I Crossed Over with My Enemy, Only to Find Him Running the Empire - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Back to the Modern Era?

The Old Master had instructed them repeatedly: “You must wear these at all times. They are never to leave your body, not even when bathing or sleeping.” At the time, Li Qiaoqiao had scoffed at his superstition. How much could a couple of broken stones be worth? Driven by curiosity, she had once secretly taken them to an expert, only to be told they were ordinary mountain stones—perhaps a bit old, but nothing more.

Out of respect for the elderly man, she had worn it ever since as a good-luck charm.

During the chaotic two days since her transmigration, she had been so dizzy with hunger that she hadn’t even noticed the item had followed her here!

Wu Ya’s pupils constricted—he clearly recognized the “family heirloom” as well.

“The Concentric Lock?” Li Qiaoqiao’s voice was dry and trembling. She practically crawled over and snatched up her half.

Wu Ya picked up his fallen half as well.

“Wu Ya!” Li Qiaoqiao looked up, her eyes shining with an intense light. “How did we get here? The earthquake! We were wearing these! They came with us! Do you think… we can use them to go back?”

She pointed to the half in his hand. “Piece them together! Try it!”

Without a word, Wu Ya knelt down. He aligned his half perfectly with the jagged edge of the piece in her hand and pressed them together firmly.

Click.

The moment the two stone locks snapped shut—

Vrrrrmmm!!!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a strange humming that instantly filled their eardrums.

The dilapidated mud walls and the earthen bed vanished. In their place were countless blinding streaks of white light, frantically interlacing, spinning, and pulling!

It felt as though their bodies had been tossed into a high-speed washing machine. Weightlessness, vertigo, and an intense tearing sensation erupted simultaneously.

“Ah—!” Li Qiaoqiao’s short scream was swallowed by the white light.

A second later, the world stopped spinning.

Their feet hit solid ground.

Blinded by the bright light, Li Qiaoqiao squinted and instinctively scanned her surroundings.

A beige beanbag chair sat crookedly in the corner, draped with her coral fleece pajamas—the ones with the giant cartoon fried chicken print she hadn’t had time to put away. On the counter of the small open kitchen sat several unwashed instant noodle bowls, surrounded by scattered bags of chips and spicy strips.

The giant flat-screen TV on the wall was black, and next to it stood the tools of her trade: a phone stand, a ring light, and a clutter of filming props. The air held the faint scent of modern city dust mixed with the sweet coconut fragrance of her favorite hand cream…

This was… her apartment?!

She was back!

“Holy crap!” Li Qiaoqiao jumped up, incoherent with excitement, tears streaming down her face. “My house! It’s really my house! Hahahaha! I’m back! Hot pot! BBQ! Fried chicken! Coke! Long time no see—!”

She spun around the small living room like a maniac, greedily inhaling the air of freedom, wanting nothing more than to kiss her cluttered computer desk.

“So noisy.” A voice dripping with disdain fell like a bucket of cold water over her head.

Li Qiaoqiao froze mid-celebration. Only then did she realize she wasn’t alone.

Wu Ya—or rather, a man with the gaunt, dust-covered face of Wu Tieniu, wearing patched, sour-smelling coarse clothes—was standing in the middle of her living room.

The visual was suffocatingly out of place.

His brows were tightly knit as his sharp gaze swept over her apartment, which, at less than sixty square meters, looked particularly “crowded.”

“Li Qiaoqiao,” he spoke, his sharp CEO tongue back online, “this kennel of yours isn’t much cleaner than the Wu family pigsty. And your taste is…” He snorted, the unspoken remainder of his sentence pure contempt.

The joy of surviving her ordeal was instantly snuffed out, replaced by a sizzling fire of rage.

“Wu Ya!” Trembling with anger, she pointed at her front door, her voice jumping an octave. “Too dirty? Too messy? Fine! The door is right there! Don’t let it hit you on the way out! Scram back to the ancient world and play your ‘idiot young master’! Get out of my sight!”

Wu Ya’s face turned so dark it looked like it might drip ink. He had never been talked to like that in his life.

“With pleasure,” he squeezed through his teeth. Without hesitation, he turned and strode toward the door.

In her fury, Li Qiaoqiao wanted nothing more than for this jinx to disappear. She stood her ground with her arms crossed, glaring at his back.

The moment Wu Ya turned and the distance between them widened—

Click.

To Li Qiaoqiao’s horror, the two halves of the Concentric Lock they had just joined… automatically separated!

Vrrrrmmm—!!!

That familiar, terrifying hum exploded again.

The familiar sights around her shattered like a broken mirror, instantly covered in cracks before collapsing and dissolving into the blinding white light.

“No—!” Li Qiaoqiao’s desperate scream was swallowed by the warped space.

In her final moment of consciousness, survival instinct overrode everything.

Just before her body was consumed by the light, her eyes locked onto the fruit bowl on her coffee table.

Inside sat a solitary banana and a large apple!

Banana! High calories! Lifesaver!

With unprecedented speed, Li Qiaoqiao snatched the banana.

Almost simultaneously, Wu Ya reacted instinctively, swiping the apple.

A second later—

Thump! “Ouch!”

Two dull thuds were followed by cries of pain.

Li Qiaoqiao landed hard on her backside, her vision swimming with stars. But she didn’t care about the pain; she looked down at her hand immediately. The banana was clutched tightly in her palm!

Beside her, a similarly battered Wu Ya opened his hand to reveal the apple.

They looked up, trembling with shock.

They were back. Back in the dilapidated mud hut.

A brief, dead silence followed.

Li Qiaoqiao looked at her banana, then at Wu Ya’s apple, and finally at the two separated pieces of the lock on the floor.

“It really is the Concentric Lock! It can take us back! But… but why are we back here?”

She snapped her gaze toward Wu Ya. “Is it because we moved apart? The lock separated?”

Wu Ya’s expression was incredibly solemn as he stared at the stones. “Possible.” His voice was low, laced with suppressed excitement. “Try it! Piece them together again!”

They both lunged for the stone pieces at once. Li Qiaoqiao grabbed hers, Wu Ya grabbed his. They carefully aligned the edges and pressed them together.

Click.

The familiar, slight mechanical engagement.

They held their breath, eyes wide, hearts in their throats.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds…

Nothing happened.

The shack was still a shack. The mud walls were still mud walls. No white light, no humming, no vertigo.

“What’s going on?” Li Qiaoqiao panicked, shaking the joined lock. “Why isn’t it working?! It worked just a second ago…”

Wu Ya’s brow was a knot of frustration. He forced the lock apart.

Click.

He snapped it together again.

Click.

Apart again.

No matter how many times they tried, they failed. The balloon of hope deflated rapidly.