1984: The River Yet to Be Crossed by the One Swimming Against the Current

Prologue: C-Cold... My fingers are completely numb.

The last thing Qian Hao remembered was the dashboard flashing blue, while hot air from the AC mingled with a radio broadcast: "They’re building a new cableway at Mount Lu..." The steering wheel suddenly skidded, and the front of the car smashed through the bridge railing. As river water flooded in, he smelled antifreeze mixed with the river's fishy stench.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a thatched roof and a broken bamboo basket hanging from a beam. His left hand rested on a coarse bedsheet, while his right touched a red plastic-covered diary. He opened it and saw the date, March 12, 1984. The handwriting was exactly like his own.

A cloth curtain rustled, and a woman in her forties brought him an enamel mug, its rim chipped. "Haozai, drink this, then go study at the threshing ground." Vegetable scraps clung to her apron, and toasted rice grains floated in the hot water.

Qian Hao stared at the chipped mug. The newspaper pasted to the wall showed a leader planting a tree, with the date 1983. He jumped up and rummaged through the chest of drawers. The calendar was open to March 18. As his fingers touched the page, he suddenly remembered that the calendar in his hospital room had been torn just like this.

The sun scorched the back of his neck. On the threshing ground, children in green rubber boots rolled iron hoops, while bicycle bells and cowbells rang together. Qian Hao crouched behind a haystack, writing math problems in the dirt with a twig. A corner of oilpaper stuck out of the earth, wrapped around a copy of A Brief History of Social Development, its pages curled like the burnt edges of a pancake.

A crack split the ice on the riverbank. Qian Hao weighed down the red diary with a stone. The 1984 wind carried the smell of hospital disinfectant. The calendar lost another page. Pressing a hand to his chest, he couldn't tell whether the river water was cold or the stove fire was scorching.