Chapter 2

Yang Gu woke up, and much to his shock, he was in an unknown area. He was lying in an old battered house on a pile of dried grass. Yang sat up and noticed that he was wearing something that he had never seen before, a grey robe-like cloth that was full of holes. Yang quickly touched the area where he was stabbed, but there was no sign of any sort of injury.

Yang: What happened to me? Shouldn't I be dead? I remember being stabbed and then being struck by lightning.

Yang stood up and dusted himself, but a few pieces of grass still remained in his hair. The small room was almost empty; it only contained his low-cost bed and a broom that was on the ground. Also, there were broken pieces of ceramic on the floor. Yang walked over to them and investigated them.

Yang: What is this? I have never smelt anything like this.

Yang put the object back down and left the room. His little shack was in the woods, but a small trail was leading somewhere. Once Yang closed the door, he noticed a small sign nailed to the door saying "Yang".

Yang: Where is this place? Why is my name on that sign? Could it be that I have died due to the lightning and was taken to another world? But why am I so calm? Anyway, since I woke up here, I will stay here till I figure something out.

Yang walked around his area, and he found a tiny house, just next to his battered house, made of mud. It had a small furnace. The house's ground level was lower than the area's level, and it also contained a pile of dried grass on the opposite side of the furnace. The furnace was full of ashes, and a few chopped logs were placed next to the utensil.

An axe, a pitchfork, and a sickle were leaned onto his battered house's side; he also found a knife and a shovel on the ground. Between the two houses, a small storage area was designed for wood. But, unfortunately, it only had a roof to protect the wood from rain. As Yang was exploring, the weather turned colder, and he started to feel cold, so he entered his clay house.

He carefully touched the ash in the furnace, and once he confirmed that it was cold, he used his hand to empty it and placed the ash just outside the house. Once he finished, he cleaned his hands and put a hand full of grass into the furnace.

Yang: Unfortunately, I am not the greatest when it comes to cutting wood, I have never used an axe before, but I have no other choice.

Yang went outside to chop some logs that were just outside in that in-between area. He placed a long onto the ground, raised the axe above his head, and brought the axe down, but he hit the log with the handle of the axe, thus dropping the axe. Yang didn't give up; he tried it three more times, but all failed, yet for the fourth time, he managed to hit the wood with the axe's head. He chopped that piece of long into small parts, and then he took them inside and placed them inside the furnace.

Yang walked back to his wood storage and attempted to chop a few more logs, and all of them were taken inside. Then he placed his axe where he took it from and brought a few bigger logs inside.

Yang: I don't know what the weather in the future will be, but I might want to cut down a tree if I want to stay here.

While Yang was looking around, he noticed that a small dug hole was behind the mudhouse. That was probably used for the construction of the smaller house. Yang used the shovel to collect some dirt. Yang also noticed that the furnace had no way to release the smoke other than inside the house, so he slightly extended the furnace from the collected dirt; unfortunately, the soil was almost dry, but he could still use it. Then he carved a hole onto its back.

While he was working on extending the furnace, the weather worsened, and it started to rain. So Yang grabbed every tool he had and placed them inside the smaller house. Now that the furnace was extended, he stuffed more grass into it and then went outside to collect some stone peddles.

Yang: I have only seen this on TV, but I might be able to ignite the furnace.

Yang kneeled down in front of the furnace and started hitting stones at each other. He was very clumsy, and he hit his own fingers more times than he hit the rocks. Some of his fingers started to bleed, but he didn't stop.

Yang: Work! Come on!!

Yang finally managed to generate a spark, but it didn't reach the dried grass, and his pebbles were broken. He dropped the broken pieces of stone and grabbed another two, but before he could have continued igniting the furnace, he heard a scream.

Yang dropped the rocks and grabbed his axe, then left his mudhouse where the rain drastically worsened. Once he was outside, he looked around and soon he heard the same scream again. It was a girl's scream.

Girl: HELP!!

Yang rushed towards the sound.