Chapter 4: Did I Cross Worlds?

My life can still be saved, I am still alive!

Even if you saw a dead body, shouldn’t you still call the police?

Ji Yuan couldn’t understand what this this group of crazy people were thinking. This was tantamount to murder!

Some of their conversations just now were strange, too. Could it be that there was something wrong with these people?

Ji Yuan could feel that these people were not joking. They really just ignored him. After one of them placed a blanket over him and put a damp cloth on his forehead, everyone went about their business.

Zhang Shilin instructed everyone to move the fire to a place closer to the mountain god’s statue, so that the dying beggar could be warmer.

“Crack, snap, snap…”

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Sparks continued to splash outwards from the sound of the flint being struck, and after a few hits, a small piece of tinder was ignited.

“It caught fire, bring the firewood!”

“I’m coming.”

“Don’t smother it!”

The group placed some finely chopped firewood sticks onto the fire, and watched the flames carefully. Soon, the fire was burning brightly.

The merchants set up earthen stoves placed the iron pots they had carried with them onto the shelf. A couple people brought over bamboo tubes from the entrance of the temple and poured the clear rainwater into the cooking pots. Everything was done in an orderly manner.

After completing their tasks, the merchants temporarily relaxed and sat down on the ground to rest.

“Boom…”

The thunder rumbled in the sky, and the rain fell harder.

The merchants who were waiting for the water to boil all stared blankly at the heavy rain outside the temple.

“I wonder if the rain will clear before dark?”

Someone sighed worriedly.

“Looking at this situation, it won’t stop for a while!”

Someone else answered casually, wrapping their clothes tighter around themselves.

“This spring rain is really cold!”

“Yeah! It must be a new year’s gift for the cows and horses!”

2

The group of people gathered around the small fire to keep warm. Their wet clothes hung on a wire to one side, connected to a thin pole in the temple.

The lid of the iron pot gradually began to shake as the temperature of the water in the pot continued to rise. Soon after, it began to rattle.

“Ping! Ping! Pong! Pong!”

3

“The water is boiling!”

Liu Quan said with a smile, and then took out a wooden ladle from her

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basket, while the other merchants took out their wooden bowls or bamboo tubes.

Liu Quan took the wooden bowls and bamboo tubes one by one and filled them with a ladleful of boiling water, then gave them back.

A young man opened another basket and pulled out a cloth bag filled with dry food, including an assortment of colorful dry cakes and steamed buns, and held it out to share with the group.

“Here.”

“Here, take it!”

“Brother Zhao, here are some of the steamed buns you like!”

“Thanks!”

Each person took a piece, some patting the arm of the young man and thanking him, and the bag soon arrived in front of Zhang Shilin.

“Brother Shilin! There are steamed buns and biscuits, which do you want?”

Zhang Shilin glanced at the cloth bag.

“I’d like a biscuit!”

“Sure!”

The young man took out a dry biscuit and handed it to Zhang Shilin, who took it and nodded. Then he took a steamed but for himself, put the bag back in the basket, and sat back in his original position.

People had already begun blowing on the water in their bowls to cool it down, moistened their dry food, and started to eat.

During this process, Ji Yuan could hear the crackling sound of the firewood burning, the bubbling of the water and the clang of the lid against the pot, the sound of the water ladle, and the chatter of the people.

He thought to himself,

what the heck,

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this group of people actually started eating one by one, they really didn’t care about my fate!

“Shilin, when I was in Narcissus Town, I heard people say that Niu Kui Mountain has not been very safe in recent years. No one stays on the mountain at night. If the rain continues, will we have to stay overnight?”

The person who spoke was a middle-aged man named Jin Shunfu, who was nibbling on a dry biscuit. His aged face looked like it was full of crisscrossing wrinkles and ravines.

Zhang Shilin also looked at the rain pouring down in sheets outside.

“It shouldn’t be a problem if we’re careful at night, and…”

He looked at where Ji Yuan was lying.

“This beggar should have been here since a long time ago. He’s all right, so what are we afraid of with so many people? Even if we encounter the king of beasts,

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we can scare him away!”

The young man who distributed the dry food shivered when he heard his proclamation, choking on water.

“Cough cough cough… cough cough cough… Brother Shilin, ahem, don’t scare me! Are there really beast kings on Niu Kui Mountain?”

“Hahahahaha…”

“This kid…hahaha…”

“Xiaodong, you need to have a bit more courage, hahaha…”

The people around him all laughed at his words. This young man had only been a part of the team for less than two months, but he was a very energetic and diligent young man. In addition, everyone in the group shared same hometown and knew him well, so they took good care of him.

Zhang Shilin smiled and looked at Wang Dong.

“Xiao Dong, this Niu Kui mountain peak is very forested and quite vast. It might have radius as big as 200 miles. It would be natural for the mountain to have a few beast kings, but the path we chose outside should be relatively safe.”

Was this truly Niu Kui Mountain, and not Niu Tou Mountain? Beast Kings? Narcissus Town?

On the other side of the room, Ji Yuan was falling deeper and deeper into confusion. How did he get from Niu Tou Mountain to Niu Kui Mountain? Could it be that the “Beast King” they were referring to was a tiger? The name of Narcissus Town was only of secondary importance, since, after all, the land of China was vast, and he wouldn’t know every town.

The merchants were talking and laughing around the fire. Zhang Shilin noticed that Jin Shunfu was still frowning, so he leaned over and asked in a low voice.

“Lao Jin, what’s wrong? What exactly did you hear in Narcissus Town?”

Jin Shunfu swallowed the dry biscuit in his mouth along with a mouthful of hot water, glanced cautiously left and right, and answered Zhang Shilin in the same low voice.

“Shilin, I heard from some people in Narcissus Town that there may be monsters in Niu Kui Mountain…”

Inexplicably, when he heard those words, Zhang Shilin got goosebumps.

“At the time, I took it as a joke and didn’t pay much attention to it. We only visited Niu Kui Mountain twice in the last year. What could possibly happen? But now I suddenly feel anxious for no discernible reason. Shilin, please don’t laugh at me…”

Jin Shunfu’s words were half explanation, half an attempt to comfort himself.

“Don’t scare yourself, take a good rest!”

Zhang Shilin patted Jin Shunfu on the arm. They had a little private rule when they went out: whether it was day or night, they couldn’t pat anyone on the shoulder, so they chose the arm instead.

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However, there was indeed one person in the temple who definitely had goosebumps, and it was the paralyzed Ji Yuan himself.

What these people had said didn’t sound like a joke, and it was definitely not acting. To be honest, if it were acting, Ji Yuan was confident he would have heard the sounds of the venue and filming equipment by now. He and these twelve people were most certainly alone.

The sound of graudally approaching footsteps pulled Ji Yuan back from his thoughts.

Zhang Shilin took a wooden bowl and walked over to the beggar behind the statue. He touched the man’s forehead; it was still hot, and his breath was so weak that he could barely detect it. He looked at the beggar carefully. Although his face was dirty, there was no pus or spots.

After hesitating for a while, Zhang Shilin stretched out his hand to raise up Ji Yuan’s head a little bit, holding the wooden bowl and tilting it towards Ji Yuan’s chapped lips.

“There’s not much else we can do, so just drink a little bit…”

Warm water dribbled out from the corner of Ji Yuan’s mouth, but most of it stayed, and he swallowed in reflex.

As the water flooded through his inner body, Ji Yuan suddenly felt a lot better.

Ji Yuan recognized this voice as “Brother Shilin”, “Shilin,” or “Zhang Tou,”

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which meant that this man’s was Zhang Shilin.

Obviously, this person didn’t seem to be insane, and the others were similar, so an extremely strong hunch began growing in his heart.

Could it be that I have really traveled through time?

Sounds of sparks and striking flint ↩︎

“是啊！瘦牛瘦马难过二月八嘛！” It’s an idiom, lit “It’s February 8th for a thin cow and a thin horse.” February 8th is the new year (lunar). Based on some research “thin horse” could refer to prostitutes, but in this context I don’t think so. I think this sentence is generally referring to how any animal who is “thin” and doesn’t get enough to drink must be very happy with the rain. For example, saying “the snails/plants/other creature that likes lots of water must be very happy from the rain.” If anyone has a more accurate translation, please let me know! ↩︎

T/n: You all know the drill for onomatopoeias by now, I’m going to stop putting footnotes after each one. ↩︎

Gender is frustratingly unclear. I’m putting them down as female, and if I’m wrong I’ll go back and change it later on. ↩︎

Lit: “It’s so f***ing realistic” ↩︎

T/n: Okay, I found out why Google and everyone else keep stubbornly trying to translate this (大虫也) as “big insect”!!! WOOOO! Time for some fun knowledge dumps:

So basically, the term “big insect” comes from a line in the Chinese classic “Water Margin,” where protagonist Wu Song fights a tiger. When the tiger jumps out of a bush, it is described as a “big white-fronted insect.” Now this is all well and good, but where the heck did “insect” come from?

Turns out, there are 5 kings, each with 1 direction for each of the 5 elements. The tiger in the west is the king of beasts, the dragon in the east the king of scaled creatures, the phoenix in the south the king of feathered creatures, and so on. The tiger seems to be a part of the “caterpillar class,” hence insects, with “big insect” being an honorific title with “big” meaning “king” or “leader” and “insect” coming from that whole previous thing. ↩︎

According to Google-fu, tapping someone on the shoulder or head can cause an imbalance of energies and attract spirits, especially during the Hungry Ghost Festival (mid July). Basically, it’s bad luck. ↩︎

Honorific that means “old man,” basically, casual reference ↩︎