Back-and-Forth Crossing

Back-and-Forth Crossing is a long urban supernatural novel by the web author Laibuji Youshang (Too Late to Be Sad). Serialized on Qidian.com starting April 27, 2012, it runs about 2.737 million Chinese characters, categorized as "Urban · Supernatural Powers," is complete, and has never been published in print. The title's "back-and-forth crossing" refers to the protagonist's two-way travel between the modern city and a magical other world. The protagonist, Wu Huang (a student at Qingyang No. 2 Middle School), happens upon a mysterious stone bead and gains the ability to travel between the present world and a world of swords and magic; but the bead also shrinks his body on his first crossing, turning a grown man into a tiny figure and causing plenty of comic mishaps. He then learns to "wheel and deal" between the two worlds: bringing modern goods and technology to the other world and bringing back its magic, resources, and merchandise, earning his first pot of gold in the city; meanwhile, in the magical world he recruits mages and swordsmen and steadily earns a lord's position, living the ideal life of "learning some magic, doing some business, recruiting followers, and brewing tea." Written in a light, satisfying style, the book covers two-world trade, faction building, and romance, and is one of the more representative works in the "double-crossing portal" genre, often included in recommendation lists for similar titles.