Chapter 1: The Plague (Part 1)

  Yang Yingqi opened his eyes and saw his "older brother".

  "Brother!"

  After shouting, Yang Yingqi became somewhat confused. The person lying on the ground was a young man of about twenty years old, who was obviously younger than himself and had a completely different physique and appearance from his brother. Why did he instinctively think that this person was his own brother?

  "Ying Qi, what are you doing? I'm over here!"

  Yang Yingqi heard the sound and turned his head, seeing a young man who was both strange and familiar. For some reason, Yang Yingqi suddenly remembered: this young man's name was Yang Kaiyuan, his own cousin. And the one lying at his feet, unconscious, seemed to be called Zhe Yan Chong, a "friend" he had known for not long. But why did he think of Zhe Yan Chong as "brother"?

  Yang Kaiyuan walked over and said: "Zhe Yan Chong hasn't woken up yet? Looks like it's very dangerous."

  Upon hearing Yang Kaiyuan's words, many "memories" flashed through Yang Yingqi's mind: his experiences in his past life, the plane crash that distorted time and space, the happy days he spent in Jiangnan in this life, the anger of being forced to flee by Hua Shiwen two years ago, the hardships of escaping with his cousin Yang Kaiyuan, and the years of being captured and enslaved by a foreign tribe.

  He "remembered" that it was now during the Zhenghe (Song Huizong's era) of Northern Song, and this place was within the territory of Liao.

  A month ago, a plague suddenly broke out in this area, and more than a dozen Han villages were forcibly isolated and driven to this valley where it is difficult for birds to fly. Yang Yingqi was a house slave of the Khitan merchants in the city, but he was also driven in because he happened to have a fever and was suspected of having the plague. Over the past month, Yang Yingqi's condition has continued to deteriorate, and Yang Kaiyuan thought he would not survive, but unexpectedly, he made a sudden recovery today!

  At this time, Yang Kaiyuan patted Yang Yingqi's head and let out a sigh of relief: "Alright, alright, the fever has subsided. It seems that your little life is temporarily saved."

  Yang Kaiyuan's action made Yang Yingqi realize his height, he stood up straight, lowered his head to look at his figure, and couldn't help but exclaim: "I... I how... how can I be so short?!" After saying this sentence, he "remembered" again: "I've become 12 years old!"

  Yang Kaiyuan smiled and said: "Of course you are twelve years old! Can't sleep for a day and become twenty years old?"

  "No! Not that! I...I originally...I grew up over there already! It's just...just..." Yang Yingqi also didn't know how to explain it properly: "That world! My brother and I were in the sky...later..."

  "Alright, alright!" Yang Kaiyuan said: "You must be delirious! Stop thinking nonsense, I'll go get you some water to drink."

  They were in a roughly built grass shed, without even a door. Yang Kaiyuan walked out, and Yang Yingqi became dizzy again: "Is everything just a dream? Is my memory of this world the real one? No, dreams can't be that realistic! But if it's not a dream, then what am I called in that world?" He remembered many things about his studies and experiences in that world, but his name was forgotten. No matter how hard he tried to think, he couldn't remember it. Finally, he cast his gaze on Zhe Yan Chong: he hoped he would wake up and tell him the answer.

  For some reason, Yang Yingqi was convinced that Zhe Yan Chong was his brother who had gone through the plane crash with him. "If he really is my brother, then in this world, the only one who can recognize me is him."

  Soon, Yang Kaiyuan brought back water and gave some to Yang Yingqi to drink. He also poured some into the mouth of Zhe Yan-chong who was still unconscious. "Hmm, he's swallowing more smoothly now, his condition seems much better." Zhe Yan-chong was someone Yang Kaiyuan had only met after entering this valley. After entering the valley, his illness gradually worsened and two days ago, he suddenly fell into a coma. Yang Kaiyuan thought he would never wake up again.

  "You must wake up......" Yang Yingqi prayed silently.

  Heaven has granted his wish, and Zhe Yan Chong finally woke up, but what made Yang Ying Qi feel greatly disappointed was: Zhe Yan Chong seemed to have forgotten everything - including the memories of this world!

  "What is this place? Who are you? How did I end up here..."

  "Yuan Chong brother, I am Yang Wu Yang Kaiyuan! Have you forgotten me too? Hmm, do you still remember my younger brother Yang Yingkui?"

  Zhe Yan suddenly shook his head: "Brother Zhe Yan? Are you calling me?"

  "My goodness! He's even forgotten himself!"

  Yang Yingqi's butt fell to the ground, and it seemed that his wish to find himself back in "that world" had completely fallen through.

  Zhe Yan Chong and Yang Ying Qi were both perplexed about their past, but their bodies gradually recovered day by day in the nourishment.

  The so-called nursing is just drinking more water and resting. The people in this valley are mostly lower-class Han civilians, even slaves, from the Nanjing area of Liao State. Some people were driven in with some food and clothing, but most people came in empty-handed waiting to die. Not to mention medicine, there was a lack of food, so when more than 2,000 people first arrived, now less than half are still alive.

  After living in this world for a few days, Yang Yingqi knew that the most important thing at present was not to consider such metaphysical questions as "who am I", but how to survive. In this world, he is just a twelve-year-old child, with brains but no strength, and the people he can rely on are his cousin Yang Kaifeng in this world, and Zhou Yanchong, who may or may not be his own brother.

  That day, Zhe Yan Chong's body had recovered its strength. Yang Kai Yuan took out a rice cake and said: "Brother Yan Chong, it seems you can move now, eat this and let's go grab some rations together! These past few days I've been grabbing for three people by myself, it's really tiring!"

  Yang Yingqi exclaimed: "Robbing food?"

  Yang Kaiyuan smiled and said: "You won't have forgotten this too, will you?"

  The local officials in this area were not bad in a certain sense, they did not order the people who might have been infected with the plague to be killed, and after being isolated, they regularly sent some food, but compared to the number of people in the valley, that little food was still not enough. Therefore, there was a scramble for food.

  Yang Yingqi also vaguely remembered something like that after hearing his cousin's words and interjected: "I'll go too."

  "Let's part ways! You'd better stay here and guard. It's chaotic over there, every time many people get hurt."

  Yang Yingqi then remembered that he was only twelve years old, and with a bitter smile, he gave up. However, after Zhe Yan Chong and Yang Kaiyuan walked away for a while, he quietly followed them again.

  When they arrived at the place where the rations were being distributed, there was already a large crowd gathered around. The guards were afraid of contracting the plague and ordered everyone in the city to stand far away until they left before they could come over to collect their rations - as for how these rations should be distributed, they didn't care.

  As soon as the soldiers who carried in the grain disappeared from view, the epidemic-stricken people rushed up with red eyes and looted wildly.

  Yang Yingqi saw Yang Kaiyuan also rushed up, but he rushed up a few steps and found that Zhe Yan didn't follow, so he stopped and urged: "Come on!"

  "Is this what it's come to?! Even beasts know their place in the pack when feeding, and now that we're all in similar straits, with thousands of us in the same boat, it's time for us to work together, but instead it's turned into this mess!"

  Yang Kaiyun was stunned, he was born into a scholarly family and had read a lot of books before the age of 15 when his family broke up. The words "rites, righteousness, integrity, and shame" were deeply imprinted in his heart. When he heard Zhou Yan's words, his face turned red, and he said: "I also know that this is not very good, but everyone is like this..."

  Zhe Yan Chong said: "Others are beasts! Do we have to follow suit? Have you considered why the Khitan people gave us these rations?"

  Yang Kaiyuan was taken aback, and Zhe Yan said: "If they force us onto a dead-end road, then we have no choice but to take a desperate path. Now that they've trapped us here and given us some rations, it's as if they're giving us a glimmer of hope. People are like this - once they have hope, most won't resort to the most extreme means of resistance! And yet, the rations they gave us just so happen to be barely enough; isn't that clearly meant to provoke us into killing each other?"

  Yang Yingqi hid in the dark, listening to Zhe Yan's words and thought: "This reasoning, this thinking, seems to have some modern flavor. Is he really my brother?"

  Yang Kaiyuan just sighed and said, "I also vaguely thought of this point, but... now that everyone is rushing to grab it, if we don't rush, we'll be the first to die."

  "Even if we manage to grab something today, we'll still end up dead sooner or later if things keep going on like this!"

  "Not bad! Brother Zhao is right!" The speaker was Yang Yingqi, who jumped out and looked at Zhe Yan Chong, as if he saw the shadow of "his brother" in another world from Zhe Yan Chong's words and deeds.