Upon reaching Xuhou, xiao-Chun and Pan Heng immediately returned to Pan Heng's home. They both entered the bedroom, the same place where Pan Heng kept his cultivation tools.
Pan Heng took out a chest, securing the spirit-trapping pouch inside it.
Xiao-Chun hovered over Pan Heng's shoulder as he locked the chest. "So...are we going to be able to find out who did this?"
Pan Heng sighed, shaking his head defeatedly. "Fat chance. There are countless sects that exist. It would take an eternity, time only immortals would have, to search for the culprit."
"But-but," xiao-Chun stammered, "What am I supposed to do then?! How am I supposed to get back home?!"
Pan Heng placed a hand on xiao-Chun's shoulder. "Calm down, xiao-Chun. I'll just use a transportation talisman and escort you back home, however distant it may be."
"No. No. You don't understand." Xiao-Chun's voice was breaking. "A transportation talisman isn't going to get me back home. It's not that simple."
"What do you mean, 'it's not that simple'?" Pan Heng rubbed his forehead, his voice growing irritated.
"I'm-," Shit. She was really going to take the plunge, wasn't she? "I'm-I'm not from this realm."
Pan Heng blinked at xiao-Chun incredulously. Then he burst into laughter. "Not from this realm. That's a good one! What? Do you come from the Heavens? Are you a fairy in disguise?"
Xiao-Chun frowned, her toddler baby cheeks puffing up. "No! I'm human! You made sure of that yourself with your talisman last night, didn't you?"
"Exactly. You're human, which makes you a resident of this realm," Pan Heng explained with an amused smile.
"No. No." Xiao-Chun groaned, shaking her head. "How do I explain this? I'm," she paused then said in a rush, "from an entirely different world where cultivation doesn't exist!"
Pan Heng stared at xiao-Chun in silence for a moment.
"You're from another world where cultivation doesn't exist?" Pan Heng repeated back slowly. Then he shook his head. "The dark ritual must have really messed with your head."
Xiao-Chun stomped her foot on the ground. "Fuck! I'm not crazy! I'm telling you the truth!"
Pan Heng shot xiao-Chun an irritated glare.
Oh shit, he's mad. - xiao-Chun paused, glancing around nervously. - Think fast! Um. Um. Ok! What do I have as undeniable proof of what I'm trying to say!
"My clothes! Come look at my clothes!" Xiao-Chun tugged Pan Heng's sleeve. He grumbled, but agreed to follow her outside.
Xiao-Chun's hoodie and jeans hung on a clothesline to the side of the house. Her sneakers were placed on the ground.
Xiao-Chun pointed at her clothes. "Look closely at my clothes! Have you ever seen clothing like this anywhere?!"
Pan Heng turned his head to her clothes then looked down at xiao-Chun, sighing. "I already took a close look while washing them. I admit, xiao-Chun, I've never seen such garments anywhere. Not on my travels. Not from foreign merchants. Not even from other cultivators. But surely, there must be parts of the world that haven't been explored yet, like where you come from."
Xiao-Chun's shoulders slumped. Great. What other option was there to convince Pan Heng that she wasn't lying?
...Hold on. That just might work. - Xiao-Chun sank to the ground on her knees and whimpered, lip trembling and eyes watering.
"Ah! Don't cry! Don't cry! Fine, I believe you! I believe you!" Pan Heng crouched down, trying to comfort xiao-Chun.
Xiao-Chun sniffled, wiped at her eyes, and eventually quieted down. Now that that was out of the way… "So what happens to me now?"
Pan Heng rubbed the back of his neck, staring off to the side with his forehead creased in thought. Finally, his shoulders seemed to deflate. "Judging from what you said, getting you home is going to be a difficult task, one that I can't do in a short time. I'm going to have to do a lot of research and cultivation studies. In the meantime, you'll…" Pan Heng's voice trailed off and he swallowed hard, "...be staying with me, xiao-Chun."
Pan Heng continued rubbing his neck and awkwardly stared off to the side. "Uh...How old are you, xiao-Chun?"
Oh yeah, huh. She didn't even know what age she'd been reverted back to. "Um...could I have something to view my reflection in?"
"What does your reflection have anything to do with your age? Wait," Pan Heng turned to xiao-Chun with concern, "You...don't even know your own age?"
"I really need it, please."
Pan Heng left and returned with a bucket of water.
Xiao-Chun carefully studied her reflection. Her cheeks were full of baby fat and her mouth bore small baby teeth. She recalled the photos of herself as a toddler in photo albums. - I look exactly as I did when I was five years old!
"I'm five."
Pan Heng crossed his arms. "Five years old? Funny how you don't talk like a five-year-old, even with your high and squeaky voice."
Xiao-Chun nervously pressed her hands into her coat. Should she tell him?
…
She already told him she was from another world. Would this be too much?
...
Fuck it. Why not? She was not staying a little kid because she kept quiet about it. "I have an explanation for that, actually."
"Oh really?" Pan Heng responded with a "what is it this time" tone.
"Do you happen to know of any cultivation techniques to restore a person to their original age?"
Pan Heng eyed xiao-Chun with a hint of astonishment and curiosity. "...What do you mean by that?"
Xiao-Chun straightened her back and puffed up her chest, staring Pan Heng directly in the eye. "I'm actually an adult who's been shrunk back into a little kid."
Pan Heng groaned. "First, you tell me you're from another world. Now you tell me that you're actually an adult in a child's body? Please spare me the elaborate storytelling, xiao-Chun. I am but a tired cultivator who's had enough for one day."
Pan Heng sighed. "Even if you were actually an adult in a child's body, there is no such technique that exists to turn a child back into an adult."
Well shit. Did this mean xiao-Chun would have to go through puberty again? Bollocks.
Pan Heng started to head back inside, "All right, xiao-Chun. We've been through a lot today. Let's eat dinner and head to bed."
Night fell upon Xuhou.
Xiao-Chun was fast asleep.
Meanwhile, Pan Heng lay awake, mulling over the day's events.
Starting off, xiao-Chun was the victim of a forbidden dark ritual that somehow misplaced him from a distant foreign land to Xuhou.
Pan Heng didn't really believe in xiao-Chun's story about being from another world. He'd only told xiao-Chun he did so he wouldn't have to deal with a crying kid. A crying child was scarier than any demon or supernatural beast he could ever face.
Xiao-Chun's situation was unlike any he'd dealt with before.
Xiao-Chun was so strange. He acted older than his age. Sometimes Pan Heng even forgot he was talking to a toddler.
Perhaps the dark ritual reawakened xiao-Chun's memories of his past life too. That seemed to be the most reasonable explanation.
As for xiao-Chun's story about being a de-aged man from another world separate from the Three Realms[1]? Sounded like utter nonsense.
Pan Heng shut his eyes.
Whatever. The quicker he found a breakthrough in his research, the quicker he could send xiao-Chun off. Then he could go drinking at the tavern and continue his lone rogue cultivator lifestyle. No child-rearing responsibilities for him, thank you. Everything would be normal again.
By afternoon, xiao-Chun's clothes had dried enough to be taken down from the clothesline.
Xiao-Chun rummaged around in her jean pockets. Her fried smartphone was still in there. "You didn't throw this away?"
"Thought that pretty stone must be important to you," Pan Heng explained, leaning against the wall with a piece of straw grass in his mouth.
Xiao-Chun turned her head to the side, smiling. It wasn't actually a stone. But explaining a smartphone to Pan Heng might be more than he can handle right now, especially with all the info dumped on him yesterday.
"Thanks." Xiao-Chun moved to fold her clothes and store them with her shoes in a straw box Pan Heng gave her.
"Pan-ge?"
"Hmm?"
"I've been meaning to ask you, why did you name me 'Chun'?"
Pan Heng closed his eyes in thought. "Hmmm. That's because I like eating plums."
"..." Xiao-Chun silently stared at Pan Heng, slightly miffed. Food? He named her after food? Without a single poetic thought?
"What? Don't look at me like that. Plums are quite delicious, you know." Pan Heng removed himself from the wall. "Anyways, I'm heading to the market to buy some more food. Want to come along?"
Xiao-Chun had nothing else to do anyway. The natural scenery was nice, but she could only sit outside and stare at the same trees and wildlife for so long. "Yeah sure."
"...'Sure'?" Pan Heng asked, confused.
He didn't know what "sure" meant? Ah. Maybe there wasn't an equivalent for the word "sure" in this dialect of Chinese. Or maybe she hadn't found the right word? She didn't exactly have a good grasp of the language yet.
"It means 'yes'," xiao-Chun explained, following Pan Heng to the village market.
The marketplace was bustling and xiao-Chun had to hold Pan Heng's hand so she didn't get dragged away by the crowd.
People shuffled along, loudly chattering and doing their shopping. Vendors shouted out what wares they sold. The atmosphere was the same as the markets in the rural villages xiao-Chun and her friends visited around China.
But some things were missing.
No cell phones. No calculators. No speakers blaring music. No cars. No motorcycles. No electric wire posts. No signs of modern technology anywhere.
Could she be…?
"Pan-ge, what year is it?"
"What year? Such a strange question - Oh right, you must use a different calendar where you're from. It's the sixth year of the Reign of Xuanzheng[2]."
"...I see." Reign of Xuanzheng? That sounded like the royalty was still in power, that the Chinese Emperor was still around. Not only was she in a different world, she was even in a different era.
Cultivation existed here too. She couldn't even be transported to Modern Fantasy China. Nope, she was stuck in Ancient Fantasy China.
Sigh. Goodbye modern appliances. And modern foods. And video games. And wi-fi.
Pan Heng finally stopped in front of a food stand, making xiao-Chun look up.
Noodles?
People lined up in front of the noodle stand, either to buy raw noodles to cook at home or to dine in with the signature noodle dishes freshly cooked by the stand owner.
Pan Heng got his coin pouch ready. "Are you fine with having noodles, xiao-Chun?"
Xiao-Chun nodded. Instant noodles. Chow mein. Ramen. Mì[3]. Phở[4]. Bún bò Huế[5]. Good stuff. She much preferred noodles to rice.
The other patrons near the noodle stand inched themselves away from xiao-Chun, but couldn't help but openly stare at her when they thought she wasn't looking.
Pan Heng noticed this, sending the onlookers knowing glances to force them to look elsewhere. "Don't worry, kid. Took them a while to warm up to me too."
Pan Heng wasn't originally from Xuhou? Now that Xiao-Chun thought about it, what was a rogue cultivator like him doing in a remote village like this? Based on the xianxia stories, didn't rogue cultivators usually wander around, continuing to cultivate to achieve immortality? Why would Pan Heng choose to settle here? He wasn't even old (or looked like it).
"So why didn't they immediately welcome you with open arms?" xiao-Chun asked.
Pan Heng's jaw set and he swiftly turned his head back to face the noodle stand. End of discussion.
The noodle vendor finished serving the customer in front of Pan Heng. "Ah, Pan-xiongdi[6]! Good to see my best customer!"
"Best customer? You flatter me, Peng-xiong[7]."
Peng Jiu chuckled. "Would you like me to cook you the house special today? On the house, as always!"
Xiao-Chun turned to look at the people dining at their tables with bowls of noodle soup. Those noodles were looking really appetizing…
"Sorry, Peng-xiong. Another time," Pan Heng replied.
Aw. - Xiao-Chun looked away from the noodles in disappointment.
Peng Jiu's attention shifted to xiao-Chun. "Ah! I see that the young boy is still with you!"
Xiao-Chun stood still, processing Peng Jiu's statement. - Young boy?...Wait…What?!
Pan Heng patted xiao-Chun on the head. "Yes. Xiao-Chun here is under my care."
"You've given him a name?" Peng Jiu leaned forward and whispered to Pan Heng, "Is he an orphan?"
"No. He has a father." Pan Heng said.
Peng Jiu relaxed. Then a sly grin made its way onto his face. "So... 'xiao-Chun'? Pan-xiongdi, has a child made his way into your grumpy heart?"
"I'm not attached to the kid, Peng-xiong! I'm just stating the fact that he's little!" Pan Heng hissed. Calling a little boy "No-name" Chun would've been crude and dehumanizing! "Besides, I'll have him back home soon enough!"
Peng Jiu nodded, but his eyes remained teasing. "I see. I see." Then his expression turned serious. "Just make sure you treat the boy kindly, Pan-xiongdi."
"Of course!" Pan Heng said.
Peng Jiu turned his head to xiao-Chun. "Hello there, xiao-Chun! It's very nice to meet you!"
Xiao-Chun's mind was still preoccupied. - I'm a boy? Everyone thinks I'm a boy?
Pan Heng elbowed xiao-Chun's arm, whispering, "He just greeted you!"
Xiao-Chun jumped. "Ah! Yes! Very nice to meet you too!"
Peng Jiu gave xiao-Chun a kind smile. "Here," he tossed a piece of candy to xiao-Chun, "My treat."
Xiao-Chun's hands fumbled a bit but she managed to keep the candy from dropping to the ground. "Thank you," she murmured.
Pan Heng and xiao-Chun left Peng Jiu's noodle stand with two sacks of raw noodles, more than enough to feed two people.
"Gotta have a lot of food for a growing boy!" Peng Jiu cheerily explained.
Considering that Pan Heng and Peng Jiu both referred to xiao-Chun as a boy without anyone refuting them, it was finally clear to xiao-Chun.
Everyone here believed that she was a boy.
Xiao-Chun wasn't going to correct them on the matter.
Honestly? It was for the best.
Xiao-Chun chewed on the piece of candy, thinking back to the history books, documentaries, and classes on Ancient China she studied in her free time and whenever she could fit them in her class schedule.
Daughters were considered less than sons. Women were forced into arranged marriages. Fuck, even young girls were forced to marry men twice their age. Life in Ancient China was not pleasant for a woman. Stupid sexist society with its gender roles and expectations.
It would do her no good being forced into a marriage or servanthood if she wanted to search for a way back home.
It was settled then. She needed to stay a boy.
Pan Heng face-planted on the cultivation book and groaned.
Six months of research, and nothing gained from it.
A-Chun wasn't going to be able to leave anytime soon.
(He started calling the kid "A-Chun" around the three-month mark. He'd gotten too attached. Fuck!)
Pan Heng hoped he'd get this mess over with quickly. Take A-Chun back to his father by transportation talisman and yay, everyone was happy! A-Chun being reunited with his father and Pan Heng free of the responsibility of caring for a child. But no, the dark ritual and that damned minor sect cultivator had to upturn the entire situation on its head.
Although Pan Heng didn't really believe that A-Chun was from another world, A-Chun was insistent that his home was in a place he couldn't reach. That notion, Pan Heng could believe, noticing the sincerity and longing in A-Chun's eyes and voice.
Did A-Chun's father get spirited away by an evil spirit? Abducted by demons to the Demon Realm? Was A-Chun denying that his father was actually dead? Or maybe, just maybe, A-Chun's father really was in another realm of existence, the other world that A-Chun claimed he was from...No, no, that was still not likely. It just wasn't possible...was it?
A-Chun, orphan or not, was horribly lost without any familial ties.
He wasn't a son of any of the other villagers. No one would be willing to take him. They had enough mouths to feed as is. That meant…
Pan Heng groaned into the book again. - Heavens, I'm actually going to do it, aren't I?
"Pan-ge, I'm finished with the practice sheet you gave me." A-Chun stood at the doorway, a completed sheet of characters in his hand.
Every day, for the past six months, Pan Heng guided A-Chun in learning the local language, both speech and writing.
"I can't stick around you to power the translation talisman forever," Pan Heng had explained.
While Pan Heng studied cultivation books, A-Chun studied outside at a wooden desk Pan Heng carved with Weifeng.
A-Chun did offer to help Pan Heng but he said, "You don't know a thing about cultivation. It's better if you put your full focus on learning the local language. That would be more helpful to both of us."
Pan Heng lifted his head from the book. "Ah. Already done? Good."
A-Chun noticed Pan Heng's tired smile. "Still no luck in finding anything, huh?"
"Sadly, yes."
A-Chun sighed, leaning his shoulder against the doorway. His head downcast, he mumbled to himself.
With a cultivator's enhanced hearing, Pan Heng managed to make out, "Is this even working out? Am I going to be stuck here forever? But what else can I do? I have nowhere to go."
Pan Heng's gaze focused on the books piled on his desk, then back to A-Chun. - Yes. I'm really going to do it.
That night, Pan Heng kneeled and bowed in front of his family altar. "Ancestors, I ask for your approval in the adoption of a young boy with no blood lineage into our family."
Pan Heng's voice grew solemn and quiet. "If A-Chun can't get back home, at least he'll have a family and place to belong."
The next morning, Pan Heng approached A-Chun at her desk. "A-Chun, we need to talk about something important."
A-Chun paused in the middle of writing. "Yes?"
Pan Heng waved his hand forward. "Come inside."
Pan Heng led A-Chun to stand in front of his family altar.
A-Chun wasn't sure what Pan Heng had in mind. This was new. Was there a holiday she wasn't aware of? Pan Heng's serious expression said otherwise.
Pan Heng cleared his throat, "A-Chun, I bestow upon you the family name of Pan."
A-Chun was stunned. - Wait! What?!
Pan Heng continued, "Do you accept?"
A-Chun spoke. "What? Why? I'm going to go back home anyway, aren't I?"
Pan Heng's expression was solemn. No guarantees.
A-Chun shut her eyes and swallowed hard. So this was the bitter reality.
Pan Heng was the only person she was close to here. If she was going to have any personal connections here then...
"Are-are you sure? Giving me your family name is a huge deal." A-Chun turned her head down. "I mean, I'm not even really your-"
Pan Heng ruffled A-Chun's hair. "You've been in my care for half a year now. We're practically family."
A-Chun stood in place, her head still downturned. She stayed silent, biting her lip.
Pan Heng sensed her hesitance. "Being adopted into my family doesn't mean you're throwing away your original family."
Pan Heng waited patiently for A-Chun's response.
Finally, A-Chun turned her head back up, breathed in deeply, and bowed. "I am honored to be adopted into your family."
"From now on, you will be known as Pan Chun."
Pan Heng and Pan Chun stood in silent formality, aware of the gravity of what they just did.
…
...
"So," Pan Chun broke the silence. "Um...what exactly do I call you now?"
"Oh." Pan Heng rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes shifting to the side nervously. "You are to call me Gege[10] from now on, I suppose?"
"…"
"..."
"Gege…" Pan Chun tried to say. No. Too awkward. It was just too cutesy. "Um. Is there another way to call you my older brother?"
"Ah...you may also address me as 'A-ge'," Pan Heng said.
"A-ge...A-ge..." Pan Chun tested. Better. But this was going to take some time for them to get used to.
The two of them went quiet for a couple of moments until-
"Pfft. Hahahahahahaha!" Seeing the sheepish expressions on each other's faces, Pan Heng and Pan Chun broke into bouts of laughter.
"Why are we laughing?" Pan Chun asked between laughs.
"I-I don't know!" Pan Heng placed a hand to his stomach to get his bearings, but still couldn't stop laughing.
They laughed merrily together well into the night.
Pan Chun couldn't sleep that night, and it wasn't because Pan Heng snored like a grizzly bear.
Pan Heng used a noise-suppressing spell so he didn't keep her awake, thank goodness.
Pan Chun tossed and turned in her bed. Her mind was too muddled, too troubled.
She'd spent more than half a year here already. Just how long was she going to be stuck in this world?
Pan Heng would put on a cloak to go somewhere outside Xuhou for most of the day, only returning the next morning. Some days, he'd return with a bag of cultivation books to study. He must be going to a library, Pan Chun thought, because where else would he get such books? Maybe his original sect before he became a rogue cultivator?
Pan Heng was always tight-lipped whenever Pan Chun asked about his past. So she accepted that she wasn't going to get any answers. She knew him well enough by now that he wasn't comfortable dwelling on it.
Despite doing so much research daily for the past six months, Pan Heng was having no luck finding any more clues about how to return her back home.
And Pan Heng just adopted her. She was grateful of course, to have someone to call family so she didn't have to feel so alone.
But...
Was this a sign of her permanent stay here?
No! No. That couldn't be it.
But it's been so long...
Her life back home was starting to feel like a dream...
Pan Chun leaned over and opened the straw box placed near her bed.
Her favorite navy blue hoodie, a pair of black jeans, and black sneakers lay inside.
Pan Chun clutched her hoodie tightly to her chest and buried her face in it, as she did every night.
I am from another world. I'm not crazy.
Glossary
[1] Three Realms: In Xianxia stories, there are three realms. The Immortal Realm, the Mortal Realm, and the Demon Realm. The Immortal Realm is where the immortals, heavenly officials, and magical creatures such as dragons and phoenixes reside. The Mortal Realm is where mortals, humans, and cultivators reside. The Demon Realm is where demons and evil beings reside.
[2] Reign of Xuanzheng: This is taken from the donghua. So this chapter takes place 12 years before Wei Wuxian studies at Cloud Recesses for 3 months.
[3] Mì: the word "noodles" in Vietnamese
[4] Phở: Vietnamese rice noodle soup often served with beef or chicken.
[5] Bún bò Huế: Vietnamese rice vermicelli soup that's spicy and often served with beef and pig blood curd.
[6] xiongdi: "Brother". Peng Jiu refers to Pan Heng as such because Pan Heng is a male comrade/close friend of his.
[7] xiong: "Older Brother" or "Big Bro". Pan Heng refers to Peng Jiu as such because Peng Jiu is only a few years older than Pan Heng is.
[8] xiao-: "little". Term of address that shows endearment and familiarity.
[9] A-: informal affectionate term of address. Most familiar use is with "A-Yuan".
[10] Gege: "Older Brother". Can be used with your older brother or any guy who's older than you, blood-related or not. Pan Heng is at an age when he could be the toddler Pan Wukun's older brother. He's not old enough to be her uncle or father. He is both a brother and father figure to Pan Chun. *"A-ge" is another way of saying big brother. As far as I know, it seems to only be used with your blood family.*
A/N: Noodles. Noodles are great. Seriously, I bought so many instant noodles (chow mein, cheese ramen, miso ramen, yakisoba) from the Yamibuy app. Omg.
*June 20, 2021 Edit: Slightly changed the "sure" dialogue. Pan Chun wasn't supposed to realize she was in ancient times until she and Pan Heng went to the market.*