"Ahhh…!"
Ra Yunfang felt her body pulled downward by a powerful force as she plummeted straight toward the ground.
With a loud thud, she crashed heavily onto the earth.
A wave of dizziness washed over her. She pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Damn… falling from that height and I'm still alive? As the saying goes—if you survive a great disaster, blessings must be on the way."
Ra Yunfang stood up and patted the dust off her clothes.
She looked around at the wild, overgrown grass surrounding her.
"I have no idea where this place is… Huh? My bag actually fell down with me? Perfect. I can check on Yahan and Rumi."
She opened her bag, took out her phone, and tried calling Heo Yahan and Yoo Rumi.
Every attempt ended the same—no signal, unable to connect.
"No signal? What kind of god-forsaken place is this?"
Ra Yunfang looked around again and realized there wasn't a single signal tower or power line in sight.
"This place is way too poor! Not even a single utility pole?" she grumbled as she walked.
She kept moving until sweat covered her forehead, yet still hadn't encountered a single person.
"Where is this place? Heaven, are you kidding me? I didn't die from the fall, but you're going to make me die from walking instead? How long do I have to go before I see another human being?"
After walking for a long while, Ra Yunfang finally spotted a household in the distance.
"A thatched cottage?"
There were still places in the world that had houses like these? Just how poor was the area she had fallen into?
Sigh.
Outside the thatched cottage sat an elderly grandfather and grandmother.
The old grandmother was already in her seventies. Her short hair looked as if it had been dusted with white frost. Her once-large eyes had sunken deep into their sockets, and most of her teeth were already gone. Her rough hands were covered with thick, worm-like veins crawling across her skin.
The old grandfather's hair was snow-white, and his beard—patchy with white and grey—was thick and bristly, covering most of his face like a hedgehog's spines. Only a pair of sluggish, clouded eyes could be seen beneath it.
Ra Yunfang stepped forward and asked,
"Grandfather, Grandmother, hello. May I ask what place this is?"
Hearing her voice, the two elders turned to look at her.
The old grandfather was so startled that he immediately shut his eyes tight, muttering,
"See no evil, see no evil… see no evil…"
The old grandmother was equally shocked.
What… what had she just seen?
Heavens!
This woman wasn't even properly dressed. What kind of clothing was that? Barely covering the body at all—surely she must have come from a brothel! Otherwise, what decent family's daughter would dare dress like this?
Could she be… a camp woman?
This was the borderlands, and just ahead was the Northwestern Military Camp.
Her arms were pale and unblemished, with no cinnabar mark of virtue—she must not be a maiden.
Ra Yunfang, clueless to their assumptions, looked utterly confused.
Did she really look that frightening? No way… right!?
The old grandfather was so frightened he didn't even dare open his eyes, as if she had done something utterly scandalous.
All she did was ask where this place was—was that really so shocking?
"Girl, are you heading to the Northwestern Military Camp?" the old grandmother asked.
As a fellow woman, she would not treat this young lady coldly just because she assumed she was a camp woman.
"The Northwestern Military Camp? What's that?"
Ra Yunfang blinked. She had never said she was going to any Northwestern Military Camp at all!
"You're not someone sent to the Northwestern Military Camp?" the old grandmother asked.
"Huh? No, I'm not! I fell from an airplane and landed here. There's no signal in this place, so I don't know where I am. That's why I asked you what this place is."
The old grandmother understood every individual word Ra Yunfang spoke—but once those words were strung together, she couldn't comprehend a single thing.
Confused, she turned to her husband and whispered,
"Old man… what is an airplane? Have you ever heard of such a thing? And what is signal? Does she mean a signal flare?"
The old grandfather still kept his eyes tightly shut.
"I do not know what an airplane is. Never heard of it, never seen it. As for 'signal,' it must be referring to a signal flare."
"????"
Ra Yunfang was dumbfounded.
"You… you don't know what an airplane is? And you don't know what a signal is either??"
"We do not," the old grandmother answered honestly.
Heavens!
Just how impoverished was this place?
These two elderly people didn't even know what airplanes or signals were.
That couldn't be possible… right!?
Do they not use cell phones here? Even if they didn't use mobile phones… what about landline phones? Anyone who used a phone should at least know what a signal was, right?
"You… don't tell me you don't even have telephones?"
"Telephone? And what might that be?" the old grandmother asked again, utterly bewildered.
"????"
Impossible.
They didn't even know what a telephone was??
That made no sense! Even if they were too poor to use phones, they should have at least heard of them.
This was completely unreasonable.
Just what kind of bizarre place had she landed in!?
Ra Yunfang took another look at the two elders' clothing.
It didn't resemble modern attire at all—it looked more like something from ancient times.
Could it be…?
Had she somehow caught up with the trend of time-traveling!?
"Grandmother, may I ask… what year is it now?"
The old grandmother looked at Ra Yunfang as though she were staring at a fool.
In her mind, she thought, So she's a simple-minded one… doesn't even know the year or month. No wonder she's dressed like this. Only someone lacking sense would be so shameless. What a pity… what a pity for such a pretty face.
Still, the old grandmother answered her politely,
"It is now the twenty-eighth year of the Kingdom of Wuqi."
?????...
Ra Yunfang's mind exploded.
The twenty-eighth year of Wuqi?
She had really… time-traveled?
What even was the twenty-eighth year of Wuqi?
Who was the Emperor during this era?
She was a straight-A student, yet no matter how fast her brain spun, she couldn't recall any Emperor from a so-called "Wuqi, Year Twenty-Eight."
"Grandmother… what country is this? And who is the Emperor now?"
"This is the Kingdom of Wuqi. Our sovereign is Emperor Xiao Qingze."
The Kingdom of Wuqi? Xiao Qingze?
Ra Yunfang had never heard of such a nation or such a ruler in any history book.
It seemed she had indeed fallen into an entirely fictional era.
She could only wonder where Yahan and Rumi had landed.
With no signal and her phone useless, she had no way to contact them.
She could only hope they were safe.
Since she was here… she would simply have to adapt.
She was a woman from the twenty-first century—how could she possibly be unable to survive here?
"Thank you, Grandmother."
"No need to thank me."
The old woman found the girl quite polite.
She didn't seem mentally unsound… so why were her words so strange?
Ra Yunfang finally understood why the old grandfather had kept his eyes shut the whole time.
Ancient people were extremely reserved—if anyone so much as glimpsed a bit of exposed skin, they would act like it was a matter of life and death.
With the way she was dressed right now, she would probably be thrown into a pig cage for punishment.
"Grandmother, do you have any clean clothes at home that I could borrow?"
"Clothes?"
"Don't worry, Grandmother. I'll pay you in silver. I won't take your things for free."
Ra Yunfang raised her hand slightly. She was wearing a gold bracelet and a gold ring.
The ring had been a gift from her mother on her eighteenth birthday, and she had worn it ever since.
Now that she had arrived in this strange place, Ra Yunfang wasn't even sure if she would ever be able to return.
She slipped the gold bracelet off her wrist and handed it to the old grandmother.
"Grandmother, this is a gold bracelet. Take it as payment for the clothes."
The old grandmother accepted it, stunned.
"T-this… this is a gold bracelet?"
Judging by its color and weight, there was no mistake.
"This is far too valuable. A whole set of clothes isn't worth anywhere near this much."
She quickly pushed the bracelet back into Ra Yunfang's hands. A single gold bracelet could buy plenty of fine silk garments—while her own coarse cotton clothes were worth almost nothing.
"If you don't mind, I still have two sets of my old clothes. You may have them as a gift."
Ra Yunfang understood well that a gold bracelet was worth a great deal in ancient times—enough to buy many things. But she had just arrived here; without some money on hand, survival would be difficult. In this era, currency came in the form of gold, silver, and precious jewels, and all she had were her gold accessories.
If she gave the bracelet away, she would be left with only the gold ring on her finger.
And that ring had been a birthday gift from her mother—it held sentimental value she wasn't willing to part with.
Since the old grandmother was kind enough to offer her clothes for free, she decided to accept the generosity.
Once she found her footing in this ancient world, she would repay the favor.
"I don't mind at all, I don't mind. Thank you, Grandmother."
"Come with me," the old grandmother said.
Ra Yunfang followed her into the thatched cottage.
The interior was extremely simple—just a small stove, a wooden table, and an earthen bed with a single quilt on top. That was likely where they slept.
"These are the clothes. Take them."
"Thank you, Grandmother," Ra Yunfang said gratefully.
"No need to thank me. Go change into these clothes first," the old grandmother urged.
She truly couldn't stand Ra Yunfang's modern outfit—bare arms, bare legs, and skin so fair and tender it drew far too much attention. If anyone else saw her dressed like this, the girl might not be able to walk away unscathed.
The fabric of the ancient clothing felt rough and stiff in her hands, nothing like the soft textiles she was used to.
But there was no helping it—when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Ra Yunfang quickly changed into the outfit. She even tied her hair into the hairstyle of an ancient man. The clothes the old grandmother had given her were quite neutral-looking—not particularly feminine or masculine—making it perfect for her to disguise herself as a man.
In this unfamiliar dynasty, traveling the world as a woman would bring endless inconvenience.