Back to 2003

Boom, boom, boom.

Amidst the curtain of rain, a diesel engine roared as a farm tricycle bumped its way down a muddy field path, riddled with puddles and potholes.

Fang Chang'an huddled under his umbrella, perched precariously on a narrow wooden bench. The seat was far from steady, making him sway with every jolt of the vehicle.

He gripped the side of the tricycle, cold raindrops pelting the back of his hand, while his shoulders, back, and pant legs were already soaked through. A gust of wind, heavy with moisture, swept past, bringing a chill that roused him from his reverie. Drawing a deep breath, he gazed into the distance, eyes fixed on the direction of the village.

Beyond stretches of farmland, where corn and cotton plants stood half-submerged, a great river cut across the road far ahead. What was once a mere creek behind the village had swelled with days of relentless rain—so much so that, on his way to the town for school that morning, the water at the stone bridge had already risen halfway up the piers.

In his memory, this was a first. Even in the thirty years he remembered from his past life, it had never happened again.

It was the autumn of 2003. Continuous downpours brought floods across the Huai River basin. Though his own village was far from the river, spared the worst except for heavy rain, the rising waters would still, by tomorrow, briefly submerge the stone bridge and flood all the fields on the southern bank.

Yet, what weighed on Fang Chang'an's mind was not this natural disaster, but a looming cal