MyBB Community Forums

I have this file saved as topic.html in my root folder:

<li>
<a href='http://mysite.com/our-rules-here.html'>Forum Rules</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href='http://mysite.com/ask-anything-yes-anything.html'>Ask anything. Yes, anything.</a>
</li>

They are links to Threads, I will like to display the above on my Index Page.

As my friend advised, I have tried:
<?php echo file_get_contents("topic.html"); ?>
and
<?php include "topic.php"; ?>
after renaming the file: topic.php

Neither worked.

I need the file to be separate, so that I don't mistakenly break my index.php

Thanks for any help.

instead, see this guidance --> How to edit / add new top links in MyBB

Thanks .m.,
But I don't just want to add links,
I want to be able to display a separate html file in my index.
If I can have a code to insert into my index.php,
it will make my day.

(I have a modified index page)