Chapter 1: Crossing Over

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  The Olympics just ended, Qingdao's Second Seawater Bathing Beach finally opened to tourists. This is the best time for swimming due to the suitable water temperature. Li Mengke, who works at a financial delivery company, loves swimming and saw that the weather was perfect, so he asked his leader for an afternoon off, saying that the pipes in his home needed repair.

  In the afternoon, I directly prepared my swimming gear and rushed to the seaside bath. It was a working day, so there were not many people at the second seaside bath, only a few obvious drunken tourists from other places wandering around.

  Li Meng quickly changed into his swimsuit, did some warm-up exercises, and ran towards the sea. It was windy now, and there were still some waves on the sea.

  This swimming hobby was actually cultivated when he was a soldier at the seaside. The work of a financial escort company is very monotonous, and Li Meng's hobbies are also very monotonous. One is swimming in the sea, two is browsing books online, and the rest of the time is either working or exercising and practicing military skills on schedule.

  The waves were not small, and Li Meng walked step by step to the place where the water was chest-deep. He leaned forward with his body and started swimming. At this time, he heard the loudspeaker on the shore shouting:

  "Please ask the tourists by the seaside not to throw trash and bottles into the sea."

  Li Meng thought to himself "really no quality", while turning his body to watch the commotion, but didn't expect a black thing with a whistling sound to come crashing over.

  "Bang!" The remaining half bottle of wine and Li Meng's forehead made intimate contact, the bottle shattered instantly...

  "Damn it, how did you throw it so far."

  This was Li Meng's last thought, and then it was all darkness, a wave rolled over, and Li Meng instantly disappeared into the waves.

  The tide receded, and Li Meng, who was lying on the beach, spat out the sand in his mouth. His forehead was suddenly hit, and all the combat and fighting skills he had learned in the army were useless. He was dizzy and didn't know what to do. Li Meng thought to himself that he was lucky to be alive, and he slowly got up from the beach.

  Li Meng suddenly felt strange when he got up, wasn't he empty-handed? How did his left hand still hold something, and it was a rather heavy thing. He picked it up to take a look, but it was an iron pot. What's going on here?

  With this shock, his mind also became clearer. Li Meng was surprised to see that the swimsuit he was wearing had disappeared, and now he was wearing a tattered cloth garment that looked very ancient. His head, which had just cleared up, became confused again.

  Suddenly, Li Meng felt a loud noise in his mind, as if something had suddenly exploded, and then everything went blank. His body on the beach collapsed involuntarily, and in the daze, Li Meng felt that his brain was invaded by strange thoughts and memories. Many images and memories flashed through his mind...

  He fell to the ground for a while, but Li Meng got up quickly this time. He threw the iron pot in his hand forward and pointed at the sky with his head raised, shouting loudly:

  "Damn it, are you kidding me?!"

  The sky didn't react at all, Li Meng cursed a few sentences and then stopped listlessly. Strangely, he found himself back in the Ming Dynasty, inhabiting the body of a military household's son. Coincidentally, he was still in the Qingdao area, and the person he inhabited was also named Li Meng.

  This Li Meng of the Ming dynasty belonged to the Xue family's thousand households in Lingshanwei. Just now, while boiling salt by the sea, a group of people suddenly rushed out and chased him, dragging an iron pot and running wildly towards the sea. However, he was still caught up by those people, knocked unconscious with a stick on the back of his head, and fainted into the sea. Who knows what happened, but Li Meng somehow ended up in this era.

  At this time, it should be considered that the memories of two people have merged together. However, what made Li Meng angry was that there was nothing worth remembering about the original owner of this body.

  At the age of five, his parents were killed by pirates and he was frightened out of his wits. His brain has never been quite right since then. He survived only with the help of people from the Xue family's thousand households. After growing up, the land was occupied by the trusted followers of the thousand households, and he himself followed several companions who had grown up together to make a living by boiling salt at the seaside.

  Li Meng had also browsed the internet before and thought to himself, "Why do others always transmigrate into rich and powerful families, but I'm so unlucky that I transmigrated into a fool's body?"

  Dazed, he felt a bit dizzy, Li Meng stumbled to the seaside and took a look. His appearance hadn't changed, just a bit darker. After exercising his body, he found that this body was still his own, the physical quality honed in the army wasn't something this fool could have.

  This could be considered a blessing in disguise, Li Meng bitterly smiled and jumped up and down on the beach, following his old habit, opening his stance to practice his boxing routine, but then he heard someone shouting from behind him:

  "Li Meng, what are you still jumping around there for? Hurry back, or Yan Wang will come and chop off your head."

  In his memory, Li Meng knew that the person who called him was named Zhao Neng, also a military household in the thousand households, three years older than himself. Although he was a bit harsh on his mouth, he was actually quite good to him (after the memory merged, Li Meng had unconsciously substituted himself, and the adaptability of soldiers is strong), a kind-hearted person.

  Thinking of this, Li Meng shook his head and thought, it seems that he had to pretend to be a fool now.

  "What's with the hesitation? Let's go!"

  Li Meng turned around with a smile and saw several people on the beach side, all of whom were dressed in ancient costumes like those in TV dramas. The short shirts on their upper body were tied with cloth belts, and the lower part was also rolled up. Compared to the prop clothes in TV dramas, they were obviously dirty, old, and worn out.

  It's no wonder that in ancient times, the lives of ordinary people were already difficult to fill their stomachs, let alone care about dressing up. Look at Zhao Neng, although he was only 27 or 28 years old in memory, but judging from his appearance, with a full beard, if you take him to modern times and say he is 40 years old, some people would believe it.

  "Stop daydreaming and hurry up!"

  Several people over there were impatiently urging him on. Li Meng sighed, bent down to pick up the iron pot and smiled as he replied:

  "Sorry, sorry, I'll be right there."

  Since we've arrived in this era, we can only adapt to it and live on, seeing if we can make our lives a little better...

  But unexpectedly, Zhao Nai and the others were all agape, as if they had seen something strange. Li Meng turned his head to look behind him, but apart from the sea and the beach, there was nothing. What exactly were these people astonished at?

  "Li Meng, have you gone crazy?"

  Ling Mountain Garrison had 5,600 soldiers, which means there were 5,600 households. Of course, so many households would not live together, but were divided into different areas according to the thousand-household unit and hundred-household unit of the Ling Mountain Garrison defense zone. According to Li Meng's judgment, the location of this Ling Mountain Garrison is now in Jiaonan County and Huangdao District of Qingdao City. The unit where Li Meng was located was Xuejia Thousand Households Unit, with an estimated 300-400 households living there.

  It's said to be a military household, but Li Meng hasn't seen anyone holding knives or guns, they're all farmers carrying hoes and wooden rakes doing farm work. He isn't afraid of the scene at all, at least no one in the thousand households has any doubts about his appearance and figure. It seems that although separated by several hundred years, the two Li Mengs' appearances and figures are not much different, maybe this is the reason for crossing over.

  After the memory fusion, everyone recognized each other, and they also recognized where they lived. On their way back, they chatted for a few sentences, and then Li Meng locked himself in his own broken house to be distracted.

  It was all the Xue family who were making a fuss about some small commotion, and they were all spreading strange news to each other.

  "Old Li's foolish kid was hit on the head by someone at the seaside and became smarter."

  They chatted for a few sentences on the road. They knew some things about this era, but it seems that the phrase "the ignorant are the happiest" is not false. Li Meng was now lying on that broken bed, staring blankly at the dark ceiling, if those few broken wooden boards could be called a bed. The life of the poor, this time finally had a direct understanding. At night, the only light source was the starlight and moonlight outside, there was no fire in the stove, and oil lamps and candles were not even worth thinking about.

  It was the Ming Dynasty, unexpectedly it was the fifth year of Chongzhen, and unfortunately, he was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Then Li Zicheng rebelled, the Qing army entered the pass, the world was in great chaos, countless people died, and he himself was only in his early twenties, wouldn't he be unable to live a peaceful life for the rest of his life?

  He let out a sigh, and Li Meng rolled over on the bed, his movement so big that the bed board almost collapsed. He thought to himself that sometimes knowing too much wasn't good either. If he were still the fool he used to be, he might be sleeping soundly now.

  As he thought about it, a wave of hunger came from his stomach, but Li Meng didn't have any desire to eat anything. The dinner was still the vegetable porridge sent by Zhao Neng's mother, which was made with wheat bran and vegetable leaves, with only a little bit of noodles, and there was no oil flower at all.

  Li Meng, although not high-income in modern times, can still guarantee a decent meal with fish and meat every day. However, when he saw Zhao Nai's mother's expression and tone, he felt that the plain porridge was actually good for his health. The food may not be worth much, but Li Meng could feel the old lady's concern and kindness, so he thanked her profusely and said many nice things.

  It turned out that Zhao Neng's mother was so excited that she almost choked, and the old lady wiped away her tears as she left, saying that the ancestors of the Li family had finally opened their eyes, and this solitary seed was not stupid after all.

  That vegetable porridge was really too difficult to eat, but Li Meng knew in his memory that this vegetable porridge wasn't something you could just eat whenever you wanted, it was only for when your hands were full and you could "enjoy" it.

  At the end of the Ming Dynasty, treacherous officials dominated the government, and the world was in great chaos. What should he do? Should he join one side or take matters into his own hands? Didn't those who traveled through time have to take this step as well? Li Meng thought back and forth, when suddenly, "Grrr" a sound came from his stomach, emitting a long, rumbling growl.

  This sound made all his grand ambitions disappear into thin air, and this broken house he had just turned upside down, found nothing but a few radishes.

  Li Meng sighed and sat up on his bed, muttering to himself:

  "Get your own life in order first, fill your belly, and then talk about other things!!"