Yang Bairao lay on the ground, his entire body aching and drained of all strength.
He raised his head to look at the sky, and a sudden jolt of panic seized his heart: "Where is this?"
He gazed up at an unfamiliar sky. The stars shone brilliantly, and wisps of white clouds drifted across the firmament, looking under the night's illumination like dark storm clouds.
On this day, Yang Bairao had lived past thirty, carrying nearly twenty years of yearning.
"It seems I'm truly dead."
As Yang Bairao looked up at the dazzling night sky, he felt none of the excitement or thrill he had dreamed of since childhood; all that remained was an endless sense of loss.
He was a college graduate—technically just from a modern vocational college, true—but whenever he discussed history, politics, or current affairs with others, he could talk for hours on end with unstoppable eloquence. This was ample proof that his nine years of compulsory education had genuinely stuck.
Yet the despair he felt at this moment wasn't born of fear of death. What worried him was his family:
His sweet daughter who had just started kindergarten;
His wife, who worked as a stocker at a supermarket near their mortgaged apartment;
His seventy-year-old father, who worked as a doorman for the residential complex;
And his elderly mother, who had acted as an unpaid maid at home for over forty years, nagging endlessly every day as she picked up the children, cleaned, cooked, and did the laundry, yet received neither comfort nor understanding from her family.
"I'm dead. What will happen to them?"
Yang Bairao's eyes turned red.
Saddened by the crushing weight of his massive mortgage, he thought of his father—who should have been enjoying his retirement years—still bowing and scraping to arrogant homeowners at the security gate. No matter how exhausting or grueling the construction site was, he had always endured it, gritting his teeth and giving it his absolute all because he accepted this as his life.
The joy his daughter brought him was what filled his heart with yearning for the future.
Yet at this very moment, a young adult crushed to the verge of suffocation by life could hold back no longer, and his complete breakdown happened right here.
"Wuwuwu..."
Crying, considered a disgrace for an adult man, could no longer be suppressed.
Yang Bairao sobbed. Shame made him want to raise his hands to cover his face, but his aching, feeble arms could only hang limply by his sides.
"Dad, Mom, I'm sorry..."
"Miaomiao, I love you..."
"Hanhan, Daddy can't accompany you anymore. That little duck on the balcony—Daddy won't be able to feed it with you from now on."
"Wuwuwu..."
A gentle breeze swept past. Whether it was the sound of Yang Bairao's sobbing, or whether the breeze itself was touched by this moment and wept along with him, it sighed over the injustice of this world.
"Awooo..."
Amidst his weeping, Yang Bairao was not interrupted by any other disturbance, unaware that the area around him was already surrounded by a massive pack of dark shadows.
The breeze rustled the waist-high weeds incessantly. Under the brilliant starlight, looking out into the distance, stretches of wild grass were pressed flat to the ground. What was flattening the grass was none of other than the Steppe Grey Wolves, a creature that Huang He and the others spoke of with pale faces.
These grey wolves were not very tall, varying in length, and possessed distinct physical features. To Yang Bairao at this moment, had he seen them, they would have looked about the size of an average Husky.
Fortunately, Yang Bairao did not see them, because as far as the eye could see, it was a pitch-black expanse, and the number of grey wolves was easily well over a hundred.
These hundred-plus grey wolves had surrounded Yang Bairao's position. The inner circle of wolves crept closer and closer, while the outer ring patrolled and stood guard on the periphery, looking entirely ready to treat Yang Bairao as their pack's prey.
"Awooo..."
The alpha wolf let out a long howl toward the sky, directing the pack to form a tighter perimeter around Yang Bairao. Yet for some reason, they did not rush in during these brief moments, as if they were waiting, or perhaps approaching with caution.
"I'm sorry, I've let you all down. If I had known, I would have listened to my wife's advice and just delivered goods and meals around town. At least I wouldn't have thrown my life away at such a young age."
Yang Bairao had regained a sliver of strength by now. He raised his right hand and beat it continuously against his chest, the pain radiating from within feeling all too real. His left hand gripped tightly onto something, though what it was in his palm was the last thing on his mind.
The breeze blew on, and the sound of crying faded into the distance.
Just as he was weeping, he suddenly heard a much more distinct commotion. At that exact moment, a deeper, more terrifying wolf howl rang out. The wolf pack surrounding Yang Bairao finally stopped waiting; several beasts broke away from the pack and lunged swiftly toward him. If the wolves reached him now, Yang Bairao would undoubtedly be torn apart by the starving beasts.
"Listen to me, thank you..."
A melodious song suddenly rang out. Accompanied by vibrations, it instantly startled the weeping Yang Bairao, jolting him from sorrow to shock, and from shock to delight.
In that single instant, he was filled with strength. Energy and spirit flooded his entire body; the exhaustion from a day's work was swept away in an instant, and his weary soul found a comforting harbor.
"Awooo..."
This melodious tune was like a magic spell, waking Yang Bairao and startling the grey wolves that had been charging in. The wolves closest to him tucked their tails between their legs and yelped in terror, as if they had encountered their natural predator, dropping their heads and retreating in haste.
Hearing this sound, the entire pack scattered in all directions.
The wolf king let out a low howl and quickly bolted into the distance.
In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred grey wolves dispersed completely, flattening the weeds, trampling the grassland, and vanishing into the tall grass.
Completely unaware of the danger that had just vanished, Yang Bairao felt a mix of astonishment and joy. His weak left hand instantly regained its strength.
He raised his left hand, looking at the glowing cell phone beneath the night sky, listening to this music that usually felt like a curse, which now sounded like heavenly music to his ears.
The phone screen was lit up, its interface unusually simple. Right at the top center of the screen was a rather speechless profile picture, and beneath it read the words: Engineer Wang - Formwork Group Leader.
At this moment, Yang Bairao felt an overwhelming surge of excitement. All the chaotic and sorrowful thoughts in his mind vanished, and with a conditioned reflex, he swiftly pressed the answer button.
"Yang Bailao, you done yet? If you're done, get over here for a drink. By the site entrance, hurry up."
A familiar voice came through, and with a "beep," the call was abruptly hung up.
Yang Bairao felt no anger at Engineer Wang's nickname for him, nor any resentment over being abruptly hung up on. At this moment, he had only one thought: I'm not dead.
Excitement and elation coursed through his entire body. All his physical discomfort vanished, and he quickly scrambled to his feet.
Having looked at the sky earlier, he knew he was in an unfamiliar environment. But with no mood to worry about his surroundings, as he looked around now, his excitement turned into startled suspicion.
"I'm not dead. Where am I?"
"Is this some kind of prank show?"
"Or am I being pranked?"
"Did I win the lottery? But I didn't even buy a ticket!"
"Have I been exiled? I didn't commit any crimes! Just slacking off a bit with the concrete test blocks, or secretly swapping them a few times—that's not a crime!"
"Good heavens, where am I? Is anyone there?"
Yang Bairao's thoughts raced as he considered every possible scenario, yet try as he might, he couldn't figure out why he had ended up in a place like this.
Looking at the tall weeds surrounding him, high enough to obscure his vision, he cast all his previous thoughts aside. He just wanted to figure out where he was.
"Right, I'll call and ask."
Yang Bairao took out his phone and dialed a number. But no matter how many times he dialed, all he got was a busy tone. Looking closer, he immediately blurted out a foul habit picked up from the construction site, cursing the telecommunications carrier hundreds, if not thousands of times, but the phone still showed no signal.
"Let me try moving somewhere else. Engineer Wang's call just got through, which proves the connection works."
Yang Bairao walked briskly, hoping to find higher ground to get the call through. It was only as he took a few steps that he noticed his own body had undergone a drastic change.
His body, which had been withered and frail under the crushing burdens of hard labor, had now become even thinner and frailer.
He realized his line of sight was suddenly much closer to the ground, making him realize something was terribly wrong.
What baffled Yang Bairao even more was that his clothes had changed; the front and back were tattered to shreds, and the pants on his left calf had somehow been torn open. The patriotic brand of shoes he had bought online using group-buying discounts for a price difference refund had now turned into an even more patriotic pair of handmade old cloth shoes.
As for the clothes, the fabric wasn't cheap, but he couldn't tell what kind of material it was—though the tears in it were real enough.
"Have I time-traveled?"
Yang Bairao repeatedly felt his own body, and even used his phone screen as a mirror to look at his face. He confirmed that his appearance had completely changed. When all other possibilities were eliminated, the single remaining thought popped up and instantly filled his entire mind.
As a bookworm who had been secretly reading web novels since high school evening self-study, a vocational college graduate well-read in various genres of fiction, and a survivor of the nine years of compulsory education who had slipped through the net, Yang Bairao was now one hundred percent certain that he had truly time-traveled.
His transmigrated soul was a seamless fit for this body, but the real question was: why on earth had his cell phone come along with him? This had him completely stumped—or rather, quite puzzled.
Yang Bairao thought with bitter amusement.
Back when he read novels, he had imagined countless possibilities: if he were to become the protagonist of a novel, he would surely be an peerless hero treading upon flying swords, wielding a long spear, pressing forward unflinchingly, and capable of splitting the heavens and earth.
Now that his dream had come true, a surge of heroic spirit welled up within him, and all sorts of idle thoughts crowded his mind:
To hell with the concrete test blocks! What was Engineer Wang? Delete him!
What was the foreman? Delete him!
What was HR? Delete him!
Delete them all, delete every last one of them!
With an indomitable momentum taking hold of him, Yang Bairao practically radiated the grand ambition of pointing out rivers and mountains and stirring people with his words.
Yet when he looked at the sparse few contacts remaining in his address book, Yang Bairao's heart grew exceptionally steady.
"Once I make it big over here, I'll make it up to you all. For now, I'm still just as lost as ever."
His momentary surge of grand ambition vanished, pushed aside solely by the softest spots deep within his heart that remained in his phone's contact list.
"Hanhan, wait for Daddy. Daddy will definitely come back."
He muttered the words under his breath, but as the final sentence slipped out, Yang Bairao quickly shook his head.
He knew this was the catchphrase of a defeated wolf. By watching cartoons with his daughter every day, he had unconsciously picked it up.
As these thoughts settled, a glimmer of hope formed deep within his soul, and that hope transformed into motivation.
He took out his phone and looked over those few contacts again, cursing only that there was no signal right now; otherwise, he would have reported his safety to his family as soon as possible and told them of his situation.
Suppressing the loneliness and anxiety in his heart, he understood that only by walking forward could he possibly find a way back home.
Even if that possibility ultimately ended in disappointment, lying flat and giving up was never an option for a slave to a mortgage.
Thinking as he walked, he pressed onward, unknowingly covering a great distance.
Checking his phone, he saw that two hours had passed, yet he still hadn't walked out of this grassland.
Yang Bairao couldn't help but feel a flicker of panic.
He still held expectations deep in his heart, and naturally, he still had hope. Gritting his teeth, he decided that even if he had to walk until dawn, he had to make his way out of the wilderness, find human habitation, figure out where he was, and draw closer to the hope in his heart.
As dawn broke and the stars in the night sky faded away, Yang Bairao identified the direction of the sunrise. Figuring out his orientation, he set his sights firmly toward the east.
"I will definitely come back. Believe me..."