Chapter 3 The Bargaining “Miss Ji Ruoyi, welcome back,” the staff said dispassionately. “Um? Huh?” Ji Ruoyi looked around to find the environment was familiar to her—the time-traveling machine, electric lights, computers, western suits. . . “Wow! I’m back! I’m finally back!” Ji Ruoyi was so happy that she jumped up and down with joy. Then she held the rails of the time-traveling machine to start dancing. “But. . . ” She suddenly spotted the issue. “Why are you here?” she asked Yi Zhizhu. “Are you also a traveler like me? Were you also transmitted to the wrong ancient time?” “I don’t know what you are talking about. I saw a silver light shine on you, and I was so eager to drag you back that I kept holding your hand. When I woke up, I found myself in a cage.” Yi Zhizhu frowned as he answered her. It looked like he had been brought to a strange place. However, she didn’t seem at all nervous about the fact that they had both been caught and locked in a cage. Was she an associate of theirs? Had her purpose been to capture him? Still, he had absolutely no enemies. He’d grown up in the deep mountains, after all. “Hhha. . . ‘Cage!’ If they heard you call this machine a cage, it’d drive them nuts.” For a moment, Ji Ruoyi forgot about the more major issue—that she’d brought him back to her own time. The door of the machine opened slowly, and Ji Ruoyi could not wait. She ran to push it wider and exited from him. She yelled at the manager in charge of her travel, saying, “Hey, you! It is you. Don’t pretend you don’t see me. Why did you send me to a dynasty that never existed in the history books? The Tian Dynasty, hm?” She picked up the history book and threw it to the ground heavily. She should be angry and aggressive; that was the precondition to winning a quarrel. “Miss Ji Ruoyi, we checked your record, and you purchased a child ticket. However, you are an adult. It’s a breach of our regulations. So . . . you couldn’t go to the Tang Dynasty,” the manager replied slowly, without any emotion. “But . . . ” Ji Ruoyi became voiceless. She’d bought a child ticket because it’d saved her 30,000 Yuan. She’d had a stray thought that the agency wouldn’t find out. “Anyway, you can ask me to make up for the rest. Why did you kick me off halfway? In the meantime, you threw me onto a barren mountain.” “The back hill of my villa. It wasn’t barren,” Yi Zhizhu corrected her politely. He was unhappy about this description of his mountain. “Shut up! This isn’t any of your business!” Ji Ruoyi turned back to warn him, then she continued to fight for her compensation. “Anyway, this is all your fault. Besides, you called me back immediately before I could enjoy the scenery there. You should give my 30,000 Yuan back. Oh, no, not 30,000 Yuan—fifty instead.” She threw out her numbers. “And there’s one more requirement: send this problem back.” Problem? She called him a problem? This sentence made him more scared than the strange environment. How was he supposed to feel about a strange girl whom he’d followed after such a short time? “Miss Ji Ruoyi, according to our investigation, you stayed in that time-space for fifty-nine hours. Besides, you brought back this problem yourself.” “Fifty-nine hours? I just woke up. . . ” Ji Ruoyi remembered that Yi Zhizhu told her she had slept for about forty hours. Then, what happened during the rest of the time? Did she spend more than ten hours climbing that hill? What a slow pace! How shameful! “Anyway, I don’t want to get into an argument about this. I would like to give up my money, but you should send him back. It was he who rushed to hold my hand tightly; I couldn’t escape, thus he ended up here, too. You should send him back.” “We have no idea how to do that,” the manger answered. “What did you say?” she screamed. “How did you bring him here? Please just send him back using the same method.” “I am sorry!” Finally, the manger had some expression on his face. It was a helpless smile. “Due to the mistakes of our staff, the time-space gap which we sent you down changed, so you went to the wrong dynasty. But fortunately, we brought you back with the bipper phone. But we can’t find that dynasty anymore.” “Then what am I supposed to do with him?” A chill traveled down Ji Ruoyi’s spine. Were the heavens making fun of her? She’d spent out all her money on this trip, and, after a mistake from the agency, she’d brought back a burden. She glared at Yi Zhizhu with hatred. He gave her a gentle smile in return. “Let him be, miss. Live or die, let him be,” the manager suggested. “No way!” With a bleeding heart, she denied the advice. Why are you so stupid? she asked herself. Just let him go fend for himself. However, she felt that there was an angel living in her heart. Turning back, she took a look at the focus of everyone’s attention; he was so helpless, being watched like a monkey in the zoo. Ji Ruoyi felt her nose was a little out of joint. She took hold of Yi Zhizhu’s hand and left the agency with him in tow.