Chapter 3

The moonlight shimmered on the vast sea, and two dark figures were struggling to swim towards the distant, unknown, yet hopeful shore.

This sea is known to the people of Hong Kong as Deep Bay. Many years later, mainland maps would mark it as "Shenzhen Bay."

Deep Bay, connecting Bao'an on the left and Hong Kong on the right, is a good place for swimming. Tens of thousands of mainlanders have swum across here to Hong Kong.

The two dark figures on the sea were clearly illegal immigrants. At the time, they were known as "escapees," and in a few years, they would be called "snakeheads" by Hong Kong media.

"Swish, swish..."

The two swimmers were getting closer, only a mile away from the Yuen Long coastline. From the shore, the sound of their paddling could be faintly heard.

The one in the lead had two pig bladders, inflated like balloons, tied to his body, and he was kicking vigorously.

The one behind was lying on a wooden board, seemingly exhausted, and kept repeating quotes from Chairman Mao to encourage himself: "Determined to succeed, unafraid of sacrifice; overcoming all difficulties to achieve victory..."

"Bang!" One of the pig bladders on the lead swimmer suddenly burst.

The one behind, already half-dead from exhaustion, perked up and teased, "Ha, I told you to use a wooden board to cross the sea, but you insisted on being cheap... Hey, Aiguo, what's wrong with you?"

"Leg... leg cramp!" The lead swimmer panicked, splashing the water, and with a "bang," the remaining pig bladder also burst.

...

...

"Aiguo, wake up, Aiguo..."

Kang Jianfei vaguely felt someone slapping his face, then his stomach was pressed hard, and he felt a lump in his throat, spitting out a few mouthfuls of water.

"Don't bother me!" Kang Jianfei waved his hands groggily.

"You're awake, Aiguo, you're awake!" The person slapped Kang Jianfei's face hard and whispered, "Aiguo, we're in Hong Kong, the place where you can earn over a thousand a month! Open your eyes and look!"

Kang Jianfei was thoroughly annoyed and opened his eyes angrily, ready to curse, but the scene before him made him swallow his words. A man in a tattered red vest was grinning at him, and this place... didn't seem like the hotel where he had fallen asleep after drinking.

"Am I Kang Aiguo?" Kang Jianfei suddenly felt a lot of messy memories in his head.

Kang Jianfei quickly remembered who this person was—Hu Yuejin, a villager from his hometown. They had swum from Bao'an together, planning to sneak into the gold-filled Hong Kong to find relatives.

Hu Yuejin was tall, nearly 1.80 meters, but unfortunately, he was as thin as a bamboo stick. When he dragged the unconscious Kang Jianfei ashore, he was already exhausted. Seeing Kang Jianfei wake up, he collapsed on the ground, weakly saying, "I'm so tired, I can't walk anymore."

Kang Jianfei, holding his dizzy head, got up and found his cramping calf still a bit sore. After a few steps, he gradually adapted.

Kang Jianfei closed his eyes and rubbed his face, then opened them again. The same desolate beach was still before him—this wasn't a dream, he really had traveled through time!

After a moment of daze, Kang Jianfei reluctantly accepted the fact of his time travel. Well, since he had already traveled, he had to accept it. Was he going to cry and wail? Or act melancholic and wait for someone to comfort him?

Ha, when has Kang Jianfei ever admitted defeat!

It doesn't matter if I've traveled; I have nothing to hold me back in that world.

Both of their clothes were wet. They took off their pants and wrung out the water, then spread them on the rocks by the sea to dry. After resting for over an hour, Kang Jianfei and Hu Yuejin set off barefoot in the dark, looking like two refugees.

"Which way should we go?" Hu Yuejin, who had never been to Hong Kong, asked, looking at the desolate surroundings.

"Of course, we go forward!" Kang Jianfei looked up at the North Star, estimating the direction of Hong Kong, and led the way.

Hu Yuejin caught up and said, "Aiguo..."

"Stop, don't call me Aiguo anymore." Although Kang Jianfei had accepted the time travel, he couldn't accept the name Aiguo. He thought it was too rustic and awkward.

Hu Yuejin asked curiously, "If not Aiguo, what should I call you?"

Kang Jianfei said solemnly, "From now on, I'm Kang Jianfei!"

Hu Yuejin looked at Kang Jianfei and asked, "When did you change your name?"

"Just now," Kang Jianfei thought of a reason and explained, "Not only am I changing my name, but you should too. I heard Hong Kong people are very xenophobic. Look at our names—Aiguo, Yuejin—anyone can tell we're from the mainland. We'll be discriminated against when looking for jobs!"

"You're right, my cousin also said in his letter that he changed his name after coming to Hong Kong!" Hu Yuejin nodded. His cousin had sneaked into Hong Kong a few years ago and made a lot of money.

Hu Yuejin touched his gaunt, high-cheekboned face and asked self-admiringly, "What do you think of me calling myself Hu Juncai? I think this name suits me well."

Kang Jianfei coughed and nodded, "That's a very good name."

...

...

At that time, many parts of Yuen Long were still undeveloped, with farmland and vegetable fields everywhere, completely different from Yuen Long thirty years later. Kang Jianfei and Hu Juncai walked for most of the night, barefoot. Even with calloused soles, by dawn, they were covered in blisters.

As they walked, Hu Juncai suddenly remembered something and quickly took out a plastic bag from his pocket, which had "Wellcome Supermarket" printed on it.

In Guangdong at that time, fish and meat were tied with dry water grass, and a plastic bag was a rare treasure. Carrying a plastic bag was more eye-catching than carrying an LV bag decades later, drawing admiring glances from passersby. If a plastic bag had a hole, the owner wouldn't throw it away but would patch it with the best fabric.

The plastic bag in Hu Juncai's hand was sent by his cousin, containing several letters and a small cloth bag with Hong Kong dollars inside.

"Damn, it's wet inside!" Hu Juncai took out a few envelopes, frowning at the water-stained marks, "Aiguo... no, Jianfei, what was your uncle's address? I can't read it clearly."

Kang Jianfei snatched the envelope and saw that many of the words were water-stained. He read, "Sham Shui Po Upper Estate... Damn, it will take a whole day to walk from Yuen Long to Kowloon. No, we need to take a bus!"

Hu Juncai took out another envelope and said, "My cousin said he's fishing on Lantau Island and married the daughter of a fishing boss. I wonder how far Lantau Island is."

Kang Jianfei patted his shoulder sympathetically, "You'll have to walk slowly, rest up, and prepare to swim across the sea again."

Hu Juncai said with a bitter face, "Swim across the sea again?"

After walking for a while, they finally found a small, poorly maintained road. Ten minutes later, a truck drove by, and Kang Jianfei immediately ran to the middle of the road, waving his hands.

"Screech..." The truck braked suddenly, and the driver looked at the two beggar-like figures and asked, "Mainlanders who swam over from the other side?"

Hu Juncai stepped forward and smiled, "Comrade, please help us, take us to the city."

The driver hesitated, pointed to the back, and said, "Get in, I'll give you a ride. I'm going to Kowloon, and you can get off there."

"Thank you, thank you!" Hu Juncai bowed repeatedly.

The two climbed into the truck's cargo area, which was full of seafood, and the fishy smell mixed with a foul odor made them feel nauseous.

Kang Jianfei, however, didn't vomit and even closed his eyes to nap. He was exhausted from walking all night and needed to rest.

Before traveling through time, Kang Jianfei was a half-odd person. As a baby, he was sold by human traffickers to a mountain village and raised by a farming family until he was 10 years old. His adoptive parents, who couldn't have children, bought him, but when Kang Jianfei was 5, they had a biological son and gradually neglected and hated him.

His adoptive parents later treated Kang Jianfei like a little slave, scolding and beating him at the slightest provocation. At 10, unable to bear the abuse, Kang Jianfei did something bold and daring. He put pesticides in the food, nearly killing his adoptive family of six, and fled the village that night.

Kang Jianfei took all the cash from home and, along with begging along the way, escaped from the north to the south. During a theft, he was spotted by a thief boss and joined him in stealing and cheating for three years, becoming an excellent pickpocket.

Later, their gang was caught by the police. Since Kang Jianfei was under 14 and had no family to take care of him, he was sent to a children's welfare home.

Kang Jianfei later went to school for a few years. Being much older than his classmates, he was often ridiculed. After the Nth time beating up a classmate who mocked him, the school finally expelled him.

After that, Kang Jianfei worked on construction sites and, when things got tough, resorted to pickpocketing again. Later, he went to Hengdian to be an extra, then moved north to be a "Beipiao" (a person who drifts in Beijing). A few years later, he accidentally got into the Beijing Film Academy's photography department.

By then, Kang Jianfei was 28 years old.

He only studied for two years at the Beijing Film Academy before being expelled for fighting. He then shot commercials, wedding videos, and anything that could earn money.

Three years later, Kang Jianfei joined a large state-owned film company. With his excellent photography skills and some unsavory means, he outshone many colleagues and seniors and became the personal photographer of a famous director within five years.

To rise to the top, Kang Jianfei used some underhanded methods, earning him two unflattering nicknames—Kang Jianfei and Jianren Fei.

Before traveling through time, Kang Jianfei was seducing a third-rate actress, promising to speak well of her to the director to get her