Chapter 2: Time Travel

The air was filled with a putrid smell. Whether looking up at the sky or down at the earth, everything was shrouded in a gray haze, permeated with a layer of death.

Plants and animals had long since become extinct. Among the ruins, there were only gray dead branches and piles of bones.

The apocalypse had begun exactly twenty years ago, and Li Qingzhi had been struggling to survive in this apocalypse for exactly twenty years.

When the apocalypse began, he had just graduated from university. But now, he was thirty-eight years old.

One by one, the people around him died, and he himself had almost died several times in desperate situations.

But he had managed to hold on. He didn’t want to die.

Since the beginning of the apocalypse, whether it was plants, animals, or humans, they all died in waves of contamination, with no way to end the apocalypse.

Many people chose to end their lives out of despair, but he did not.

Death meant nothingness, and he wanted to see more of this world. He wanted to live.

But even though Li Qingzhi tried very, very hard, he still died, starving to death.

He could no longer find anything edible, and he could only starve to death.

But he was already remarkable. Most likely, he was the last human to die.

After all, he had the ability to control his own or others’ body parts, and to remove impurities from them. This ability could even purify the contamination within his body.

In the apocalypse, many people gained special abilities, and his ability was extremely useful for survival!

Unfortunately, in the twentieth year of the apocalypse, both humans and animals had turned into zombies, and plants had rotted. Even with such a powerful ability, Li Qingzhi couldn’t find any food to purify.

Li Qingzhi closed his eyes regretfully, feeling aches all over his body. Suddenly, he sensed his body getting heavier.

Is this what it feels like to be dead? Why does he feel like… he hasn’t died yet?

In a daze, the energy inside Li Qingzhi’s body spontaneously activated, purging impurities and repairing his body.

Li Qingzhi couldn’t believe his luck. After starving to death, he had actually traveled through time!

Opening his eyes, he saw a simple roof and baskets hanging from the rafters. Li Qingzhi’s heart raced faster and faster.

The environment he was in was actually quite poor. The walls of the house were made of mud, the rafters were wooden, and there was no furniture inside; it was essentially an empty space.

But there was no pervasive pollution here; this was not the apocalypse!

Li Qingzhi assessed his body, confirming that he now possessed a body different from his original one.

Although this body was as emaciated as his body during the apocalypse, there were still many differences between the two.

So, he had really traveled through time to a world without pollution!

Li Qingzhi was extremely excited, then promptly fainted.

At the same time, the memories of the original owner also appeared in his mind.

The original owner of this body was named Li Zhi, the son of Li Zhao, the former county magistrate of Qianyu County.

Li Zhao’s family was not well-off. After finally passing the imperial examination and becoming a poor county magistrate, he had to seek the help of a private tutor for his work and present gifts to his superiors. Despite his wife’s wealthy family, life was still difficult. When Li Zhi was in Qianyu County, he couldn’t live as a young master and had to handle many matters personally.

Li Zhao and his wife had three sons and two daughters, and Li Zhi was the second son.

He didn’t have a talent for studying. After learning some characters, he followed the private tutor by Li Zhao’s side to learn miscellaneous tasks related to criminal justice and finance.

He planned to help his father first after learning, and later, he would work for other magistrates to make a decent living.

However, Li Zhi had only studied for a year when the Yao River flooded. The entire Qianyu County was submerged, and countless people drowned.

Following his father and the private tutor, Li Zhi traveled everywhere to help with disaster relief. While he was busy, his father was suddenly arrested for embezzling tens of thousands of taels of disaster relief silver from the court.

Later, Li’s family was exterminated.

Li Zhi knew that his father absolutely did not embezzle the disaster relief silver. Moreover, the amount of silver his father received from above didn’t even add up to ten thousand taels.

But that imperial inspector insisted on sentencing his father!

Realizing that something was wrong, Li Zhi ran away. When the other members of the Li family were arrested, he escaped unscathed.

At that time, the Yao River flood had caused havoc in several counties, and there were refugees everywhere. Li Zhi, who blended in, was not discovered. Then, the seventeen-year-old Li Zhi escaped to the south of the Yangtze River and arrived at the Miaoqian Village.

Although Li Zhi wanted to seek revenge for his family, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth like him didn’t have the ability. Later, he only wanted to survive.

Although Li Zhi didn’t have a good academic background, he was articulate and had a silver tongue. Plus, he had worked on real tasks with his father’s private tutor. After arriving in Miaoqian Village, he found the unmarried old bachelor Li Laogen, claiming that the other resembled his deceased father.

After some fuss, Li Laogen recognized him as his son, and he changed his name and surname, becoming a member of Miaoqian Village.

Li Laogen was willing to recognize Li Zhi as his son mainly because the Li family was very poor.

Because Li Laogen didn’t marry or have children, his parents gave all the remaining assets of the Li family to Li Laogen’s brother, who had sons.

After working hard for half a lifetime, Li Laogen didn’t leave anything behind. How could he refuse when his nephew bought two acres of land, built two small houses, and brought his family’s assets to recognize him as his father?

After settling down in the Miaoqian Village, the original host felt somewhat secure, but still felt uncertain about his future in the area.

In Miaoqian Village, the Jin family was prominent, with half of the people bearing the surname Jin. The original host aimed to marry a daughter of the Jin family to fully integrate into the village.

With this plan in mind, the original host approached Jin Xiaoye.

Being the son of a county magistrate, the original host had a level of sophistication that few could match. Coupled with his decent appearance…

It didn’t take much effort for him to make Jin Xiaoye develop feelings for him.

He always told the villagers that he was a scholar, and he even helped calculate the grain tax for the village. At that time, the villagers held him in high regard. When he proposed to the Jin family, they readily agreed, and he smoothly married Jin Xiaoye.

However, luck was not on his side. After the marriage, rumors spread inexplicably in the village, claiming that he was highly educated and used to be a talented scholar, destined to become the top scholar in the imperial examination…

Although the original host had mentioned being a scholar to others, he had never boasted to this extent. But because of these rumors, a nearby scholar specifically came to consult him on academic matters.

Exposed, the original host was unable to keep up the facade. Consequently, rumors circulated again, stating that he actually had no scholarly knowledge and that his previous claims were all lies.

In Miaoqian Village, the original host suddenly became unpopular.

Adding to his woes, he soon ran out of money.

Originally, his family had very little money, and he hadn’t brought much with him when he fled hastily. If not for this, he wouldn’t have only bought two acres of land and built just two mud houses.

After much deliberation, the original host decided to go to the county town to find a job.

Although he was the son of a county magistrate, he had been assisting his father’s steward before, accustomed to all sorts of tasks. Moreover, having experienced famine, he did not reject the idea of finding work to do.

It was a coincidence that his uncle, who worked as a porter in the nearby military post, introduced him to a job as an accountant at a tavern.

Wearing his best clothes, he headed to the county town, but on the way… he was ambushed by a group of people.

These bandits passed by Chongcheng County on a boat and, seeing that the original owner was well-dressed and alone, decided to rob him. After finding out he didn’t have much money on him, they simply kidnapped him and sold him to a nearby quarry.

This quarry belonged to a certain prince and specialized in digging various exotic stones to be sold in the capital. Since hiring people to dig stones incurred large expenses, the overseers simply paid for labor to help them work.

For the past five years, the original owner had been supervised while digging stones. Any sign of slackness resulted in a whipping. His days were miserable, and he failed several times in attempts to escape, only to be caught and beaten.

Not long ago, his health deteriorated to the point of fainting. Thinking he was dead, the overseer of the quarry threw him out. It was then, by a stroke of luck, that he managed to escape, dragging his exhausted body back to Miaoqian Village.

But even so, the original owner couldn’t hold on and died at home.

However, before his death, although in a daze, he could hear people around him speaking. He learned that Jin Xiaoye had given birth to two children for him. When he died, he didn’t have many regrets, feeling that his luck was just too bad.

Li Qingzhi couldn’t help but sigh silently, feeling that the original owner’s luck was indeed terrible.

When the original owner was taken to the quarry, he was only eighteen years old. Now, he was only twenty-three. He was young, but his life had already come to an end…

However, according to the original owner’s memory, in the ancient times he was now in, most people didn’t have good lives.

Miaoqian Village was already considered prosperous, yet the villagers lived difficult lives. As for the Qianyu County where the original owner’s father was previously located… even when there were no floods, people still starved to death there.

Life in ancient rural areas was not beautiful at all.

But that was for others. He came from the end times, and for him, this world was like heaven.

Here, there were plants and animals everywhere!

Here, there were people! Living people!

He even had a wife and two children!

Li Qingzhi hadn’t seen a living person in two years. Living alone, loneliness had reached its peak. At times, he would even bring back a less decayed zombie and chatter to them.

Now, there were living people everywhere!

Li Qingzhi was extremely excited. He opened his eyes again and saw two children standing by the bed.

These two children had shaved heads and were less than a meter tall.

They were shirtless, wearing only small shorts. Their faces and upper bodies were sunburnt very dark, and due to being thin, their rib bones were particularly prominent.

Not only that, but they looked dirty, with mud in the creases of their nails.

Before the apocalypse, Li Qingzhi couldn’t come into contact with such sloppy children and didn’t like children. But he had experienced twenty years of the apocalypse.

When the apocalypse came, the weakest children were the most pitiful. Several years after the apocalypse began, he couldn’t even see children anymore.

People around him died one by one, and living people became fewer and fewer… To him at that time, children were hope, they were the future!

God knows how much he loved children now!

No, not just children, as long as there was a living person in front of him, he liked them!

Li Qingzhi’s eyes seemed to burst with light, and he reached out his skinny arms, wanting to touch the children in front of him.

At that moment, he heard Li Laogen’s voice outside the door.

Five years ago, Li Laogen, an old bachelor who had taken in a cheap son, said to Jin Xiaoye, “Xiaoye, I think Ah Qing can’t be saved… Shall we simplify his funeral? Anyway, everyone in the village knows we’re poor. This way, we can have some extra eggs and food from the villagers, which can be given to Damao and Ermao to eat, and to me…”

According to their village customs, when someone dies, relatives and friends are supposed to come and give some eggs, food, or even money. These items are often used to organize the funeral.

Li Qingzhi froze as he reached out to touch his own child’s hand.

Li Damao finally reacted and grabbed his younger brother, running outside, shouting, “Mom! Dad woke up!”