Xia Yan was a 28-year-old single woman who had just recently learned how to knit sweaters. She was very excited and spent almost all her time with her mother, Wang Chunhua, cooped up on the bed knitting sweaters together. While knitting, they listened to audiobooks on a novel app. The novels they listened to were mostly modern-people-traveling-to-ancient-times farming stories. Whenever they heard something unreasonable, they would even complain about it.
“Mom, don’t you think this novel is kind of dumb? A modern person’s soul travels back to ancient times and gets a system space. Even if they’re poor and want to improve their life, there’s no need for them to expose everything right away. And the male lead immediately accepts it too, not even questioning that his wife’s personality has changed. He even understands all the modern cultural phrases she says, like he isn’t an ancient person at all but a modern one. Ah, listening to this is giving me secondhand embarrassment,” Xia Yan said while knitting helplessly.
“Isn’t that normal? The author is just like you, staying at home all day doing nothing, with no experience, only daydreaming. So it’s normal for her story to be so unrealistic,” Wang Chunhua rolled her eyes and replied.
“If you don’t know how to talk, then don’t talk. You’re just saying things I don’t like,” Xia Yan said unhappily.
“Daughter, I’m saying this for your own good. You’re already not young anymore; you should seriously find a job. You’re almost thirty, and you don’t even have a stable job or a stable partner. Sigh… My health is also getting worse. I used to think you were still young and I could stay with you for a long time, but now I’ve had two surgeries and my body is failing. I don’t know how long I can accompany you. I just want to see you get married and have children. I don’t want you to be alone in your old age…” Wang Chunhua said sadly.
“Pah pah pah… Hurry up and spit that out. Don’t say such unlucky things anymore. You will live a long life. Besides, what’s so good about marriage? Don’t you know why your health is bad after two surgeries? If you hadn’t married my dad, you wouldn’t have these illnesses or surgeries at all! Forget it, why are we even talking about this? Just relax and live happily. I know you’re thinking of me. After the New Year, I’ll go find a job and stick to it for a long time, okay?” Xia Yan quickly interrupted.
“Alright, alright, we won’t talk about it anymore,” Wang Chunhua said helplessly.
The two of them fell silent again, continuing to knit sweaters while listening to the audiobook. At this point, Xia Yan was already getting bored of the nonsense story, so she stopped knitting and turned off the audiobook on her phone.
“I’m not listening anymore! If I keep listening, I’ll become stupid,” she said.
Wang Chunhua looked at her and smiled. “At least yours is still okay. You should hear your grandfather. The stories he listens to are even more ridiculous, and I don’t know how he can keep listening.”
Xia Yan stretched lazily. “Mom, what if we had some kind of cheat ability like in those novels and traveled through time? What do you think it would be like?”
Wang Chunhua glanced at her like she was looking at a fool. “You wouldn’t survive past the first episode. You should hurry up and find a job instead of daydreaming all the time. Those things only exist in novels.”
Xia Yan immediately deflated. “Great. Please don’t say it next time. Not a single word I like.”
They continued knitting in silence. Before they knew it, when they checked the time again, it was already 1:00 a.m.
“Alright, stop knitting. Time to rest,” Wang Chunhua said, stretching.
She picked up the sweater and looked at it. “Daughter, I think it’s really too big. Even your uncle would find this too big, and for your grandfather it’s too short…”
Before she could finish, Xia Yan quickly grabbed her own work and compared it. Sure enough, hers was even bigger than her mother’s by a whole palm’s width.
Xia Yan cried out, “I worked so hard for several days and it turned out too big. No wonder you’re almost finished while I only got this far. If I keep going, I still won’t be able to wear it. But if I undo it, I can’t bear to…”
Wang Chunhua checked it again and confirmed it really was too big.
Xia Yan sniffed. “I should’ve listened earlier. If I had stopped, I wouldn’t have wasted four hours making something useless.”
Wang Chunhua patted her back. “It’s okay, we’ll undo it. Tomorrow I’ll restart it for you. We’ll reduce the stitches and use bigger needles. People online say they can finish a sweater in four or five days that way. It’s just a pity it’s your first time using circular needles.”
Xia Yan reluctantly agreed.
So the two of them spent another half hour undoing all the knitting. By the end, they were both exhausted.
“Alright, it’s already 2 a.m. Let’s sleep,” Wang Chunhua said.
“Okay.”
Bang bang bang…
A series of urgent knocking sounds rang out.
“Mother! Something bad happened! Open the door quickly! People from the county office came with news that Father died in battle!”
As soon as the words fell, cries and wails erupted all around the courtyard.
“Father!”
“My poor son!”
…
Wang Chunhua was still half-asleep when she heard the knocking. She didn’t fully process what was being said. When she opened her eyes, she saw a dilapidated thatched-roof house and thought she was dreaming.
Xia Yan, disturbed by the loud crying outside, sat up angrily with her eyes still closed.
“Mom, tell Grandpa and Grandma to lower the TV volume! Why are they playing such loud crying dramas so early in the morning? I can’t sleep!” she complained.
Wang Chunhua stared at her in disbelief, then slowly looked around again. The reality of the situation hit her—this was not a dream. They were in a broken, unfamiliar place.
Xia Yan continued complaining, “What’s going on? So noisy…”
Wang Chunhua suddenly grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“Daughter! Wake up! Open your eyes properly!”
Xia Yan opened her eyes reluctantly, confused by the unfamiliar environment and her mother’s strange appearance.
“Mom… why is your hair so long? And why are you dressed so weirdly?” she asked, confused.
She looked around again.
“Mom… where are we? This doesn’t look like our house.”
Wang Chunhua looked at her daughter’s thin, unfamiliar appearance. At first, she wasn’t sure if it was really her, but after hearing her speak, she was certain.
Wang Chunhua didn’t answer immediately. She just thought quietly.
“It looks like we really traveled through time. Based on the environment and clothing, it seems like ancient times…”
Xia Yan also started to realize something strange.
“We… didn’t actually travel through time, did we? We only talked about this yesterday…”
She looked at herself, then at her mother, then at the surroundings.
“Seriously… you really shouldn’t talk about ghosts at midnight.”
Before they could continue, another loud knock interrupted them.
Faced with an unfamiliar situation, the mother and daughter exchanged looks.
Xia Yan scratched her head awkwardly. “Mom… should we go out and check? Staying here will make people suspicious.”
Wang Chunhua looked at her helplessly.
Soon, the courtyard noise grew louder and more people gathered outside.
With no other choice, Wang Chunhua steeled herself and opened the door.
She thought to herself: “We can only take it one step at a time.”