What on Earth Have I Done?

The little boy froze, his head tilted back, staring blankly at Han Qingyu. A few seconds later, he quietly reached behind him and tugged his companion's arm, signaling him to turn around as well. The bamboo blade halted in hand; the meteor hammer dangled, swaying loosely. "They know me." Han Qingyu had no memory of ever meeting them, yet he was now utterly certain that both of these boys—no more than seven or eight years old—recognized him. What was more, this recognition was clearly out of the ordinary. Children's eyes couldn't lie. Theirs were brimming with a mixture of excitement, nervousness, bewilderment, and an assortment of other emotions. "Do you two... know me?" Han Qingyu approached, trying to sound as amiable as possible. The two boys nodded nervously. "Then who am I?" Han Qingyu asked in a low voice. "Major Qing!" Believing Major Qing was just teasing him, the boy with the bamboo blade beamed with shining eyes and exclaimed excitedly. "Also Brother Qingzi! My mom said I can call you Brother Qingzi," piped up the one with the meteor hammer. "My dad said something too. He said according to family seniority... you have to call me uncle." "I'm your uncle?" Han Qingyu asked, puzzled. "No, you have to call me... Uncle," the boy timidly replied. Alright, uncle... Major Qing! Han Qingyu snapped back to reality. It seemed that when he had first woken up, his mother had addressed him that way too. He hadn't heard clearly back then, but thinking about it now, those were definitely the three words. I'm a major? Earlier, Han Qingyu had actually tried guessing whether—like in some TV drama—he had fallen severely ill and remained in a coma for years... waking up to an altered world. But if that were the case, his mother's reaction didn't make sense. Now, that possibility could be completely ruled out. "So, I have amnesia." Han Qingyu finally seized upon the crucial clue. "Yet I clearly remember so many things, so many people. What on earth did I forget?" A war. A war took place in this world... Han Qingyu had just begun his deduction and was about to ask more when— Clang-clang-clang... A series of metallic clangs against the ground drifted over. A tall, rugged-looking man strolled over from a distance, dragging a threaded steel rod in his hand. The bar trailed across the ground, clanging noisily. The stones on the ground were being crushed! Han Qingyu grew somewhat tense. When he instinctively looked over at him, the man glanced back at him as well. Then—snap! The man abruptly lifted the steel rod and snapped it in two. He snapped a steel rod with his bare hands! As easily as snapping a dry twig! Han Qingyu: "..." He silently looked away. Snap! Crack! Snap! As He Tangtang walked, he snapped off chunk after chunk of the steel rod, tossing each casually to the ground. Then, without uttering a single word to Han Qingyu, he strode right past him. Through the entire process, Han Qingyu did not look at him a second time. Nor did he run. He simply stood motionless. By this time, up on the hillside and around the corners of walls, all the people hiding and peeking were practically rolling on the ground laughing. Between bouts of laughter, they commented on how Little Prince and He Tangtang were going too far, asking for death, before collapsing into giggles again. Han Qingyu's mind was in total chaos. The faint train of thought he had just pieced together completely shattered... because the scene just now had utterly defied all common sense and reason. Yet the two boys across from him didn't seem surprised in the slightest. Could our village have been abducted to an alien planet? Are we being experimented on by scientists? Bizarre plots from roadside sci-fi magazines he had once read began bubbling up in his mind. Han Qingyu prudently refrained from asking further questions. Nor did he choose to head home and lay everything bare before his parents, who had most likely been brainwashed already. Instead, he quietly walked forward, intending to leave the village to see for himself—for instance, in the county town. ... "Where is he going?" Yang Qingbai asked in confusion from the hillside. "He probably feels he can't sort things out here and wants to check out the county town," Wen Jifei said. "Huh? Won't he find out everything then?" "Yeah, let him find out. That's about enough messing around, guys!" Wen Jifei said. He then came down from the slope, started up a car, and followed Han Qingyu from a distance. The road from Fenglong'ao to the county town was a gravel highway. Amid the familiar scenery, a scattering of villages dotted the distance. There wasn't much traffic on the road; when the occasional vehicle passed by, the driver would turn their head out the window to cast a few glances at Han Qingyu. Han Qingyu looked back at them as well. However, because he was wearing a hospital gown, the drivers couldn't be sure of anything in a fleeting glance and quickly drove on. Just like that, he walked all the way to the outskirts of the town, where people gradually grew more numerous. "Major Qing? Is... is that our Major Qing?" "Yes! It's him!" People whispered among themselves. "Greetings, Major Qing!" someone shouted excitedly at the top of their lungs. Han Qingyu turned his head, looked at them... and silently turned back. Just like that, because he didn't speak and his expression looked rather grim, the murmurs all around died down completely into silence. Yet as Han Qingyu lowered his head and kept walking forward, he knew people were watching him from afar, trailing him, and the crowd following behind was growing larger and larger. "I'm going crazy..." Han Qingyu halted at an intersection and took a deep breath. Maybe I should just grab someone and ask directly? he thought. I have to ask! He looked up and turned around. His gaze flicked across, then snapped back. He suddenly froze, staring fixatedly at something... Several hundred meters away, a tall building Han Qingyu had no recollection of ever seeing entered his view. It stood about nine to ten stories high—which, for a small county seat, was practically a skyscraper. In itself, this wasn't extraordinary, nor was Han Qingyu in the mood to admire any tall building in his current state of mind. What rooted him to the spot was the wall of that tall building—an entire exterior wall. Spanning down from the roof was a colossal portrait. The figure in the portrait stood in profile, glancing back over his shoulder. His expression was calm, yet his gaze was resolute. He wore tight-fitting black attire of a cut Han Qingyu had never seen before. Strapped to his back was a case resembling the ones the two boys had carried, only made of metal. Beside it were two sabers, as well as a massive, menacing column sword radiating blue light. "That doesn't look like a movie poster." "That person... looks like some kind of special warrior." "That person... looks like me." Of course, Han Qingyu had no memory of ever dressing like that or possessing such an expression. In fact, in terms of physique and facial features, the figure in the portrait bore subtle differences from his own mental self-image. Yet instinctively, Han Qingyu was inexplicably certain: that was him, not merely someone who shared a resemblance. If that weren't enough, to the right of the portrait was a row of characters: [Come, take up the saber and fight side by side with Major Qing.] ...Just like that, Han Qingyu stared blankly at the towering portrait, while the crowd near and far watched him, both cautiously and with immense excitement. Perhaps two minutes passed like this, or perhaps even longer. "Major Qing!" Finally, someone not far away raised an arm and cried out to him. Then: "Major Qing!" "Major Qing!" "Major Qing!" The cheers spread like wildfire, rising like mountain tsunamis, until the entire county town was boiling over. "I have amnesia." By now, this was beyond all doubt. "So then... what on earth have I done?" "What on earth happened to this world?" Standing in the street, Han Qingyu slowly turned, gazing all around him in utter bewilderment.