The whole scene gave him three impressions: old, dark, and familiar! It was like watching a black-and-white movie depicting history. On both sides of the street were low houses, and the only tall building was the Beixin Bridge Shopping Mall ahead on the left—just two stories! Most of the houses were built with those bluish bricks, and the architectural style was closer to the Republican era. Whether it was the pedestrians on the street or the parade procession, aside from the red flags being held, everyone was dressed in dark blue-green or white. Occasionally, a round-headed bus or a boxy green jeep would drive by, looking so comical, yet so endearing.

The two children in the dream were both known to Brian Carter. The chubby one lived in the doorway next to the snack shop across from Yonghegong, named David Bolton, and the little girl behind him, who looked just like a Barbie doll, lived upstairs from his own home, named Grace Bennett. Her father was a retired military officer.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dream. After walking less than fifty steps, the cold drizzle snapped Brian Carter back to reality. He more or less understood what had happened—he had traveled through time! Back to his childhood! When he was in kindergarten! He had never forgotten this memory. He should be a little over four years old now, in the middle class of kindergarten. He still clearly remembered that during this parade, the writing on the flag got soaked by the rain, leaving black spots all over him and staining his new white undershirt. The stains wouldn’t come out, and when he got home, his mother scolded him, and then his parents argued about it.

“Xiaoyue, check if my back is dirty?” Brian Carter thought of this, tilted his head to try to see his own shoulder, but couldn’t, so he turned to ask Grace Bennett.

“It’s all little black spots, serves you right! When I get home tonight, I’m telling your dad—you got my shoes dirty!” Grace Bennett was still pouting, upset about a muddy footprint on her floral cloth shoes.

“Damn it! Still too slow to react, this shirt is done for!” Brian Carter muttered under his breath. He didn’t remember exactly why his mother lost her temper and then argued with his father, but he vaguely knew that his family’s finances weren’t great at this time. His mother probably just felt bad about the ruined white shirt.

“Is the candy sweet? My grandpa gave me three pieces…” David Clark, standing nearby, heard Brian Carter talking but didn’t catch what he said, thinking he was asking about the candy.

“Sweet! I’ll treat you next time!” Brian Carter looked at the chubby face two feet away, with a runny nose, and felt a sudden warmth in his heart. In his memory, this chubby kid was a tragic figure—he was a bit slow, not favored by the teachers in kindergarten, and often bullied by the other kids. Later, in elementary school, he was in the same class as Brian Carter, and Brian Carter had also meanly bullied him. Thinking back to when he once threw him into the sandpit, and he cried with a head full of sand, even the candy in Brian Carter’s mouth tasted bitter.

“…My grandpa said whoever plays with me gets candy… Will you play with me? Let’s play horse and soldier, but I don’t want to be the horse…” The chubby David Clark was stunned by Brian Carter’s adult-like tone. He clearly wasn’t used to it, but he was too slow-witted to dwell on Brian Carter’s oddness, only able to focus on his own concerns.

“Alright, I’ll give you a piggyback ride when we get back!” Brian Carter gritted his teeth and made up his mind, agreeing to David Clark’s request. It wasn’t that he was stingy, but mainly that David Clark’s size was a real challenge—he wasn’t sure he could carry him.

The parade ended quickly—or more accurately, the parade of Xinkai Road Kindergarten ended. A group of little kids was hard enough to manage, and with the rain coming down, even though kids of this era were much tougher than those in later generations, they were still just kids. Their stamina was limited, and once they got tired, they’d squat down and cry. The teachers’ arms were already full, so they had no choice but to head back.

Xinkai Road Kindergarten was located in Xinkai Hutong, east of Yonghegong. That hutong still exists today, and its layout hasn’t changed much. The kindergarten’s courtyard is still there, though it’s been repurposed. As for where the kindergarten itself went, Brian Carter had no idea.

Kids of this era really were tough. After returning to the kindergarten, the teachers simply wiped each child’s hair with a small towel and that was it. Then, they organized the kids by class to play games under the shed in the courtyard. Kindergartens at this time were nothing like those in later generations. The whole day revolved around three things: playing games, eating lunch, and taking a nap—there were basically no learning tasks.

The teachers’ responsibility was just to take the kids from the parents, keep them from running off, and hand them back safe and sound when the parents got off work in the evening. Scraped knees or a bump on the head were no big deal. No matter how picky, parents wouldn’t blame the teachers for that, nor would they complain that the teachers weren’t teaching their kids anything. According to the thinking at the time, kindergarten was just for looking after the kids—education was the school’s job.

And kindergartens weren’t hard to get into, nor did you need to pay sponsorship fees or pull strings. Many families with grandparents at home didn’t want to waste money on this, even though it was only five yuan a year. But wages were low back then—a trainee worker made just eighteen yuan a month, and a regular second-level worker only thirty-four yuan and eighty cents, so five yuan was already a big expense.