Chapter 12

On his way home, Zhang Tie's heart was pounding with nervous excitement. His right hand was firmly clutched in his pants pocket, as if afraid that the object would escape. In the brief moment when he picked it up, Zhang Tie saw the middle of one of the two halves of the pyrite, where there was a neatly shaped object smaller than an egg. The object seemed to have beautiful patterns on it. If the pyrite hadn't been forcefully smashed and cracked, no one would have discovered that it contained something. The object clearly wasn't naturally formed, and the geological time required for pyrite to form was estimated by Zhang Tie to be at least hundreds of millions of years. Hundreds of millions of years ago, there was something inside the pyrite...

Hundreds of millions of years ago...

A non-naturally formed object...

Those beautiful patterns...

When these pieces of information appeared in Zhang Tie's mind, he felt his heart skip a beat.

On the way home, Zhang Tie could maintain a normal pace at first, but as he got closer to home, he could no longer suppress his excitement. His steps became faster and faster, and he eventually started running. While running, one of his hands remained in his pocket, tightly gripping the pyrite, afraid it would fall out. For some reason, whether due to nervousness or not, Zhang Tie felt the temperature of the pyrite in his hand getting hotter and hotter.

When he got home, his mother was steaming rice wine in the kitchen. Hearing Zhang Tie's hurried footsteps, she didn't turn around but called out, "I've saved your dinner for you. It's still warm. Eat slowly!"

"Mom, I've already eaten outside!"

After saying this, Zhang Tie rushed upstairs without eating. His brother wasn't home today, so the house was much quieter. He pulled down the stairs, went to his small attic room, put away the stairs, and locked the latch on the floorboard. He lit a lamp, drew the curtains, and closed the double-layered wooden panels on the window. When he was alone in the small, enclosed space and no longer had to worry about being seen, Zhang Tie plopped down on the bed, breathing heavily.

While catching his breath, Zhang Tie couldn't wait to take out the half of the pyrite from his pocket and examine it under the lamplight. Once he did, he couldn't take his eyes off it...

The object wrapped in the pyrite was like a slightly smaller, oval-shaped crystal egg. The surface of this crystal egg was engraved with intricate and beautiful patterns and designs, which faintly formed the shape of an arch. Inside the egg, a tiny sapling could be faintly seen, so delicate that it didn't seem to be man-made.

Two-thirds of the crystal egg was already exposed, while the remaining third was still attached to the pyrite. Zhang Tie tried it with his hand, and with a little effort, he pulled the crystal egg out of the cracked pyrite, revealing its full appearance. Inside the crystal egg, there was no yolk; instead, the "yolk" part was a small sapling, and the "white" part was a flowing substance that looked like mercury. Upon closer inspection, the "mercury" seemed to be a colorful mist, extraordinarily beautiful. This mist surrounded the small sapling, rotating and filled with an indescribable mystery. It was the faint glow of this colorful mist under the lamplight that had caught Zhang Tie's attention.

The gun training in the afternoon had caused a few blisters on Zhang Tie's hands. Perhaps because of his urgency to get home and his tight grip on the pyrite, the sharp edges of the pyrite had cut the blisters on his hand. As a result, the pyrite and the crystal egg were now stained with a bit of Zhang Tie's blood. When Zhang Tie tried to wipe the blood off the crystal egg with his sleeve, he noticed something strange. The small patch of dark red blood on the crystal egg didn't wipe off but seemed to be absorbed, slowly seeping into the surface of the crystal egg. Not only that, as the blood sank into the crystal, the area became smaller and the volume larger, gradually forming a drop of blood at the top of the crystal egg. When the blood coagulated, the crystal egg began to glow...

"Ah..." Zhang Tie's hand was suddenly burned, and he let out a cry, instinctively letting go of the crystal egg. He was stunned as the crystal egg floated steadily in front of the oil lamp, suspended in the air, emitting a faint glow. Zhang Tie's eyes widened in fear and tension, not knowing what was happening. In his terrified gaze, the small drop of blood at the top of the crystal egg finally formed and then fell like a grain of sand in an hourglass onto the small sapling in the center of the egg...

At the moment the blood fell, Zhang Tie felt a buzzing in his head, and his whole body felt as if it had fallen from a great height. Then he saw the crystal egg, glowing with an eerie light, fly toward his head. A sharp pain in his forehead felt like something was drilling into his brain. Zhang Tie's vision went black, and he fainted...

...

This fainting made Zhang Tie completely lose consciousness...

He didn't know how long it had been before he slowly regained consciousness.

When Zhang Tie regained awareness, the first thing he felt was a cold sensation on his face. Still shaken, he was a bit frightened, unsure of his situation. After a few seconds, his brain started working again, and he opened his eyes. He realized the cold sensation was because his face was pressed against the floorboards.

He moved his eyes and struggled to get up, sitting on the bed. The small light in the room was still on, the lamp oil slightly shallower, indicating about three to four hours had passed. He opened the window's cold-weather panel and saw it was pitch black outside, with a few dog barks in the distance, confirming it was the middle of the night.

Wait... Where's the crystal egg...

Zhang Tie was suddenly alarmed. He looked at his hands and around the room. Apart from the "fool's gold" lying on the floor, there was nothing else. Picking up the pyrite, he held it in his hand. The smooth, round indentation on the pyrite was a clear reminder that everything that had happened was real.

Could it have... flown away...

Thinking of the last moment he saw the crystal egg floating in the air, Zhang Tie wondered. However, after checking the walls and doors, he found no damage or even a small gap. How could something the size of an egg fly away without leaving a trace?

He found a mirror in the drawer by his bed and looked at himself. Apart from a slightly pale face, there were no marks on his forehead. He sat on the bed, lost in thought, until his stomach growled loudly. He realized he hadn't eaten dinner. Thinking about food, he suddenly felt an unprecedented hunger. He felt so hungry that he could confidently eat a whole cow if it were in front of him.

Since he couldn't figure out what happened with the crystal egg, he decided to focus on getting something to eat. If he starved to death, everything would be for nothing.

He quietly put down the small stairs to the attic, took the oil lamp, and stealthily went downstairs to the kitchen to find something to eat. Fortunately, last night's dinner was boiled sweet potatoes, which were still good cold. There was a large plate of about seven or eight sweet potatoes left. Without much thought, Zhang Tie wolfed them all down. After finishing, he was shocked to realize how much he had eaten. Seven or eight sweet potatoes were at least a pound, and he usually could only eat half that amount. Today, he felt like he had only eaten half a meal. He was also thirsty and drank two large scoops of water, finishing three bowls of the rice wine before his stomach finally felt warm and comfortable, an unprecedented experience.

After a quick wash, he quietly returned to his small attic room, took off his clothes, and got into bed. Zhang Tie tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Finally, he decided that since he couldn't sleep, he might as well practice. He sat on the bed, adjusted his breathing, and was about to close his eyes and visualize the abacus as required by the "Pearl Heart Mental Calculation" when he suddenly noticed something in his mind. When he focused his attention on this new thing, it quickly became clear in his mind. When he saw it, he almost cried. The thing deep in his consciousness was the ancient and elegant arch he had seen on the surface of the crystal egg. The arch floated quietly in the depths of his mind. When he focused his consciousness on it, it rapidly grew larger and clearer...

It seemed... it seemed he could enter it—there was a vague voice in his mind reminding him. Zhang Tie didn't know why he had this thought, but he looked at the ancient and elegant arch and said, "Enter!"

The 15-year-old, pale-faced youth didn't realize that because of this single word, his life would never be ordinary again.

...

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