Back to the Southern Song Dynasty

"Now, what time is it?" Zhao Xi asked anxiously. "1162 AD," replied Song Tao. With a loud bang, the roaring time machine came to a stop. "Dr. Zhao, we still can't control the exact time point for the crossing!" Assistant researcher Song Tao exclaimed. "Restart it! Record the working status of the time shift core. We need to experiment multiple times to find the issue," urged Dr. Zhao. "It's not working! We can't start it again. The time shift core is completely burnt, and we only have this one core." "After a month of intensive experiments, the highly dense heavy matter inside has been depleted. The machine is idle, and the time shift core is burnt!" "You're talking nonsense! It's 2062 now, and our surroundings haven't changed. Look at this lab; it's still the same as before. Every time we time travel, nothing from our era travels with us, except the time machine. Have you forgotten how the last time you stood naked in front of me?" "Dr. Zhao, I wouldn't lie to you. This is what the display on the machine shows." Helplessly, Dr. Zhao had to check the numbers on the time machine herself – 1162 AD. According to history, it was the Southern Song Dynasty. If they couldn't return, it would be troublesome. Dr. Zhao didn't argue further with Song Tao and left the room directly. She wanted to see with her own eyes if this world was indeed in the year 1162. Gently pushing open the door, the corridor was pitch black. Dr. Zhao returned, grabbed a flashlight, and called Assistant Researcher Song Tao. Together, they left the lab. "If we've traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty, why are the surrounding classrooms and buildings still here?" "I don't know the reason, but the time machine won't deceive us," Song Tao quickly added. Just promoted to assistant, he was eager to distance himself from the failed experiment; after all, being a junior assistant wasn't an easy position. The corridor remained quiet. The school enforced lights-out at 10 PM to prevent late-night gaming. Except for emergency lights and the lab lights, everything was dark. Dr. Zhao, pushing for progress, had kept the new assistant working late into the night. Dr. Zhao looked out the window, and the campus was in complete darkness. Even the streetlights were off. Checking her phone, she noticed it was already 11:15 PM. Ten minutes had passed since the time machine malfunction. She realized her phone had no signal. "Our phones have no signal!" Song Tao shouted. "I've noticed too. It seems we're in a time without signals," Dr. Zhao said, somewhat despondent. In previous time machine experiments, participants could only go back a few minutes, at most five. This time, they had traveled 900 years into the past. Dr. Zhao, less agitated than Song Tao, decided to go to the playground to assess the surroundings. The campus was silent, and many students were already asleep. Breathing in the fresh air after leaving the lab, she felt it was exceptionally crisp, as if she had never smelled such fresh air before. Looking up at the starry sky, the Big Dipper shone remarkably bright. The stars were so vivid that they seemed to illuminate the ground. Outside the campus, everything was pitch black. The school used to be in a bustling city area, with many office buildings and residential complexes. Even at night, it wouldn't be completely dark. "A world without modern civilization," Song Tao said with a teary voice. "This is a world without modern civilization! How can there be electricity in the Southern Song Dynasty? Nothing at all!" In past crossings, only people and the machine traveled, leaving everything else behind. Dr. Zhao knew that dealing with people from the Southern Song Dynasty would be challenging, especially given Song Tao's level of understanding of Middle Chinese. If they couldn't return, his actions would be considered theft. Dr. Zhao and Song Tao reached the school's entrance, observing the pitch-black surroundings. They used the flashlight to scan the area, revealing a tiger not far away. "Ah! There's really a tiger!" The security guard was terrified, rushing back to his security room, forgetting the two students still on the playground. Panicking, they ran into the security room, narrowly escaping the approaching tiger. The guard quickly closed the door as the tiger slammed into it, leaving the room in a tense silence. To be continued...