Vagrant

The sunlight was dim, the deep grass ankle-high.

In the wild woods, one man fled and four pursued, startling countless insects.

"Help! Ghosts!" The skinny man's terrified cries echoed through the once-tranquil forest.

"Wait! We're not ghosts!" Wang Yang shouted as he ran.

The skinny man might have awakened much earlier. Wang Yang had no idea how much of their conversation he had overheard. He was chasing him partly to head off trouble, and partly to find out what was going on.

Five people had collapsed around a spirit jar. When they woke, four had different souls inhabiting their bodies, while one remained unchanged. The skinny man might not know how this ghostly business had happened, but he should at least know how it had begun. Who were they, for instance, and why were they here?

"Stop!" "Who goes there?!" Several shouts rang out at once.

Dusk had fallen, and tree shadows slanted across the ground. Several indistinct figures appeared ahead.

"Help... save-ah!"

Wang Yang saw the skinny man wave both hands and sprint toward them, but before he could finish his plea, there was a sudden whizz!

The skinny man stiffened and pitched forward.

Whoosh!

Another piercing whistle!

The burly man swung an arm across and hauled the middle-aged man running beside him in front of himself!

Before the middle-aged man could even cry out, a long, sharp arrow had pierced his throat!

The burly man let go and dropped flat, panting heavily, his arms still trembling.

The middle-aged man toppled backward, hitting the grass with a dull thud.

Blood poured from his throat and mouth as his body convulsed.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Wang Yang felt as though his heart would hammer straight through his chest!

This was the first time he had witnessed death with his own eyes,

No, not just death-murder!

Everything had happened too fast. Wang Yang had only managed to throw himself down before watching helplessly as the middle-aged man fell less than two meters away.

The middle-aged man was named Xu You, a well-known editor at the provincial publishing house. Though they had only met at noon that day, he was Wang Yang's sole "acquaintance" in this strange world they had traveled to. He had never imagined Xu You would lose his life so soon, or so senselessly.

"The remaining three, heads down and eyes shut! Don't move, or we'll shoot you dead!"

The cold voice drew closer, accompanied by a jumble of footsteps through the grass!

How many were there?

Definitely more than three...

Wang Yang did not dare lift his head to look.

"This one's dead!"

"This one's dead too!"

After the two reports, someone barked, "All of you, stand up! Hurry!"

Wang Yang glanced at Xu You, half his body drenched in blood, and slowly rose. He moved slowly because his legs had gone weak, as though every ounce of strength had been drained from him.

Nine men came into view. They wore old gray clothes. Two held bows with arrows nocked, aimed at Wang Yang, the burly man, and the handsome youth. Five held sabers and one a spear, their expressions wary.

The man in the middle wore the newest clothes. A saber hung at his waist, still sheathed. The dark-faced man with the spear stood close beside him, like a bodyguard.

"Don't kill us! We know how to do lots of things!" The handsome youth's voice trembled with urgency. This was nothing like the beginning of a transmigration adventure he had imagined.

The man in the middle asked, "How many of you are there?"

None of the three answered.

None of them knew how to answer that question.

The man suddenly roared, "Speak! Or die!"

The handsome youth flinched and blurted out, "Just the three of us! No one else!"

"When did you cross the border?"

"Cross the border? We didn't cross any border!" the burly man said urgently.

"If you didn't, why were you sneaking through A Qu Forest? I'm the ten-man commander of A Qu Garrison. Yesterday, we received an official dispatch from Lu Yang reporting northern spies infiltrating the area. Is that you?"

The burly man and the handsome youth did not know what a "ten-man commander" was, though they could roughly guess he was some sort of officer. In any case, learning these men were not bandits brought them enormous relief. Wang Yang, however, knew it was a junior military officer commanding ten soldiers.

So these men were government troops. Unlike soldiers in television dramas, they wore no armor. Their clothing was not merely untidy-it looked downright shabby.

"No, no! What cups and saucers? What are you talking about? We're innocent!" The burly man and the handsome youth protested together. Hearing only the sounds "bei die," they had completely failed to recognize the words for "northern spies."

Connecting this with "crossing the border" and his earlier estimate that they were in the early medieval period, Wang Yang roughly guessed what northern spies meant. "If we were sneaking around, we wouldn't be running, much less shouting."

Everyone turned to Wang Yang. The handsome youth and the burly man hurriedly agreed, "Yes, yes! Exactly!"

The commander clearly had not expected that answer. He faltered, then said, "You might have been fleeing pursuit!"

Wang Yang countered, "If we were running like that, there would have to be pursuers behind us. We've stopped here for quite a while now. Where are they?"

The dark-faced spearman gave Wang Yang a long, searching look,

The commander paused, then demanded gruffly, "Place of household registration?"

Wang Yang said nothing. Though he knew roughly what era they were in, place names changed over time, and inventing the wrong one could easily expose him. Besides, he did not know where he was.

If he claimed to be local, he would have to give a precise address. If he claimed to be from elsewhere, they would probably ask him for a Transit Pass.

Eager to clear himself of suspicion, the burly man immediately answered, "I'm from Lingnan!"

The burly man's thinking was actually fairly quick. Though he knew neither the current period nor the geography, he could tell the weather was not hot, so this probably was not Lingnan. He had also heard that Lingnan had been a remote wilderness in ancient times. If he claimed to be from there, could they really check? Even if they could, it would take ages, giving him time to work out a solution.

The handsome youth wanted to cry but had no tears. He had never imagined a simple question about household registration would stump him. He had the protagonist's identity card! How had he ended up in such a wretched state right from the start? Remembering the transmigration novels he had read, he felt a surge of courage. He thrust out his chest and declared, "I come from the overseas Kingdom of Great Britain!"

Wang Yang looked at him and marveled inwardly, You really dare to make things up!

The burly man's heart stirred. Compared with his invented Lingnan origin, an overseas homeland was a better choice. You could fabricate any identity you liked overseas; there was no way to verify it.

The commander frowned and looked at Wang Yang. "And you?"

"A vagrant," Wang Yang said.

The handsome youth was utterly baffled, not knowing what that meant. The burly man thought Wang Yang had taken inspiration from the youth. Was he claiming to be an island nation's wandering warrior?

Vagrants, of course, had nothing whatsoever to do with Japanese ronin.

In the Medieval Era, "vagrant" specifically referred to someone without household registration.

The "Treatise on Food and Money" in the Book of Sui stated: "Those without a registered domicile, who are unwilling to enroll in the household registers of prefectures and counties, are called vagrants."

The commander sneered and pointed at the burly man and the handsome youth. "Since one of you is from Lingnan and the other from some overseas Kingdom of Whatever Britain, show me your Transit Passes."

A Transit Pass was a document permitting passage through checkpoints in the Medieval Era, generally issued by the authorities at one's place of household registration, much like a modern identity card. Anyone traveling away from home, noble or commoner, official or civilian, had to carry one. Even foreign merchants were no exception.

The burly man and the handsome youth looked blank. It was not that they were slow-witted; they simply had no idea what a "Transit Pass" was. If the commander had said "identity card," they could have invented an excuse about losing it. As it was, his words meant as much to them as thunder did to ducks, let alone allowing them to devise a response.

"I could tell from the first word you were spouting bullshit," the commander sneered. "Never mind. We'll work on you slowly." Then he glanced at Wang Yang. "Vagrants aren't my responsibility. Go to Spirit Creek. If you're lucky, you'll get some bean porridge."

Wang Yang had never heard of a place called Spirit Creek, but he was more than willing to escape his present situation of being at the soldiers' mercy.

Seeing this, the burly man immediately said, "I'm a vagrant too!"

The handsome youth followed suit. "Me too! We all are!"

"You two shut your mouths!" the commander cursed. "Nothing but lies! If you're not northern spies, you're runaway slaves! Or bandits roaming in from somewhere! Vagrants? Go vagabond your fucking mothers! Wuzi, take the real vagrant away first!"

The burly man panicked and blurted out, "He's lying!"

Wang Yang's heart sank.

"What shit are you spewing?" the commander said impatiently.

"If I'm not a real one, neither is he! We're together!" the burly man shouted, then looked urgently at the handsome youth.

The handsome youth hesitated for a second, then nodded. "We're together! We've been together all along!" His voice was firm.

Wang Yang looked at the handsome youth, who turned his head aside, unable to meet his eyes.

Wang Yang exhaled, steadied himself, and said, "I'm not with them."

"He is!" "He is!" The burly man and the handsome youth clamored in unison. In that instant, Wang Yang felt like a crab that had almost climbed out of a basket, only to be dragged back down by two others of its kind.

"This is one fucking mess!" The commander rubbed his temples, looking irritated.

The soldier named Wuzi walked up beside him and whispered a few words. The commander's gaze passed over the three of them in turn, and a smile gradually formed.

"Since we can't sort it out, you can all stay. Fall into my hands, and life won't be easy. Still, the three of you have decent looks. Especially this one." He looked the handsome youth up and down, clicking his tongue. "Pretty as a little lady!" Then he turned to Wang Yang with a lewd grin. "This one will do too!"

"What are you going to do?" The handsome youth had a bad feeling.

The commander grinned wickedly. "Do? You'll find out soon enough what sort of 'doing' we mean! Our Squad Leader happens to like this sort of thing. Lucky you!"

Holy fucking shit!

An explosion went off in Wang Yang's mind, and his scalp prickled.

Male lovers had been quite fashionable in the early medieval period. Even Murong Chong, ruler of Western Yan during the Sixteen Kingdoms era, had once been seized and made a male favorite! How had he forgotten that!

At the commander's words, the soldiers all burst into loud laughter, while the three captives went deathly pale.

The commander waved a hand. "Seize them all! Send the two prettiest to the Squad Leader. Keep the brawny one for the clerk!"

Note: Even the Qin dynasty, with its extremely strict household registration system, did not issue identity cards universally among commoners. Qin documents resembling identity cards were called "yan" or "fu," and were issued only when someone left their registered domicile to travel. Their function was similar to the Transit Pass of this period. Thus, if Wang Yang and the others had transmigrated directly into a city and claimed to be locals when questioned, they would not have been asked for physical proof of identity.