Huang Xuan had imagined many times of him traveling to a familiar world. However, when he actually arrived in one, he realized that all his ideas were just his impractical imagination.
Thanks to the unlucky traveler's ordinate, they reached their destination, P176T0W3609. It was the year 192 AD, which was the third year of Ping in the early Han dynasty of China, when the three kingdoms were fighting against one another, a time full of heroes.
Huang Xuan had never finished reading the Three Kingdoms. He couldn't go on reading when he read about Guan Yu's death. To youths like him, life was like a fairytale; they expected stories where the prince and the princess lived happily ever after; they couldn't understand why there were more tragedies than comedies in reality. Huang Xuan never understood how such a hero like Guan Yu could fail in Mai City. He sometimes imagined if he had been in Mai City at that time, he would have picked up a six-barrel Gatling and killed all the enemies or provided Guan Yu with tens of thousand dans (1 Dan = 50 kg = 110 lbs.) of grains.
In the year 192, Dong Zhuo was at the peak of his life while Liu Bei was planning the future with his two sworn brothers.
"Where is this place?" Huang Xuan observed his surroundings slowly. He had landed on a lane in the city, with a few people nearby. Most of the houses were built with wood, and a few with thatch. Two-floor houses could hardly be seen. The only taller buildings were the bell towers in the distance.
"This is Changan City. We can stay here for 15 days and it will only be three days in P112."
"Is this what the code does?" Huang Xuan didn't show much interest in Changan City. He had thought the three kingdoms at war were supposed to be full of opportunities, like the legendary American dream.
"It's a pity that it isn't a high-grade code and can only be used once. Otherwise, we would be able to confirm the ordinate of this place."
Huang Xuan didn't think so. He was still thinking about the three kingdoms. The history of the hard work of hundreds of men has inspired hundreds of millions of people.
It was early spring with blue sky. Huang Xuan took off his thick clothes and Rolin put them in the passage.
Voices came from afar. Huang Xuan was happy although he couldn't hear them clearly. He walked out of the lane in a long-sleeved shirt, looking quite strange in that time.
The streets were full of people in rugs. The assistants in stores were all spiritless and paid no attention to customers. Horses were not allowed to be on the street. Girls and women wandered in shops.
The rice shops of Changan were all at the east market. The price was rather high during the war. Huang Xuan walked into a store and sold a few dou of rice. The money he got was enough to get himself a set of black clothing. He didn't try to sell more rice. Since he had 15 days, he was thinking of making a good plan to earn money and get buffer zone energy.
From the materials Rolin had given him, gold was cheap in the Han dynasty, but transporting gold would consume too much energy, so it was unworthy. Among all the legacies the Han dynasty had left to the world, jade was the most valuable, which was also impossible to take back home. There were a few paintings and books too, but the prices were not so satisfactory. Huang Xuan wandered around in the street, rubbing his face. It was an old city but seemed lifeless. The pressure of living showed on every face.
If Huang Xuan hadn't paid attention to the clothes of the residents, he would have thought they were living in modern Hong Kong where people had a fast-paced lifestyle. There was no happiness of living in a capital city but anxiety on their faces. Everybody was busy and nobody was loitering in the street.
Huang Xuan looked around as Rolin was telling him about the time. Suddenly, people shouted and horses neighed nearby. Huang Xuan checked. It turned out that an old woman had stopped a sedan to cry out for justice. Although Huang Xuan had seen such scenes a lot on TV, he was touched by the sorrowful cries.
Her words couldn't be heard clearly. It sounded that it was about her daughter being abducted. "Please help me, Lord Stu," the woman cried, but the person in the sedan was never seen.
After a moment, Huang Xuan became impatient. So was the sedan. It tried to pass by the woman. She attempted to stop it again but was stopped by the servants. There were few on-lookers, who made no comments on what was happening. Everything seemed for granted to them.
The sedan was about to leave from the street when ten-odd men in black turned up, 20 years old or so. The leader was in a shirt, with a scar on his left cheek, vicious-looking. He rushed over with clenched teeth. The on-lookers all withdrew in terror. The woman tried to run away but failed because of her numb legs since she had knelt for such a long time.
The head grabbed the old woman and said with a grin, "You are very bold to dare accuse our Dong Family." Then he grabbed her hair, trying to pull her along the street.
The old woman didn't cave in and started to fight back. She turned and tried to escape but fell on the ground. But her hair was still grabbed by the scar-faced man. She sat there in pain. However, the gangster of men didn't take pity on her. Another man in black gave her two heavy kicks. Seeing this, Huang Xuan's face turned green in fury. He stepped up, took out his gun, pointed it at the men and said, "Stop! Or I will shoot!"
The scar face looked at Huang Xuan in shock. When he saw the small pistol in Huang Xuan's hand, he laughed loudly. He asked Huang Xuan with his finger pointing at him, "Do ya lo who Im (Do you know who I am)?"
Rolin interpreted quickly and told Huang Xuan, "This is a dialect on the border between Gansu Province and Shanxi Province."
Huang Xuan asked, still holding the gun, "Anybody famous comes from there?"
"Dong Zhuo was from Lintao, Shanxi, which was divided into Gansu Province in the time you come from."
Huang Xuan gasped. "Thanks to Rolin, I am holding a gun with 30 bullets. Otherwise, there wouldn't be enough bullets for a dozen people."
The scar face held the old woman's hair with one hand and stepped on one of her legs with one foot. "Hit him," he waved his hand and said.
Immediately, five men came up, wielding swords.
Huang Xuan wasn't terrified. He had fought a lot, although he had rarely used a knife. And now he had Rolin. "You said you could protect me with energy. I will go and rescue the old woman. Then we run."
"I must tell you. Since all the energy is from P112, the consumption will be huge. To protect you from the swords, it will cost 50,000 RMB each time."
Huang Xuan was impressed by Rolin's bluntness. If he was surrounded by five men and each man hit him once every two seconds, 7.5 million RMB would be spent every minute. Maybe he had to take several attacks for the woman. The costs would be much higher if some guy tossed bricks or construction materials or pulled arrows. Currently, it seemed that it would definitely take more than one minute.
Thinking this, Huang Xuan wasn't hesitant anymore. He held the Colt revolver tightly and shouted, "Stop!"
No one listened to him. Huang Xuan aimed at the men's legs and fired. The men coming toward him fell quickly.
Since the gun had been modified for self protection, Rolin had enhanced its rest energy. The men wouldn't be able to catch up if they're injured.