They were also wearing all kinds of jewelry, but all of it was made from bones.

  “Have I arrived at an African tribe?”

  After a while, Young Man finally realized what was happening, muttering in disbelief, his heart skipping a beat, “No, that can’t be right. They don’t look like black people… Could this be an uncivilized part of the Americas, Indians? No, that’s not right either. They don’t have broad noses and protruding eyes, nor high noses and deep-set eyes. Their hair is black, just like mine—they’re clearly East Asians like me.”

  Suddenly, he remembered that monstrous beast, and the strange jungle. “Could it be—!” A flash of fear appeared in his eyes as he stared fixedly at one spot: a sturdy man holding a stone spear. “Could it be—could it be—I’ve come to the primitive era.” At this thought, he shook his head repeatedly, muttering to himself, “Impossible, impossible, I was supposed to return to the Song Dynasty. How could I possibly have come to this primitive society—no, no, Heaven, this is a joke that just can’t be real—!”

  As he spoke, his emotions suddenly became extremely agitated, and he struggled desperately, “Let me go, let me go, I want to go to the Song Dynasty.”

  Clearly, he couldn’t accept any of this.

  However, all around him was a deathly silence, making him feel a chill rise from his feet to the top of his head. Looking closely, he couldn’t help but feel terrified. He saw three or five strong men coldly pointing stone spears at him. The spearheads weren’t sharp at all, but they exuded a murderous aura that made one’s heart tremble.

  The children, on the other hand, seemed to be frightened by him. They clung tightly to the adults’ legs, glancing at him sideways, sneaking peeks. When he looked at them, they quickly turned their faces away, a mix of fear and curiosity in their eyes.

  As for those three or five strong men, although their spearheads were aimed at Young Man, their gazes were all fixed on a slightly plump Old Woman in the middle. This Old Woman also had a head of silver hair and looked to be in her fifties or sixties. Her complexion was rosy, her expression kind, and she was the most clothed among them. Besides a fur skirt wrapped around her lower body, she also wore a short fur jacket on top, at least covering everything that should be covered.

  That Old Woman stared at him for a while, then suddenly asked, “Who are you? Why have you trespassed into the territory of our Blackstone Valley?”

  Young Man was startled. She… how is her language—how is it so similar to mine? That’s impossible. If this is the primitive era, there’s no way she’d speak such an advanced language. Or maybe this isn’t primitive society at all. A glimmer of hope rose in his heart, and he calmed down. After a brief pause, he said, enunciating each word, “My name is Richard Thompson, I come from… from the east. I just lost my way on the journey and ended up here.”

  Although their languages were extremely similar, there were still noticeable differences in pronunciation, a bit like the different dialects between two provinces in later generations. So Young Man deliberately spoke slowly, afraid they wouldn’t understand.

  That Old Woman frowned slightly as she listened, but said nothing, as if pondering something.

  Richard Thompson didn’t know whether she understood or not, but he had no time to worry about that now. He immediately asked, “May I ask, where is this place?”

  “This is Blackstone Valley!” Old Woman said.

  “Blackstone Valley?”

  Richard Thompson was taken aback. That’s not what I meant. He asked again, “May I be so bold as to ask, what era is it now?” As he spoke, he looked extremely nervous.

  “Era?” Old Woman was slightly stunned, and asked curiously, “What is an era?”

  Young Man’s eyes immediately filled with disappointment. She doesn’t even know what an era is. Looks like I really have come to primitive society. But why are our languages so similar? Could it be that our language was born in the Stone Age? That’s just unbelievable. Wait, I seem to have an important mission. No matter where I am now, I must survive, I must survive. He took a deep breath, raised his head, and asked the Old Woman, “Why did you tie me up? I mean no harm.” Though in his heart he thought, with so many of you, it’d be hard for me to have any ill intentions even if I wanted to!

  The Old Woman suddenly looked at the Old Man.

  “So scary! So scary!”

  That Old Man was still trembling nonstop.

  Did I scare him just now? No way, he clearly scared me! Looking like that and coming right up to my face when I’d just woken up from unconsciousness—how could I not be scared! Oh well, they have the numbers, so let’s just say I scared him.

  When under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head! Richard Thompson explained gently, “Elder, you startled me just now. Actually, I’m not scary at all. I got lost in the forest earlier, and then was chased by a wild beast. If I were scary, would I have been chased by a beast until I fainted?”

  After hearing this, the Old Woman whispered a few words to the Old Man.

  The Old Man looked Richard Thompson up and down, from bottom to top and top to bottom, several times. Suddenly, a look of innocence appeared in his sunken eyes. It seemed that seeing Young Man’s kind expression, he no longer found him frightening. After thinking for a while, he finally nodded to the Old Woman.

  Only then did the Old Woman say to Richard Thompson, “I can let you go, but you must leave our territory immediately.”

  “Alright… huh? …Leave… this…?”