magistrate, and they rented land from the County Magistrate's cousin. Whether they were surnamed Zhang or Zhang, Old Wang didn't know, as he couldn't read.

The existence of a county and a County Magistrate suggested that it was at least the mid to late Warring States period. The time range could be shortened to from the mid to late Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty, a "short" span of two thousand years. And, you guess?

What era did he travel to? It wasn't until March of the following year, when spring arrived, that he finally figured out this crucial question.

Ah Fei ate wild vegetables until he was sick of them, and the worst part was that he couldn't even get enough to feel full. As a growing teenager, he was always hungry. On the seventh day after his arrival, Old Wang finally hunted a skinny rabbit in the woods and generously gave them a bowl of hot bone soup — but Ah Fei always felt that the bones had already been gnawed on...

After drinking half a bowl of hot soup, the taste, though lacking spices, salt, or MSG, stimulated his appetite and lifted his spirits. He immediately had a thought that shocked his parents and was something he had never considered in his twelve years (thirteen being his nominal age) of life — to learn hunting from Old Wang!

Old Wang didn't hold back and taught him all his hunting skills. Old Wang was a solitary man with no wife or children and had always liked the boy next door, even though they were of different ethnicities. So, Ah Fei followed Old Wang into the woods and spent a whole day finally finding a rabbit. He then threw a sharpened stick, but the stick broke, and the rabbit ran away, leaving them empty-handed.

Old Wang comforted him: "Hunting isn't that easy. I usually have to spend seven or eight days in the woods to catch a rabbit or a hedgehog. If it weren't for the cold, who would go out hunting?"

Ah Fei silently gave Old Wang the middle finger in his mind.

The next day, he went out alone, braving the cold wind and aimlessly wandering in the woods. Finally, he found a suitable branch and tied a grass rope to both ends, making a bow that even the山顶洞人 (山顶洞 people) would laugh at.

On the third day, he finally used this makeshift bow and a dozen sharpened sticks as arrows to shoot a lame rabbit. He chased it for two miles and finally pinned it down, exhausted.

That night, without Old Wang knowing, the family of three joyfully drank a hot meat soup and gnawed on half a rabbit with no tooth marks — the other half, his father said, would be slowly stewed until the end of the year.

On the fourth day, he painstakingly cut the rabbit skin into strips to replace the grass rope on the bow.

On the seventh day, he surprisingly hunted a plump quail, and the sharpened sticks now had feathers at the end...

On the eighth day, Old Wang came over to become Ah Fei's disciple.

The long winter finally came to an end. In the spring, Ah Fei no longer had time to go hunting; he had to help his parents farm and gather wild vegetables and fruits. However, the winter was not without its rewards. Together with Old Wang, they hunted seven rabbits, two hedgehogs, and six quails, and his archery skills improved significantly.

If he had a real bow and arrows, he might even be able to shoot down birds — as he watched the geese flying south, Ah Fei thought, swallowing his saliva.

However, before he could shoot down any birds, he unexpectedly encountered a naive fawn. The fawn, apparently not taught well by its parents, was very slow and didn't fear humans. Even when Ah Fei was ten steps away, it was still greedily eating the roots under the snow, refusing to run away. Ah Fei shot an arrow, and the fawn ran off...

After seven days without any food, Ah Fei was desperate. He shot the remaining arrows in rapid succession, and finally, one of them hit the fawn's buttock. After a chase of seven or eight miles, the hungry hunter finally prevailed.

"You're really amazing!" After carrying the fawn back, Ah Fei received praise from Old Wang. Old Wang suggested he skin the fawn and sell the hide in the county to buy some much-needed salt. Ah Fei's father was initially reluctant, probably due to his rural nature, which made him fear going to the county, as if it were a den of demons... No, he wouldn't understand what a "demon" was. But he couldn't resist his son's repeated pleading, and the family indeed had no salt left.

In Ah Fei's memory, he had never been to the county at thirteen, and his father had only been forced to go there less than twice in his life.

They lived in a small mountain valley, surrounded by a few hills and sparse woods, with poor soil. They could barely harvest four grains for every one planted... Of course, this was partly due to their extremely primitive farming methods; they didn't even know how to use manure.

Ah Fei thought about how to increase the crop yield — in his previous life, he had never farmed, but he had learned some agricultural techniques from classmates who came from the countryside, such as using manure and removing weeds. He followed Old Wang out of the valley and walked for a whole day, finally entering the county.

The so-called county was just a large earthen wall, less than two meters high, not even as tall as the fence in his previous neighborhood. The gate had a broken tile, and on it, Ah Fei saw the first Chinese characters of this world — it wasn't Nahan, but the first character was "言" on the left and "冉" on the right, and the second character was "甘" on the left and "邑" on the right.

"Damn, it's in small seal script. Luckily, I learned calligraphy and seal carving before — the second character should be '邯' from Handan, but what's the first character? How do you pronounce it?"

Two old soldiers were leaning against the gate, wearing short shirts with patches but no armor, and their heads were wrapped in headscarves with no insignia. They had rusty spears, but there were no distinctive features to identify the era.

Inside the county, there was only one main street with a few hundred households. There were few people, most of whom were poorly dressed, emaciated, and had a dull look in their eyes, and none of them seemed to know how to read. They spent the night huddled under a roof, and the next morning, they started shouting to sell the deer hide.

Finally, Ah Fei met a young boy, about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a thick cotton robe that reached his knees, a leather hat, and, most surprisingly, a long sword at his waist! Like meeting a relative, Ah Fei quickly ran up to him, bowed deeply, and asked:

"May I ask, what dynasty and emperor is in power now, and what is the era name?"

The boy glanced at him strangely and casually replied, "The year is 188 AD, the fifth year of the Zhongping era of the Han Dynasty, the year of the Earth Dragon."

Instantly, two tears of despair streamed down Ah Fei's face uncontrollably...

— I am the dividing line of explanation —

In the blink of an eye, since the end of "The Three Kingdoms' Foreign Chronicles" — no, it can be considered a complete ending — I haven't written any related novels about the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms for a very long time. I did write another book, the third volume of "A Youthful Reader of National History" titled "Where Are the Heroes?" published by Shanxi People's Publishing House.

Of course, I continue to write novels. Besides "Ran: Dragon" and "Love's Inheritance" set in the Japanese Warring States period, I have also been influenced by the current trend of time travel stories and have started three new projects... No, let's not mention that boring term. I mean, I've started three new stories, but the inspiration didn't last, and I couldn't finish them.

The inspiration for this new book actually came from the influence of the Three Kingdoms' Ah Fei. The first time travel novel I read about the Three Kingdoms was Ah Fei's "The Wandering Hero of the Three Kingdoms." At that time, I was working at Microsoft, my wife was still my girlfriend, and my child hadn't even been conceived. How many years have passed since then? Time flies, and the days pass quickly. So, the second Confucius said on the river... Let's not talk too much. In short, now that Ah Fei has started "Battle of the Three Kingdoms" on起点 (Qidian), it has made me itchy and inspired me. The protagonist's name, I will use "Ah Fei" to pay tribute to Brother Fei!

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