Time Travel

Translator: Cinder Translations

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After a brief and intense confrontation, Jiang Cheng obediently lay on the bed, but not on the largest and best one. Instead, he found himself on a particularly small, broken bed.

The Fatty was fortunate enough to sleep on the big bed, but like walking on thin ice, he dared only to squeeze into the edge.

Xia Meng slept in the center of the big bed, and the three of them were quite harmonious.

As time passed, the Fatty, who had originally planned to stay awake, gradually became groggy. His head tilted, and before he knew it, he was unconscious.

In a blurry state of consciousness, he sat up from the bed. A faint gray mist enveloped the area around him. He had already memorized the location of all the furniture in the room, but now everything around him was reduced to indistinct dark outlines.

What was more frightening was that he was completely alone.

The doctor and Xia Meng, who had been beside him, were nowhere to be seen.

Like a zombie, he got out of bed, pushed open the door, and walked down the European-style spiral staircase. The "tap tap" of his footsteps echoed clearly on the stairs.

After turning a corner, his vision involuntarily tilted upward. On the large wall ahead, there was a black door embedded in it.

Unsteadily, he walked toward it.

When he opened his eyes again, the light around him was somewhat blinding. He squinted for a while before finally making out his surroundings.

He was in a room that resembled a hotel, but not the kind of modern hotel one would expect. It was more like something out of a historical drama.

He was lying on a bed with simple curtains hanging on both sides, a wooden, intricately carved frame. The pillow wasn't the usual kind; it was wooden, higher at both ends and lower in the middle, with a soft pad of unknown material placed on top.

The room had an antique feel, with a low wooden four-legged table nearby, and a few dark-colored chairs arranged around it. The table, worn by time, held a spouted teapot and several poorly-made cracked tea cups.

The door was like those in ancient dramas, with a paper-covered upper grid section, fragile enough to be punctured by a small touch. Behind the door stood a rack, with a yellowed copper mirror hanging at the top, and beneath it, a small copper basin filled with water, likely for guests to wash.

On another nearby wooden rack, there were several tattered pieces of cloth, which looked like either towels or rags, with the edges frayed.

All in all, this seemed like a high-fidelity restoration of an ancient inn, and the Fatty could see no immediate flaws.

As he pondered whether he had time-traveled or accidentally walked into a historical drama set, the door creaked open.

The sound startled the Fatty, who immediately sat up and wrapped himself in the thick blankets.

He was somewhat brainwashed by recent pop-up ads, and worried that a beautiful woman would enter, dressed provocatively, holding a coarse porcelain bowl, and calling out, "Da Lang, it's time for your medicine."

TL/N: It's a reference to a popular meme from the Chinese classic novel Water Margin (水浒传, Shuǐ Hǔ Zhuàn). The meme comes from the tragic story of Wu Dalang (武大郎), a character in the novel. Wu Dalang was poisoned by his wife, Pan Jinlian (潘金莲), who served him "medicine" (which was actually poison) while addressing him as "Da Lang."

But luckily, a woman did enter, and she was indeed attractive, though she wasn't gentle at all. Instead, there was a cold look on her face. Xia Meng suddenly barged in and said, "You fat bastard, you're really here."

"You," the Fatty blinked, "Where's the doctor?"

"Get up and follow me!"

Led by Xia Meng, they left the room. Outside was an ancient-style corridor. One side had a wooden railing, and below was a large hall with groups of people sitting around, drinking and playing games, all dressed in ancient-style attire.

On the other side were doors, some open, showing rooms with decor identical to the one the Fatty was in, while others were closed.

They walked to the end of the corridor, turned a corner, and heard voices arguing, along with crying, which was somewhat jarring.

Without hesitation, Xia Meng pushed open a door, revealing a scene that shocked the Fatty.

In a small room, it was packed with people. When they entered, everyone looked at them with scrutinizing gazes.

Seeing their clothing, the Fatty immediately understood. These people were his teammates for the mission.

What he didn't expect was that there were so many teammates, with at least ten people in the room, though he wasn't sure if there were others who, like the doctor, were "abandoned" outside.

"Where is this?" A crying voice came from the bed, though it tried to sound tough. "Who are you people? I'm telling you, if you don't let me go, I'll call the police!"

Fearing that his words wouldn't be convincing, the person yelled, "Let the law punish you!"

Just as the Fatty, still somewhat confused, thought this might be another clueless rookie, Xia Meng's voice reached his ears.

She whispered, probably not wanting others to hear, yet sounding like she could barely tolerate it. "Make him shut up."

Blinking, the Fatty took a closer look at the bed. After a few seconds, his mind buzzed, and a thousand thoughts rushed through his head.

The man on the bed, wrapped in a blanket with his upper body exposed, shivering with cries and tears in his eyes, was actually the doctor!

He was so used to seeing the doctor in his usual attire that he didn't recognize him at first.

Fortunately, after seeing the Fatty and Xia Meng, Jiang Cheng calmed down, no longer struggling or crying.

To match the doctor's perfect performance, the Fatty "grumbled" as he walked over and gave a brief explanation, teaching the doctor the rules.

While listening, Jiang Cheng occasionally showed a frightened expression, his eyes wide with fear, like a confused little deer.

Standing not far away, Xia Meng silently hoped that the doctor's parents could rest easy.

"So, are we in a time-travel situation?" Jiang Cheng asked, sitting by the bed. He was already doing much better than before.

"Probably," an old man answered. He had white hair and a white Tai Chi suit, with black cloth shoes on his feet.

He looked like a kindly elder practicing Tai Chi in the morning, but now, his eyebrows were furrowed, clearly in a bad mood.

Before entering the nightmare, the middle-aged man had also shared some representative tasks and emphasized the paths of survival.

Although he claimed the information was gathered by him, the level of detail he provided suggested that only someone who had experienced it firsthand could offer such insights. The middle-aged man had clearly been through the nightmare and had a lot of experience.

However, even in the middle-aged man's stories, they never mentioned time-traveling to the ancient past.

(End of the Chapter)

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