"Creak..."
A light suddenly came on in the dim room, accompanied by the grating sound of a wooden door opening, a sound that made his throat itch.
A little dazed, a little sluggish, his brain was restarting. It needed a brief second or two.
Tong Guan could only open his eyes slowly, but before the light reached him, searing pain did. Every slight tremor of his body after he regained consciousness brought unbearable agony.
It felt as though ten thousand arrows had pierced him. Not an inch of his skin was free of pain, yet he could not even take a deep breath, because that would send a shudder through his entire body.
"Something... has pierced my body..."
Waking from unconsciousness, he first looked at himself. But the moment he lowered his head, he realized that his angle had changed.
More precisely, Tong Guan's utterly exhausted body was hanging upside down against the wall, his head pointing toward the floor and blood rushing into his eyes.
"Tick, tock..."
Tong Guan seemed to see the ends of steel needles protruding a short distance from his chest, abdomen, and even his legs. It was as though countless steel needles had pinned him to the wall, upside down.
At the same time, the sound of an old clock's hands moving echoed from the wall directly above him. With his heartbeat accelerating, its rhythm seemed out of step with ordinary time.
Just then, an unfamiliar woman's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear, filled with anxiety, pain, and struggle much like his own.
"Manager! Hurry, hurry, come save me! There's no time!"
Tong Guan snapped fully awake. His gaze shifted upward, and he did indeed see two figures approaching from the doorway.
Yet the people he saw were Li Guanqi and Yao Li, who had