Accident

The sky was dark and overcast, with a fine drizzle falling.

Beside the mottled iron gate of an old house in the suburbs, a young man wearing wireless earbuds leaned against the wall.

He held a phone in his hand, staring intently at the screen while his fingers continuously tapped the simulated buttons.

On the screen was a cultivation game.

"This really is hard..."

the man muttered.

Boom!

Lightning writhed through the dark clouds above the old house.

The sound from his earbuds drowned out the thunder in the sky.

At that very moment, a Solar Flare erupted, and the Solar Storm it had blasted toward Earth happened to reach the planet's atmosphere.

Although Earth's magnetic field blocked most of the Solar Storm and cosmic rays, a few still slipped through.

Under the influence of a small portion of those cosmic rays, the clouds above the young man's head erupted with violent lightning in an instant.

Silver serpents coiled through the clouds, while the thunderclaps left nearby people and animals restless and agitated.

Suddenly.

A Ball Lightning appeared above the old house.

The young man was still playing his mobile game, completely unaware that his phone signal seemed like a beacon, drawing the Ball Lightning down.

Just as the Ball Lightning came within three meters of the young man's head.

The dense neutrinos produced by the Solar Flare also swept across Earth, and some of them passed directly through the Ball Lightning.

The Ball Lightning seemed to be triggered by something unusual.

In an instant, it vanished above the young man's head, but the remaining current still shocked his entire body into convulsions, and the phone in his hand began smoking.

"Ahhh..."

The fallen young man watched his phone, which he had bought only a month ago, explode before he lost consciousness.

The next day.

Inside a ward at the First People's Hospital of the City.

Jiang Miao rubbed his eyes and looked around at the stark white room. He was momentarily dazed before he spotted his mother beside him.

"Mom! Where am I?"

The moment she heard his voice, Huang Qiuyue first looked overjoyed, then immediately began scolding him irritably. "You little bastard! I told you not to play with your phone outside when it was raining. You nearly got struck to death by lightning! You're our only child. If anything happened to you..."

As she scolded him, Huang Qiuyue began crying again.

Jiang Miao was left speechless, his mind a complete mess.

"Alright, don't disturb the other patients!" A rather hoarse voice came from the window.

Jiang Miao looked closely and saw that it was his father, Jiang Dahai. He also noticed two beds next to his, occupied by an old man and a middle-aged man.

Only then did he realize. "I'm in a hospital?"

"Young man, you're blessed!" the old man in the next bed joked with a smile.

After talking with his parents for a while, Jiang Miao learned that he had been struck by lightning outside his home yesterday afternoon, and his phone had exploded as well. Fortunately, the Big Yellow Dog had found him. His parents then drove him through the rain to the People's Hospital in their three-wheeled vegetable cart for emergency treatment.

After examining him, the doctors found nothing seriously wrong, but they still recommended that he remain in the hospital for forty-eight hours of observation.

On the afternoon of the third day.

Jiang Miao completed his discharge paperwork and rode home in the three-wheeled cart his father used to haul vegetables.

The sun was shining brightly today.

But sitting in the cargo bed was uncomfortable, as its metal panels had been heated scorching hot by the sun. He could only use his medical records as a cushion.

As the sun set, the evening breeze gently stirred the Camphor Trees by the roadside.

The flowering Camphor Trees gave off an overpowering scent, so fragrant it was almost foul, leaving Jiang Miao lightheaded.

"A Miao, your Little Uncle's shop in Hong Kong needs..."

"Heh, why work for relatives? You know what Aunt's personality is like. I'd rather work an assembly line at an electronics factory than go to Hong Kong."

"Then what do you want to do? I never should've let you study at some Agricultural University. If you'd studied medicine instead, maybe..."

"Dad, the light's green!"

"Uh, right..."

His father hurriedly accelerated, and the three-wheeled cart slowly passed through the intersection, heading toward Xinxiang in the suburbs.

Half an hour later.

Under the setting sun.

The three-wheeled cart slowly stopped outside their home.

His mother did not come out to greet them. She was in the kitchen, cooking dinner.

Jiang Miao felt awkward again.

The family silently ate dinner.

In his room on the second floor, he lay quietly on his bed and glanced at the wall clock. It was nearly ten at night.

Ah, I should sleep early. Tomorrow I'll go to the service center and get a replacement SIM card. Life without a phone is miserable.

Jiang Miao stared boredly at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. He casually took a Rubik's Cube from the drawer of his bedside table and began twisting it.

As he played with it.

His vision suddenly blurred, and a panel appeared before his eyes.

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