The Eve of D-Day

Afternoon of September 26th, 2009. D-Day Minus One.

The dusk sky was lit by a tranquil gold halo, and the lazy clouds in the distance were also gilt with that same gold sheen. A cool breeze blew gently over the evening sea. Through the calm waves a cargo ship, the Abundance, moved slowly but steadily, like an inexorable force of destiny. The weather in Qiongzhou Strait was very pleasant for sailing: waves at less than 1.5 metres. Even the ones on board who had never before stepped foot on a boat before did not feel seasick.

The huge bow of the Abundance split the sea asunder like a god of the sea borne atop his chariot. The time travellers who had boarded the boat disguised as backpackers all sat or stood on the deck in groups of two or three, looking out at the scenery. The Qiongzhou Strait was a very narrow waterway, and visibility was also great. For miles around the sea was sheathed in the golden dusk. They could see the coastline of the Leizhou Peninsula to the north and the shores of Hainan Island to the south. All that they had ever known lay on one side; on the other, awaited a whole new world.

Less than 20 chains away from the side of the ship a short flat-deck barge was following.^[1] The deck of the barge was filled with containers, vehicles and machinery. Both ships were heading south at a steady 10 knots, and they were expecting to rendezvous with another four finishing boats that had departed from a different port at 5 o’clock sharp, Beijing time.^[2]

After running frantically around for the last two weeks since the Training Ground Assembly, Meng De had just wrapped up the complicated loading process. Coastal cargo ships had always carried miscellaneous cargo, so their activities hadn’t attracted much unwanted attention from the port authorities. The only people who were surprised were from the shipping company—both of these massive ships actually ran on expensive diesel fuel rather than cheap marine heavy fuel.^[3]

The crew members on the cargo ship were Filipinos. No one could understand a word of their strange English except Meng De, who made a living at ports and had frequent contact with such people. The good thing was that they didn’t care about what the ship was carrying, or why there were so many backpackers in green cadet uniforms who’d suddenly swarmed on-board. Two-thirds of all the travellers were gathered on this ship. Only a few other professionals, with a certain violent skill-set, were arranged on the other ships.

There wasn’t actually much space left on the cargo ship for the time travellers. Much like its namesake, all five of the cargo holds of the Abundance were filled to the brim, and there were even some extra containers strapped to the top deck itself. Several animal pens also emitted a foul smell. Apart from the women and children that were assigned to crew cabins, most of the travellers could only sit outside on the deck, waiting for the destined moment. Thankfully for them the weather was clear and placid.

Everyone was still excited about raising the curtains upon a new era, and did not feel too inconvenienced at the arrangements. Some people did not sleep well yesterday, so they simply spread out their sleeping bags on deck to catch some needed shut-eye. Some stood in the wind, and looked south to the looming coastline of Hainan Island. All of them were born, and grew up, in this time and space, and would have otherwise died here too. In the world now behind them were the countless strands of love and hate, disappointment and satisfaction, and the countless memories of ‘firsts times’ in their life. They were about to depart and never come back. It suddenly felt like they were being ferried across the waters of the Styx, and bidding the only world they knew the eternal farewell of death.

The members of the Executive Committee standing on the bridge of the Abundance did not have the time for sentimental reflection at this otherwise historic moment. They had to ensure their plan went smoothly. According to their pre-established schedule, the trawlers and landing craft would depart from a nearby fishing port and meet them in the Qiongzhou Strait at 17:00 sharp. At the same time, the yacht of the legendary North American Division should also arrive. Currently, they were keeping a constant look-out over the sea, but only saw a few coastal fishing boats hurrying back home.

The yacht of the North American Division arrived first, ten minutes earlier than the target rendezvous time. The blue and white boat was covered with snow-white triangular sails, and it cut a graceful figure across the sea, drawing many cheers and whistles from the time travellers. In their telescopes they could clearly see Shi Niaoren standing on the deck cheerfully waving his hands around. Out of the hatch under the main mast suddenly climbed a foreign-looking woman with big eyes and a confused face—obviously she didn’t understand what was going on here.

“That girl has a nice figure.” Wang Luobin muttered to himself while holding the telescope.

“Long chestnut hair, not a MILF though.”^[4]

“What are you saying, that’s a latino. Just because they don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes they can still be a MILF.”

More than a dozen telescopes admired the newly appeared beauty, completely ignoring all the men of the North American Division currently waving at them from the yacht deck.

The trawlers and landing craft still hadn’t shown up, but fortunately they were in radio contact. The four trawlers were responsible for towing several large rafts—but none of the crew had done it before so it took several hours just to adjust the length of the towing cables. It was only 20 minutes after the target 17:00 pm did the trawlers meet with the rest of the fleet.

With all the ships gathered, this strange fleet was advancing at a low speed along the coastline of Hainan Island. Soon, night had fallen. Bopu Port was not far. The lights of Bopu harbour were visible, dotted against a shadowy landmass. The ships had also all turned on their navigation lights.

“GPS reads 3 nautical miles north-east of Bopu Port.”

“Slow down, and turn on all the lights!”

“Take over the ship controls!”

“All units move closer to the Abundance!”

“Prepare the wormhole!”

After issuing several orders in sequence, Meng De first used his identity as the shipowner to gather all the Filipino crew members onto the deck, where a few people from the Military Group brandished their shotguns in front of them. The 20 crew members cooperated without complaint, boarded a lifeboat specially prepared for them, and rowed themselves back towards the Hainan shore.

All the lights on the ship had been turned on, and bright flood lights illuminated the deck, making it seem as if daytime had returned. The time travellers onboard realised that the historic moment was arriving, so they stood up one after another and looked up at the stern bridge with wide eyes.

A test sound of “hello, hello” rang out from the speakers, followed by a high-pitched male voice that was a bit too loud:

“Attention all personnel, 5 minutes until crossing, 5 minutes until crossing! All personnel don life jackets and enter the cabin!”

They feared that the wormhole would oscillate due to the violent fluctuation of energy during their traversal. So, in order to prevent any man overboard incidents, everyone squeezed into the cabins and then the watertight doors were closed. This excluded of course certain deck personnel who had to stay at their posts, who were only tied down with safety ropes.

“Chief Wen, let’s start!” Meng De stood nervously at the helm.

”Okay, starting.”

As the wormhole hanging on the bow was gradually pushed open by the bow of the massive ship, it soon expanded into a huge mirror flashing with a light of a colour they had never seen before. It was brighter than even the flood lights on the cargo ship, and a large swath of the surrounding sea was lit up just like it was noon on a summer solstice day. Sparks of light erupted from the edge of the wormhole as if it were a New Year’s fireworks display.

“Please hold!” Wen Desi muttered, praying that the wormhole wouldn’t explode suddenly. It was a relatively small problem if they couldn’t cross over; but if it were to explode outright, the resulting blast would not be much less than a nuclear bomb.

“Attention all ships!” Meng De shouted into the radio, “Get as close as you can, and go through at full speed!” He switched to the ship intercom, “Brace for impact!”

The travellers in the cabin had no idea what was happening outside. Hearing the command, they all held onto anything that was bolted down around them with a serious face, and waited for the mythical shock wave of time travel. Suddenly, the lights of the cabin flickered wildly, blinking on and off, and everyone’s hands and faces felt slightly numb like they had passed through a web of static electricity. A strange feeling of dizziness surged up from their feet.

“We got through!” Someone shouted.

No one responded. Many people had shut their eyes when the lights started flashing.

Not long after the final fishing trawler passed through riding the froth of the boat before it, the wormhole channel, which had originally reflected the lights of the cargo ship like a perfect mirror, suddenly began to brighten like a blossoming conflagration. In just a few seconds, it expanded from a plane to a dazzling sphere like a miniature sun, and in the next breath…disappeared!

The seawater quickly surged back into the more than 50-metre diameter hole left behind by the wormhole. The rushing water collided and a spire of water more than 10 metres high spurted into the air, making a loud boom like a huge drum. The last trawler of the fleet, which by then was more than 100 metres away from where the wormhole had been, was mercilessly washed by a 4-5 metre tall wave. Fortunately, all the crew had been sufficiently prepared and there was no damage.

“All ships report in!” Meng De shouted on the radio.

“Barge normal!”

“Landing craft normal!”

“Trawler 1 normal!”

“Trawler 2 normal!”

“Trawler 3 normal!”

“Trawler 4 normal!”

“North American Division normal…ah wait, a motorboat is rapidly approaching us!”

The people on the bridge were heartbroken. They looked at each other. Motorboat? Where would a motorboat come from in the 17th century?

Before Wen Desi could say anything, Xi Yazhou had already dialled Wu De, the captain of the trawler fleet, on the radio.

“Old Wu, go and reinforce the Americans.”

“Roger that!”

Following the order, the Abundance turned on two large searchlights. The bright light pierced through the darkness, and two large circles were drawn upon the sea. They tracked two trawlers as they broke away from the formation and powered through the waves. They came around the two flanks of the yacht at full steam, one from the south and one from the north.

The search lights were bright enough to reveal the entire area. Wen Desi watched through his telescope as the motorboat approached the North American yacht. It was just a small motorboat with 8 passengers, if his count was correct. So was it that these people had inadvertently crossed with them, or was it just that no one crossed at all?

He glanced around the bridge, and found that everyone from the Executive Committee had a gloomy expression. Obviously, they all had the same suspicion.

Almost all the current people on the Executive were over 30 years old. They all liked to boast that they had been tempered by society, and their sense of patience had been forged over many years. But now, they were truly losing their patience. The wormhole was gone—exploded. If they didn’t cross over this time…it would be an unmitigated disaster.

Meng De had a telescope through his eye and desperately looked into the darkness. There was no moon, and it was pitch black everywhere save for the small area around the fleet. This made the encroaching night seem ever darker and deeper. To the south and north where there should have been the lights of many cities and ports, was only an unfathomable abyss.

“We should have got through, right?” He muttered to himself. He suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly checked the ship’s instruments.

“There’s no signal on the GPS!” He shouted.

His action reminded the others. Several of them took out their mobile phones, which all read ‘searching for a signal.’ But the mobile signal should have been normal in the Qiongzhou Strait, as they had checked earlier in the afternoon.^[5]

All the frequencies in the radio were also empty, with only the hissing sound of static.

“We did it!” The Executive Committee members put aside their stoic facades and cheered and rushed to congratulate each other.

Since they had come over to the 17th century, no matter who was onboard that motorboat, the overall situation was set and engraved in stone. Nothing could change that. Success at last!

Wu De’s voice came over the radio: “We have taken over the motorboat and captured 4 people. They seem to be tourists.”

“Bring them to the Abundance.”

The night would be long, and approaching the coast in the dark was obviously risky. The Executive Committee had decided beforehand that all ships would anchor in place and wait until dawn to make for land. D-Day would fall tomorrow. This was the 17th century, and there were no ships of this time period that would be able to damage them through a collision. Still, to make sure of their safety, the searchlights on all ships were turned on to scan the surrounding waters. The Military Team had also opened a batch of guns from the North American yacht and had distributed them across all the vessels in the fleet. Now that they had both weapons and people, they were not afraid of anything.

“Damn it, what are you doing! Bandits! Pirates! Loafers! Bastards!”^[6] Xiao Zishan hadn’t even opened the door fully when he caught an earful of an old man’s roar.

“Dad, stop shouting, let’s try to talk it over…” another male voice was trying to calm him down.

“This is the Qiongzhou Strait, not the Red Sea or Somalia! The People’s Navy is not a herbivore!”^[7]

“Misters, please let us go. We’re just ordinary people, we’re not rich. We are just travelling to Hainan on a family holiday….” This voice belonged to a middle-aged woman.

Xiao Zishan subconsciously tugged his collar and adjusted his hat. He was not used to wearing a uniform. Once he tidied himself up, he pushed open the cabin hatch and walked in.

Everything was soon cleared up. It turned out that the four people on the motorboat were a family: an old couple and their son and daughter-in-law. The family was going to Hainan for a vacation. The old man had served in the Navy for many years and was familiar with the troops stationed around Hainan. When they wanted to cross the strait, he hadn’t bought a ferry ticket and had instead borrowed a motorboat from an old acquaintance in the Navy, hoping to relive his old memories again. Unexpectedly, when they were about to reach Bopu Port, they suddenly encountered a strange storm. When everything calmed down it had become pitch black all around them, and they could only see a few ships not far away from them. They had approached the yacht to ask for some information, as there was no navigation equipment on their motorboat except a compass. As a result, they were inexplicably captured by the people on the two trawlers.

“You should have a rest first.” Xiao Zishan smiled serenely. “It’s dark outside right now. We’ll talk more in the morning.” He thought to himself, how would he explain everything clearly? These people think that he’d just escaped from Anding Hospital.^[8]

“Will you let us go ashore at dawn?” The son asked. He looked like a civil servant. Xiao Zishan noticed that he kept glancing at his beautiful wife during their conversation.

“Sir, we are really just ordinary people. What’s the point of detaining us?” The old lady pleaded again. Although their capture had been very abrupt and involved several fierce men holding shotguns, she still spoke clearly and calmly. At first glance it was obvious she was someone who knew how to control her emotions.^[9]

“Look, I’m not afraid of you laughing at me. My husband used to be a navy officer in these waters, and my daughter-in-law is also a police officer. In this strait there are all sorts of ships from maritime surveillance, border control, coast guard, the fishery administration, and even the navy. Is it meaningful for you to do this? You’re all still young as well, you’re truly squandering your potential. We are just ordinary people, we don’t want to be heroes. After you let us go, we’ll all just go our separate ways and forget about everything that’s happened. Even our luggage can just be treated as accidentally lost…”

The old lady’s words were soft and firm: well-said. Much better than her son and daughter-in-law. Xiao Zishan nodded politely.

“I understand, but let’s leave everything for tomorrow.” Xiao Zishan stood up, as straight as he could in the cabin, and gestured vaguely in the direction of Hainan to the south, “Tomorrow, you’ll be able to see the morning rise upon a whole new world!”

Book 1 - Setting Sail (END)

[TN. Afterword for Book 1]

On that rather abrupt note, here ends the first book of LGQM. Fittingly for a webnovel, Boaster personally finishes the book with a promise to return tomorrow (recall that Xiao Zishan is a self-insert)—which he in fact does keep, as Chapter 1 of Book 2 would be published the day after. That last sentence of Xiao Zishan is intended as much for the hapless family as for us.

But let’s take a step back. What a journey it’s been! Some 100,000 words in, and we have just finished setting the stage of the real story. Quite weird isn’t it? Usually in time travel novels, the big time travel magic happens at the very start. Not so for LGQM. It’s very much like reading a slow, unstoppable behemoth grind on and on. That’s actually a common complaint of the Chinese readers: it’s been almost a decade and a half since it first started updating on Qidian, and the story has still, well, not got very far…I won’t spoil too much.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed Book 1 of LGQM. It’s been my pleasure to present the English translation of the story.

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1. 1 chain is equal to 66 feet or 22 yards. In metric, one chain is exactly 20.1168 m. So 20 chains is give or take about 400 metres. ↩︎

2. Original says 6 o’clock here, but later says 5 o’clock in contradiction. I went with 5 o’clock for both ↩︎

3. HFOs. ↩︎

4. He says 大洋马, literally, ‘big foreign horse’. Used to refer to foreign, particular blonde and white, woman in a very lecherous way. I’ve went with MILF as a cultural replacement, but it doesn’t entirely capture the original term. Even the Qidian comments are a bit disgusted by this bit, which is saying quite a lot actually. Note that these are not espousing the views of the author. The goal of Boaster is actually to capture a snapshot of a group of modern people, with all their vices, viewpoints and thoughts packed into one. Just like the running loli joke, in a certain sense it’s satirising web novel stereotypes. ↩︎

5. This might seems dubious that you’d get mobile signal out on the sea, but from what I’ve read, mobile signals can certainly reach 20 miles away from a cell tower. Depends a lot on the terrain and weather conditions though. ↩︎

6. The last insult is ‘bang bang’, literally meaning stick. Don’t know how that works as an insult. In the Sichuan dialect this word is used to refer to porters who move goods through the mountainous terrain of the province. They do so using a large bamboo stick on their shoulders, hence the name. ↩︎

7. People’s Navy meaning the PLAN ↩︎

8. Full name: Capital Medical University Affiliated Beijing Anding Hospital. It’s a hospital specialising in psychiatric care. ↩︎

9. Literally, a ‘person of the stage’, referring to a theatre stage. ↩︎