In the pitch-black night, the cool breeze of early autumn filled the rugged path in the mountains. A girl was running desperately. Both of her braids were falling apart, and her body was covered with scratches from wild grass and tree branches. One of her shoes had fallen off; her foot had been bloodied by multiple stones. However, she kept running forward, paying no heed to her injuries.
Suddenly, her feet slipped, she rolled down a hill, and after rolling for more than ten meters, she was halted by a tree, she then passed out.
In the early morning, as the sky turns a fish-belly white, Chu Jingqiu woke up from her unconsciousness. Her head ached terribly, and her body felt as if it had been run over by a truck. She was stunned as she looked around.
"Where am I? Wasn't I on top of the shopping mall, fighting with a criminal taking hostages? Didn't I fall from the building? Why am I in the wilderness?" Chu Jingqiu was confused.
Shocked, she found herself lying halfway up a hill, luckily not too steep and uneven. She had been caught by a tree, surrounded by thick undergrowth. Instead of her usual black combat gear, she was wearing a white shirt, military green trousers, and one green rubber shoe—all characteristics of the times she now found herself in.
Suddenly, she was seized by a splitting headache, and a surge of unfamiliar memories flooded her mind.
She had traveled through time, to the 1970s in China, into the body of a young girl who shared her name—Chu Jingqiu —a 17-year-old city youth who was sent to the countryside.
The original Chu Jingqiu was from the capital and was the lone offspring of the family. Under the persuasion of her close friend Qin Yilan, she agreed to go to the countryside too. They were assigned to Qingshan Village, Hongqi Commune, in the Northern Province.
The day before, Chu Jingqiu and several fellow youths had travelled to town to buy household supplies, where she was drugged by an old woman pretending to ask for directions. They tied her hands and feet and locked her in a secluded house. When the old woman's two accomplices went out to contact the buyer, she seized the opportunity to cut the rope, knock out the old woman, and escape. Unfortunately, she slipped and rolled down the hill, and then, 21st-century special forces soldier Chu Jingqiu came to inhabit her body.
Chu Jingqiu surveyed her surroundings and found herself hanging on a hillside, about ten meters from the foot of the hill. Across the mountain road at the bottom, she realized she would have a better chance of being rescued. However, the slope was getting steeper, making it challenging to climb down. If she accidentally attracted the human traffickers again, she would have more to lose than to gain. Moreover, few people passed by; she had to find a way to save herself.
She noticed some thick vines around the tree she was hanging from. She grabbed the tree trunk with both hands and slowly hooked the vines with her feet, then woven them into a long rope, tied it around her waist, and secure the other end to the tree. She cautiously managed to climb down the hill, avoiding the thorny shrubs.
Standing on the mountain road, she noticed no vehicles passing by. Her location was too conspicuous, and she wouldn’t risk getting noticed by the human traffickers. So, she hid in the bushes nearby, waiting for someone to rescue her.
She had been lying in the bushes for a long time. She saw some bullock carts and tractors pass by, but she did not dare to come out rashly. Not until a military jeep came into sight did she dart to the middle of the road, waving her arms frantically and yelling, "Help! Help! Please help me!"
The jeep screeched to a halt. Chu Jingqiu ran up to the window, pleading to the young man in military uniform sitting in the passenger seat, "Comrade of the People's Liberation Army, I'm a sent-down youth who has just escaped from a human trafficker. Please help me, take me away from here."
The two soldiers in the jeep exchanged a glance. The passenger-side soldier nodded to the driver after giving Chu Jingqiu a once-over. The driver quickly jumped out of the car, opened the rear door for Chu Jingqiu, and then took out a first aid kit from the trunk, handing it to her, "Comrade, treat your wounds briefly for now. We will take you to the hospital in town for a check-up later."
"Thank you! You needn't trouble yourselves. These are just superficial wounds; there's no need to go to a hospital. You can just drop me off at the town police station up ahead."
The soldier in the passenger seat tightens his lips without saying a word, his falcon-like eyes coldly taking in their surroundings.
They set the vehicle in motion again. Looking at the pitiful state of the girl in the rearview mirror, the driver asks, "Comrade, where were you sent down to the countryside? How did you come across human traffickers?"
"I was sent to Qingshan Village in the Red Banner Commune. Yesterday, my friend and I went shopping in the town, we agreed to meet at the entrance of the town's primary school. An elderly granny came asking for directions to a machinery factory. Seeing the pitiful state of the granny, I offered to guide her, but once we entered a secluded alley, she managed to confuse me, and when I woke up, I found myself bound hand and foot in an unfamiliar room. I took advantage of a moment when there were fewer people around, knocked out the granny, and escaped."
"Can you still locate the dwelling from which you escaped? Does the human trafficker have any particularly clear characteristics?" The soldier in the passenger seat suddenly asks.
His voice is low, resonant, and magnetic, giving an impression of steadiness and providing a sense of safety.
"Do you have a pencil and paper? I can sketch it out for you," Chu Jingqiu ponders.
"We do, just a moment." The soldier finishes speaking, takes a pencil and some paper from his bag, and hands them to Chu Jingqiu.
Chu Jingqiu lifts the paper and pencil, thinks for a moment, and then starts to sketch. The inside of the car is exceedingly quiet, with nothing to be heard but the scraping of Chu Jingqiu's pencil on the paper.
After about half an hour, just as the car is about to enter the town, Chu Jingqiu hands her drawing to the soldier in the passenger seat.
Chu Jingqiu has drawn four sketches; one of the geographical location of her prison, one a diagram of the house's structure; and two of the old woman and two men.
The soldier looks at the drawings seriously, his brows furrowing more deeply the longer he looks. He can hardly believe the little girl's drawing skills – her depictions, executed in such limited time, are extraordinarily lifelike, hardly distinguishable from photographs.
His eyes stop on the sketch of one man, who appears cultured and clean, with a large mole near his right jaw – a mole from which sprouts a smattering of hair. He runs his finger over the drawn mole, his gaze icy as if chilled by a thousand years of frost, radiating a chilling murderous aura.
"Comrade, how should I address you?" He asks Chu Jingqiu.
"My name is Chu Jingqiu – Jing as in clean, and Qiu as in autumn. May I be so bold as to ask your names as well?"
"Xiao Yihan, 'Yi' as in permissible, 'Han' as in cold, here's my comrade in arms, his name is Qi Yue, 'Yue' as in leap over."
"Chu Zhiqing, I suppose you haven't had your meal yet! Let's have something at the state-owned restaurant up ahead, and then, we can get you to the town police station," Xiao Yihan said earnestly.
"No need, just take me to the police station, I'm not hungry."
"Gurgle...Gurgle..." The moment food was mentioned, Chu Jingqiu's stomach began to rumble.
Chu Jingqiu was embarrassed and wished he could hide in a hole.
"It's okay, let's go together. We were planning to have a meal too," Qi Yue persuaded.
"You saved me; it should be me who treats you to a meal. But all my money has been confiscated by the old lady, I'm penniless now, I feel really bad asking you to treat me," Chu Jingqiu felt somewhat embarrassed.
"It's okay, everyone needs help sometimes, and we were going to eat anyway," Qi Yue quickly said, "People's soldiers are for the people."
Actually, Qi Yue thought to himself: didn't my cousin say we should hurry and have our meal after reaching our destination? My brother is acting strange today, he unconsciously let out a naughty smile.
