Siheyuan: Returning from the Battlefield

Zhao Jianguo opened his eyes and left behind his desperate struggles in 2025, arriving in the parallel world’s China, in the capital city of Beijing in 1953, just after the smoke of war had cleared.

He shared a name with his counterpart, but their circumstances were worlds apart: an eighteen-year-old war hero, the sole surviving heir of a family of martyrs, and a steel mill security chief who had transferred to civilian life after serving as a colonel and regimental commander.

Bearing scars all over his body and a “World Tree” mark fused with his soul, he moved into the east courtyard of No. 95 Nanluoguxiang.

Here lived Silly Zhu, learning to cook at Fengzeyuan; the diligent and down-to-earth Qin Huairu; the thrifty Yan Bugui; the power-hungry Liu Haizhong; and the perceptive Old Mrs. Deaf.

Faced with an unfamiliar era, a heavy past, and neighbors whose lives were about to unfold in a whirlwind of joy and sorrow, Zhao Jianguo wanted only to protect the peace of his little corner of the world.

He rebuilt his ancestral home, brought in fresh water to raise fish and shrimp, and cleared land for a vegetable garden to grow rice and wheat. He quietly used his knowledge of the future to improve their lives and nourished those around him with water from his spirit spring well.

He taught Zhu how to be a decent person, helped Qin Huairu become self-reliant, set the stingy Third Grandpa straight, treated Yi Zhonghai’s hidden ailment, persuaded He Daqing to stay, and guided Xu Damao onto the right path…

From the smoke of the Korean battlefield to the cooking smoke rising over the courtyard, from the tragedy of a family of martyrs to the warmth of neighbors looking out for one another.

With a pure and earnest heart, Zhao Jianguo strives to write a different kind of Love in the Courtyard in this extraordinary era, letting the years flow gently like warm sunlight, illuminating every ordinary day.