Chapter 3

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Chapter 3: Arrival

Ding Yu opened his eyes with a splitting headache. What he saw was a worn-out roof supported by thick beams, and he was covered with a black-and-yellow quilt full of patches. The faint smell of mildew filled his nose, and his mouth felt dry. His whole body ached, making even the slightest movement feel very difficult.

He opened his mouth slightly, managed to turn his head, and looked around.

This was a small wooden house. The walls were patched up, and a breeze faintly blew in. Besides the simple bed covered in dry straw, there was nothing else in the room.

Where is this?

Ding Yu was confused for a while, then finally remembered something. Ignoring his discomfort, he struggled to sit up and raised one arm.

One thin, dark arm felt a bit strange, but there was also a flicker of recognition.

"No way!"

Ding Yu began to groan.

At that moment, the door swung open, and a woman in a gray dress with a colorful scarf walked in. When she saw Ding Yu awake, she shouted "Tiezhu" and rushed over, hugging Ding Yu tightly in her arms while crying.

Ding Yu tensed in the woman’s embrace. When he felt two hot tears fall on his neck, he instinctively called out "Mother" and then broke free from her hold, clutching his head in his hands on the bed, shaking in pain.

"Tiezhu, what happened?" the woman exclaimed, unable to stop crying out.

Just before Ding Yu lost consciousness again, he vaguely saw two familiar figures rushing in from outside the door, then he slipped back into darkness.

This time, he had a long dream where he experienced a boy’s life from birth to around twelve or thirteen years old. The dream ended when he was helping his father and brothers clear a piece of land and got caught in a heavy rain, causing him to step into emptiness and lose awareness.

…

He did not know how long it had been, but Ding Yu woke up in bed, breathing heavily. He felt a bitter taste of medicine in his mouth, and after moving his lips a few times, he could even feel some medicine residue.

"Little brother, you’re awake! How do you feel? Did the medicine from Dr. Wang help?" A tall and thin young man sitting beside the bed said with great joy when he saw Ding Yu awake.

"B… Brother, I’m fine, but I just don’t have much strength," Ding Yu said softly, looking at the happy face of the tall young man.

"That’s good! You rest for a bit, and I’ll go get dad," the young man said happily as he ran out of the room.

Ding Yu raised his hands in bed and stared at them for a long time.

Is he now ‘Ding Yu’? Or is he a boy from another world named ‘Wang Tiezhu’?

It seemed like the two identities had merged, but the new memories were broken and incomplete. It seemed he only had part of Wang Tiezhu’s memories, so he was still Ding Yu, but he now had some strange memories of another person in his mind.

After analyzing his situation, Ding Yu felt a bit relieved, but what was happening now?

The dream of the Otherworld was supposed to allow entering others’ dreams, but how did it turn directly into becoming an Otherworld person? And clearly, this person who was replaced is the Otherworld boy he dreamed of last time.

During the training, Dr. Chen and the other teachers never mentioned that such a thing could happen.

Ding Yu thought for a moment, tilted his head slightly, and tapped his head with his hand, whispering "Taiyuan," but after a moment, nothing happened.

Now this is really a big problem; the method for activating the Taiyuan Auxiliary System explained in the training class seems to have failed.

Ding Yu’s face changed unpredictably.

"Clang."

A dark-skinned middle-aged man barged in through the door. Upon seeing Ding Yu sitting on the bed, he joyfully sat down beside him and asked with concern:

"Tiezhu, you really woke up! Old Hu said you would sleep for two or three days and were in real danger, but that’s just nonsense. To be fair, even though his medical skills aren’t great, that bowl of herbal soup really saved your life. That half-bag of beans wasn’t given for nothing."

"Dad, I’m fine now, I just have a bit of a headache." Ding Yu looked at the unfamiliar yet familiar man in front of him, and after a slight smile while meeting his concerned gaze, he quietly replied.

This man is the biological father of this body, ‘Wang Kui’.

"Tiezhu, you fainted in the field this time because your body is too weak. It’s also my fault for not stopping you from working in the rain. It’s a blessing that you woke up this time. Your mother has gone to your Grandpa’s house to bring back some bacon to help you recover." Wang Kui reached out to touch his forehead and, seeing his temperature was normal, finally felt relieved.

"Mom went to Grandpa’s house?" Ding Yu was a little surprised, and an image of a tall old man with a thick beard appeared in his mind.

In his memory, this grandfather had only one daughter, his mother, and he loved the youngest "him" very much.

"Yes, your Grandpa is a famous hunter in the area. Even though he is old now, no one in the nearby villages can match his skills in catching wild rabbits and chickens. Drink some soup, and you will recover quickly." Wang Kui said with a smile.

"Soup"

Ding Yu realized that after hearing this word, he instinctively smacked his lips, and a bit of saliva dripped out. He couldn’t help but awkwardly raise his sleeve to wipe the corner of his mouth.

"Haha, look how you’re drooling! By the way, I picked a fruit for you on the way back. Eat this for now. Your brother and I need to get back to work, so you just rest in the house." Wang Kui laughed heartily, took out a small red and green fruit from his pocket, placed it in Ding Yu’s hand, and left in a hurry after comforting him a bit more.

Ding Yu looked at the fuzzy wild fruit in his hand and glanced toward the door where Wang Kui had left, feeling many mixed emotions in his heart.

He clearly has a ‘father’ in his memories from Blue Star, but the natural feeling of closeness he gets from him shows the blood connection between this body and the other person.

"No, I must not be confused. In the training class, the trainer said that dreaming of being the people from the Otherworld can give one the illusion of being part of someone else. If you are not careful, it is easy to lose yourself. Now it is not just entering the dream, but truly replacing the other person, which makes it even easier to lose oneself. I need to focus on gathering information about this world and complete the task first," Ding Yu thought to himself. After taking another bite of the sour fruit, he began to carefully sift through the extra memories in his mind.

In these memories, he lived in a village called ‘Wangjia Village’ since he was little. The village only has a little more than one hundred families, most of whom are named Wang. He had only visited a few other villages within twenty to thirty miles, most of which are about the same size as Wangjia Village. However, far from Wangjia Village, there is a large city called Yellow Stone City, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people. All the nearby villages and bigger towns are under the management of Yellow Stone City, but Wang Tiezhu himself has never been there.

The daily life of Wang Tiezhu’s family revolved around the word "poor."

In his memory, being hungry was common. The whole family relied on a few mu of land assigned by the village for survival. They grew a type of black pea, and for two meals each day, other than an occasional small bowl of pickled vegetable soup on the table, the main dish was a porridge made from black peas. This porridge smelled delicious but tasted somewhat bitter. Even with such a staple, he, still not an adult, could only drink two small bowls a day, as the extra porridge had to satisfy his father and older brother, Wang Dagang, who were the main laborers of the family.

As for white rice and steamed buns, they do exist in this world, but for the Wang family, they could only see a small bowl of it during festivals. Thankfully, he had a grandfather who was a hunter, and whenever he came to Wangjia Village, he brought some pickled game meat, which was a little treat for him. Unfortunately, his grandfather lived quite far away and could only visit Wangjia Village a few times a year.

The farming tools, salt, lamp oil, and other supplies they needed were purchased periodically by people sent from Wangjia Village to Yellow Stone City.

Ding Yu did not find any memories related to what country this area belongs to or whether there was a court or emperor. It seemed that for the people of Wangjia Village, the City Lord’s mansion of Yellow Stone City was the local government, and the City Lord of Yellow Stone City was the highest official they knew about.

Regarding the supernatural powers mentioned by Dr. Chen and others, Ding Yu also could not find anything in Wang Tiezhu’s memories. Wangjia Village seemed like a typical example of a poor and backward village in ancient Hua Country, where everyone appeared to live just to fill their stomachs.

"It seems that to find valuable information, I need to think of other ways," Ding Yu thought to himself.

In the evening, the sky turned dark.

In a spacious room, Ding Yu sat in front of a simple wooden table, staring at a wooden bowl filled with thick, dark green food, looking a bit dazed.

"Tiezhu, you are still not well. You should eat a little more," Wang Kui said kindly, sitting across from him and mistakenly thinking that his young son looked this way because he was too surprised.

"Yes… yes, little brother, you can eat as much as you want. Don’t worry about the farm work; ‘hulu lu’… my father and I will take care of it," said the tall, thin young man sitting on the other side of the table, while shoveling food into his mouth with a wooden spoon.

"Father, I am just a little worried about Mother. It’s so late; why hasn’t she come back from Grandpa’s house?" Ding Yu mumbled, trying not to show he was troubled. He quickly lifted the wooden bowl and took a big gulp of the black bean congee, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth. If he hadn’t been mentally prepared, he might have thrown up right then and there.

Can this kind of stuff really be food?

Ding Yu thought to himself, but thankfully, after chewing the soft black beans a little longer, they finally had a bit of a sweet taste, and he managed to swallow it down.

"Yes, Mother went to your grandfather’s house early in the morning. Considering the distance, she should be back by now. What if she ran into some trouble on the way?" the tall, thin young man quickly finished the food in his wooden bowl, and after wiping the corner of his mouth with his worn-out sleeve, he asked curiously.

"Maybe your mother stayed at Grandpa’s house a little longer; nothing could happen on such a short road," Wang Kui shook his head and replied casually, then he served himself a bowl of black bean porridge from a nearby iron pot.

Ding Yu stared at the bowl of porridge in front of him, thinking about making an excuse to eat less, when suddenly there were two knocks at the door. The front door was pushed open, and a woman in a rough dress entered with an old man carrying a bundle and a thick beard.

"Father-in-law."

Wang Kui was surprised to see the old man and hurried to greet him with his bowl and chopsticks.

Ding Yu and the tall young man also stood up from the table and called out, "Grandpa."

In Wang Tiezhu’s memory, this "Grandpa" was very fond of him, not only often bringing meat to improve the family’s meals but also trading half a wild boar to have an old scholar teach Wang Tiezhu how to read for half a year, allowing him to know some simple words and barely escape being illiterate.

When the old man saw his two "grandsons," a small smile appeared on his face, and he asked Ding Yu how he was recovering.

But before the old man could speak a few words, the worried woman next to him could no longer hold back and shared shocking news, "Husband, my father has heard that Yellow Stone City is going to open Spiritual Servants."

"Spiritual Servant? Father-in-law Master, is that true?" Wang Kui shivered at the news, unaware that he dropped his chopsticks on the ground.

"The news should be correct; it was secretly told to me by an old friend. His son works in the guard of Yellow Stone City. Once the Spiritual Servant starts, boys over ten must serve. Little Two has just turned ten, so to avoid this Spiritual Servant, I plan to send him to the nearby temple." The old man looked at Ding Yu and replied with a frown.

"Which temple are you talking about? Is there a way to make Tiezhu a temple boy?" Wang Kui said happily upon hearing this.

Ding Yu was a bit stunned when he heard this, and a series of questions arose in his mind.

What is the Spiritual Servant? To be a temple boy? Is it like the temple on Blue Star? Could being a temple boy in this world be a really good thing?

"Of course, it is the famous ‘White Cloud Temple’ nearby. Originally, this was unlikely, but I have something that the White Cloud Temple desperately needs. Little Two’s age fits perfectly, so there shouldn’t be much problem." The old man confidently patted the bundle on his back as he spoke.

"The temple is a great place! I heard they provide food and drink, and the food is white rice and flour. Grandpa, I want to go too!" The tall, thin young man looked at the black bean porridge on the table and his eyes lit up.

"Da Gang, you can’t go. You are too old; the temple only accepts children under fifteen." The old man sighed and helplessly told his other grandson.

"Smack."

"What are you going for? As if the temple belongs to our family! Being able to send Tiezhu is already a blessing. Besides, the Spiritual Servant in Yellow Stone City is tough, and it might even make you sick when you come back, but the reward is quite nice. If you come with me to serve the Spiritual Servant, you will be able to get a wife when we return." Wang Kui, hearing the young man’s words, smacked his eldest son on the head and said angrily.

"I just don’t know if Tiezhu can adapt in the temple," the woman looked at her little son with a worried face.

Ding Yu blinked and couldn’t say a word.

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