Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 1: A sudden journey

In March of 1959, the snow began to melt.

In the northeast corner of the back room of the courtyard house at No. 95 Nanluoguxiang, which is also the innermost corner of this ancient courtyard house, a young man with a handsome face has his eyes closed and his eyelashes trembling slightly, as if foreshadowing the vitality of life that is about to awaken.

As his breathing deepened, his chest began to rise and fall rhythmically. Gradually, his eyelids began to lift slightly, revealing a pair of bright and clear eyes. His eyes revealed a hint of confusion, then became clear, and then were covered by a deeper confusion.

When the living environment full of modern atmosphere came into view, Feng Shiqing had to accept the reality. He was worn out, or to be more precise, he woke up.

In his previous life, Feng Shiqing was born in the 20s, grew up in an ordinary family, was admitted to an ordinary university, found an ordinary job after graduation, and after years of wandering, he became an ordinary middle-aged man without exception.

It may be because he is naturally cold-hearted. He has no interest in doing anything. Apart from the emotional ties with his parents and relatives, he has never loved anyone, never been in love, and never even had a secret crush. Of course, getting married and having children are even more illusory. When he reached middle age, he realized that his life had no trace at all, but he seemed to have no regrets or resentment. Being indifferent is the guide of his life.

Feng Shiqing's hobbies are playing games, reading novels, and watching videos. He always follows the behavioral principle that it is better to sit than to stand, and it is better to lie down than to sit. He is always walking back and forth on the boundary line between useless and not useless. Even his income snakes around the local median income line.

In this way, a person actually accepted his friend's invitation for an outing, and went to a stream in the suburbs to play in the water and cool off on June 2026, 6. The result was naturally 6.

Any change in life seems to mean a new beginning. Feng Shiqing remembers it very clearly that when he jumped into the water with a big stride, he felt pain in the soles of his feet, and then he woke up. To be exact, he woke up a week ago, on March 1, 1959, the day of Jingzhe, he, a little mayfly in the world, woke up.

Feng Shiqing couldn't figure out what his situation was. He could call it awakening from a previous life. He only remembered the events of this body from childhood to adulthood. He had no emotional investment in the people and events of this era. He was just like a third party. He calmly inherited all the hardware and most of the memory of this body, but the operating system was completely overwritten.

It may be regarded as a dream, but the dream was too real, too specific, too detailed, and full of human involvement and logical thinking.

Forget it, it’s nothing to worry about. I’ll just make the best of it. I’ve been in a dream for forty years, and now I know who I am.

Feng Shiqing was immersed in the emotion of self-awareness when he shivered from the cold. He hurriedly put on his cotton jacket and trousers that were neither blue nor black, walked to the window, and looked out. It was all white and he had no idea what was going on.

Feng Shiqing couldn't help but take a long breath, and the basic information of his original body emerged in his mind. His original body's surname was Ma and his given name was Qing. He had just turned 15 years old and was a native of Beijing. He should be considered as such, as he had been making a living in Beijing since at least his grandfather's generation.

When Ma Qing's grandfather was young, he went to work in the machinery factory of the Lou family. Yes, that's right, the Lou family. Because he was smart and capable, he became a skilled worker in his twenties. The Lou family allocated a house for him and he moved into this legendary courtyard - No. 95 Nanluoguxiang.

He got married here, had children, and had many children. He also grew old here and died here. He did not survive the winter of 53 and went to find Ma Qing's grandmother. As for the original body's parents, they were naturally employees of Loujia Machinery Factory. After liberation, they naturally and gloriously became workers of Red Star Machinery Factory. Who would have thought that after the Spring Festival this year, when Red Star Machinery Factory was supporting a brother unit with second-hand equipment, the couple went on a business trip and had a car accident on the way with the equipment, and both died.

When the original body heard the news, he was so shocked that he fainted and stayed in the hospital for three whole days. When he woke up, his whole body was replaced in such a miraculous way. Feng Shiqing couldn't help but sigh in his heart, it was really the parents' sacrifice to the heaven, and their magic power was boundless.

Although it may seem cold-blooded to say this, Feng Shiqing was actually somewhat relieved in his heart. As a mature middle-aged man, if he really had to play the trick of recognizing both parents, it would be unimaginably embarrassing.

Feng Shiqing stared out the window and had to accept this absurd fact. The grain of ash fell on his head and pressed him so hard that he couldn't breathe. From then on, the two horses became one horse, and Feng Shiqing became Ma Qing. One less life had to be cherished more in this one. He lived a cold life in the last one, so should he have some fun in this one?

It took Feng Shiqing, or to be exact, Ma Qing, a whole week to finally realize the situation. After he let out a long breath, he suddenly felt a lot more relaxed.

Ma Qing withdrew his gaze from the window and looked around. The atmosphere of the 10s and s was overwhelming. This was a room of about square meters, with a single bed, the checkered bedsheets were relatively clean, a desk, a wardrobe, and a chair, monotonous but orderly. Ma Qing's house was in the northeast corner of the back room, with three rooms in a row, about ten meters wide and more than three meters deep, adding up to about thirty square meters.

The eaves in front of the house extend out about 1 meter. There is a large water tank on the right. Under the window on the left is a coal stove with a pot on it. There is also a low cupboard with some bowls, seasonings and other kitchen supplies.

Further ahead is the 2-meter corridor leading to the back room. On the right side of the wall, there is a small moon-shaped door, which encloses his house into what is commonly known as the northeast corner courtyard. Now that he is alone, the house seems spacious and lonely.

Ma Qing walked out of the house, poked the stove, added some coal, filled it with water, and prepared to wash up thoroughly, because there was something very important to do today, which was related to his living conditions in the next few years.

It has been ten days since Ma Qing's parents had the accident. He was in a coma in the hospital for three days and was in a daze for another seven days. During these seven days, with the help of the staff assigned by the factory union, his parents' friends, colleagues, and neighbors in the courtyard, he finally completed the funeral arrangements for his original parents.

Ma Qing felt that he was still lucky, because the courtyard world he wore should be the TV series "Love in the Courtyard", not the courtyard in the novel, and it had the operating logic of the real world, otherwise he would really be disgusted to death.

Someone will come to the factory this morning, probably to discuss Ma Qing's future life. This is a big deal and must be taken seriously. Ma Qing, a 40-year-old old man with a mental age, couldn't help but think about it.

After thinking for a while, he stood up and walked into the room of his original parents, which was the largest room in the middle. He ran to the wardrobe in this room and took out an iron box from the secret compartment at the bottom of the wardrobe. This was the family fortune of the old Ma family. As the only son in the family, Ma Qing certainly knew the existence of this box.

(End of this chapter)