It was ten o'clock at night.
Zella was taking the money out of the cash register to check how much she had made today.
Usually at this time, she would already be lying at home doing nothing. But now, with the heat over thirty degrees and the power out in her neighborhood, she had no choice but to stay the night in the supermarket.
"Ding-dong! Welcome!" The sensor at the entrance made a sound.
Zella was confused. Her store was on the edge of the city. Normally, at this hour, no one would come. Maybe someone else also had no power at home?
She was just about to look up to greet the customer when she saw a man standing there wearing black traditional clothes.
He was holding a sword, and there were red stains on it that looked like blood.
"Are you playing some role? Like cosplay?" Zella was a bit scared. It was late at night, and this man even smelled like blood.
After she asked, the man turned his head and stared at her for a while.
"Where is this place?" A moment ago, it was dark outside. Now it was suddenly bright here.
"This is my supermarket. Do you want to buy something? Are you filming something here?" Zella looked at him. Lately, she had heard that some online influencers were shooting videos nearby.
She didn't know who he was, but he actually looked pretty good.
"This is WowWow Supermarket in Dahe Village." As soon as she said that, the man turned away.
"Do you have anything to eat?"
His voice startled her, and she dropped her phone on the ground.
After pausing for a second, she replied, "Yes. Do you want rice or instant noodles?"
"What are instant noodles?"
Acting mysterious? Not knowing what noodles are? Don't you have a phone or internet?
"They're just noodles!"
In the end, the man asked for a self-heating rice meal. Zella's hands were shaking while she prepared it for him.
Once he sat down to eat, Zella finally dared to take a better look at him.
There was a lot of red stuff on his sword. His clothes had it too.
"Are you shooting a movie? Your props look really real." Since someone else was there, and she couldn't close the shop yet, she felt a little more relaxed. He didn't look like someone with a mental problem.
Zella started chatting with him.
"That's blood. I entered the enemy's base and got tricked. All my brothers died. I don't know why I suddenly ended up in this place."
Okay. He's too into the story. Still in character.
Heh.
"Alright, when you finish eating, you should go. I want to close the shop. It's too late." She was starting to wonder if he had escaped from a hospital. Later, she would search online to check if any patients had run away.
Should she call the police?
While Zella was still thinking about it, the man took off a jade pendant and handed it to her.
"I don't have anything valuable with me. This pendant should be worth a few silver coins."
Then he walked out.
Zella quickly pulled down the shutter right after he left. Meeting someone like that so late at night was really scary.
As for the pendant, maybe it came from a cheap store.
She just threw it into the drawer without thinking much.
The next morning, when Zella opened the shutter to start the day, she saw that same man sitting outside.
After Cian had walked out last night, he wandered around for a bit and realized that everything here was totally different from where he came from.
The things moving on the road were super fast, lights were bright and colorful, and people were dressed in strange ways.
Zella wanted to close the door out of fear, but Cian was quicker.
Cian thought that yesterday, while being chased, he stepped into a hole and ended up here. So if he wanted to go back, maybe he had to return through that same place.
He had already looked around and noticed that too many things were different here compared to his own world. Maybe this was what people called another world.
"You...?" Zella didn't understand. Was this guy following her?
Could this be some kind of new scam? Zella looked at the man walking into her store behind her. She didn't dare say too much. She was afraid she might make him angry.
While he wasn't paying attention, she quickly called the police.
While waiting for them to arrive, Zella watched as the man walked around her small supermarket, looking at everything.
Some customers came in during that time and even took pictures with him.
When the police arrived, they took him away.
Zella felt a little guilty when she saw the look in his eyes.
"He just showed up outside my store last night, and he was still there this morning. Please check where he came from. Maybe he's lost or something."
Cian heard this and finally understood that she had called the police on him.
But his sword had already been taken away, and he had lost his inner power.
He could only let the officers take him away.
Zella was scared he might come back later and cause trouble, so she decided to take a break for herself.
She closed the shop and got ready to leave. Then she remembered the jade pendant the man had given her. She casually put it into her bag.
She got on her small electric scooter and rode to her friend's house to have dinner.
Zella's best friend was already married and had a daughter who was over two years old. She was a cute little girl.
When Zella arrived at Chen Cheng's house, she put her bag down and played with the little girl.
The child's nickname was Wanzi. Zella played with her for a while, then her friend called her to eat.
While Zella was carrying the dishes, Wanzi opened her bag, and everything inside spilled out.
"Oh no. We're about to eat, and you've made a mess with your godmother's things again." Chen Cheng rushed over to pick up the stuff and tried to carry her daughter away.
Then she noticed the jade pendant.
She liked antiques, so she immediately saw that this piece was special.
"Where did you get this?" she asked Zella while holding the pendant.
"Yesterday some crazy guy came into my store. He ate one of my self-heating meals, said he didn't have money, and gave me that instead."
Chen Cheng stared at the pendant for a long time after hearing that.
"Wait until my grandpa comes home. I'll ask him to take a look. This really seems like an antique."
Chen Cheng's grandpa was an antique expert. When Zella heard that he would check it, she quickly ran out of the kitchen.
Thinking about how strange the man acted yesterday, could it be true? Was this really an antique?
She had watched enough TV shows. Time travel didn't seem impossible in stories.
After they finished eating, Chen Cheng's grandpa came back. Zella gave him the pendant. He looked at it carefully in his hand.
Then he brought out some special tools to check it.
Finally, he gave his conclusion. This item looked like it was from around the Song dynasty.
Zella's mouth fell open in shock.
If it was fake, she wouldn't mind giving someone a meal.
But if it was real, and someone gave her something worth tens of thousands just for a self-heating meal
She couldn't accept that.
She quickly took the pendant back from Grandpa Chen. Then she told her friend's family that she would visit another time.
She got on her scooter and rushed to the police station.