Chapter 2 (2/2)

All three hands converged pointing upwards. There was a split-second pause before the seconds hand continued to travel.

Zhang Heng did not notice anything unusual.

Was his guess wrong?

He pulled out his earphones and immediately—he could sense that something was off.

The surroundings—it was too quiet.

Summer nights were especially full with activities: the small electrical fan above the door groaning and squeaking as it swiveled from side to side, the mosquitos droning tiresomely at people’s ears, the water tap next door dripping onto the sink, the stray cat mewing as it hurried across the plant beds downstairs, the snoring of his roommate in the bed opposite…

Tonight, all of it was gone.

The whole world suddenly lost its sounds, and became unprecedentedly, and eerily silent.

If it were not for the faint music playing in his earphone, Zhang Heng might have presumed that he had lost his hearing.

Borrowing the dim light coming from the screen of the MP3, Zhang Heng peered at the time on his watch.

It was now 00:01.

Usually, the people in the dorm opposite theirs would still be up playing League of Legends and their loud hurrahs at their completion of a brilliant kill or narrow escape were perceptible through the thin walls separating the rooms.

Zhang Heng also noticed something else unusual—the date display on the right side of the watch face, instead of changing along with the time, remained the same as yesterday.

An idea popped into his mind, and he jumped off his bed—he had gone to bed fully-clothed.

His laptop lit up in the dark, and in less than seven seconds, the QQ login interface popped up. But Zhang Heng’s attention was not on the main portion of the screen. His gaze was on the toolbar at the bottom.

00:00

2017/9/20

Wasn’t it the last moment of yesterday?

Zhang Heng waited for a moment, and then pressed his fingertips against his wrist, and counted to 200. That was seventy-two beats per minute. Two minutes had pa.s.sed yet the time on his monitor remained at 00.00.

Zhang Heng’s raised an eyebrow at this, but made no hasty conclusions.

He walked to the bed opposite his and shook the sleeping Chen Huadong who was the lightest sleeper in the dorm. Normally, someone getting off their bed to get a drink of water would have startled him but this time, no matter how hard Zhang Heng shook him, he remained unresponsive.

“I’m sorry, bro. Although I don’t have a girlfriend, I’m not the kind of person you may think I am.”

Zhang Heng put his finger under his friend’s nostrils and tried to have fun in such a weird atmosphere.

This guy’s mental state was rather excellent.

After five minutes, Zhang Heng still could not detect any breath.

If this was part of the prank, then Chen Huadong’s breath-holding ability was out of this world. He could even break the Guinness World Record.

So, Zhang Heng did the same, testing his two other roommates’ breath.

The results were the same as Chen Huadong’s.

Zhang Heng could say for certain that he really was facing a scientifically unexplainable otherworldly phenomenon.

He was in a time zone that should not exist.

An example would be like the river of time had purposely branched out another stream just for him.