Han Shuo found himself transported into a book, landing in the year 1990. Unlike other stories where characters have to follow the plot, in this novel, he only needs to complete the tasks within it. Once he completes the tasks, he can return to the 21st century.
The novel’s tasks are described in just three paragraphs.
First paragraph: Complete the following tasks to return to your original world.
Second paragraph: Your code name is 00Q. You must find a key character in the story, whose code name is 11F. He has a small red birthmark on his member, identical to yours. This is the clue for the task. If you find him and kiss him 100 times, you will have a chance to unlock the way back to your original world.
Third paragraph: The number of kisses must be 100, and the total duration cannot be less than 365 hours.
Perhaps there are other tasks, or maybe there are other ways to return to the 21st century. However, the family Han Shuo found himself in was too poor, with rats running rampant, and they had chewed the novel into pieces. The task details above were pieced together by Han Shuo after searching the entire house and finally finding the novel fragments in a rat hole.
When Han Shuo first saw the pieced-together novel fragments, he was dumbfounded. This meant that as a straight man, he not only had to find a man with a red mark on his member but also had to kiss him. In this vast sea of people, where was he supposed to find such a person?
However, Han Shuo’s biggest concern wasn’t whether he could find this person, but what if the person turned out to be a seventy or eighty-year-old man? Just thinking about having to endure kissing an old man with no teeth to return to his original world…
And then imagining that while kissing, his mouth suddenly got stuck on something.
The old man pats his shoulder, chuckling, “You kissed my dentures out.”
“…” Han Shuo was so focused on removing a set of white dentures from his lips that he almost vomited up yesterday’s meal.
The stairs creaked as a five or six-year-old boy with rosy cheeks walked to the bedside and called out, “Little Uncle, Dad has finished cooking. Get up quickly.”
The child was named Han Ting, the son of Han Shuo’s older brother, Han Hong. Han Hong was twenty-seven years old, ten years older than Han Shuo. Their parents died early, and Han Hong, being both a brother and a father, raised Han Shuo. Even after Han Hong got married and had a child, he never neglected his younger brother.
He was a good person, but unfortunately, his wife also passed away early. So Han Hong had to raise both Han Shuo and his son. With such a family situation, naturally, no one introduced him to a second marriage.
Han Shuo was still in high school, a senior at Yunxi High School, a small county town surrounded by mountains. Since the village he lived in was far from the school, he stayed in the school dormitory, going home on Fridays and returning on Sundays for evening self-study.
Han Shuo carried his nephew downstairs. His brother, Han Hong, was standing by the stove, already putting the cooked dish into an enamel cup. Han Shuo walked over and glanced at it. The enamel cup was steaming, dark and unappealing, the same old recipe as last week: stir-fried dried tofu with preserved vegetables. And this cup of preserved vegetables would have to last Han Shuo a week at school.
There was no choice. In this era, small county town schools with dormitories were like this. If students didn’t bring some strong-flavored dishes, they wouldn’t last in the heat.
Before leaving, Han Hong took out two fifty-cent bills from his pocket and handed them to Han Shuo, repeatedly reminding him not to lose them. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to take the bus and would have to run to the school dozens of kilometers away on foot.
“Alright, I’m off then.” Han Shuo stuffed the money into his army-green backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and pinched his nephew’s cheek.
The bus only stopped at the intersection, so going to school was quite a hassle for Han Shuo. He had to walk out of the village with a few other students from the same village who also attended Yunxi High School, then walk another kilometer to the intersection. After waiting for half an hour for the bus, and navigating the winding mountain roads, it was almost evening by the time they reached Yunxi High School.
The dormitory was a two-story bunkhouse, with at least eighteen or nineteen students in each room. Narrow aisles on both sides were filled with people climbing up and down ladders. Han Shuo’s bed was in the middle of the upper bunk. After putting down his backpack, he took out the enamel cup and went to the canteen with the boys from the beds on either side to have dinner.
Han Shuo had been attending this high school for a semester. Since he had to find the man with the red mark on his member sooner or later, he was just passing the time here. Otherwise, how could a 22-year-old from the original world go back to school and study diligently every day? No way, he had finally graduated from university, and just seeing the word “school” gave him a headache.
But after spending some time here, he did make two friends. The one on his left, as dark as preserved vegetables, had the nickname Pidan. The one on his right, with fair and tender skin, was nicknamed Doufu. Mainly because Han Shuo was bored, and since he couldn’t focus on studying, he at least found two people to chat with.
The canteen was very basic, like a collective pig farm. A large hall had several long, waist-high cement tables, which served as tables. In the middle of the cement tables was a thin layer, like a storage cabinet, for students to place their rice bags, lunch boxes, and enamel cups.
At mealtime, teachers usually took their lunch boxes back to the office to eat, while students stood in front of the tables to eat.
Han Shuo placed one foot on the storage layer of the cement table, holding his lunch box while eating and getting distracted.
He watched the students coming in and out of the canteen, wondering if there were any he had missed.
He had been at this school for a semester, checking out over a hundred people. While others rested or played during the ten-minute breaks, he was the only one constantly running to the bathroom.
He couldn’t just openly walk up to a male classmate and say, “Can I see your member?”
Even though he wasn’t particularly shy, he still had to be cautious about this.
So he had to start with the boys’ bathroom. No exaggeration, to cover up his perverted behavior, even if he didn’t have to pee, he forced out a few drops, which led to kidney pain from peeing too much for a while.
Han Shuo scanned the room with his eyes, estimating that he had seen all the male students in the school. If that didn’t work, he would have to start checking out the male teachers.
But just thinking about the male teachers at the school, each one more unattractive than the last, made him feel uncomfortable.
However, to return to his original world as soon as possible, he had to give it his all.
Nearby, the girls eating suddenly started whispering, their eyes constantly glancing towards the canteen entrance.
Pidan grumbled, “Good grades really do make you popular with the girls.”
Doufu said, “But he’s also very handsome, and tall.”
“Whose side are you on?” Pidan nudged the daydreaming Han Shuo, “Our Shuo-ge is also very handsome, okay?”
The teaching building had three floors, with restrooms at the end of each floor. Han Shuo was just thinking about whether he should visit the first-floor restroom today when Pidan interrupted him, and he instinctively looked over.
Even though Han Shuo was just passing time at school, he still managed to make an enemy.
That enemy was Meng Yuxiu.
In this small county town high school in a remote area, most students dressed like country bumpkins. But every time Meng Yuxiu appeared, he wore a clean white shirt, was tall, and had a handsome face. So from the moment he entered high school, he became the white horse prince in the hearts of many girls.
Logically, Han Shuo, who was 22 and had been transported into a book, shouldn’t be bothered by a high school student so much younger than him. After all, as an adult, he should be more mature.
But an incident last month made Han Shuo lose his adult composure.
It was actually a small matter. On a Monday, Han Shuo was carrying a steaming hot enamel cup from the steamer to the cement table when Meng Yuxiu, who wasn’t paying attention, accidentally bumped into him. The cup lid clattered to the ground, and the preserved vegetables mixed with dark sauce spilled everywhere.
In his original world, Han Shuo wouldn’t even blink if he lost a hundred bucks on the street. But times had changed, and with his current poor conditions, a cup of preserved vegetables with white rice barely lasted a week. Now, thanks to Meng Yuxiu’s bump, Han Shuo was heartbroken.
Although Meng Yuxiu did say, “I’m sorry,” Han Shuo noticed that while he was apologizing, his face remained cold and indifferent, which made Han Shuo explode. He grabbed Meng Yuxiu’s shirt collar and started ranting, “Are you blind? Are you in such a hurry to reincarnate as a starving ghost?!”
Meng Yuxiu frowned, “I said I’m sorry.”
“Damn! Is that how you apologize? Who apologizes like that?”
“What do you want me to do to apologize?”
Han Shuo’s loud voice attracted a crowd, and everyone started persuading him to let it go since they were classmates.
With so many people persuading him, especially a few pretty female classmates comforting him, Han Shuo almost calmed down. So he said, “Alright, just compensate me with a cup of preserved vegetables.”
But unexpectedly, Meng Yuxiu didn’t even think about it and said, “I don’t have any.”
Meng Yuxiu was telling the truth. His family didn’t have any preserved vegetables, so he couldn’t provide any. But the problem was that he didn’t like to talk much, and his words were concise and his tone slightly cold. So in Han Shuo’s eyes, who was still angry, it sounded like, “I don’t have any, what are you going to do about it?”
Han Shuo’s fist clenched immediately, and he took a big step forward, punching Meng Yuxiu in the eye, “You don’t have any?! Then take a beating!”
The students watching gasped, and the two on the ground were already wrestling, with Meng Yuxiu’s white shirt stained with the spilled food.
Because of this incident, whenever Han Shuo encountered Meng Yuxiu on the road, he would curse under his breath.
“Tch, looks like a pretty boy, makes me sick,” Han Shuo sneered in disgust and looked away.
Evening self-study was about to start, and the students in the canteen gradually dispersed. Han Shuo finished his meal, went to the sink to wash up, rinsed the rice for the next morning, and then left his lunch box on the cement table. The canteen aunt would collect them and put them in the steamer.
Han Shuo’s classroom was on the third floor. Before going upstairs, he told Pidan and Doufu to go ahead to the classroom while he went to the restroom.
Doufu said, “Why are you going to the restroom again? You go several times a day. Besides, why are you going to the first floor? Don’t we have one upstairs?”
“I can’t hold it anymore. You two go ahead, I’ll be right there after I’m done.” Han Shuo didn’t waste any more words with them and headed straight to the boys’ restroom at the end of the first floor.
As usual, Han Shuo would walk in, pretending to look for an empty spot while his eyes darted around. But today, business was slow in the restroom, and after two male classmates left, he was the only one left.
Today, he actually needed to pee, so he unzipped his pants, whistling while relieving himself.
Just two seconds in, someone came in next to him. Han Shuo instinctively looked over, and that one glance stopped his whistling in its tracks.
“!!!”
Han Shuo’s eyes widened, internally shouting, “Holy crap!”
What did he just see???!
He rubbed his eyes hard, then looked down again.
Author’s Note:
Please read the pre-reading tips in the synopsis before reading. This is an alternate history novel, do not link it to real historical periods. The characters are not perfect and have a gradual growth process. (High standards, detail-oriented readers, proceed with caution). If you feel uncomfortable while reading, please stop.