Chapter 15: The Second Ascent to the Qin Dynasty
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As soon as Jiang Ye boarded the bus, he saw a package placed on the seats in the first row.
He opened it. Inside were the clothes, wig caps, and identity stickers he had purchased from the system.
“Driver, let’s go.”
The driver shut the door and started the engine.
Jiang Ye was not idle either. He picked up the microphone and began with a brief introduction.
“I’m Jiang Ye, your tour guide for this trip. If anything happens along the way, be sure to tell me. The Qin Dynasty, where we’re headed, is not an ordinary destination, so please make absolutely certain that—”
Jiang Ye once again reminded them of all the precautions, worried that they might cause some kind of trouble.
“We’ll now distribute the travel outfits, along with the travel caps.”
He handed a set of Qin-style clothing and a wig cap to Fang Gaochang, who was sitting in the front row.
Fang Gaochang took the wig cap with a look of distaste. “Do we really have to wear this thing?”
Jiang Ye nodded. “Otherwise, the moment you arrive in the Qin Dynasty, people will arrest you for your hair and execute you as monsters.”
Fang Gaochang rubbed his head of red hair. “That makes sense.”
Jiang Kai accepted the wig cap from Jiang Ye and teased him with a laugh. “Hahaha, your Qin Dynasty one-day tour really is something else. When other tour companies hand out travel caps, they’re proper travel caps. Yours are actually wigs.”
Shi Xiaoyu, the only woman in the group, looked at the drab clothes with undisguised dislike. “Guide Jiang, can’t we have something in a brighter color? These clothes are hideous.”
“That’s exactly how ordinary people in the Qin Dynasty dressed. If we change them, they won’t look authentic anymore. We can’t blow our cover, so you’ll just have to make do.”
Li Jun said with a smile, “I think they look pretty good.”
He placed the wig cap on his head. The Qin-style male topknot fit snugly against his scalp, as though it had grown there naturally. When he reached up to touch it, it felt exactly like real hair, and even the way the knot was wrapped carried an unmistakably archaic elegance.
“Wow! This thing is incredible!” Li Jun stared at himself from every angle in his phone’s selfie camera and could not help exclaiming, “It feels like it’s actually growing out of my head!”
“Is it really that amazing?” Jiang Kai asked skeptically.
The others wore equally dubious expressions.
“Try it yourselves and you’ll know,” Li Jun said with a grin.
Jiang Kai pulled the wig cap over his head. He was just about to adjust the topknot when he discovered that the cap seemed almost alive, automatically molding itself to the shape of his head. A few loose strands hanging from the knot even fell naturally beside his ears.
“Holy shit!” Jiang Kai yelped. “This is seriously high-tech!”
“Oh my God! It really is incredible!” Zheng Chen cried out.
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Seeing the others cry out in astonishment one after another, Shi Xiaoyu immediately forgot her dislike of the clothes and hurriedly put on her own wig cap.
The drab hemp topknot automatically arranged itself into the drooping coiffure commonly worn by women in the Qin Dynasty. A few wisps of hair fell naturally across her forehead, lending even her displeased face a touch of classical charm.
“My God!” Shi Xiaoyu blinked at herself in her phone’s selfie camera. “Is this cap alive? How does it look more natural than the perm I got at the salon?”
Fang Gaochang was the last to put on his wig cap. The comical scene suddenly took on a solemn air. The eight modern people wearing Qin-style topknots looked, in a daze, as though they really had crossed over from two thousand years in the past. Even they themselves were stunned by the sight.
Jiang Ye stood with his arms folded, watching the eight of them marvel.
That was nothing.
Once they crossed into the Qin Dynasty, they would learn that this was merely an appetizer.
The Coaster business van traveled smoothly along the expressway while everyone inside continued fussing over their Qin-style clothes. Li Jun kept admiring himself in the window, while Jiang Kai deliberately spoke in a clumsy imitation of an ancient accent, making Shi Xiaoyu roll her eyes repeatedly.
“Entering the White Charcoal Hollow Tunnel ahead. Please slow down and proceed carefully.”
The vehicle’s navigation system issued the mechanical warning.
Jiang Ye adjusted the tour-guide microphone. “Everyone, hold on tight.”
Before he had even finished speaking, the vehicle entered the dim tunnel.
The overhead lights cast rhythmic patterns of light and shadow across the windows, like a corridor through time and space.
Suddenly, a dazzling white light appeared at the far end of the tunnel.
The radiance surged toward them as though it were something solid, filling the entire cabin in an instant.
“What’s happening?” Fang Gaochang instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes.
“Did the tunnel lights malfunction?” Shi Xiaoyu asked, panic creeping into her voice.
The white light grew stronger and stronger until everyone was forced to close their eyes.
When the glare finally faded, they cautiously opened their eyes—and froze in their seats.
The tunnel walls had vanished. In their place stretched an endless expanse of fields. Dark green mountains rose in the distance, while narrow paths crisscrossed the land nearby. On a muddy road, a farmer dressed in a coarse hemp tunic stared dumbfounded at the “iron monster” that had appeared out of nowhere.
“What... what’s going on?” Jiang Kai stared out the window in shock at the utterly transformed landscape.
The tunnel was gone. So were the passing vehicles. Everything familiar to them had disappeared without a trace.
Li Jun abruptly lowered the window, and air carrying the smells of cow dung and fragrant rice rushed into the vehicle.
A farmer carrying a hoe stumbled backward. Shouting in a thick local dialect, he fled into the distance in terror.
“Monster! A monster!”
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Seeing the eight people sitting there in a daze, Jiang Ye curved his lips into a faint smile. He cleared his throat, and his voice rang out through the microphone.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Qin Dynasty, 218 BC.”
At some point, the tour guide’s cap on Jiang Ye’s head had transformed into the topknot worn by commoners of the Qin Dynasty.
A brief silence descended over the cabin.
The next second, it erupted with one astonished cry after another.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!” Fang Gaochang fiercely pinched his own thigh, baring his teeth at the pain. “This isn’t a dream?!”
“Why are you pinching yourself? Pinch me!” Jiang Kai grabbed Li Lin’s arm and twisted it hard.
“Aaagh!” Li Lin shrieked, nearly springing out of his seat. “Jiang Kai, you bastard!”
“It really hurts?” Zheng Chen asked, eyes wide. He reached out, seized Wu Xiaoshi by the ear, and gave it a hard tug.
“Ow—let go! Why don’t you pinch yourself, you jerk?” Wu Xiaoshi slapped his hand away.
Li Jun went the furthest of all. He slapped himself directly across the face with a sharp crack that left everyone stunned.
Covering his cheek, he said blankly, “It hurts!”
Shi Xiaoyu was still reeling from the shock, but when she saw the men pinching and twisting one another in utter chaos, she could not help laughing.
“Could you all show a little dignity?”
She lightly pinched her own wrist, then sucked in a sharp breath.
“So it really isn’t an illusion.”
Fang Gaochang frantically rubbed at his hair—or rather, his wig-topknot.
“Guide Jiang! Did we really travel through time to the Qin Dynasty?”
The cabin instantly fell silent. Eight pairs of eyes turned toward Jiang Ye in unison, waiting for an explanation.
Jiang Ye spread his hands. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Our travel destination is a one-day tour of the Qin Dynasty. We’ll be spending the night here as well.”
“Holy shit! This is actually real!” Li Jun howled with delight.
Jiang Kai was both thrilled and excited. “Two thousand yuan for a trip to the Qin Dynasty? This is worth every penny!”
Jiang Ye urged everyone on.
“Everyone, get off the bus! We need to leave this place first.”
The old farmer who had been working in the fields could very well summon people from the village before long. They could not afford to be caught.
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