The sky collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, I found myself transported to Nanluoguxiang.

As dawn broke, Li Kaixin was awakened by a cacophony of sounds coming from the courtyard.

Rubbing his eyes, he got up from the kang (a heated brick bed) and pushed open the creaking wooden door.

Outside the door, by the sink, the steward Wang Xiong, Uncle Liu Zhiyong, and my father were lining up, rinsing their mouths with a "splashing" sound.

The tin cup bumped against the rim of the enamel basin, splashing up tiny droplets of water.

"Good morning, Uncle Wang and Uncle Liu!" Li Kaixin, still feeling sleepy, approached them.

The three of them turned around at the sound. Uncle Liu, with water in his mouth, could only mumble a "hmm" and nod slightly in response.

Uncle Wang held an iron cup and a toothbrush, the bristles of which were still dripping water. He looked Li Kaixin up and down.

"Hey! You little rascal, I didn't see you all day yesterday, where did you run off to again?"

Li Kaixin's eyes darted around, and a sly smile crept across her lips: "Yesterday? That was big news—I visited the Cloud Maternity and Infant Room!"

"Pfft..." Uncle Liu almost spat out his mouthwash. The two uncles exchanged bewildered glances, their faces clearly saying, "What is this kid saying?"

Before he could finish speaking, a large, slightly cool hand, damp with water, slapped Li Kaixin on the back of the head.

The father glared at Li Kaixin and snapped, "Speak properly!"

He then turned to his two older brothers and explained helplessly, "Don't listen to his nonsense, he just went to steal bird eggs!"

Uncle Liu and Uncle Wang suddenly realized what was going on. They put their hands behind their backs, looked at the energetic young man in front of them, and smiled at each other.

Shaking his head, he sighed, "I'm getting old, so old... Youth is truly wonderful!"

The father turned his head and glared at Li Kaixin again, urging, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and wash up and eat breakfast! Be quick, we need to get to your grandparents' house soon. You still have to carry twenty pounds of stuff, and if you dawdle any longer, the sun will get too strong!"

"Okay, I got it!" Li Kaixin shrank back and quickly slipped into the kitchen, grabbing her toothbrush.

As the sun rises, the cicadas begin to sing.

Li Kaixin, carrying two bulging flour bags and the fifty cents given to her by her mother, darted briskly out of the gate of No. 93 courtyard.

Arriving at a deserted place, they placed the two bags into the time-frozen space of the secret realm.

As they approached the bus by the moat, Li Kaixin peered down and immediately cursed under his breath.

"Those online novels from my past life were truly harmful!" Li Kaixin stopped by the riverbank, staring at the scene before him and muttering to himself.

The riverbed was dry and cracked, and the exposed riverbed gleamed blindingly white under the scorching sun. The few remaining puddles of stagnant water were murky and green, and there were no fish, not even the aquatic plants.

"I was thinking of coming back in a few days to catch some fish so I could raise them in the stream in my secret space, but there aren't any fish here at all!"

Just then, an elderly man fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan slowly walked towards them from the same direction; he seemed to be a nearby resident as well. Li Kaixin reacted quickly, taking two steps forward and grabbing the old man's arm:

"Sir, excuse me, where around here can I still go fishing?"

The old man was startled by the sudden movement. He looked up at the energetic young man in front of him, frowned, and said, "Young man, you're still thinking about fishing in this weather?"

The old man gestured towards the cracked riverbed, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said, "Look, so many places are completely parched!"

Li Kaixin's face immediately filled with earnestness, and she looked at the old man with pleading eyes.

Seeing Li Kaixin's persistent and hopeful expression, the old man paused with his palm-leaf fan, pondered for a moment, and then pointed vaguely to the north with his fan: "Sigh, if we really have to try our luck... let's go take a look over at the North Sea, the water there is deep."

The old man shook his head, his tone full of warning, "But young man, don't get your hopes up too high."

"Oh! Thank you so much, sir!" Li Kaixin's face immediately lit up with a smile as he thanked the old man repeatedly, watching the fanning figure slowly walk away into the distance.

When the old man could no longer be seen, the sound of a bus began to rang out. Li Kaixin quickly ran to the bus station next door, took out a dime, and bought a ticket.

The old bus started moving with a wheezing sound, and Li Kaixin was swept up by the crowd and squeezed onto the bus.

He was instantly overwhelmed by a strong smell of sweat, cheap tobacco, engine oil, and some indescribable stench of urine mixed with fermentation products.

Li Kaixin held his breath, his stomach churning. He cursed inwardly, "If I took a single, top-grade breath of this, it would probably kill me instantly!"

The cramped carriage was quickly crammed full, like a sardine can.

Li Kaixin secretly rejoiced that she was quick enough to grab a precious window seat.

Almost immediately, he pressed his face against the window crack, greedily inhaling the relatively "fresh" air from outside.

The engine roared laboriously as the bus, carrying a load of silent or drowsy passengers, swayed and lurched away from the bustling city of Beijing, heading towards the countryside.

Outside the window, Li Kaixin's gaze swept over the cracked earth along the way. The small ponds that were once scattered like stars were now mostly just cracked bottoms that gleamed pale in the glaring sunlight, a desolate scene.

The car swayed and bounced violently on the bumpy dirt road, each violent jolt feeling as if it would throw one's internal organs out of their throat.

Li Kaixin gripped the metal frame of the chair back tightly, feeling as if his bones were about to be shaken apart.

A full hour passed in the suffocating heat, the pungent smell, and the endless jolting.

When the faded stone tablet inscribed with the name of the Red Star Commune finally came into view, Li Kaixin almost staggered as he jumped out of the car.

.......

The Red Star Commune is more than ten miles away from Lijiazhuang by a bumpy dirt road.

Li Kaixin took a deep breath and walked for almost an hour under the increasingly scorching sun before the familiar outline of the mud-brick houses in Lijiazhuang finally appeared faintly in the rising heat.

Thanks to the strengthening pills he had taken, his physical condition was now comparable to that of a special forces king, and Li Kaixin wasn't very tired.

Just as Li Kaixin approached the sparse poplar grove at the village entrance, and had barely taken out two flour bags, a figure emerged from behind the trees.

The man, dressed in patched blue-gray fabric and carrying a well-worn Type 38 rifle with a polished stock, was none other than Li Yong, the grandson of Third Grandfather.

"Brother Yong!" Li Kaixin hurried a few steps, forcing a smile, his throat parched. "Out on patrol again in the middle of the day?"

"Hey! Little Kaixin?!" Li Yong saw who it was and a smile spread across his dark face, revealing two rows of white teeth.

Li Yong's gaze fell on the bulging flour sack on Li Kaixin's shoulder, and he chuckled, "Of course! Under the autumn heat, even insects and mice are restless, let alone people. The team has given orders that before the autumn harvest, the militia platoon must be on high alert, rotating day and night. You're..."

Li Yong gestured with his chin toward the flour sack, "Bringing food rations to the elderly?"

"Yes, Dad asked me to deliver it." Li Kaixin nodded, feeling the weight on his shoulders grow even heavier.

"Brother Yong, I have to go now. I need to get the food to Grandpa and Grandma right away. The sun is scorching, and it might not be good if we leave it any longer. I'll talk to you again when I have time!"

"Alright! Go quickly! Give my regards to the old folks!" Li Yong waved his hand cheerfully, as if shooing away flies, his eyes then scanning warily towards the distant field ridge.

Li Kaixin shouldered his flour sack and set off again on the dirt road leading into the village. In the fields on both sides of the road, his uncles and aunts were hunched over, weeding and thinning seedlings, sweat trickling down their sun-darkened necks and into their collars.

Li Kaixin greeted everyone loudly as he walked:

"Third Uncle, take a break!"

"Second Aunt, you're busy!"

Without stopping, I bypassed several courtyards with smoke rising from their chimneys and headed straight for a farmhouse on the edge of the village.

He expertly pushed open the creaking gate, took a deep breath, and shouted at the top of his lungs towards the wooden door:

"Grandpa! Grandma! I'm home!"