Returned from Cultivation

A parallel world.

Don't take it too seriously.

"Please, don't tear down my house. I'm begging you on my knees."

An older woman nearing sixty knelt before a crowd of burly men.

"If the house is gone, Hongxing won't be able to find us when he comes back. Sob, sob..."

The older woman wept bitterly, her frail body heaving with her sobs. Anyone who saw her would have felt some pity.

Yet the dozen or so burly men ignored her completely.

Something as precious as kindness had long since been stripped from them through one act of oppression after another.

After being called animals countless times,

they seemed to have accepted the label.

Seeing that the older woman refused to back down, their leader turned and waved at the excavator operator beside the house, signaling him to go ahead and tear it down.

Few people could truly stand their ground in the face of death.

Even if something did go wrong, he was confident he could smooth it all over.

This wasn't his first time doing something like this.

After receiving the leader's signal, the excavator operator took a deep drag on his cigarette, tossed it beneath his feet, and ground it out.

"Old woman, don't blame me if you die. Take it up with Boss Pan."

The operator muttered under his breath.

Bang!

The long mechanical arm punched into the old house's outer wall. Fragments of brick and tile scattered under the drill's rattling blows.

Even then, the older woman didn't move a single step.

Her eyes were lifeless.

"If our home is gone, Hongxing won't be able to find us."

"If our home is gone, Hongxing..."

The older woman repeated those words over and over, as though she had lost her mind.

"Mom!"

"Mom!"

"Grandma!"

An old motorcycle came racing up with a family of three aboard: the older woman's son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandson, who had just turned five.

"You animals!"

Her son charged into the crowd, his eyes red, and headed straight for her.

Naturally, none of the men stopped him.

"Jun, the house... the house is gone."

At the sight of her son, the older woman finally came to her senses, but she still refused to leave. With no other choice, he began dragging her away.

"I can't leave. If the house is gone, your father won't be able to find us when he comes back..."

"Mom, Dad is dead! Snap out of it!"

Her son shouted at her. His father had been missing for thirty years. He had only been five back then, and his memories of his father had long since faded.

In truth, he felt more resentment toward his father than longing.

If his mother hadn't kept telling them stories about his father,

he wouldn't have remembered him at all.

Ratatatat...

The excavator kept working. More chunks of concrete and brick fell, and the old house, which had stood for nearly forty years, could collapse at any moment.

"No, Hongxing isn't dead! He told me to wait for him! You can't tear down my house!"

Finding strength from somewhere, the older woman broke free of her son and plunged into the house.

"Mom!" Her son hurried after her.

"Grandma! You bad guys! I'll beat you to death!"

Her grandson ran crying toward one of the long-faced men, flailing at him with his little fists. The man frowned and slapped him across the face.

Smack!

The slap sent the boy tumbling several meters away. He spat out two tiny teeth, mixed with blood and saliva.

"I'll fight you!"

The daughter-in-law grabbed a broom and charged. At the sight of her son being struck, fury all but poured from her eyes.

Normally gentle, she now showed a fierce, frantic side.

But the men had seen scenes like this all too often.

Several stepped forward with clubs and knocked her to the ground in just a few blows. A blond-haired thug she'd clipped with her broom even set upon her with punches and kicks.

Meanwhile,

the older woman had already rushed inside the house, with her son following her.

The excavator didn't slow down in the slightest.

The old house teetered on the brink of collapse.

Madness shone in the operator's eyes, and every one of the burly men wore a vicious look.

"Mommy, Grandma..."

"Jun, Mom!"

"Red Star..."

"Mom, the house is about to collapse!"

The little grandson was crying.

The daughter-in-law was crying.

The older woman was crying too.

Helpless, her son scooped his mother into his arms, tears glimmering in his own eyes.

He hated the thugs tearing down their home. He hated his father, and he hated his own uselessness even more.

He hated that he couldn't earn enough money to move his family somewhere better sooner.

Boom!

A ball of lightning suddenly appeared above the old house. There seemed to be a man standing inside it.

"I, Zhang Hongxing, have finally returned!"

The man let out a long cry that pierced the clouds.

After his cry faded, he briefly surveyed the scene before him, then appeared inside the house in a flash.

Aside from a few unfamiliar additions, the furnishings had barely changed.

The photograph of him and Xiuying still stood by the bed.

This is definitely my home.

"Who are you?"

Zhang Hongxing turned toward the older woman and her son, who were about to leave.

"Who are you? The house is about to collapse! Why did you come in?" Her son looked at Zhang Hongxing in confusion. The man who had suddenly appeared looked rather familiar.

"Red Star, is that you? Red Star, have you come to get me?"

Hearing Zhang Hongxing's voice, the older woman immediately looked up from her son's arms. Once she saw his face clearly, a smile that had been absent for thirty years appeared on her face.

The enormous change in his mother stunned her son. Without realizing it, he lowered her to the floor.

Finding herself free to move, the older woman walked straight toward Zhang Hongxing.

"Red Star, after all these years, you haven't changed a bit."

"Red Star, do you know how much I've missed you?"

Deep affection shone in her eyes. At that moment, she thought she was close to death, and that Zhang Hongxing had come to take her to the underworld so they could be together again.

"Xiu... Xiu... Xiuying!"

At that moment, Zhang Hongxing felt his scalp explode with shock.

The Xiuying before him was so far removed from the woman in his memories. The Xiuying he had missed for fifteen thousand years had suddenly become someone who looked like this. He simply couldn't accept it right away.

"Red Star!"

"Wait! What year is it? How can you prove you're Xiuying?"

Seeing the older woman about to throw herself into his arms, Zhang Hongxing immediately stopped her.

Watching from the side, her son finally realized something was wrong. This man looked almost exactly like his father's photograph. Could he really be...

"It's March 12, 2021. I'm Zhang Jun, and she's my mother, Li Xiuying. Who are you? Are you a man or a ghost?"

2021!

It was 1991 that year. 2021 minus 1991 meant...

Thirty years!

Thirty whole years had passed!

Xiuying...

Jun...

Zhang Hongxing looked at his wife, Li Xiuying, then at his son, Zhang Jun.

His expression was quite a sight!

But before he could think any further, the old house finally succumbed to the excavator's relentless drilling and collapsed.

Boom!