An Extra 24 Hours

Zhang Heng discovered he had an extra 24 hours in his day a month ago.

The first thing that changed was his watch, a Seastar Automatic III Mechanical Watch from Tissot, a gift from his parents who were living in Iceland when he turned eighteen.

They had ordered it very casually on Taobao, and the seller even made a mistake with the shipping address, entering his class instead of his home address.

Zhang Heng was too lazy to complain about them. Before he had even finished primary school, these two celestial beings had already eagerly packed their bags and flown off to Europe to start their new lives.

They met at an academic conference. Both were theologians, which, as the name suggests, meant they were experts in studying religion and mythology. In the Great Motherland, where materialism reigned supreme, this profession was naturally difficult to sustain.

However, unlike those ostentatious charlatans, Zhang Heng's parents were genuinely skilled. One was a graduate of Oxford University, specializing in Norse and Greek Mythology, while the other was a master's student at Durham University, focusing on Christian Mythology. They had published several papers and were reportedly quite influential in their field.

As a result, they couldn't make a living after returning to China.

Just then, Zhang Heng's father's advisor landed a major project and was in need of staff. After discussing it, they left Zhang Heng with his maternal grandfather and then set off on their research adventures around the world.

After that, they basically only returned home once a year, so Zhang Heng spent his childhood with his grandfather.

Perhaps feeling guilty, the two celestial beings didn't skimp on expenses for the old man and the child.

Excluding tuition and accommodation fees, Zhang Heng's living expenses for university were 30,000 yuan a year. While not comparable to rich second-generation kids driving sports cars, it was still quite good among ordinary students.

Getting back to the main topic.

The watch incident was quite bizarre. When Zhang Heng woke up and instinctively reached to check the time, he found that the markings on the dial had changed from twelve to twenty-four.

Zhang Heng blinked, then calmly put the watch back, pulled up the covers, and went back to sleep.

An hour and a half later, a friend in the bed opposite texted him, regretfully informing him that he had been called on in Calculus.

It wasn't a dream?

Zhang Heng spent ten minutes getting ready and sat down at the desk under his bed, opening his computer.

He first logged into Taobao and searched for "double-scale watch, prank." The search results displayed: "Sorry, no related items found."

So, Zhang Heng deleted ", prank."

Still no matching results.

It wasn't a prank?

Zhang Heng stroked his chin. If he ignored the inexplicable extra twelve markings, the time on the watch matched the time on his computer. After careful observation, Zhang Heng finally confirmed that this twenty-four-hour scale watch was the same item as the Seastar he had been wearing all along.

Including the scratches on the case back and the creases on the strap, these were details that no one else would know except him, the original owner.

Of course, it wasn't impossible for some hardcore players to meticulously replicate the details based on the actual item. But who would be so bored and have nothing better to do than go to the Palace Museum to restore cultural relics with such skill and spirit, just for a prank?

In conclusion, Zhang Heng knew he was in trouble.

An ordinary person encountering such a supernatural phenomenon would likely be scared out of their wits, but Zhang Heng wasn't ordinary. This was thanks to his celestial parents.

While other parents told fairy tales about little rabbits and squirrels to lull their children to sleep, these two didn't waste their professional knowledge. Zhang Heng fell asleep listening to stories from Norse mythology and the Bible when he was young.

Although he ultimately didn't let down the nine years of compulsory education and became a proud materialist, the foundation laid in his childhood remained.

Zhang Heng's ability to accept such things was much stronger than that of an ordinary person.

To explain it using the popular board game "Call of Cthulhu," his character's Sanity points decreased very slowly.

Rather than fear, he felt a strong sense of curiosity about what was happening to him.

A normal watch has a twelve-hour dial. The hour hand makes two full rotations to represent a full day. Now, his limited-edition, exclusive twenty-four-hour Seastar only needed one rotation to complete a day.

Looking at it this way, it didn't seem like a big deal. Once he got used to it, it even felt a little cool.

But Zhang Heng believed that whoever did this would definitely not be satisfied with simply changing his watch face.

His intuition told him that the truly interesting things would probably happen only after the hour hand completed one full rotation.

There were about 15 hours left until the end of the day, and Zhang Heng had no intention of idling away this time.

He didn't need to go to his morning Calculus class. He had already been called on, and according to the professor's rules, his final exam score would automatically be reduced by 5 points.

There was no saving this.

Zhang Heng decided to make up for his missed morning run at the sports field.

His classmates found him quite remarkable. After starting university, no one wanted to wake up early, yet he still persisted with his morning runs. However, he never signed up for the sports meet, rarely participated in other group activities, and especially disliked parties. Yet, if you interacted with him, you'd find he wasn't as aloof as he seemed; on the contrary, he was quite interesting.

Among the girls, there was a persistent rumor that Zhang Heng was multi-talented. Someone who returned to school early during a holiday claimed to have seen him alone in the music practice room playing Liszt's "Paganini Grand Etude 'La Campanella'." This was a piano solo piece adapted by Liszt from the theme of the Italian violinist Paganini's "Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor," famous for its difficulty. Written in rondo form, the theme appeared with a different playing technique each time, extremely testing the pianist's skills.

Others claimed to have seen him training at an archery range off-campus, and according to his roommates, he seemed to be a member of a rock-climbing club.

All of the above were facts, but also not facts.

Zhang Heng wasn't actually as extraordinary as people rumored. His morning runs were forced upon him by his grandfather, and after forming the habit, he never stopped. However, his speed and endurance were only slightly better than average, nowhere near comparable to those specially recruited athletes.

Archery was something he had recently started trying out on a whim. He had only attended three classes and could barely be considered a beginner. Rock climbing was a case of registering, getting a card, and then losing interest and parting ways peacefully.

The only thing he had been playing since childhood was the piano. However, his skill level was only around amateur grade eight or nine. He had saved that "Paganini Grand Etude 'La Campanella'" on his phone and played it in the practice room for himself, unexpectedly causing this bizarre situation.

Therefore, Zhang Heng, who was not an ordinary person, was also not that extraordinary.

He was quite interested in many things around him, but unfortunately, time was fair to everyone.

Whether you cherished it or not, whether you planned to make effective use of every minute or just wanted to lie on the bed like a salted fish, everyone only had 24 hours a day to allocate.

Not one minute more, not one second less.