Chapter One: Crossing Over

“Mmm... my head... it hurts...”
Wang Wei struggled to pry open his heavy eyelids.
“Where... is this?” His throat was so parched that he could barely make a sound, his thoughts jumbled and confused.
He only remembered waking up in the middle of the night on the construction site to use the bathroom. He must have taken the wrong path, and suddenly, something fell from the tower crane and struck him on the head.
He hadn’t even had time to curse before the pain hit him, and after that, he was swallowed by endless darkness, as if he’d been drifting there for ages.
Dead... Am I dead?
I must be, right? Damn it, who’s the bastard that threw something off the crane? Don’t they know that throwing things from height is illegal?
Right before his eyes closed for the last time, he thought he glimpsed that the object was a bottle of “Iced Red Tea” — a knockoff brand, with that familiar pungent smell... Ridiculous, truly absurd.
The only ones he pitied were his parents, but at least it was a state-owned construction site; the compensation should be enough for them to live securely in their later years.
He didn’t have time to think further before, suddenly, a huge, dark, furry face appeared out of nowhere, filling his entire field of vision!
The face was so close, it looked exactly like a black bear!
Wang Wei nearly lost his soul from fright — had he just woken up only to find himself in the wild, about to be eaten by a bear? Could his luck get any worse?
“Aa—!”
The scream he tried to let out caught in his throat, his already weak body and soul, newly arrived in this strange world, unable to bear this sudden terror. The world went black again, and he fainted, consciousness falling once more into darkness.
Just before he slipped away completely, he caught a vague impression of his surroundings in a sliver of dim light:
Rough earthen walls, blackened wooden beams, a battered lattice window letting in faint, murky daylight...
Nothing like the high-rise worker’s dormitory he knew. Instead, it looked just like...
A poor family’s house in a period drama?
He had no idea how long had passed.
His awareness floated up, feather-light, through a warmth that wrapped around him.
This time, when he woke, it was afternoon.
The light filtering through the papered window was harsh, clearly a different time than before.
The pain in his head had lessened, but his mind was now filled with a torrent of fragmented memories, unfamiliar voices, tangled emotions...
It wasn’t as if they’d been “stuffed in,” more like... fused together.
Wang Wei... No, now he understood clearly: this small, slight body was called Wang Sanniu.
This was Qingshui Village, in Yongle Town, the home of a family of Wang butchers.
He was the third son, called Wang Sanniu, just turned six.
He had two older brothers: the eldest, Wang Daniu, married to a woman named Liu, with a son called Wang Gouwa;
The second brother, Wang Erniu, was still unmarried.
Below him was a younger sister, a year his junior, called Wang Huniu.
In the fragments of memory, every man in the Wang family was built like an ox.
His eldest and second brothers, and especially the father — always silent, always shrouded in the scent of blood — were all broad-backed and burly, their heads nearly brushing the lintel, their limbs thick and gnarled as old tree roots.
Most striking of all was their thick, jet-black hair, sprouting from their heads, cheeks, chests, and arms, making them look like a family of black bears in human form.
Even the four-year-old sister, Huniu, and three-year-old nephew, Gouwa, were sturdy and dark-skinned in his memories.

He alone, Wang Sanniu, seemed born into the wrong family.
His lips were red, his teeth neat and white, his skin soft and delicate, and his whole body thin and frail — a complete oddity among the “black bears” of the household.
No wonder... no wonder the first thing he saw on waking was that terrifying “bear face.” Thinking back, it must have been his second brother, Wang Erniu.
“I told you Sanniu is weak! How many times have I said it? But you wouldn’t listen, insisting that he learn to help, making him carry the pig’s blood!
Look! Just look at what’s happened! A basin of pig’s blood poured right over him, and the poor boy fainted on the spot!
He’s been lying there a whole day and night and hasn’t woken! If anything happens to him, if he never wakes up... I swear, I’ll fight you to the death!”
A woman’s shrill, tear-choked voice suddenly shattered the silence outside the room.
Immediately after, a rougher, deeper male voice retorted, thick with impatience and anger:
“Never wakes up? What nonsense!
When the eldest and second were his age, they could help me hold down a pig’s leg!
He’s a boy of six, and he faints at the sight of pig’s blood? Shameful! Absolutely shameful! How is he even a son of the Wang family?”
“What did you say?!”
The woman’s voice rose to a fever pitch, full of furious pain and hysteria.
“Not your son?! Wang the Butcher! You heartless wretch! Put your hand on your greasy heart and say that again!
If you hadn’t been slaughtering pigs when I was pregnant, and that beast hadn’t kicked you and made you fall, if I hadn’t had to rush for the doctor and tripped on the mountain path — would he have been born premature? Would he be so frail, blown over by the slightest breeze?
If not for you... my little boy would have been just like his big brothers and sister — strong, dark, and full of strength, a proper little bull-calf!
Oh heavens... my poor child... your father ruined you... and now he wants to cast us both out... I can’t live anymore! I can’t live!”
There was a thunderous crash, as if something weighing hundreds of pounds had slammed to the floor, making the whole house shake. The woman must have thrown herself to the ground in a wild fit.
“You! You... you woman! Not again! I was just saying — why do you have to make a scene? Get up! Get up, I said!”
The man’s voice was clearly flustered, both exasperated and helpless, clearly at a loss for how to deal with this.
The shouting outside grew even fiercer, the woman’s wailing and pounding on the ground filling the air, the man’s angry shouts and the neighbors’ attempts to mediate blending into a chaos so loud that Wang Wei felt his head might burst.
He realized he couldn’t keep lying there.
Wang Wei — Wang Sanniu — braced himself against the edge of the earthen kang, covered in a worn reed mat, and tried to sit up.
“Mother... don’t... don’t make a scene...”
He opened his mouth, but the sound that came out was so weak and hoarse it was barely more than a whisper, like air leaking from a bellows. “Mother... I... I’m awake... Mother...”
He called out, just as that little Sanniu in the “dream” had so many times called for his mother.
Memories surged through him — all the joys, sorrows, and longings of this child, fusing with him completely, indistinguishable from his own. At this moment, he was Wang Sanniu.
He called out four or five times before the uproar and pounding outside abruptly halted.
With a loud rustle, the heavy homespun curtain was flung aside, letting in a gust of wind. The “bear face” that had so terrified him last night appeared once more in the doorway!
“Mother! Stop crying! Third Brother’s awake! He’s awake! Look, he’s calling for you!”
The thunderous voice boomed through the cramped earthen room, shaking dust from the rafters.
This time, Wang Wei — Sanniu — saw him clearly. The man was extremely tall with a broad frame, easily around six foot three in modern measure — the very same second brother who had frightened him unconscious the previous night, Wang Erniu!
From outside, heavy footsteps approached, followed by the woman’s hurried, tearful gasps. They all poured inside.

The woman who rushed in first was enormous, only a head shorter than Wang Erniu.
Her hair was wild and tangled, her face streaked with dirt, tears, and snot, her rough homespun clothes covered in dust, her chest heaving from her earlier outburst — this was his mother, Zhao.
In his memories, she was fierce by nature, but beneath that, she cherished her frail youngest son to the core.
Next entered a middle-aged man, a weathered version of Wang Erniu, with deeper features and eyes that held the weight of time.
This was the head of the household — Wang the Butcher, Wang Jinbao. He swept his gaze over the son on the kang, his expression unreadable.
Third was the eldest brother, Wang Daniu — as burly and imposing as the second, his face similar but with a more earnest look, his eyes filled with anxious concern for his little brother.
Then came a woman who moved more slowly, radiating reluctant disapproval.
She was just as tall and sturdy as the others, fitting in perfectly among this family of human black bears. Her face was broad, her skin rough, her eyes flashing with a subtle hint of resistance — she was the daughter of a hunter from the neighboring village, married off to Wang Daniu for a mere two taels of silver as a last resort during a famine. This was his eldest sister-in-law, Liu.
After Liu squeezed in, two children tumbled after her.
The first was Wang Huniu, just as his memories described her: a miniature iron tower, four years old but already taller than him, her round face dark with baby fat.
The second, a little smaller, was the eldest brother’s son — his proper name yet undecided, but for now, according to village custom, called Gouwa.
A household of five adult “black bears” and two young “cubs” crowded into the already cramped bedroom, making the light seem to dim.
“Sanlang! Does your head still hurt?” His mother rushed to the kang, voice trembling with tears.
“Sanniu, you scared me half to death. How do you feel?” Daniu leaned in.
“Mother! Since Third Uncle’s awake, can we eat now? I’m hungry!” Gouwa bellowed.
“Oh, thank heavens, he’s awake!” Erniu’s voice boomed.
...
Everyone spoke at once, their voices stacking on top of each other, each one as loud as thunder, crashing around the little earthen room. Dust rained down from the rafters like a fine gray mist.
Already weak, Wang Sanniu was nearly overwhelmed by the din, his face growing paler by the second.
“Mother... I... my head... it’s too loud...” He forced the words out with difficulty.
His mother, irritated by the clamor, spun around, waving her broad hand like a fan with an authority that brooked no argument:
“Out! All of you, out! Can’t you see Sanlang is unwell? What are you thinking, making such a racket? Don’t you have work to do? Out, all of you! I’ll stay and look after him myself!”
Her command worked instantly. Like a flock of startled ducks, the family jostled their way out the door.
Only Liu, the eldest sister-in-law, lagged behind, shuffling her feet. As she passed the kang, she deliberately lowered her voice — but given her thunderous lungs, her muttered complaint was perfectly audible to everyone:
“...Hmph, always acting pitiful... a few tears and a whimper, and Mother melts... Aren’t we all children of our parents?”
Wang Daniu’s face darkened at once. Scowling, he seized Liu’s arm and practically dragged her out the door, his anger plain in his movements.
At last, the room fell quiet, only disturbed by the slowly settling dust in the slanting light.
His mother gazed at him with aching tenderness, her rough, callused, yet unexpectedly warm hand wrapping around Wang Sanniu’s cold, thin fingers.
A strange warmth flowed from her palm into his frail body — unfamiliar, yet stirring a deep, instinctive sense of security buried within his memory.