Crossing South to Chang Geng

I first wanted to write this story because of the naval battle at Yashan in the Southern Song dynasty.

Beyond cities and banners, there are familiar languages, crafts taught only halfway, and loved ones waiting at home for someone to return. Many things seem small, but once they are lost, it can take those who come after a long time to find them again. I wanted the people in this story to have a chance to pass them on.

A person can carry very little away. Luggage can hold clothes and tools, but not the sounds of an alley at dawn, nor the casual reply of a family member.

In 2042, an anomaly occurs aboard the Chang Geng space station. Eight researchers and their experimental module vanish from low Earth orbit.

When the hatch opens again, they find themselves before a rock wall and an underground river. Beyond the river lies the Northern Song of a parallel world.

Steam hammers already exist here, and old workshop ledgers preserve the improvements made by generations of craftsmen. The Song before them is unlike the history they know. Their home channel never responds.

Medicine will run out, equipment will break, and when a solution on paper meets the real world, it may still be missing a suitable material or someone capable of making it. The eight must leave the cave and seek a place to live in this world.

The craftsman by the furnace has unfinished work, and the child by the window cannot recognize the words. They meet artisans, merchants, and starving commoners, and rescue a boy named Zhao Zhen. Those who only wanted to go home gradually find themselves with new ties here.

Beginning with furnaces, technical drawings, and schools, the journey passed down from one generation to the next will eventually cross the solar system. Those who walk the first stretch may never see the destination.

And the anomaly that carried them away from home still awaits an answer.

When the story begins, breakfast is not over yet.