For Su Miaomiao’s sake, and since there were no urgent matters at the company today, he reluctantly agreed to play along with them.
But when he finished signing, and his portrait and name appeared out of thin air on the blank Traveler’s Pass, he wavered for a moment.
Could this girl be…
“Ahem—”
Lu Shiyan suddenly coughed loudly and walked up to He Mu, deliberately positioning himself between her and Su Mu.
He didn’t like the way Su Mu was staring at He Mu.
Su Mu immediately saw through Lu Shiyan’s thoughts and found it amusing. He was completely misunderstood—he had no interest in underage girls.
Lu Shiyan said, “He Mu, you said there were only three spots. Now that everyone’s here, when do we leave?”
He Mu looked at the three of them and communicated with the system in her mind.
“System, everyone’s here. How do we get to 1.7 million years ago?”
[Just get in the car.]
A ten-seater minibus drove up, with the logo “He Xiaosa Travel Agency” pasted on its body. He Mu had led several tour groups in this vehicle before, but at this moment, the car keys should have been with He Xiaosa.
Was the system driving?
The minibus stopped, and He Mu immediately called out, “The car’s here. Let’s get in.”
He Mu boarded first, carrying the supplies she had bought earlier. First, to show that this was a safe and reliable travel agency, not an unlicensed vehicle, and second, she wanted to see who was driving.
It was a man wearing sky-blue casual clothes, with regular features but an expressionless face, lacking a certain liveliness.
“System?”
He Mu whispered, but there was no response. It seemed to be just an android.
Su Miaomiao, Lu Shiyan, and Su Mu boarded the car and chose their seats.
He Mu said to the three of them, “Fasten your seatbelts. We’re about to depart. Destination: the primitive society of 1.7 million years ago, to witness the early humans of version 1.0—the Yuanmou Man!”
The car started and gradually left the city, entering the ring expressway and heading west.
Among the travelers, Lu Shiyan and Su Miaomiao kept their eyes on He Mu, observing her emotions. Deep down, they didn’t believe in time travel. They were worried that He Mu might have become mentally unstable due to the shock of her family member’s illness.
Su Mu sat by the window, memorizing the route along the way. Moreover, for safety’s sake, his phone was sharing his real-time location with his assistant.
Although he could play along with the kids’ make-believe, given his family’s influence, he had to be wary of anyone with ill intentions who might use the children to carry out a kidnapping.
He Mu’s phone rang again. It was a call from her mother.
“You crazy girl, what are you doing? Where have you run off to? Get back here right now!”
As soon as the call connected, a woman’s roar came through. “Do you think you can hide? Your second uncle told us everything. It was you who angered Grandma to death…”
He Mu hung up the call, her chest heaving violently.
He Xiaosa had indeed shifted all the blame onto her, and her parents believed it without question.
The phone rang again. This time, it was her father calling.
He Mu took a deep breath and answered, “I’m going to find a way to save Grandma. Don’t move her until I return!”
She hung up.
Turned off her phone.
All in one swift motion.
Her actions were quick and drew the attention of the others in the car.
Her behavior seemed odd no matter how you looked at it.
He Mu took another deep breath and adjusted her emotions.
He immediately stood up and faced the three of them, saying, “As stated in the signed contract, the destination we are heading to is in the distant past—1.7 million years ago. We will be staying there for one day, which is 24 hours. Since it is an uncivilized primitive society with certain dangers, everyone must stick together and avoid acting alone.”
“I have prepared multifunctional flashlights, emergency food supplies, first-aid medicine, electronic animal repellents, and knives for everyone…”
Just then, the car entered the Dazhou Mountain Tunnel. The people in the car were completely unaware of anything unusual, still listening to He Mu’s instructions. Despite how absurd these instructions sounded—after all, it couldn’t possibly be true that they would actually time-travel and encounter Yuanmou Man, could it?—they continued to listen.
However, as time passed and He Mu finished reading through all the emergency plans, the three finally began to sense something was off.
“Why haven’t we exited the tunnel yet?”
Su Mu was the first to notice something was wrong. He was no stranger to this tunnel, having driven through it countless times. It usually took less than three minutes to pass through, but now the car had been inside for ten minutes.
Su Mu took out his phone, only to find no signal. He asked, “Check if your phones still have a signal.”
He Mu had turned hers off and couldn’t be bothered to turn it back on, while Lu Shiyan and Su Miaomiao both checked their phones and found no signal.
All three of them turned their eyes to He Mu.
He Mu forced herself to remain calm. “Didn’t I tell you? We’re going on a time-travel journey.”
Suddenly, a blinding white light appeared at the end of the tunnel ahead. Everyone instinctively squinted their eyes.
As the car drove toward the light, the closer they got, the more intense the glare became, making it almost impossible to keep their eyes open. Then, the car jolted violently, as if passing through an invisible barrier.
[Ding! Host has successfully traveled to 1.7 million years ago. Stay in the primitive society for a full 24 hours, and return to complete the mission.]
The system’s voice finally rang out, carrying a hint of mechanical indifference.
The next moment, the blinding white light vanished, and the car emerged from the tunnel. However, the scenery outside the window had completely changed.
Beyond the tunnel should have been a highway, but now only a primeval forest lay before them.
White mist clung like gauze to the branches of towering trees, their trunks so thick that three or four people would need to join hands to encircle them. Cracked bark was covered in green moss and dodder vines, while creepers hung like giant pythons from above, dripping with moisture. The air was thick with the scent of dampness, decaying leaves, and the sweet fragrance of wild fruits.
Sunlight pierced through the overlapping layers of the canopy, scattering into patches of light that fell upon the muddy forest floor, which was covered in hoofprints of wild beasts and shallow pits left by bare human feet.
The forest echoed with a cacophony of sounds—the chirping of birds, monkeys swinging from vines while making hooting calls, streams flowing over pebbles, and occasionally, low growls of beasts that startled flocks of birds into flight.
“Where… is this?”
The three in the car were dumbfounded, pressing their faces against the windows as they stared in astonishment at the world outside.
He Mu was equally amazed, but as the tour guide and the one who had brought them here, she couldn’t afford to lose her composure.
He Mu put on a professional smile and said, “Welcome to the primitive society of 1.7 million years ago.”
Lu Shiyan swallowed hard. “He Mu, you’re not joking, are you?”
He Mu shrugged, wearing an expression that seemed to say, “Do I look like I’m joking?”
Su Mu, the eldest among them, tempered by years of experience in the business world, was naturally steady and capable. He quickly came to terms with the fact that they had truly traveled through time.
He approached Su Miaomiao and whispered, “Miaomiao, don’t leave my side from now on.”
Su Miaomiao was still in shock, but seeing her brother again brought her some comfort.
At that moment, the system’s voice echoed in He Mu’s mind.
【The vehicle will disappear in five minutes. Please disembark as soon as possible.】