The riverbank was strewn with chaotic rocks. Yun Ye walked steadily. Just last night, he had vowed not to be weak anymore. His wife and child were tucked away in his heart, warmly filling his entire chest. He wanted to bring his whole family through this unknown world. He believed that as long as he wasn’t in a barbaric wilderness, relying on his deft hands, establishing a home here wouldn’t be difficult. He no longer feared any fierce beasts – things couldn’t get any worse than this anyway. Leaving the horse herd to survive alone in this wilderness, Yun Ye regarded this as the first step of living here.

His feet left deep prints in the yellow sand. Behind him, a small horse limped along, following closely. This was an injured horse abandoned by the herd. A wolf had torn the skin of its hind leg, and under the scorching sun, it had quickly festered. At dawn, the herd went to the grassland to graze, leaving it alone by the river to await death.

Yun Ye cleaned its wound and applied precious white medicine to the injury. He believed that in just a few days, the wound would heal. Yun Ye regarded this as his final repayment to the horse herd. Then, waving goodbye to it, he set out on the road to find people.

For some reason, the small horse struggled to stand up, looked once in the direction the herd had departed, and with difficulty walked toward Yun Ye’s direction. Yun Ye heard the small horse’s footsteps but didn’t turn back, only slowing his pace. When Yun Ye stopped, the small horse stopped. When Yun Ye walked, the small horse walked. Stopping and starting, one person and one horse walked along this long river, traveling together with quite some affection.

The midday sunlight grew fierce. Sweat soaked through his clothes. Yun Ye found a patch of shade – it was a huge locust tree whose curved branches covered a full half-acre. Under the tree was only short green grass – a good place to rest.

Yun Ye sat heavily on a protruding tree root, unbuttoned his shirt, and drank a large mouthful of water with great satisfaction. All the summer heat vanished. Just as he was planning to rest for a moment, the small horse walked over, nudging him gently back and forth with its head, looking like it wanted to drink water. Yun Ye took out his flat-bottomed pan, filled it with water, and the small horse was not polite – it lowered its head and drank heartily.

Yun Ye set down his backpack to check its wound. Good – the wound hadn’t torn open. Whether it was the medicine’s miraculous effect or the small horse’s good constitution, the wound had actually grown a layer of membrane. No wonder it could follow for so long. Yun Ye pillowed his head on the backpack, chewing the remaining wolf meat in his mouth. Food was running low – better save where he could. The small horse lay beside Yun Ye, chewing the green grass Yun Ye had cut for it, one mouthful after another.

“So you’re just following me like this? I don’t even know where I’m going. You deserve your bad luck.”

“You know what? Following a boss with no future – it’s agreed, once you’ve followed me, you’re not allowed to regret it.”

“That damn heaven threw me into this wilderness without a sound to fend for myself. Well, I’ve accepted it now. We two brothers will live spectacularly in this world. In the future we’ll enjoy the good life – you’ll have your days of fortune, kiddo.”

“From now on you’ll be called Wang Cai. You’ll bring us rolling fortune – how about that?”

“This name is too awesome. Without a certain level of cultivation, one couldn’t come up with this name.”

“Don’t spray saliva. Anyway, I super love this name. Look at you, covered in mud spots – you’d be wronged not to be called this name.”

Yun Ye rambled on and on. Wang Cai listened with closed eyes. Before long, Yun Ye’s voice grew lower and lower, gradually becoming inaudible…

A burst of hurried hoofbeats awakened Yun Ye. He rolled up in one motion, looking in shock toward the dense forest on his right. The sound was coming from there. Wang Cai also stood up, standing obediently beside him, swishing his tail without calling out or moving.

It was two horses. The hoofbeats were hurried yet rhythmic – these were not wild horses running. Yun Ye felt blood rushing to his head. Grabbing his entrenching tool, he charged toward the forest like the wind, hacking through weeds, chopping down shrubs, startling countless birds into flight. Wang Cai stayed far away, not understanding what madness had seized his master and elder brother.

By the time Yun Ye, gasping for breath, chopped down the last patch of shrubs, the hoofbeats had gradually faded into the distance. Looking at the gradually settling dust on the yellow earth road, Yun Ye burst into loud laughter. Tears mixed with snot smeared all over his face, but he paid no heed, throwing himself onto the yellow earth and breaking into loud sobs again.

This was a trace of human civilization. It wound its way toward the distance, running parallel to the Yellow River. Yun Ye concluded this was the main road connecting to Lanzhou – now, perhaps it was called a thoroughfare. Two ancient people on horses had just passed by. Yun Ye felt it was strange. Although he had seen many ancient people before, those were mummies and dried corpses. Even the Mawangdui beauty Xin Zhui was nothing more than that!

The afternoon sunlight shone on the empty ancient road, appearing tranquil yet desolate. For Yun Ye, this was a road leading toward the unknown – one step to heaven, one step to hell.

Yun Ye had found human habitation. At this moment when he was about to return to human society, he appeared hesitant. Heaven or hell? Should he take this step or not? In this world he was a person who didn’t exist, like a pool of still water – if a stone were thrown in, could the ripples it created drown him? The unknown was terrifying. Knowing nothing about this world, he was seized by tremendous fear.

Sweat covered his head, flowing down along his jaw. Wang Cai extended his head and licked his sweat with his tongue, as if comforting him.

Standing by the river, he carefully washed away the filth on his body with river water. His clothes were already tattered. Nearly a month of rough living meant they now barely covered his body. He still cleaned them thoroughly and tied them to his body. Fortunately the backpack was soft cowhide and had no damage at all. Seeing Wang Cai covered in mud, he gave him a wash as well. The ice-cold river water poured on his body, and Wang Cai whinnied with pleasure.

Striding along the yellow earth road, it no longer mattered where he went. Following this main road, he would eventually see human habitation. The footprints, hoofprints, and cart tracks on the road grew increasingly dense. Surely he was getting closer and closer to villages and cities. His heart was no longer panicked – when the moment comes, one must be bold.

Turning past a meadow, the clamor of human voices reached him. Following the sound, he saw over ten ox carts stopped in a circle by the roadside. A flag was planted on each cart, with the large character “Tang” fluttering in the wind. Yun Ye’s heart contracted. Indeed, he had returned to the Tang Dynasty, though he didn’t yet know which emperor reigned.

Yun Ye watched this group of ancient people with great interest. Blue robes reaching to the knees, hemp cloth trousers, cowhide hemp shoes on their feet, hair piled high in topknots secured with wooden sticks. Was this the commoners’ attire? There were also several people wearing leather armor, horizontal sabers at their waists, looking imposing and majestic. The leader, a burly man with a face full of whiskers, saw Yun Ye spying from the side and strode toward him, hand gripping his saber.

“Qiang brat, daring to raid grain carts – what audacity!” Having said this, his snow-bright horizontal saber flashed from its sheath, about to chop down.

Excellent – the familiar Guanzhong accent! Yun Ye quickly retreated, waving both hands wildly, Shaanxi dialect spilling naturally from his mouth: “Brave warrior, who’s a Qiang person? You’ve got the wrong person!”

The big man didn’t release the blade in his hand, stopping it mid-air, his eyes full of suspicion: “Eh? A Guanzhong boy – how’d you run to Longxi? Where are your elders?”

“No elders. My master passed away. I came out from the mountains alone – just me.”

The big man pulled his blade and sheathed it, staring up and down at Yun Ye, even walking close to sniff him. “No sheep stink – he’s from Guanzhong. What’s a little boy running around for!”

“What if you feed the wolves?”

Wang Cai saw the burly man grabbing at Yun Ye and wouldn’t stand for it, opening his mouth to bite. The burly man released his grip, his left hand lifting to dodge, his right hand seizing Wang Cai’s lower jaw like lightning. Wang Cai cried out in pain. The burly man laughed heartily and let go, pressing down once on Wang Cai’s back and calling out: “Good horse!”

The other big men saw Yun Ye and Wang Cai in such a bedraggled state and also burst into laughter. Wang Cai was afraid of strangers, hiding behind Yun Ye and peeking at these people. The lead burly man was also observing Yun Ye. He saw that the clothes on Yun Ye’s body had been torn by branches and thorns into strips. Though ragged, they were finely made, oddly styled, and the fabric seemed like hemp but wasn’t – definitely not ordinary. Then seeing Yun Ye’s refined features, tender skin, and slender hands, he was clearly not from an ordinary household. On his feet were leather boots that looked strange but fit well. He couldn’t help but feel some regret for his earlier rudeness, so he softened his tone: “Young gentleman, where do you wish to go?”

“Since childhood I followed my master living in the deep mountains. Not long ago, my teacher passed away. After Yun Ye kept vigil for my deceased master for three months, the place where we lived was destroyed by mountain floods. Having no choice but to descend the mountain, I didn’t expect to encounter wolf packs below. Fortunately I escaped, which is how I came to be in this current state. I’ve decided to go to Chang’an. I hope the military gentleman can tell me how far it is to Lanzhou.”

“Lanzhou is only about sixty li from here. With your build, leading an injured horse, it’ll take two days.”

“Where are you elder brothers transporting grain to? What year is it now? In the mountains one loses track of time. Please tell me.”

“Muddle-headed master with muddle-headed disciple – you don’t even know His Majesty ascended the throne last year. Remember this: it’s now the second year of Zhenguan. As for where we’re transporting grain, that’s military intelligence.” The burly man was full of disdain for Yun Ye’s questions, as if everyone in the whole world should know that his great Imperial Majesty Li Er ascended the throne last year.

Yun Ye felt as if his head had been struck heavily by a giant hammer. Second year of Zhenguan. Li Shimin. Prince Qin. In the end he hadn’t escaped the wormhole’s machinations. In the end he had been thrown thirteen hundred years into the past. Thinking of his wife and child now completely out of reach, how could he bear this? He muttered to himself: “How can I live so long?”

“You don’t like it? Isn’t His Majesty’s ascension a wonderful thing?” The burly man saw Yun Ye’s face turn pale and sway unsteadily. He stared at him viciously with the eyes one would use to look at Pu Zhigao. If even half a “no” escaped from Yun Ye’s mouth, that horizontal saber would definitely chop at his neck.

“Like it, how could I not like it? His Majesty’s ascension should be celebrated throughout the land.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“Tears of extreme joy!”

“Then cry some more, and while you’re at it, cry some for your master too.”