Foreword

  In the late spring and early summer of 1939, the Japanese army swept through our base area. The second company of a certain regiment of the Eighth Route Army was ordered to conduct a sniper attack on the enemy, covering the withdrawal of the main force.

  After a fierce battle, the second company completed its mission at great cost and prepared to withdraw. Just then, a shell exploded beside soldier Li Tie, who fell to the ground with blood flowing from his mouth. His comrades rushed over to carry him away as they retreated. During the retreat, Li Tie was hit in the leg by another bullet, but fortunately it didn't hit bone, only piercing two holes. At this moment, the Japanese enemy caught up and killed two of his comrades who were carrying him, leaving him thrown to the ground, unconscious. Another shell exploded beside him, sending his body tumbling down the mountain until he crashed into a thicket halfway down. No one noticed him as his head hit a large rock during the tumble, and for an instant, his head flashed with a light before returning to normal.

  In July 2009, Zhao Jing, a senior engineer at a certain company, went fishing by the reservoir after finishing a day's work. Eight years ago, Zhao graduated from a third-rate university and then found a job as an engineer at a small company. In his free time, he liked to go fishing.

  For the past year, things have not been going smoothly. I don't know if it's because my boss is having an early midlife crisis or what, but he always seems to be picking on me for no reason. He constantly finds fault with me and scolds me every now and then. Zhao Jing has also been holding in her frustration and anger, but she can't do anything about it. If it weren't for the financial crisis making jobs hard to find, and the fact that our salaries are still being paid on time, he would have quit long ago. Taking advantage of the recent rain, I decided to go fishing to catch a few fish and improve my mood, as well as clear my mind.

  He came to the edge of the reservoir's spillway, found a good spot, and cast his line. Before long, he felt a tug on the hook. Excited, he stood up, and as he did, he felt a considerable force pulling on the rod - it was a big fish! Wasn't this heaven's way of smiling upon him, letting him catch a big one? He thought to himself with glee, preparing to reel in the fish. As he shifted his weight to the side, he felt what seemed like a large rock beneath his foot and stepped on it confidently. But little did he know that the rain from earlier had loosened the mud beneath the rock, and as soon as he put his weight on it, the rock slid into the water, taking him with it. He tried to pull his leg back but was too late, and he slid into the water as well. As soon as he entered the water, a powerful force pulled him under, leaving no room for struggle. The last thought that crossed his mind before losing consciousness was: "What a big fish!" A few days later, an evening newspaper reported: "A male body was found in the lower reaches of a certain reservoir, suspected to be Zhao Jing, an engineer from a certain company who went missing while fishing a few days ago." The report solemnly reminded citizens to prioritize safety when fishing...

  Zhao Jing woke up to a body full of pain, especially in his left leg, which seemed to be disobedient. His head was also a bit dizzy. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying under a small tree, with all his clothes torn into strips and the cotton filling from his jacket hanging out from the branches. The wounds on his body were still bleeding. But wasn't I just fishing and slipped into the water? How did I end up here? And before falling into the water, I was wearing a T-shirt, who changed me into this tattered quilted jacket? Quilted jacket? Quilted pants? Could it be...? He quickly looked at his left arm and was stunned: a square armband with a blue border, white background, and blue characters: "Ba Lu". Was this the legendary time-traveling? Zhao Jing moved again, and the pain made him pass out.

  It was as if in a dream, yet also in real life. Zhao Jing felt like he was being scolded by his boss at work one moment, and the next, he was fighting against the Japanese devils on the battlefield. Then, he was fishing by the reservoir, but suddenly, a ghostly figure with a bayonet was charging towards him, yet he couldn't move. He panicked, let out a loud "ah", and sat up abruptly. Where was he? Clearly, he had been under the small tree, so why was he now in a mountain cave?

  "Are you awake?"

  A voice that was no longer young asked.

  "Where am I?"

  "Alas, poor child, you've suffered such a severe injury. This is Niugou Village. I was begging for food and passing by there when I saw that you were covered in blood but still had breath, so I brought you here. Come, have some congee."

  An old woman held a coarse ceramic black bowl, with half a bowl of thin porridge inside.

  An old woman who begged for food saved him.

  Zhao Jing looked around the environment, it was a small cave, relatively dry, the walls of the cave were blackened by smoke, only a thin quilt with patches on top of him, near the entrance of the cave, an old woman was cooking something in a clay pot. The wounds on his body had been bandaged with clean cloth, fortunately most of them were superficial injuries, except for the wound on his leg which was a bit more serious, but it didn't hurt to the bone, so there wasn't much problem.

  Zhao Jing lay there in a daze, thinking about his troubles. After his memories merged with Li Tie's, he finally understood the current reality - he had indeed crossed over, and was occupying someone else's body after crossing over.

  Good heavens, why did others who traveled through time either become a prince in ancient times with beauties surrounding them, enjoying wealth and glory; or else they would be obeyed by all, gathering followers to become a feudal lord, or at the very least travel to a peaceful prosperous era, with fragrant soap and water, never worrying about food and drink for their whole lives. Or perhaps they possessed extraordinary abilities, making great contributions to the country and people. But what about me? I came to this chaotic world, got hurt all over, not to mention having no money or extraordinary abilities, I'm afraid even eating would be a problem!

  However, there's no way to change the situation now. Zhao Jing knew from Li Tie's memory that it was currently 1939 and Li Tie was only 16 years old this year. He had already been in the army for four years. Having lost his parents at a young age, he grew up eating at many different households. Four years ago, while begging for food, he met the company commander and followed him to join the army, serving as the communication officer for the company commander ever since.

  "Have some food, child, I'm useless, can't get any grain, alas, poor child."

  "Thank you, auntie."

  He hadn't eaten for two days, and Li Tie (using this name from now on) took the bowl and drank it all in a few mouthfuls. The old lady wanted to refill it, but was stopped by Li Tie.

  The old woman ladled herself half a bowl of porridge, with the rice grains sparse enough to reflect a person's shadow, and could be counted on one's fingers.

  While drinking, Li Tie chatted with the old lady about family matters. Through her words, Li Tie gained a deeper understanding of the surroundings and learned that the villagers nearby had all fled to hide from the devils. The area within tens of miles was deserted, and the millet used to make porridge for Li Tie earlier was actually dug out by the old lady from a mouse hole last year. The devils' nearest stronghold was only four or five miles away, and there was also a large stronghold in the town with many devils and trains.

  After chatting with his family for a while, Li Tie got up from the bed, and his wife came over to help him. He refused her assistance, saying that he was not seriously injured and that moving around would be better for him.

  Li Tie walked out of the cave, took a look outside, and felt the warm sunshine on his body. It was very comfortable, and his head cleared up a lot. His head had only been shaken by the shell blast, and he just had a slight concussion, which wasn't serious at all. Li Tie took several deep breaths of fresh air, it was really refreshing! The unpolluted air was totally different from what he was used to. He stretched his limbs, looked around, and found that this cave was located at the foot of a mountain, with a small river flowing beside it. The surroundings were covered with lush grass, and birds flew by occasionally.

  Back in the cave, Li Tie saw his mother-in-law getting ready to go out again. Li Tie said: "Mother, don't go out today, it's chaotic outside."

  "It's okay, I'll go dig some wild vegetables and make a wild vegetable dumpling for dinner."

  "You'd better go and come back early."

  Li Tie watched as the old woman's frail figure disappeared into the grass, and silently returned to the entrance of the cave, sitting down. The current task was to first find something to eat, relying solely on the old woman begging was clearly not enough, everyone was poor, and it wasn't even certain if they could find anyone. They had to be self-sufficient. As for weapons, he used to have a Han Yang rifle with three or four bullets, but now he had nothing, possibly lost when he was injured. He could only focus on recovering from his injuries first, although the injury wasn't severe, it wouldn't heal properly in just three to five days.

  Li Tie went up the mountain slope to search for food and soon brought back some edible things. More than a dozen wild mushrooms, a handful of wild vegetable roots, two green frogs, more than a dozen mountain silkworms, and a wild beehive - what a delicacy! Before long, Li Tie had cleaned up these things, put them in a clay pot, added some salt, and stewed them.

  After running around in circles, I broke out in a sweat and felt much lighter, no longer so heavy. Actually, according to the current season, wearing single-layer clothes would be enough, but due to the difficulties in supplying the troops, single-layer clothes had not arrived yet, so we had to fight with the enemy. It's not that Li Tie didn't want to change into single-layer clothes, it's just that there were no single-layer clothes available.

  Li Tie's previous life, that is, when Zhao Jing was young, he lived in the countryside, so he was very familiar with the wilderness. Unlike children in the city nowadays, who can't even tell scallions and wheat seedlings apart when they go to the fields, he was a native of the countryside. Not only did he eat frogs, but also locusts and other things. And those wild mushrooms were the best delicacy in summer. At that time, among the surrounding villages, only people from their village dared to eat them, while others didn't dare to eat them for fear of poisoning. Everyone knew that some mushrooms were poisonous, even highly toxic, and a small mushroom could poison an entire family, even leading to death. However, it was strange that after decades of eating wild mushrooms in their village, no one had ever been poisoned, although there were people who went to the hospital because they ate too many mushrooms - a whole basket, over ten bowls! This also showed how much the villagers loved mushrooms.

  Li Tie's mushrooms, each one is different, there are gray ones, red ones, yellow ones, and even a white one. These were all eaten when I was young, so don't worry about them being poisonous. Li Tie doesn't like pine mushrooms, always feeling that their flavor isn't fresh and beautiful. In fact, people who haven't eaten this kind of wild mushroom can't experience its delicious taste. To make an analogy: if eating this mushroom is like eating meat, then eating pine mushrooms is like eating bran.

  Around noon, the old lady came back with some wild vegetables wrapped in a ragged cloth. Some of them Li Tie recognized, while others he had never seen before. The most abundant was Plantago asiatica, which is also a Chinese medicinal herb and an excellent vegetable. It can often be found along small rivers and roadsides. Its taste isn't bad either, similar to the small oil greens we eat nowadays.

  Li Tie filled a bowl of soup for his mother, and she stared at the small piece of meat in it with wide eyes, almost crying. "This child, on such days, where did you find this meat? And can these mushrooms be eaten? Aren't they poisonous, eating them will kill people?"

  The old lady held the bowl but refused to eat.

  "Hurry up and eat, it's delicious, there's still a lot in the pot."

  The villagers call anything that can cook rice a pot. Li Tie didn't hold back and said it out loud.

  The old lady took a sip of the soup, and her eyes narrowed in delight. It was truly delicious, she hadn't had such good soup in many years - no, not many years, but never before. The old man and his generation all said that this mushroom was poisonous and couldn't be eaten, but I've eaten it, and it's so tasty!

  The old woman drank half a bowl of soup and asked Li Tie,

  "Have you eaten, child?"

  "Not yet, you eat first, auntie. I used to eat this kind of mushroom when I was little, it's delicious, here."

  Li Tie handed the old lady a pair of chopsticks made from small wooden sticks. Since the old lady was used to having only porridge to drink, she didn't need chopsticks. The household items were just a black bowl, an earthen pot, a quilt, and two paper cement bags that had been picked up somewhere. This was all they had, truly poor and destitute.

  After dinner, Dama started chatting with Li Tie again about family matters.

  The old woman told Li Tie that she had two sons, Lü Qiang and Lü Hai, both of whom were soldiers in the Eighth Route Army. Her husband, Lü Liang, had also joined a guerrilla unit and was away from home for years. After their village was burned down by the Japanese, she set out to beg for food and find her husband. She had arrived in this area two years ago, although there were also Japanese here, but since there were no villages or mineral resources, the Eighth Route Army rarely came here, so the Japanese rarely came either. As a result, the old woman settled down here. Because she used to live in a place without mountains, she didn't recognize many wild vegetables and could only eat a limited variety, let alone mushrooms, which were poisonous. She had personally seen neighbors who couldn't bear their hunger and ate some mushrooms under a tree, resulting in the entire family dying. From then on, mushrooms became a symbol of poison to her.

  Li Tie lost his parents at a young age, so he felt very close to Dama. As time went by, the two became closer and closer, and Li Tie eventually regarded Dama as his adoptive mother, making her wrinkles disappear with laughter.

  The old woman was so happy that she wanted to cook all the half bowl of rice in her bag, to make some delicious food for her adopted son. Li Tie stopped her.

  "Mother, take a rest and let your son cook something delicious for you. Let me, on behalf of my two unseen brothers, show some filial piety to you." The old lady said that Lv Qiang was 19 years old and Lv Hai was 17 years old, so Li Tie had no choice but to be the youngest.

  "Alright, alright, I won't do it. Today I'll just take a look at San'er's craftsmanship."

  The old lady's mood is great, and she has a son. There's nothing more exciting than having a child in old age, although he's not her biological son, what's the difference?

  Li Tie went out for a walk and probably because of the exercise, except that his legs were a bit sore, he was basically fine, although he limped a bit, it didn't matter much.

  Li Tie caught two more frogs by the small river, four or five loaches, cleaned them up neatly in the stream, picked some plantain, found some mushrooms in the grass, and got a big handful of cattail roots, white and tender. On the way back, he came across a wild melon with many white fruits on it. Li Tie dug out the fruits under the melon, brought the vines above, and also picked a few medicinal herbs - "zhuzhuyiya", whose scientific name is unknown, but locally called zhuzhuyiya. This is a good thing that can stop bleeding and relieve pain. When he was young, wherever he got hurt, he would crush it, drip the liquid juice on the wound, and the wound wouldn't bleed or get inflamed, and would heal quickly. However, because its leaves are surrounded by sharp thorns, many people don't recognize it, or say they don't like it.

  Back in the cave, Dàniáng was leaning on her side and had fallen asleep on the bed, a smile still on her face.

  Li Tie put the frogs and loaches into a jar to cook, just as he was about to get up to cover something for his wife, she woke up.

  Li Tie picked a handful of calabazas from the mountain pumpkin and handed them to his mother, "Mother, these things are grown on the mountain pumpkin, they're delicious."

  The old lady took it over, picked one up and put it in her mouth, gently biting it open. Ah, a sweet flavor immediately spread throughout her body. How many years had she not tasted sweetness? Three years? Ten years? Or even earlier? It was already good to have something to eat, what flavor could be pursued? Sugar, that's something only the wealthy landlords' families could enjoy.

  "Mother, look, this is what the fruit looks like when it's ripe. It's edible, try another one."

  Li Tie handed his mother a root of the grass, "This is the root of this kind of grass, it's very sweet."

  "These few kinds of mushrooms are all edible. You see, this gray one tastes the best, this red one is a bit worse in taste, and this yellow one is slightly spicy..."

  Li Tie made up his mind to teach his mother-in-law a good lesson, so that after he left, his mother-in-law would live a little better, at least have something to eat.

  The old lady's eyes are finally open today, if she had known there was so much food here, she wouldn't have gone around begging for food, starving to the point of dizziness, and could only drink cold water to fill her stomach. She has been guarding a treasure mountain without knowing its value. Sweet potatoes, mushrooms, cogon grass roots, wormwood, silkworms...

  Although the silkworm looks a bit scary, its taste is really good.

  Although some mushrooms are poisonous and highly toxic, they also taste too delicious.

  Although the mountain pumpkin tastes a bit worse, it can fill your stomach anyway.

  ……

  Like this, the days passed one by one. Li Tie taught his dry mother all the edible things he knew and could find, even leaving her enough savings to eat for over ten days without leaving the cave. His injuries had long since healed, and it was time to go find Lian Zhang and the others. He didn't know how they were doing after these dozen or so days. Although his heart was no longer the original Li Tie's, he had taken over this body and would have to take on its responsibilities.