“No matter whether I like or dislike them, some memories are just there in my mind, neither weaker nor stronger. I felt as if I was in a dream, and in the dream, we shall meet again, but after waking up, everything vanishes as if it were beautiful bubbles. I only wish you all the best.”

In tears, I wrote such words on my notebook in the morning. The dream of last night was still fresh in my mind.

I didn’t know when I was standing among a crowd of people wearing the clothes of the Han Dynasty (202-220). People near me in shabby clothes jostled one after another to run out of the city. I heard some men shouting loudly, “Support our lord! Follow our lord. Fight for the last course to death!” Every now and then, I heard the sound of horses galloping nearer, raising the dust furiously in the city. The cries of children, the screams of women and the shouts of men were boiling in the air. Blood, sweat, and tears made the city smell terrible. I hurried to cover my face with my hands, afraid to be stained by the dirt.

People ran wildly and brutally, like beasts running madly from human’s fire. “Ouch!” I heard a faint cry. I turned back, and saw one large, muscular man push a weak old woman harshly from behind because she was in his way. The fat, shameless man was even cursing the poor old woman. She was too weak to defend herself, and fell down heavily on the ground. The man cast a glance at her on the ground, hesitated a little, and continued running, because in his eyes, the life of this old woman meant nothing to him. His own safety was most important, though he didn’t know whether he would survive the war.

I hurried to help the old woman to her feet. She was in extreme pain. She leaned on me, and it took her a long time to get up. Her breath was hard, and she kept coughing. After a few seconds, she wiped her black wrinkled face with her bony hand, and whispered something like “good girl” to me.

I waited till her breath became smoother. I asked, “Grandma, where are you going?” She looked at me in surprise, and said, “Benefactor, are you an outsider? But why do you come to this city? The war is about to begin, and we are following our lord to escape.” “Going where?” “Jiang Xia.”

Jiang Xia? My heart jumped violently when I heard that. I was in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). Collecting myself, I continued to ask, “Who is your lord?” The old woman looked at me with reproaching and said, “The sage lord, Liu Bei.” This really shocked me, and I froze. Seeing that I had no more questions, the old woman patted the dirt on her clothes, bowed in appreciation to me again, and staggered away.

I was pushed by several other fugitives, and my feet were stepped on several times. I was conscious of the pain on my feet. I looked around at the people who were running away, aware that I was traveling back 3,000 years in time to the age of the Three Kingdoms, which meant all my knowledge in the modern world was useless. Survival became a serious problem to me.

Suddenly, I felt myself pushed by someone again. I was about to curse, but stood stunned there, when I saw such a familiar face in front of me.

“You?”

“YOU.”

We looked at each other in surprise.

He was Zhao Jun, my classmate from middle school. Years had gone since we’d last seen each other in middle school.