Chapter 3

Zhang Heng pushed open the door of the dormitory. The corridor was eerily quiet, almost like a morgue in a hospital, with only the sound of his footsteps echoing.

The door of the opposite dormitory was open, and light spilled out. Zhang Heng poked his head in and saw four people engrossed in playing on their computers.

On the screen, their characters were chasing a low-health Annie across the tower, their skills suspended in mid-air, and their excited expressions frozen in that moment, like four lifelike statues.

Zhang Heng noticed an alarm clock on one of their desks, which also read 00:00.

He then wandered through the other dormitories on this floor.

Some were locked before bedtime, so he couldn't enter, but in the ones he could, everything was frozen at the last moment of the day.

In the washroom, someone was secretly smoking, the glowing tip of the cigarette clearly visible, but the smoke wouldn't spread, and the exhaled smoke was frozen in place.

Zhang Heng couldn't resist taking out his phone and snapping a picture of this bizarre scene.

When he pressed the shutter, he noticed something interesting.

In this world where time had stopped, not only were all the people paused, but everything else was also frozen in the last second.

Like the skill halfway through its flight on the screen, the stationary fan, and now the cigarette that would never burn out.

However, there were exceptions.

To test his hypothesis, Zhang Heng pulled the cigarette from the person's fingers.

Surprisingly, when the cigarette was in his hand, it started burning again.

So, it was indeed like that.

In this time where only he could move, things would return to normal once they were in his hands. The cigarette, the functioning phone, computer, and MP3 player, all showed the same time, which remained unchanged.

And his ability to normalize things didn't seem to work on people. He had pushed Chen Huadong in the dormitory for a long time, but the latter didn't react.

What about other living things besides humans?

Zhang Heng became curious and walked back to the dormitory, turning his phone into a flashlight. Two minutes later, he successfully found his target in the dark with his 20-megapixel soft-light dual camera.

This was the most common and annoying animal in the summer—mosquitoes.

If even one got into the room, no one would have a peaceful night.

Zhang Heng's dormitory was on the third floor, which was relatively low, so mosquitoes didn't need to take the elevator; they could just move in directly. Therefore, everyone had various methods to prevent mosquitoes, such as using mosquito coils, applying mosquito repellent, and hanging mosquito nets, but there were still occasional stragglers.

Now, a mosquito was lurking by the pillow of the dorm leader, Wei Jiangyang, waiting for a chance to feast.

Unfortunately, its dream was destined to be shattered tonight.

Zhang Heng reached out and gently pinched the mosquito's wing, pulling it out of the air and placing it in his palm.

The mosquito remained in its flying position, like the most dedicated actor, ignoring the fresh prey right in front of it.

"Looks like animals don't work either."

After the experiment, Zhang Heng casually crushed the mosquito, achieving the goal of ridding the people of a pest.

Well, he had explored the dormitory building pretty thoroughly. It was time to go outside and see.

Using the faucet in the washroom to dispose of the evidence, Zhang Heng went down to the first floor.

The duty auntie was holding a large U-lock at the door, probably preparing to lock it.

This was a common practice in universities, but different schools had different dormitory management policies.

At Zhang Heng's school, although the doors were locked at midnight, if someone returned late, they could wake the duty auntie by tapping on the window, register, and then go back to their dorm. However, frequent late returns would result in punishment.

Zhang Heng walked past the duty auntie with a calm expression. Normally, she would have stopped him and asked where he was going so late.

But now, it was as if she had suddenly gained X-ray vision. Her focus passed through Zhang Heng's body and fixed on the doorknob, as if she hadn't noticed a person just walk by.

So, Zhang Heng walked out of the dormitory building at a leisurely pace, looked up at the night sky, and crossed the empty campus, finally reaching the school gate.

It was much livelier here.

Zhang Heng's school was small but well-located, right by the third ring road. The city's night was always particularly long.

The pancake stand on the overpass was bustling with business. Many white-collar workers were just leaving their office buildings, hungry and in need of a late-night snack on their way home. Nearby, a sanitation worker was quietly sweeping the sidewalk, and two bald, suited men were holding their phones while waiting for the late-night bus, which was running late. Behind them, a girl with a bear hair clip yawned at the cash register of a 24-hour convenience store...

At 00:00, they were all frozen in time.

It was like a paused movie scene.

The cars speeding on the road also came to a complete stop.

Zhang Heng had seen the city at night before when he went to the station to pick up a friend.

But this was the first time he observed it so closely.

He could see the scallions the pancake vendor was sprinkling, the calluses and dark faces of the sanitation workers, the oily noses of the bald men and the full-moon photo of their daughter on their phone screens, and the celebrity stickers the girl with the bear hair clip had hidden under the cash register...

All these details, usually overlooked in daily life, were now vividly presented to Zhang Heng.

It was as if he was rediscovering the city.

Zhang Heng unlocked a Mobike with WeChat and rode it through the city, exploring with enthusiasm.

He continued testing his hypothesis.

When the hour hand on the clock was about to complete its second circle, he returned to the dormitory just before the duty auntie locked the door.

It was 00:00 again, but this time Zhang Heng wasn't wearing headphones.

The next second, all the sounds rushed into his ears like a flood.

"Awesome, this kill is mine!!! I can finally get the Infinity Edge!"

"Push the tower quickly, they won't dare to come."

"No way, I need to go home and heal first!"

...

The fan on the door creaked, the sound of cats mating came from outside the window, and someone in slippers ran down the corridor. Zhang Heng, who hadn't slept for over a day, felt a wave of drowsiness. After plugging his phone into the charger, he quickly threw himself onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.