Chapter 2

Zhang Heng ran seven laps around the playground, covering 2,800 meters. After finishing, he went to the public bath and took a shower, changed into a clean white T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and then leisurely had breakfast in the cafeteria. Only then did he bring the book he had just finished reading, *Xiaoshan Wanhuajing*, to the library.

Like morning jogging, reading was one of Zhang Heng's habits, and he maintained a pace of one book per week.

However, unlike the morning jogging that was forced upon him by his grandfather, reading brought him a lot of pleasure and was a form of entertainment that he enjoyed immensely.

In fact, if it weren't for the limited time, he would have hoped to read more books each week.

After completing the return procedures at the service desk, Zhang Heng took out his phone from his pocket.

He opened a small app called Random Number Generator, set it to eight digits, and then... enthusiastically rolled the dice.

It must be admitted that there was a reason why people often found him strange.

After all, normal people wouldn't show off such a quirky book-picking method in the library.

But Zhang Heng had one advantage, or perhaps it was a quirk. Maybe because he had read a lot of books from a young age, he was not picky about what he read. He had a high tolerance for all kinds of books, from world classics to小白文 (light novels), and even晋江总裁体 (CEO-style novels). He could read them all with great interest, and his condition was getting worse. Today, he could even read *Bencao Gangmu* (Compendium of Materia Medica) and *A Guide to Scientific Pig Farming* with enthusiasm, basically beyond any cure.

To avoid the hassle of picking books and to enjoy the simple joy of stumbling upon a good book, he invented this method of selecting books using a normal distribution.

Unfortunately, his application for the campus research award was unsuccessful, and he had no funds to promote it further.

So, the capital market always lacks foresight.

...

Based on the last two digits of the number he rolled, Zhang Heng went to the corresponding bookshelf.

This time, his luck was pretty good. Although it wasn't the best category of literature, economics and management were still interesting, at least better than the *Quantity List Pricing for Water Supply, Drainage, Heating, and Gas Engineering* he rolled last month.

He reached out and pulled out his target from the bookshelf.

—Adam Smith's *The Wealth of Nations*

It looked like he would have a pleasant morning.

Zhang Heng found a seat by the window and began his leisurely reading time.

Some people might be tempted to ask, "Is this okay? Isn't he going to deal with that magical watch of his?"

Zhang Heng admitted that he couldn't do much about it.

It was right to respond positively after an incident, but that was only if it was something within your capabilities. For supernatural phenomena, with too few clues, doing nothing might be the best choice. In classic horror movies, those who enthusiastically turn around after being tapped on the back in a dark, old house invariably meet their end.

On the contrary, if you pretend it doesn't exist and remain calm, it might just be a scary but harmless trip through a haunted house.

So, in many situations, staying calm is the most important thing.

Zhang Heng was very calm now. From the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell that he was in the middle of a supernatural event. He used his skipped class time to make up for his morning jog, spent the morning reading *The Wealth of Nations* in the library, attended a public elective course on critical thinking in the afternoon, and in the evening, he fulfilled his promise by inviting his dorm mates to the food alley across the street for some skewers. After that, he even had the mood to watch a few episodes of an American TV series when he got back to the dorm.

Then, at 11:30 PM, the power in the dorm was cut off on time.

Although Zhang Heng's laptop had a battery that could last for three to four hours, he didn't want to disturb his dorm mates' rest, so he decisively turned off the power.

There were only thirty minutes left in the day. Other people's watches had already gone around twice, but the hour hand on his familiar yet strange starfish watch had just completed one full circle.

Would anything happen? Zhang Heng didn't know. All he could do now was wait.

Zhang Heng put on his headphones, turned on his MP3 player, and lay down on the bed, quietly spending the remaining half hour of the day.

00:00

The three hands on the watch face overlapped at the top on time, pausing for a moment, and then the second hand continued to move.

During this time, Zhang Heng didn't notice anything unusual.

Was his guess wrong? He took off his headphones.

But then he felt something was off.

The surroundings—were too quiet.

Summer nights were usually very lively. The small fan on the door creaked, mosquitoes buzzed annoyingly in his ears, the dripping faucet in the adjacent washroom, the pitter-patter of water droplets falling into the sink, the rustling of cats passing through the flower beds downstairs, and of course, the snoring from the bed across the room...

All of these sounds were absent tonight.

The entire world seemed to have suddenly lost all sound, becoming unprecedentedly silent.

If it weren't for the faint music still playing in his headphones, Zhang Heng might have suspected that he had lost his hearing.

Using the dim light from the MP3 screen, he checked the time on his watch again.

It was now 00:01.

At this time, the dorm across the hall usually had people playing League of Legends online, and you could hear their cheers after a successful kill or a narrow escape.

In addition, Zhang Heng noticed another unusual thing. The starfish watch had a date display on the right side of the dial. Normally, the date should have changed after midnight, but this time it remained the same as yesterday.

Zhang Heng's heart skipped a beat, as if he had an idea.

He had not taken off his clothes when he went to bed, so he jumped up and turned on his computer. The boot process went smoothly, taking less than seven seconds, and the QQ login screen popped up. However, Zhang Heng's attention was not on that. His eyes moved to the taskbar, where the date and time were glaringly obvious.

00:00

2017/9/20

It was indeed the last moment of "yesterday"?

Zhang Heng waited a bit longer. He didn't look at the time on the starfish watch but counted his pulse, two hundred beats, which, at his rate of 72 beats per minute, was at least two minutes. But the time on the desktop remained at 00:00.

Zhang Heng raised an eyebrow but didn't jump to any conclusions.

He walked to the bed across from him and pushed the sleeping Chen Huadong, who was the lightest sleeper in the dorm. Normally, anyone getting up at night to get a drink of water would wake him up, but this time, no matter how much Zhang Heng pushed him, there was no response.

"Sorry, bro, I don't have a girlfriend, but I'm not the kind of person you think I am."

While placing his finger under Chen Huadong's nose, Zhang Heng managed to crack a joke in the eerie atmosphere.

It could only be said that this guy had incredible mental fortitude.

After five minutes, Zhang Heng felt no breath at all.

If this was part of a prank, then Chen Huadong's breath-holding skills were too strong, worthy of a Guinness World Record.

Since he had done it once, he might as well do it again.

Zhang Heng then repeated the process with the other two roommates, placing his finger under their noses.

The result was the same as with Chen Huadong.

Zhang Heng was now almost certain that he was indeed experiencing a scientifically inexplicable supernatural phenomenon.

He was in a time that shouldn't exist.

To put it another way, it was as if the river of time had split off a tributary just for him.