The villages around were built alongside the river. Xiaohe Village, where Jiang Zhou lived, is in the middle part of the river. This river went down to the beach, so there were many boats around, most of them was for fishing and ferrying. The ferry went back and forth between several villages separated by the beach. Usually they went in the morning, noon and evening, they only charged a penny for one ride. Wen Yan’s family was in Banshan Village, it took more than half an hour to travel by boat but Jiang Zhou didn’t find it boring.

When they were young, the two of them used to travel with boat. Wen Yan’s family ran a small business; his mother was an expert in tying knots and hair tie, and his father was a well-known peddler in this area. He often carried the burden to sell the knots and hair tie mother Wen made. He also collected some odd things around the villages and sold them in other place.

In the morning, Wen Yan took the boat with his father and went to Xiaohe Village, in the evening he either went back with his father or if his father didn’t pass through Xiaohe Village Jiang Zhou would send him back by the boat to the Banshan Village.

If Jiang Zhou sent him home by himself, little Wen Yan would stand on the shore and wait for his boat till it was no longer visible, then he would walk away.

The boatman was an old man, warm and upright, just now he took a fat fish to Jian Zhou’s house in exchange of two kg meat while he was resting. Now, he was very happy to see Jiang Zhou, he spoke to him first, “Jiang Da, are you going to Banshan Village?”

Jiang Zhou was holding the side of the boat and looked down on the water, “Yes.”

Uncle Yu touched the boat handle and laughed, “You have been on my boat for so long, I still remember that you and little wen yan used to ride my boat. How old were you back then?” He made a gesture and said, “Not even half as my boat’s roof.”

Everyone has heard about what happened at Jiang Zhou’s house and they all felt sorry about the fight. These people always tried different ways to lecture Jiang Zhou, but whenever Wen Yan and reconciliation was mentioned, the former Jiang Zhou didn’t care at all. Over time, everyone stopped reminding him.

Uncle Yu had been on the boat all year long, it was true he didn’t see Jiang Zhou for a long time, “If I have seen those legends like ghost and demon, I would have thought you were possessed by a demon last year. It really seemed like a different person.”

Jiang Zhou smiled wryly; didn’t he possess by different soul? How dare he say that? People would treat it as nonsense that he was making excuses for himself. So, he just said, “I was stupid for a while, but I made up my mind to change it. Uncle Yu, please stop teasing me.”

Uncle Yu pointed to a small cabinet in the boat and said to Jiang Zhou, “That old man Wen Yuanxing love wine, are you going to apologize to your wife and father-in-law? How could you not bring wine? This rice wine is brewed by me, you bring it.”

Jiang Zhou cupped his hands, “Thank you very much.”

The two chatted all the way and finally saw the entrance of Banshan Village in distance. He stopped talking when he saw the old locus tree, for some reason Jiang Zhou suddenly felt so nostalgic. He and Wen Yan were childhood friends, then childhood sweethearts and now they were husband and wife. Both of them just let matter of course, without hindrance of their parents let alone outsiders, their way to the marriage was breezy without a bump. His ideal married life was simple and sweet, he would pamper Wen Yan and one day, they might have children.

In the next eight years, he would chop firewood in the yard and Wen Yan would leaned on the door frame watching their children run around. Maybe in the future, his son would bring trouble to other people children. However, his nice dream life was shattered by a traveler who came out of nowhere.

His peaceful life was a mess, his cozy home was gone, his wife ran away and his unborn child didn’t know if they were already born or not. Unexpectedly, he also inherited the traveler’s memories. This way he hoped to change everything, he wanted to work hard and lived a good life. Especially with how different rules were between his world and traveler’s world, it was mind changing. Jiang Zhou admitted he was amazed and deeply attracted by their freedom.

While he was distracted, the boat had arrived at Banshan Village. Uncle Yu tied the boat on the wood around the bank, greeted the passengers and turned to Jiang Zhou, “I’ll go and drink with my friends. If you want to go home later, wait for me under this locus tree or find me in the village chief’s house.”

Jiang Zhou agreed, he held the things in his hand and the rice wine gifted by uncle Yu and went Wen Yan’s house. The Wen family was considered as well-off family, they lived in a house with small yard. The gate was a painted wooden door with copper locks embedded on it. It looked half-new as if they changed the old one when he greeted his in-laws.

Jiang Zhou touched the brass lock and hesitated for a moment, when he was about to knock it; the door suddenly opened from inside. He was taken aback and when he looked up, he saw his father-in-law, Wen Yuanxing. Wen Yuanxing was holding a basin of water, half of his clothes was tied to his belt, he had a square face, stern eyebrows with tanned skin from his traveling job as peddler. He was staring at Jiang Zhou, looked him up and down then sneered, he closed the door with a ‘bang’ without saying a word.

Jiang Zhou was frozen in place.

Inside the yard, Li Yue, his mother-in-law was sitting on the porch rubbing off corn seed. When she saw Wen Yuanxing closing the door loudly, she yelled at him, “How many times do I have to tell you? Close the door gently! Why can’t you remember it the last time, you broke the door. We have to call someone to repair it, which cost a lot of money.”

Wen Yuanxing brought the basin back and put it next to Li Yue, he listened to her then replied, “That last time, when did it happen? Why don’t I remember it?”

Li Yue rolled her eyes at him and grinned at him, “What time? Isn’t it the day ah Yan came back after he fought with Jiang Zhou.”

It was midnight, she and her husband already fell asleep, but there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, she found Wen Yan who was supposed to be in his husband’s house, standing alone outside. He was shivering from cold with no expression on his face, he didn’t even speak, her husband and her was panicked. They kept asking Wen Yan but he didn’t say anything. The two of them didn’t know what to do and she told Wen Yuanxing to go find Jiang Zhou, she only asked him to pretend and Wen Yuanxing agreed to go out which made Wen Yan panic.

She still remembered Wen Yan’s expression as if the sky had collapsed with tears streaming on his face, he didn’t say anything but repeating the word ‘it’s gone’ in a daze.

They didn’t dare to provoke Wen Yan anymore and told him to sleep. Wen Yuanxing went to ask around the next day, only to find out that the husband and wife had quarreled but they were puzzled. It was normal for a couple to fight but Wen Yan’s reaction seemed to lost his life and Jiang Zhou on the other end was doing just fine; this was unpredictable.

They didn’t to talk about it, so they just thought in their hearts that the pair were having small hiccup and Jiang Zhou would coax his wife in two days. But who knew, let alone two days, even in two months; there was no shadow of Jiang Zhou.

On the contrary, Wen Yan got better day by day, eating and sleeping on time until three months passed; Wen Yan’s stomach was swelled up. They were surprised that Wen Yan was pregnant but Jiang Zhou actually ignored it! At that time, mother Wen cried; she was a woman who has been pregnant before, she naturally knew the difficulties of pregnant people. Not to mention, Wen Yan was a ger, their pregnancy was more difficult. When they should be cared by their husband, Wen Yan was alone.

Although he looked calm but this was unusual. They didn’t realize until Wen Yan gave birth to the child by himself, he actually thought his husband already dead. Li Yue thought about it and looked into the house; saw there was no movement so she poked Wen Yuanxing with a corn stick, “What’s wrong with you, why didn’t you pour the water outside?”

Wen Yuanxing squatted beside her and said angrily, “Huh, what do you think? Guess who is outside?”

Li Yue asked, “Who?”

Wen Yuanxing took out two corn and rubbed them, he replied with anger, “Who else can it be? That Jiang family’s bastard, Jiang Zhou!”

Li Yue exclaimed, “What? Jiang Zhou is here!”

Wen Yuanxing put his hand on his wife’s mouth, “Will shout any louder? What if ah Yan heard it?”

It was too late, there was a ‘bang’ sounds as if something heavy had fallen and a gentle voice came from inside the house, “Who… is here?”

The two people outside looked at each other, didn’t know how to reply.