"Ow, who was that? Lying in the doorway in the middle of the night—you nearly killed this old woman!"
Jia Zhang Shi had gotten up in the night to use the toilet. She hurried out of the courtyard and was running toward the public restroom when she tripped over something. She was now cursing nonstop.
Her shouting woke many of the courtyard residents.
First Master Yi Zhonghai from the front courtyard came out wearing a coat.
"Jia Zhang Shi, why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you making such a racket for?"
"Ow, Heaven and Earth bear witness, someone tripped me! Old Yi, you have to stand up for me." Jia Zhang Shi pointed at the man lying on the ground.
It was pitch-black all around. By the faint light, they could only make out a raggedly dressed man lying motionless on the ground.
Yi Zhonghai stepped forward, crouched down, and frowned.
"Hey, hey, hey, wake up." Yi Zhonghai pushed the man.
The man trembled slightly, but showed no sign of opening his eyes.
"What's going on?" Liu Haizhong, the master of the middle courtyard, and Yan Fugui, the master of the rear courtyard, also came out after hearing the commotion.
"He's not moving at all. He isn't dead, is he?"
"Can't be! He was moving just now."
"Why's he lying here in the dead of winter?"
The people around them whispered and exchanged words.
Just then, the man's eyes twitched faintly.
Master, wake up. You have successfully arrived in the world of Love in the Courtyard.
The man lying on the ground was named Wang Cheng. He had begged his way from the south to the City of Beijing.
He was a rural man, a lone bachelor with no family to speak