[Zhu Cang | Modern AU] The Road Home

In the timeline of Against the Current: Ten Days in the City, what would have happened if they had made different choices when they met in Saint Petersburg in 2019?

This is a story that begins with a "what if."

July Chat: From One Heart to The Way Home

In early June, one night when it felt so hot I was about to melt, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind: What if, back then, in Saint Petersburg in early 2019, after the two of them had survived the attempted metro bombing together, Cang had made a different choice? Would Zhu Wu and Cang have gotten together sooner? Would they have avoided waiting until the last day of 2024 to reunite?

I had never considered this possibility before. Then, in that moment, looking at the gentle night and the brightly lit scene before me, I suddenly realized: Yes, it really could have happened!!

At that moment, with life and death hanging in the balance, they had already made their choices! The key to making a different choice lay in how Cang viewed his spiritual practice, and its place in relation to his personal feelings and his life. It also depended on whether Zhu Wu could make up his mind sooner to face his true feelings and recognize what mattered most to him.

Each person has only one life, and everyone makes their own choices. In another sense, life is defined by the choices we make.

Love is a matter of two people.

That's right, this has always been a story of two people moving toward each other. It shares the same broad worldbuilding as Against the Current, but even within the same timeline, subtle differences can create different parallel-universe versions.

For example, in this timeline, Zhang Cang didn't go to Lion City in 2014, so he never narrowly missed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. But in spring 2016, he went to Britain as a visiting scholar for a few months, and so he encountered more fragments of history earlier.

For example, in this timeline, Zhu Wu quickly realized after getting engaged that a relationship mixed up with calculations and scheming wasn't what he wanted. He had no interest in playing the "prince and princess" game that everyone envied... So he decided to back out much earlier.

A butterfly storm, a disturbance in the chaos, a major change in the timeline: perhaps it all begins with a single thought.

What if things had gone differently back then? What would have happened?

When ideas surge, they can be impossible to stop. The rest of the story soon took shape, growing lush and strong into something that even surprised the author.

I had always thought I understood what infinite possibility meant. But in that moment, I suddenly realized that no, the possibilities were broader and freer than I had imagined, not only for the world, but for myself as well.

All limiting beliefs, whether they concern ourselves or others, trap us within boundaries of our own making.

To recognize something is to find release. The world we write is also a reflection of ourselves.

When Against the Current: Ten Days in the Ice City ended in mid-March this year, I felt satisfied and exhilarated, but also a little regretful. Some of the foreshadowing and hidden details concerning historical mysteries and fabricated Western history, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the characters' experiences and backgrounds had not been revealed and could only be glossed over... And in April and May, I also developed some new insights and feelings I wanted to express...

I never expected that a parallel universe could unfold this way, or that my lingering regrets could find another outlet and another way to be fulfilled.

When I put pen to paper, inspiration poured out like a spring. But I couldn't think of a title at first, so I used One Heart for the serial. As I kept writing, I suddenly realized last night that the most fitting title for this book was The Way Home!

It's not only a journey home for individuals, but for a whole people, and for history as well.

As boys, Zhang Cang and Zhu Wu each chose their own paths. As they traveled, they discovered that their different roads led to the same destination.

So The Way Home it is. I record it here.

Theme: What if