Chapter 2: Cross-Border Goods

  The gentle morning rain fell like silk, filling the ancient-colored bedroom with a "rustling" sound. Guangyang County King Zhao Yan, who had already woken up from his dream, did not immediately open his eyes, but instead lay on the bed and muttered to himself: "All of this is just a dream, as long as I open my eyes, everything in front of me will disappear, and I'll return to the 21st century, becoming an ordinary substitute teacher again!"

  Zhao Yan said to the end, suddenly opened his eyes, but unfortunately he still saw the familiar red mosquito net on the bed top. He raised his hand and touched his chin, and as a result, it was still those few soft fluff, without any feeling of being scratched every morning like before. This made Zhao Yan extremely disappointed, and he sat up from the bed in an instant, unwilling to look around at his surroundings.

  Everywhere I look is decorated with antique decorations, although they look very beautiful, but not a hint of modernity can be found. Now Zhao Yanning would rather be in his own humble dormitory than stay in this room full of antiques. Thinking back on the past few days' experiences, Zhao felt even more headache, heaven knows how he suddenly went from the 21st century to the Northern Song Dynasty in the 11th century?

  Zhao Yan had traveled through time and space, to be precise, the current Zhao Yan was no longer the original Prince of Guangyang, but a future person named Zhao Yan who had traveled from the 21st century. Although they shared the same name and surname, their identities were completely different.

  This Zhao Yan, who had crossed over from his previous life, was just an ordinary person. After graduating from university, he struggled to make a living in society for several years before suddenly having a change of heart and going to a village in the central province to become a substitute teacher. Everything seemed fine at first, as Zhao Yan got along well with his students and their grades improved significantly, giving him a strong sense of accomplishment.

  But just at this time, one day Zhao Yan was struck by lightning from the sky on his way back to school from the county town. As a result, when he woke up again, he had traveled through time and space to the first year of the Northern Song Dynasty's Zhengping era, and had become some kind of imperial prince. Although his status was very noble, thinking about his relatives and friends in later generations, as well as those lovely students whom he would never see again, made him feel sorrowful.

  Zhao Yan also thought that every night when he was bored, he couldn't even use his phone or computer to go online. This made him let out a painful sigh. Some things are only appreciated after they're lost, like his domestically-made knockoff smartphone that cost several hundred yuan. Although it often shut down on its own, at least it was a smart phone with fast internet speeds. He could usually browse the news, chat with friends, and even occasionally watch a small movie - the kind that men like to watch.

  "Cell phone!" Zhao Yan thought of his cell phone and suddenly remembered that something might have crossed over with him. He hastily searched around, now he was in the Northern Song Dynasty, every item brought from the future was extremely precious, only a few days ago he couldn't accept the fact that he had crossed over, his mind was in a mess, there was no room to think about these things.

  Zhao Yan quickly found what he was looking for in the cabinet beside his bed. When he first opened his eyes after crossing over, he saw a beautifully dressed ancient woman, which made him think she was a legendary fairy. After all, ordinary people wouldn't wear ancient clothes. However, it wasn't until later that he discovered she was actually his newlywed wife. Unfortunately, this woman named Cao Ying didn't like him. These past few days, except when someone came to visit him, she would only appear for a short while; otherwise, she couldn't be seen at all.

  Zhao Yan didn't have time to think about his relationship with Cao Ying now, he just shook his head fiercely, calmed down and put the things he found on the bed, a total of three items. One was a bundle wrapped in silk, inside were the clothes he wore before crossing over, a white shirt, blue jeans, black waterproof jacket, even ** was also there.

  After waking up, Zhao Yan saw Cao Ying, and the other party was also frightened by that spherical lightning bolt. He hurriedly ran out to call for help, while Zhao Yan took advantage of this opportunity to observe his surroundings. Although he still couldn't quite understand the situation, his sixth sense told him that something terrible must have happened to him. Then, at the fastest speed possible, he gathered up all the things around him. What made him unable to figure out was that everything around him, including his clothes, had come with him, but his body had turned into this current Zhao Yan. Heaven knows what happened to him after being struck by lightning?

  Don't think about things that can't be figured out, this is one of Zhao Yan's few advantages. He saw him touch the familiar clothes and then took out a few things from his jacket pocket: an ordinary keychain, unfortunately, the lock to be opened was left in the 21st century; A black wallet with over 100 yuan and several cards inside, now there's nowhere to spend it, can only become scrap paper. As for the last thing, it was the mountain mobile phone that Zhao Yan deeply missed earlier.

  Zhao Yan used to be a fan of Stephen Chow, he remembered that in the movie "God of Gamblers 2", the protagonist Ah Sing traveled back to Shanghai decades ago and was able to contact people from the future with an old-fashioned mobile phone. Although the plot was absurd, Zhao Yan now wishes his own mobile phone had this function.

  Thinking of this, Zhao Yan's hands trembled as she picked up her phone and gently pressed the button below.

  "Huh? No response!" Zhao Yan, not giving up, pressed again, but the screen remained pitch black. This time, beads of sweat appeared on Zhao Yan's forehead. The greatest pain in the world is to give someone hope and then ruthlessly shatter it.

  Holding onto the last shred of hope, Zhao Yan long-pressed the power button on her bootleg phone, which had a habit of shutting down at random intervals and requiring a restart every time. And to make matters worse, this thing had traveled with her through nearly a thousand years - who knew what kind of problems it might have?

  "Ding~" With a crisp sound, the stupid Android robot finally appeared on the phone screen, which made Zhao Yan's mood relax a bit. However, before he could get excited, the screen that had just lit up went black again and shut down. This time, no matter how long Zhao Yan pressed the power button, the screen wouldn't light up again.

  "What the...! It was just turned on a moment ago, how come it can't be turned on now?!" Zhao Yan angrily pressed the power button repeatedly while shaking his phone and muttering to himself. However, no matter how hard he shook it, the phone remained unresponsive. In anger, he raised his hand to throw the phone away.

  "Huh, no way? I've already traveled through time for several days, this broken phone should have run out of battery long ago, so it automatically shut down. As long as I can charge it a bit, it should be usable." Thinking of this, Zhao Yan got excited again, but soon thought that now was the Northern Song Dynasty, he couldn't even find a place to charge his phone, let alone fly a kite in thunderstorm? That's too dangerous.

  But it's also possible that I might get struck by lightning again and be able to travel back, only the probability of this happening is too small, probably similar to winning the jackpot in a lottery. Zhao Yan seriously calculated it and found that she probably didn't have such incredible luck, so for now, she doesn't plan on taking the risk.

  A phone without power is useless, not even as good as a brick. So Zhao Yan could only helplessly throw the phone and clothes to one side, then looked at the two things left, which were a cardboard box and a backpack.

  The things in the cardboard box, Zhao Yan knew without looking, were a second-hand microscope. The primary school where he was sent to support teaching was located in a small village. This village was not considered poor, but it was all left-behind children, and except for children and old people, young people had all gone out to work. Except for this teacher, only a few pregnant women who were waiting to give birth at home were young people.

  The school conditions were not very good, at least when he wanted to let students understand some biological knowledge, there was no microscope, so he asked a friend in Beijing to get a second-hand microscope, which was said to be eliminated from the local school, and had no problems itself, and the price was also cheap. As a result, because of this microscope, he went to the county town to pick up express delivery, and on his way back, he was struck by lightning, and when he opened his eyes again, it was already in the Northern Song Dynasty.

  Thinking that all her troubles were caused by this microscope, Zhao Yan's anger surged, and she stretched out her hand to grab the cardboard box of the microscope, wanting to smash it to vent her frustration. But thinking about it again, she couldn't bear to part with it, and after throwing it a few times, she still didn't let go. In the end, she gently put it back on the bed. After all, this thing had cost several thousand yuan to buy, and that was because a friend had given her the lowest price; if it were sold on the market, it would be worth at least tens of thousands of yuan.

  Finally, Zhao Yan turned his gaze to the backpack on the bed. It was an ordinary denim bag. He unzipped it and poured out all its contents: a long-handled portable toothbrush cup containing a toothbrush and toothpaste, a manual razor, a piece of soap for washing face, and lastly, a phone charger. Because the school is quite far from the county town, it's not easy to go there in one trip, so Zhao Yan had brought these personal items along.

  Apart from that, there were also two packs of cigarettes in the bag, one of which had been opened and half smoked. There were also two lighters, each costing one yuan, but now they are rare treasures. If Zhao Yan hadn't forgotten, the Northern Song Dynasty didn't have cigarettes yet, and tobacco was still in the grasslands of the Americas, where the local Indians had already started smoking. Unfortunately, they were separated from the Northern Song by the Pacific Ocean, and with their technology for making wooden boats, it's unlikely that they could transport tobacco to the Great Song to sell.

  Looking at the half pack of cigarettes in front of him, Zhao Yan felt his throat itching. He hadn't smoked for several days before crossing over because he had promised his students to quit smoking. Zhao Yan even remembered that just two days before going to the county town, the prettiest female student in the class slyly told him that she had found a way to help herself quit smoking and then showed him many materials about the harm of smoking. Although Zhao Yan had an expressionless face on the surface, he privately decided to start quitting smoking and successfully persisted until now.

  Thinking of those mischievous and lovely students, Zhao Yan couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat. He habitually pulled out a cigarette, lit it up and took a puff. Anyway, there were no cigarettes for sale in Northern Song Dynasty at that time. By the time he finished this half box, he wouldn't be able to smoke anymore.

  "Cough, cough, cough!" Zhao Yan had just taken a puff and immediately felt his throat burning with discomfort. He then started coughing violently because he had forgotten that his current body was no longer the same as before and wasn't accustomed to the taste of cigarettes. Moreover, when he was in a bad mood, he would habitually take a big drag, which naturally made him choke.

  However, Zhao Yan from his previous life was already an old smoker. After coughing a few times, he took a deep breath and slowly inhaled several mouthfuls, quickly getting this body accustomed to the taste of cigarettes. Under the stimulation of nicotine, it also helped alleviate Zhao Yan's anxious mood after crossing over.

  "Ahh! Ghost!" Before Zhao Yan could even finish one cigarette, a piercing scream suddenly rang out, scaring him so much that his whole body shook and he almost threw the cigarette butt onto the bed.