Yang Zhenshan had a very long dream, where he dreamt he became an ancient person.
When he was young, he followed his father in learning martial arts; his father was very strict and often whipped him with a small wooden stick.
As a teenager, his father went hunting in the mountains and was fatally wounded by a ferocious beast, and he saw his father covered in blood being carried down by the villagers, as he laid on his father's body and wept uncontrollably.
Then he dreamt he joined the army, and after a year, he was badly wounded in a brutal battle and retired back to his hometown.
He got married and took a woman with bright eyes and white teeth as his wife.
A year after his marriage, his wife gave birth to a son, and he seemed very happy.
The reason why it's "seemed" is because it wasn't his personal experience in the dream; it was more like watching a documentary.
Fragmented dreamscapes kept appearing, and in a blink of an eye, twenty years had passed; the household had more members and became livelier.
But suddenly one day, his wife fell ill, never to recover, and watching his increasingly frail wife, he felt very lost and scared.
His wife passed away, and the dream turned gloomy.
The warmth was gone never to return, replaced by emptiness and confusion.
The dreams became more fragmented and blurry, and just when Yang Zhenshan thought the dream was about to end, a clear pond suddenly appeared before him.
The stone pond was embedded in the ground, surrounded by endless darkness, with only the water in the pond emitting a faint glow.
Suddenly, Yang Zhenshan opened his eyes, staring blankly at the roof beams above.
He was very familiar with this roof beam because he had seen it countless times in his dreams, and even personally carried it down from the mountain and installed it on the house.
"This isn't a dream!"
Yang Zhenshan blinked, his heart suddenly tightening.
Then he abruptly sat up, the thick blanket falling off, and everything in the room came into view.
The clay kang, the black wooden box at the foot of the kang, two somewhat worn blankets folded on top of the box, the wooden window pasted with window paper letting through dim light, and outside the window, there were sounds of someone clucking, seemingly feeding chickens.
Yang Zhenshan shook his head vigorously, then slapped himself hard.
"That hurts!"
It really wasn't a dream!
Yang Zhenshan was stunned.
How did a perfectly fine young man from society turn into a widowed old man in the countryside?
Yes, a widower.
His wife was dead; isn't that what a widower is?
Not just a widower; he seemed to also have sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters.
Yang Zhenshan clumsily got off the kang, peeked through the door crack, and saw a woman in a coarse cloth long skirt feeding chickens in the courtyard.
Daughter-in-law!
The corners of Yang Zhenshan's mouth twitched wildly, and he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Damn, what is all this!
I've time-traveled, and even into an old man with a house full of descendants!
A house full of descendants!
A house full of descendants!
Yang Zhenshan's resentment erupted like a volcano.
I haven't even married yet; where did all these descendants come from?
Woo woo woo~~
I want to cry.
No, no, I'm not an old wreck!
I'm only thirty-eight!
Just aged a decade.
Yang Zhenshan sat back on the kang and fell deep into thought.
In the feudal society, people married early.
In his dream, he joined the army at fifteen, retired due to injury at sixteen back to his hometown, and got married at seventeen; now he was only thirty-eight.
In modern times, thirty-eight is not considered old at all.
But having aged ten years for no reason, Yang Zhenshan still felt awful.
A prime young man at twenty-eight turned into a thirty-eight-year-old grandfather, Yang Zhenshan felt his heart was breaking.
"Has dad gotten up? It's time for breakfast!"
A shout came from outside the door, it was his eldest son.
Woo woo, eldest son!
A twenty-year-old eldest son!
How could I have such an old eldest son!
Yang Zhenshan wanted to cry even more.
"Dad, Dad~~"
Not receiving a response, the eldest son entered through the door.
"Dad, what's wrong? Are you thinking of Mom again?"
The eldest son, Yang Mingcheng, was bulky and although only twenty years old, was already a father of two children.
Thinking of Mom?
Yang Zhenshan buried his head in the tattered blanket.
A middle-aged man's three joys: promotion, fortune, and the wife's death!
The original wife was dead, was this considered a joyous event?
"No, you guys go ahead and eat!"
Yang Zhenshan didn't want to go out, he wasn't prepared to face a house full of descendants.
But just as he spoke, his stomach growled noisily.
Yang Mingcheng heard the rumble, "Dad, you're hungry."
Yang Zhenshan felt depressed, he really wasn't prepared to face a house full of descendants, he was resistant.
He hadn't even married yet!
Yet, he already had grandsons!
Now he wanted to curse, he really wanted to curse.
Everyone else's time travel, even if not reborn as a fetus, was to the generation of grandsons or sons, why did he have to become a grandfather?
He would rather be someone's grandson than a grandfather!
Woo woo, I'm so hungry!
Forget cursing, I can't skip meals, I'd be too hungry without eating.
"You go out first, I'll be there shortly!" Yang Zhenshan said, head lowered.
"Alright, Dad, hurry up!"
Hearing that he wanted to eat, his eldest son Yang Mingcheng immediately agreed cheerfully.
Once he left, Yang Zhenshan finally raised his head from the blanket.
There's no avoiding it!
He had to face a house full of descendants.
Yang Zhenshan let out a deep sigh.
He was no longer alone now; he had three sons, two daughters, two daughters-in-law, two grandsons, and a granddaughter, woo woo, such a big family!