The room was dark with only slivers of light peeking through the ill fitting door, illuminating the dust particles in the room. Li Liuxing took in his surroundings trying his hardest not to panic as he looked around the room. An old frayed cloth hung from a beam separating the bed from the rest of the room. The few pieces of furniture were chipped and old, standing on the dirt floor. The walls were made of the mud and the only thing that looked of value was the bed he was currently laying on.
Sitting up, Li Liuxing tried his hardest to recall how he got into his predicament. He was certain that his older brother, Li Huixing and him were on a starship heading towards the National Academy. Who knows what exactly happened but there was an explosion and they were forced into an escaped pod by a guard. Another explosion would change their original trajectory and instead of heading towards the nearest planet, their pod ended up being sucked through a black hole.
Why was he suddenly here? Where was the pod? Did they crash down on a primitive planet? Before he could continue his questions, the door into the room opened and an older man walked into the room. He was tall and bulky, his skin was dark and golden from the long days in the fields. In his calloused hands, he held a rabbit and looked at Li Liuxing sitting on the bed.
“Wife, I brought dinner.”
“…”
Raising the rabbit, the man continued, “I’ll go and clean it now.”
Li Liuxing gave a nod of acknowledgement, as the man exited out of the room. His hands shook in fear as he slipped on the straw shoes next to the bed and stood from the bed. Making sure that the door was latched and the man was far from the door, Li Liuxing touched a thin white scar on his inner wrist. Light filled the room as the interface of the smartbrain started up and floated in front of him. He turned the settings to invisible so only he could see the display and tried to find out his location.
No matter what he did, his location could not be found nor could he connect to the star system. Fear began to race in his heart the more he tried to get a connection, and double checking that the man was still busy, Li Liuxing activated the space system. Working like a pocket dimension, it could hold and store a variety of different things and could be connected to friends or other family member’s space systems. Walking through the space, he located the connecting door to his older brother’s space.
The two of them have always been close and there were no passwords or restrictions allowing him to directly open the door into his older brother’s space. A smile graced Li Liuxing’s face as he saw his brother standing on the other side, heading towards the door. He was pulled into his older brother’s embrace as the two surveyed the other for any damage.
“Da-ge…”
“Little Star.”
“Da-ge what’s going on, where are we?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I think we are in a parallel universe.”
Li Liuxing stared at his older brother in confusion as he listened to his brother’s theory. Although blackholes had been studied intensely, they were still an anomaly no one could ever be sure how exactly they worked. When the pod had been sucked into the black hole the two of them had been thrown into another dimension that was no longer part of their original world. Their bodies had integrated with this dimsension’s version of themselves and since they were mentally stronger, had taken control. This had also allowed them to keep their bodily upgrades from their lives.
“But…Da-ge, why don’t I remember anything about this version of me?”
“It takes time, it won’t come all at once.” Li Huixing explained, “The first few days that I was here, I only remember a little bit. But it all eventually came back to me.”
“Da-ge…um…I’m married?”
“Ah…about that, apparently this version of me is rather…scummy.”
“…”
After slowly gaining the memory of the original, Li Huixing had begun to hate this world’s version of himself. Their family life was almost identical, the two of them were brothers that shared a father but different mothers. However, unlike his original self who took care of his brother, this world’s Li Huixing had despised his younger brother. However he had never balantenly done anything until their father had passed away.
Their father was a Juren who had returned home from the capital a few years ago. He had originally married his wife from a neighboring town, but once in the capital his eyes had been captivated by the glitz and glam and had married another equal wife of higher standing. Father Li had always believed that his wives got along, but behind closed doors both wives began to fight and when they each bore him a child. However his first wife was the one that managed to bear him a son and his second wife had given birth to a ger.
Their days of peace would come to an end when his first wife suddenly passed away after falling sick. Father Li had believed that it was a natural death, but it would not be a few years down the road that he found that his second wife had poisoned his first wife. Broken hearted he began to become weary of life in the capital and resigned from his post intent on returning to his hometown. However his second wife, was a lady of the capital and refused to go with him, and after many arguments, they decided to separate.
Although Father Li was upset that his second wife would kill his first wife, there was not much he could do as his second wife’s maiden family was very powerful. She did not fight for her child who was only a worthless ger in her eyes and left with her dowry. Downtrodden Father Li returned home to raise his two children. Who would know that Li Huixing would one day find out about his mother’s death and with the culprit far away, would turn his hate towards his younger brother. Although he was made sure never to show it in front of his father, behind closed doors he would always put his brother down.
The true extent of his hate would not be until after their father passed away. Instead of taking care of his brother and marrying him off well, Li Huixing had married his brother off to the village outcast, Shu Yan, for 5 silver taels. Li Huixing did not even send a dowry and a wedding was not even held, only sending a sick Li Liuxing to Shu Yan’s door the day prior to their arrival on this dimension. This had caused the sick Li Liuxing to be bedridden these last few days.
Shu Yan, although he was directly related to one of the village’s weathlies family, happened to be born to the wrong parents. His father was the first son of the Shu’s who owned much of the land in the village, however instead of studying and being an upright man, had hung out with the wrong crowd and squandered much of his wealth. He angered his grandfather almost to death and it was not until a scandal broke out that he was cast out of the family. Shu Ming’s father had raped a ger and refused to claim responsibility and it wasn’t until the family came to the door with a pregnant ger that the matter blew up.
His family cast him out after the two of them were wedded and Father Shu would spend his days either beating his wife or beating his son in a drunken stupor. Although getting some land from his family, he sold much of it off and gambled and drank any money that came through the doors. After many years the two parents of Shu Yan had passed and neither of the family’s wanted anything to do with the young Shu Yan. Rumor around the village was that Shu Yan was unapproachable and prone to violent outburst. Much of the village women and gers were afraid that their children would be beaten to death by Shu Yan.
“Da-ge, this world’s version of you is much too scummy, why not just kill me and be done with it.”
“I suppose he wanted to see you suffer, but regardless just be careful, I’ll come over and see what I can do to salvage the situation.” Li Huixing instructed, “You should return, don’t let anyone find out about the tech we have on us.”
Nodding, Li Liuxing, bid his farewell to his older brother and exited out of their spaces and back into the mud room. Seeing that Shu Yan was still outside, Li Liuxing steeled his heart and went out of the room only to realize that said room was a pitifully small house. There wasn’t even a separate kitchen, just a stove next to the side of the courtyard. Li Liuxing was scared of being beaten and stayed close to the mud house watching as Shu Yan skillfully skinned the rabbit with a knife. He gutted and cleaned the rabbit with ease and Li Liuxing’s imagination ran wild thinking he could be that rabbit if he angered Shu Yan.
His fear intensified as Shu Yan plopped the cleaned rabbit into a basket and said, “Wife you cook now.”
Li Liuxing, who had never stepped into a kitchen in his life and who was used to having all his food prepared for him stared at the dead rabbit in the basket. Part of him wanted to throw up and his hands trembled as he approached the basket. Not wanting to anger his husband, Li Liuxing did something that his brother just forbade him not even a few minutes before and turned on his smartbrain. Although it couldn’t connect to the star system, there were still a lot of functions that could be used.
Quickly skimming through it, he found a rustic cookbook and began to look for ingredients that it listed. However his happiness was soon dashed as most of the ingredients that the recipe called for were not available nor did he have a pot to cook with. Before he could do much more, he was startled by the return of Shu Yan, who dropped a stack of firewood beside the little stove. He swiftly hid his right hand behind his back, turning off his smartbrain.
“…um…husband?”
“En.”
“Where do you keep your pot?”
“Follow.”
Li Liuxing followed Shu Yan back into the mud house. In a corner sat a small cabinet with a small lock. Shu Yan pulled a key from his rough clothes and opened the cabinet, pulling out a pot along with a few chipped bowls. A small wooden box was also pulled out and Shu Yan carefully spooned a small portion of salt into one of the bowls. He continued to grab a few utensils before putting back the salt box and locking the cabinet. Shu Yan passed the pot and the small bowl of salt to Li Liuxing and brought out the rest of the
“Ah…thank you.”
“En.”
One problem was solved but Li Liuxing still did not know how he was going to cook this. He recalled that the last few days the original had been sick and bedridden, only having a few sips of what Shu Yan had sent him. There had not even been a single grain of rice entering the original’s body, and Li Liuxing had not been given any rice to cook either. After debating, Li Liuxing just plopped the rabbit into the pot, poured all the salt, and topped it off with water.
Once the steps were completed, he brought the pot over to the stove where Shu Yan was starting the fire. The pair of husbands gathered together around the stove and watched the pot. Li Liuxing had never wanted water to boil faster and kept impatiently lifting off the lid. After a dozen or so times, his hand was stopped and held by Shu Yan. Surprised he looked up at him.
“…wife, I want….”
Before he could finish his words, a knock rang from the closed courtyard door, and due to the short fence, they could see the figure of an elegant looking man in a set of white robes standing there. Li Huixing had arrived at their door.
Late Night Adventurous Ramblings 