10 – Isolated
Xie Rongyu set the notebook on the small table, his face hidden behind the protective suit, his voice gentle.
“The physical exam results will take a while. How about writing up a work report first?”
Just as expected.
Whenever the young nobleman opened his mouth, nothing good followed.
Li Ziyin, annoyed, buried herself in a pillow. “Can I dictate and you write it for me, Young Master Xie?”
Xie Rongyu’s phoenix eyes curved with a hint of a smile. “Sure.”
“…” Being this agreeable—she’d end up going soft on him!
Li Ziyin took a deep breath.
She unfastened the Space Button from her wrist and handed it to him.
“It’s a prehistoric world. The things inside—well, they include Yao, Shun, and Yu.”
“!!!”
The experts waiting outside, especially the historians, practically leaped out of their seats!
A prehistoric world!
And Yao, Shun, and Yu!
Those were the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors—figures of legend!
If their existence could be proven, how could foreign scholars keep denying the Xia Dynasty, denying China’s five thousand years of history?
“But the camera conflicts with the system’s data, so I can’t use it after crossing over. I could only draw.”
The experts understood. Though it was a pity, they were still beside themselves with excitement.
The atmosphere on the entire second floor was nearly boiling over.
Before her physical exam results came out, Li Ziyin couldn’t move around freely.
She told Xie Rongyu everything she had seen and heard in the prehistoric world.
Once she finished, Xie Rongyu sat beside her and wrote up the report for her.
The experts and scholars keeping watch outside had also heard her words, and through the glass door they couldn’t wait to start asking questions.
“You saw Emperor Shun, one of the Five Emperors?”
“You even saw Yu the Great? The founding monarch of the Xia Dynasty?”
“You even got a waterway map drawn by Yu the Great’s own hand?”
“Does Emperor Shun really have double pupils?”
Mixed in were the voices of botanists: “You found ancient plants too?”
“…”
Li Ziyin talked until her mouth was dry.
Xie Rongyu, writing the report, thoughtfully passed her a cup of milk tea.
It was even still hot!
Li Ziyin: !
Xie Rongyu pointed at the insulated box under the table beside her.
He’d prepared it in advance?
Li Ziyin’s eyelashes trembled slightly. She popped the seal and took a sip.
Warm, half-sugar, with pearls and milk foam.
It was Li Ziyin’s favorite flavor.
Mmm…
She stole a sidelong glance at Xie Rongyu.
He was fully absorbed in writing the report, and even the white protective suit couldn’t hide his jade-like figure. Her little heart couldn’t help skipping a few beats in her chest.
Writing a work report while multitasking.
No—multitasking twice over.
The experts kept asking questions nonstop, yet he didn’t find it noisy at all.
He looked perfectly composed.
Li Ziyin’s gaze wavered.
Fortunately, the historians were so worked up that they quickly pulled her attention back.
“Miss Li gave explosives to Yu the Great to blast open the mountains?”
The old expert’s hair was white, his voice trembling.
The others also fixed their gazes intently on Li Ziyin.
Everyone who could come to the base was among the nation’s top talent.
At first, they had merely been astonished by Li Ziyin—after all, in this proper scientific age, someone suddenly claiming she could travel through time…
Ordinary people would have thought her a lunatic brainwashed by the internet, let alone experts who had spent their whole lives in the company of science.
But this matter had the backing of the First and Second Chiefs, and Elder Xie had personally stepped forward.
No matter how much the experts doubted, they had to come and see. And once they discovered Li Ziyin really could cross over, they were both astonished and convinced.
This young girl had such an extraordinary opportunity, yet without a second thought she had handed it over to the state.
Not a shred of selfishness!
And now they heard how she had faced Shun and Yu after crossing into the prehistoric era.
And how she “traded” with Shun—one of the Five Emperors—for precious historical materials, and guided Yu’s thinking on flood control, earned even deeper admiration.
This little girl, who looked like a gust of wind could knock her over, had reportedly been in a vegetative state just a month ago.
Yet she possessed such breadth of mind and courage—how could anyone not admire her?
Looking at Li Ziyin now, the experts seemed to see the nation rising and science advancing at breakneck speed!
And the magnificent scenery of countless worlds!
What an opportunity this was for the country—and for them!
The experts’ hearts surged with excitement.
Li Ziyin was used to it by now. She nodded. “If using explosives changes history, then the ‘legends’ passed down to our era should change too?”
She had considered this possibility when she left the explosives, along with the potatoes and sweet potatoes, with Yu and Shun.
If ancient history were altered—and with bug-level crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes—there was no way they wouldn’t have been passed down.
So modern history would surely change along with it.
Otherwise, her transmigration into this timeline’s historical eras would, after changing history, produce a parallel timeline with no effect on this world.
The experts nodded with growing approval.
The fact that she could say this showed she thought things through carefully before acting.
She wasn’t showing off or grandstanding.
The elderly expert said kindly, “There’s another possibility.”
He glanced at his colleagues.
“That era is too distant from us, and the historical records have all been lost. Even if it changed, the impact on the present wouldn’t be significant.”
Li Ziyin had considered this possibility too.
That was why she had dared to be so bold.
After all, the “history” passed down from the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors hadn’t fully separated from mythology.
Even if there really were records of what Li Ziyin gave them, they would only be treated as divine artifacts from myth.
Not as modern items crossing over through time.
This was also one of the reasons she’d let them assume she was an “immortal.”
Sipping her milk tea, Li Ziyin looked at Xie Rongyu.
“Xie Rongyu, in the future, can I try changing history in eras with clear historical records?”
Changing history involved too much at stake—Li Ziyin couldn’t decide on her own.
She could only leave it to those with the authority to decide.
Xie Rongyu had just finished writing the report and handed her the notebook.
“I’ll submit the application.”
He looked up, his goggles misted with condensation.
“Check it for anything I’ve missed.”
Xie Rongyu had come from the central government, after all—writing reports was his forte.
Every sentence hit the key points, and the entire report contained not a single wasted word.
Neat and crisp.
A pleasure to read.
Li Ziyin returned the laptop, generous with her praise.
“As they say, let the right person do the right job. From now on, all my work reports go to you.”
Xie Rongyu closed the laptop and took the medical checkup report the doctor handed over.
“Take a look at this report too.”
Li Ziyin stared at him.
She felt he was dodging the subject.
Hah, men.
A moment ago he said yes.
One compliment, and now it was no.
Floods inevitably bring epidemics.
Though Li Ziyin had been extremely careful, she had still picked up a few germs.
So she very gloriously got a vaccine shot—and was quarantined.
Li Ziyin covered her face.
Her soul had transmigrated a hundred times without a single incident.
One body transmigration, and something went wrong.
Thankfully she had cultivated immortality—otherwise, with the frail body of someone who’d been a vegetable for two years, she would have collapsed long ago.
After handing over her Space Button, Li Ziyin settled into quarantine in the isolation suite.
Xie Rongyu came by every day to chat with her for a while, but mostly he told her about the research progress on the things she had brought back.
Li Ziyin was long used to it.
Young Master Xie was a workaholic—what else would he talk about?
From this, it was clear that although he was good-looking, he must have been a single dog all along.
Xie Rongyu noticed her gaze and paused his work talk. “What is it?”