Volume One: Snow Beyond the Frontier

Chapter One: Born in the First Year of Shengli (Part One)

"Prince Consort, save me!"

A plaintive voice echoed in his ears, and he looked in the direction of the sound.

It was a magnificent palace, now engulfed in flames. A group of palace maids and ladies-in-waiting in splendid attire were fleeing in all directions, pursued by soldiers clad in armor, armed with swords and spears, as fierce as wolves and tigers.

She, dressed in luxurious palace robes, stumbled out of the main hall.

Her hair was in disarray, but her face was strangely blurred. No matter how hard he tried to see, he could not make out her features.

But he knew she was speaking to him.

"Prince Consort, save me!"

The woman screamed hoarsely, her mournful voice cutting clearly through the chaos of shouts and killing.

Instinctively, he reached out his hand and strode quickly toward her.

She seemed to see him as well, staggering in his direction...

Strangely, the distance between them grew shorter and shorter, yet her face remained indistinct, only a vague outline visible.

He opened his mouth, wanting to speak to her, but no sound came out.

Just as she was about to reach him, a look of terror flashed in his eyes.

From the sea of fire behind her, a white horse burst forth. On its back sat a young man, brandishing a gleaming sword, who in the blink of an eye was right behind her.

"Grace, watch out!"

He finally managed to shout, but she seemed not to hear, still desperately running toward him.

A cold flash streaked through the air—the young man on the white horse raised his sword behind her and viciously slashed down...

...

"Grace, watch out!"

William Harris suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from the grass.

Beads of sweat covered his forehead. He sat on the ground, gasping for breath, his heart pounding wildly.

The setting sun bathed Tiger Valley Mountain in red.

At the foot of the slope, a stream babbled.

The water was crystal clear, and he could see fish swimming leisurely in the current.

Two yellow oxen ambled lazily on the grass by the stream. In the distance, the rolling hills were painted crimson by the afterglow of sunset, looking especially enchanting.

A breeze from the direction of the Yan Mountains carried a hint of chill.

It blew over William Harris, making him shiver involuntarily. Only then did he realize his back was soaked with cold sweat.

Whoosh!

William Harris let out a long, heavy breath, then flopped back onto the grass with a thud, his mind a complete muddle.

That damned dream had haunted him for more than ten days in a row.

Every time, it was the same dream, the same people, the same outcome... But the problem was, who on earth was 'Grace'?

Thinking of this, William Harris couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Seventeen years of muddled existence, and upon suddenly regaining his senses, he was shocked to discover that he didn't truly belong to this era.

He came from a future fifteen hundred years ahead, and after being reborn in this time, for various reasons, his soul had remained clouded, causing him to muddle through seventeen whole years. If not for that sudden thunderstorm, he might have continued living in a daze, playing the 'fool' that everyone saw him as.

But, who exactly was Grace?

William Harris swore that, with all his experience from two lifetimes, he had never known anyone named 'Grace'.

So why had this damned nightmare haunted him ever since he woke up, and why did it fill him with inexplicable heartache?

He couldn't figure it out—truly couldn't!

"Achunu, the cowherd. Sixteen years old, dull and foolish.

Chasing yellow oxen all over the hills, coming home with one missing. Father comes to ask him, but he doesn't even know how many oxen there are..."

A burst of singing interrupted William Harris's thoughts.

He sat up and looked over, only to see a group of children who had somehow run to the stream, playing and singing a nursery rhyme.

William Harris's face instantly darkened.

Because the 'Achunu' in the song referred to him.

When he was young, because he was slow-witted, his grandfather took him to Heping Temple in Changping to pray to the Buddha for blessings, and so he got the childhood nickname 'Achunu.' The incident in the song happened just last year. At that time, William Harris was so dazed that he didn't even notice when one of the oxen went missing. When he got home and his father asked about it, he couldn't give a clear answer.

It really wasn't a big deal, but somehow, someone turned the story into a nursery rhyme and spread it around, so that now everyone in Changping County knew about it.

If William Harris's father were just an ordinary man, it wouldn't matter much.