“Who still uses this kind of thing for hunting nowadays? People generally use guns, and some use crossbows. Bows and arrows are hard to master and not very accurate—most people can’t use them. What we’re experiencing is a wormhole, Jack, and we can’t control the time or place because we’re passive. The environment outside could be extremely harsh, so we need to be mentally prepared.”

Jack Cooper was even calmer than Henry Clark, nodding his head. He pointed at the pine nuts on the board and asked if they were cooked. Henry Clark was very satisfied with Jack Cooper’s composure, swept the roasted pine nuts onto the ground, cracked them open one by one with a stone for Jack Cooper to eat, and continued roasting more pine nuts himself.

They ate for almost half the night, and neither of them was full—just not hungry anymore. Henry Clark added some more firewood to the campfire to make the flames burn brighter, then hugged Jack Cooper and, listening to the wolves howling outside, drifted into a deep sleep...

After daybreak, Henry Clark left the tree hollow without a moment’s hesitation. The lack of food left him with no other choice. The small stream at the foot of the mountain had already gathered into a river.

Following the river, Henry Clark had to cover as much ground as possible while he still had the strength. The mountains on both sides became steeper, with fewer trees and more rocks. Fortunately, underfoot was a soft sandy beach. There were fish in the river, but Henry Clark knew he couldn’t catch them with his bare hands, so he could only continue on, drooling.

For two whole hours, Henry Clark didn’t stop for a moment. He had no way to calculate how far he’d gone; he only knew that as long as the small river turned into a big one, he’d be saved. In this region, the only river that could be called a “big river” was the Yangtze.

The river grew wider and shallower. Looking back at the exhausted Jack Cooper, Henry Clark knew he had to find something to eat. They hadn’t eaten much last night or this morning, and Jack Cooper was holding on, trying not to cause trouble.

There might be snakes in this area, so he didn’t dare put Jack Cooper down and could only keep carrying him. He found a shallow bay in the river where several fish, each about the size of a palm, were swimming. Henry Clark quietly built a sand dam at the mouth of the bay—only this way was there a chance to catch the fish.

Chapter Four: In the Human World

The sand dam was finished, and Henry Clark was overjoyed. He turned to the curious Jack Cooper and said, “Hold on a bit longer, we’ll have fish to eat soon—five or six of them, enough for a good meal.”

Henry Clark jumped into the bay and stirred up the mud and sand. When the water was thoroughly murky, he started catching fish. The fish were dumb, swimming with their heads just under the surface. In no time, Henry Clark caught six fish by hand. Regretfully, he saw that only some finger-sized fish were left in the bay, so he jumped onto the sand and started a fire to roast the fish.

The fish tasted great, but his roasting skills were poor. Jack Cooper ate two and was finally full. Because of the hot weather, there was no way to preserve food, so Henry Clark ate the remaining four fish himself. For the first time in two days, his stomach felt full.

While Henry Clark was washing his hands, the bored Jack Cooper suddenly shouted, pointing at the cliff for Henry Clark to look. Shading his eyes, Henry Clark looked carefully and saw that the cliff was densely covered with hanging coffins.

Henry Clark knew about the Bo people’s hanging coffins and was very happy—he finally knew where he was. Only heaven knew how he’d gone from a city on the northwestern steppe to Yanjin County at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan in the blink of an eye. When he’d traveled to Yunnan, he’d visited Yanjin County specifically to see the Bo people’s hanging coffins. The shape of the mountains looked vaguely familiar. But why were there so many hanging coffins here? The most he’d seen before was a dozen or so.

Thinking of the arrowhead he’d found, Henry Clark was prepared for the worst. The Chishui River basin was never a developed area, not in ancient times nor now.

Henry Clark struggled to carry Jack Cooper to the bank of a big river, where he saw people. But he didn’t dare approach easily, so he sat under a mulberry tree, holding Jack Cooper and worrying.

Oh heavens, what kind of people are these? Why are they so dark and so short? The girls picking mulberry leaves in the trees were pretty, but their clothes were awful—either blue or black, and it looked like they’d wrapped themselves in a bolt of cloth. Henry Clark had never seen such clothes, not even in his dreams.

“Slap me! I can’t do it myself,” Henry Clark said to Jack Cooper.

Jack Cooper punched Henry Clark on the nose. With tears streaming down his face, Henry Clark remembered that these hemp clothes were only widely worn before the Yuan and Ming dynasties. It was only after cotton became abundant that people started wearing cotton clothes.

“We’ve probably arrived in the Song dynasty,” Henry Clark said to Jack Cooper.

Jack Cooper didn’t seem to care. Taking advantage of his childlike face, he reached out to the girls in the tree for some mulberries—and actually got them. Mulberries rained down, and the girls had already taken a liking to the chubby-cheeked Jack Cooper.

The two of them sat on the ground, eating mulberries nonstop. After a while, Jack Cooper seemed interested in the food in the mulberry-picking girls’ baskets. He got up, ran over, grabbed two rice balls, and quickly ran back, handing one to Henry Clark. Watching the giggling mulberry-picking girls, Henry Clark felt his face flush with embarrassment.