Henry Clark quickly found what he was looking for in the cabinet by his bed. The first time he opened his eyes after crossing over, he saw a beautiful woman in ancient clothing, which made him think she was a legendary fairy—after all, ordinary people wouldn’t wear such attire. But later he learned that she was actually his newlywed wife. Unfortunately, this woman named Emily Foster didn’t like him. In the past few days, she only appeared briefly when someone came to check on him; otherwise, she was nowhere to be seen.

Henry Clark didn’t have time to think about his relationship with Emily Foster right now. He shook his head vigorously, calmed himself, and placed the items he’d found on the bed. There were three things in total: a bundle wrapped in silk containing the clothes he wore before crossing over—a white shirt, blue jeans, a black waterproof jacket, and even his underwear.

When Henry Clark woke up and saw Emily Foster, she was also frightened by that ball-shaped lightning and hurried out to call for help. Henry Clark took the opportunity to look around at his surroundings. Although he was still a bit confused, his sixth sense told him that something terrible must have happened to him. He quickly gathered up the things around him. What puzzled him was that all his belongings, even his clothes, had come with him, but his body had become this Henry Clark. Who knows what happened after he was struck by that lightning?

If you can’t figure something out, don’t dwell on it—this is one of Henry Clark’s few strengths. He reached out and touched the familiar clothes, then took a few items from the jacket pocket: an ordinary set of keys—unfortunately, the locks they open were left in the 21st century; a black wallet with over a hundred yuan and a few cards, now useless and reduced to waste paper; and finally, the knockoff cell phone that Henry Clark had just been missing so much.

Henry Clark used to be a fan of Stephen Chow. He remembered in Chow’s “God of Gamblers II,” the protagonist, Ah Sing, traveled back to Shanghai decades ago and could still contact people from the future using an old-fashioned cell phone. Although the plot was absurd, Henry Clark now wished his phone had such a function.

Thinking of this, Henry Clark picked up his phone with trembling hands and gently pressed the button below.

“Huh? No response!” Henry Clark stubbornly pressed it again, but the screen remained pitch black. Now sweat was breaking out on Henry Clark’s forehead. The greatest pain in life is to give someone hope, only to cruelly shatter it.

Clinging to his last hope, Henry Clark pressed and held the power button. This knockoff phone always shut off at random times and had to be restarted each time. Plus, it had traveled nearly a thousand years with him—who knows what problems might have arisen?

“Ding~” With a crisp sound, the silly Android robot finally appeared on the phone, which made Henry Clark relax a little. But before he could celebrate, the screen went black again and the phone shut off. This time, no matter how long Henry Clark held the power button, the screen wouldn’t light up again.

“Damn it, it clearly just turned on—why won’t it work now?” Henry Clark cursed, pressing the power button desperately and shaking the phone as he muttered to himself. But no matter how much he shook it, the phone didn’t respond at all. Frustrated, he raised his hand, ready to throw the phone away.

“Wait, that’s not right. I’ve been here for several days already—this crappy phone should have run out of battery long ago and shut off automatically. If I could just charge it, it should work again.” Thinking of this, Henry Clark got excited again, but soon realized that he was in the Northern Song Dynasty and couldn’t even find a place to charge it. Was he supposed to fly a kite during a thunderstorm? That would be way too dangerous.

But then again, who knows—if he got struck by lightning again, maybe he could travel back. But the odds of that happening were about as good as winning the lottery ten times in a row. Henry Clark did the math and realized he probably wasn’t that lucky, so he decided not to risk it for now.

A dead phone is useless, not even as good as a brick. So Henry Clark could only toss the phone and his clothes aside helplessly, then looked at the remaining two items: a cardboard box and a backpack.

Henry Clark didn’t even need to look to know what was in the box—a secondhand microscope. The elementary school where he volunteered was in a small village. The village wasn’t exactly poor, but it was full of left-behind children. Besides the kids, there were only elderly people; all the young adults had gone out to work. Aside from him, the only other young people were a few pregnant women staying home to give birth.

The school’s conditions weren’t great. At the very least, when he wanted his students to learn more about biology, there was no microscope. So he asked a friend in Beijing to get him a secondhand one, supposedly retired from a local school. It worked fine and was cheap. Because of this microscope, he went to the county seat to pick up the delivery, and on the way back, he was struck by lightning. When he opened his eyes again, it was already the Northern Song Dynasty.