Chapter 1 Lin Chuan

Su Su had just finished her master’s degree at the age of twenty-five this year. After her internship, she did not rush to find a job. Instead, she participated in the poverty relief and re-education program organized by the school. For one year, she was going to a remote, mountainous area with an enthusiastic group of young adults to work as teaching assistants.

She took two nearly two months to prepare for this, and intentionally purchased an extra-large backpack in army green color online. Although it wasn’t good-looking, it could store a lot of things. After packing everything that could be used for a whole year, she set off.

At first, everything was going well. She yearned for a quiet life there, away from the city, and reminisced about her childhood in the countryside. How was she to know that their bus would overturn halfway down the road to avoid the sheep suddenly coming out of the intersection, throwing her outside the bus in a humiliating way, tumbling down the mountain, and fainting because of the strong impact?

When she awoke, she found herself in a difficult position. In this place, except for the trees and grass, beasts could be heard making noise from time to time, which was terrifying.

At this time, it was still dusk, but it was about to get dark. Her surroundings were starting to become hazy – it would be dangerous for someone to linger here. Comrade Xiao Su [1] was originally a squeamish girl who cried a lot, but now she’d have to sniff and insist on getting up to try and call someone for rescue.

Luckily, her huge backpack was thrown out along with her, and her phone was situated in its side pocket.

When she went to the backpack with aching legs, she took out her mobile phone and found there was no signal. God would kill her.

Su Su was so anxious that she shed a few tears and said, “Why am I so unlucky? I’ll never take a bus again.” But it was now useless to complain and feel sorry for herself, so she could only grab her backpack and hold up her phone to search for a signal.

Because of the pain in her legs and back, she fell over before she could go very far. At some point, she dropped her phone for no apparent reason, and couldn’t find it no matter how hard she looked.

This was the halo of bad luck, right?

Su Su couldn’t hold on any longer. Sitting on the big backpack, she rested her head on her lap and cried silently. She didn’t dare to be loud. What if a beast got attracted to noise?

As she thought of what to do, she heard a sudden rustling. She froze for a moment, stepped back, and asked, “Who?”

But then, she thought about it: if it was a human, there was still salvation, and turning around would be pointless when she had no sense of direction. So, she immediately raised a little hope in her heart and asked, “That… Is it a human?”

“Hmm.”

With that voice, a figure in green and about one meter tall darted out of the grass. He seemed to be wearing a military uniform, but it was an outdated style with a military-green bag and a water bottle on his back. He looked like he was being filmed for a drama, or deliberately dressed for a cosplay.

Susu wondered if she might have run into the filming crew of a historical drama. Looking at his face again, she felt that he had to be a male lead because he was incredibly handsome. And he was also different from some small fresh meat that looked better than a woman [2]. But the man in front of her had a strong physique and bright eyes, and just standing here, a natural feeling of dominance rolls in, making people feel guilty and unable to look at him directly.

Su Su was eager to survive this time, and it was more important to ask people for help first.

“I just fell off the bus—it scared me to death. My leg seems to be hurt and I can’t go very far. Can you help me call someone, or find a place with a reception for me to call for help?”

She dared swear that she had never been so polite and only asked this seemingly righteous man in front of her to help her escape her predicament.

But the man only looked at her, frowned, and then said, “Comrade, seeing that it’s getting dark, there shouldn’t be anyone coming to this mountain. Also, you need to leave the mountain and go to town for a call. It’s a few miles away, and if you’re injured, you wouldn’t be able to go there.”

Su Su was speechless when she heard this. Wasn’t the whole country connected via technology? Why would one have to go to town to make a phone call? What kind of poor place was this?

“Then what should I do?” Feeling pain all over her body, she immediately became desperate when she heard that a phone call was going to be that far.

“If you trust me, why don’t you with me to my house in Xiaoshan Village, which is in front of you?” The cosplayer suddenly said.

Xiaoshan Village? Sounds a bit familiar.

“I…” Although he looked handsome and wore a military uniform, he wasn’t a real soldier, after all. In this unfamiliar place, what if something happened?

Su Su kept contemplating with her little head. But seeing that the other party was waiting for her patiently and didn’t seem like a bad person at all, not to mention her chance of being preyed on by wild animals in the mountains, she might as well find a place to hide in. Maybe her university would go through this poor village.

Thinking like this, she nodded slightly and said, “Then, I’ll trouble you.”

The young man nodded after hearing this. He then took the lead and walked out to the front, as if he wanted to lead the way for her.

Su Su reached out and picked up her backpack to follow. But in just a few steps, her ankle got twisted in the grass. She couldn’t have known that this road wasn’t easy to walk on. She pulled hard a few times, but to no avail; because the wound was affected, she hissed and didn’t dare move further.

“Comrade, you can’t do this. We have to go down the mountain before dark, or we won’t be able to walk if the wolves come out.”

“What?”

“Wolves.”

“But my leg hurts and I can’t walk.” Su Su felt that although the man in front of her was righteous, he didn’t know how to coax a girl at all. She was about to cry, but he still stood there frowning.

He thought for a while, then as though he had made up his mind, said, “I’ll carry you.”

“Uh, I’m pretty heavy.” She was more than a hundred pounds. Not too fat, but not that thin.

“Come on.” The man seemed a little impatient.

“Oh, then my backpack—”

“I’ll carry it.”

“Can you really do it?”

Although he looked quite sturdy, her backpack was also quite heavy.

But soon she was beaten in the face. The other party effortlessly put her on his back and walked with the big backpack, as if it didn’t weigh anything at all.

He was so powerful—the kind fitting for a brutish boyfriend.

Su Su was almost moved to tears. Although he looked cold and hard, she fell in love with this upright man.

Maybe I can see him again in the future, but I don’t know if he’s willing to make friends or not. So, she said cautiously: “My name is Susu. What’s yours?”

“Lin Chuan.”

Huh? That name’s a bit familiar, but I don’t remember from where… She was silent for a while, her mind spinning until realization dawned on her. “Is there a captain in your village named Lin Donghe?”

She remembered reading a historical novel on the bus, and that there were names like Xiaoshan Village, Lin Chuan, and Lin Donghe in it.

Could it be…

“And n your village, is there an educated youth named Qin Yueyue?”

“Yes,” the other party answered simply, sounding a little puzzled.

“No, that’s not…” It turned out that she hadn’t fallen in the mountains, but really somehow crossed into a period novel. Was there such an unbelievable thing in this world?

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Translator’s Notes

[1] Comrade Xiao Su: Comrade was a respectful title in that period, and ‘xiao’ here means ‘little’ and is used as an endearment for our Heroine Su. Hence author addressed her as Comrade Xiao Su to show affection.

[2] Small fresh meat: a beautiful, effeminate-looking young man with a weak impression.