Caught the Wrong Person?

At an intersection near his home, there were no streetlights, and everything was pitch-black.

Wang Hao walked straight ahead, completely unaware that a figure stood in the darkness. At that moment, he had melded into the inky night and the shadows cast by the houses.

Holding a Taser, he quietly approached Wang Hao. In an instant, he became Yongxin Thunder and Lightning Dharma King, jabbing it into the other man's waist with a crackle.

Wang Hao suddenly felt an electric-shock-like sensation spread from his waist. His whole body convulsed violently, and then he collapsed to the ground, losing all consciousness.

Afterward, a gunny sack was pulled over him, and he vanished from the street.

When Wang Hao woke up, he found himself in a dim garage, with a yellow lamp overhead shining directly into his eyes.

Still groggy and unable to make heads or tails of the situation, Wang Hao raised a hand to block the light and looked across from him. He saw someone wearing a Clown Mask seated opposite him, while he himself was strapped to a chair. The scene instantly reminded Wang Hao of Saw.

"What are you doing? Why have you tied me up?"

"Where is this? Who the hell are you?"

The terrifying scene, the bizarre mask, and the other man's opening words scared Wang Hao out of his wits.

"Wang Hao, your crime of traveling through time without a license has been exposed!"

"Because you traveled through time without a license and violated the Time and Space Management Regulations, the Time and Space Administration has issued a wanted notice for you. Let me tell you, Wang Hao—you're finished."

The bizarre Clown Mask seemed to be crying and laughing at once. Yet what was even more terrifying was that it was changing. That was impossible.

It's a ghost! Wang Hao was so frightened that he barely heard what the other man had said. He stammered, "What? What... what time travel?"

Fang Xiu frowned. Too lazy to waste words or play games of wits with him, he pulled out a gun. Though it had no bullets, Fang Xiu only meant to scare him. "According to the regulations, I am to execute you. If you confess honestly, you may still have a sliver of hope!"

"You have three seconds to defend yourself against your crimes!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

Staring at the black muzzle, Wang Hao's legs shook like sieves. He shut his eyes and cried out, "I get it, I get it! Big brother, whatever you say, I'll answer honestly! You can ask me anything you want to know!"

"Name!"

"Wang Hao!"

"Age?"

"Eighteen!"

Fang Xiu paused and looked at Wang Hao impatiently. "Eighteen?"

"Huh?"

Wang Hao guessed that he had run into some lunatic who had read too many time-travel novels. But the other man had a gun, and that look in his eyes was clearly not normal. For now, Wang Hao could only cooperate.

"Not eighteen—twenty-eight! Twenty-eight!"

Fang Xiu nodded. That meant he had come from ten years in the future, from 2028. After asking a few inconsequential questions, Fang Xiu finally brought up what he really wanted to know.

"Confess honestly. What plans did you have after traveling through time? Making money, for example?" Fang Xiu brought up the question he wanted answered as if by chance.

"Huh?" Wang Hao seemed not to have reacted yet.

Fang Xiu slammed the table. "Huh what? Confess honestly!"

A chill ran down Wang Hao's spine. He straightened up and nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking rice. "Ah! I have ideas, I have ideas, but I haven't planned them out yet."

Fang Xiu's expression changed. "What? You've been back for several days and you still haven't made a plan? You should at least have some idea by now, right?"

Seeing Fang Xiu's fierce gaze, Wang Hao shuddered. "I really haven't planned it out. I just traveled through time, just came back. I'm still considering everything."

"Can you remember lottery numbers?" Fang Xiu coaxed him step by step.

"I never buy lottery tickets, and I don't gamble!" Wang Hao declared righteously.

"You're quite the good kid, aren't you? Then do you remember any major business opportunities? Or things like stocks and futures?" Fang Xiu took a deep breath.

"I never touch that stuff." Wang Hao hunched his shoulders.

Fang Xiu slammed the table. "You must remember something, right? Who won this year's World Cup? You should know that much!"

Wang Hao still said, "I never watch football."

"Then what can you do? Why did you travel back? To live through your humiliating life all over again?" Fang Xiu did not know why, but speaking to this guy filled him with fury. Just looking at his face gave Fang Xiu the feeling of rotten mud that could not be plastered onto a wall.

"I... I... I can fire glass!" Under Fang Xiu's pressure, the man desperately tried to think of what he could do. He looked genuinely terrified.

"..." Fang Xiu's mouth fell open, and his eyes drooped. Even the expression on the Clown Mask turned into a comic one as he stared at Wang Hao strangely.

Wang Hao seemed to think he had said the right thing. That was right—the other man was a lunatic who had read too many time-travel novels. Only by playing along could he make him happy, and then perhaps he would not hurt Wang Hao, maybe even let him go.

Wang Hao said excitedly, "Right! I-I also know how to make homemade gunpowder. I know Three Hundred Tang Poems, and I've memorized plenty of Song Lyrics too. I also know..."

Smack! Fang Xiu whipped him with his belt.

"Ow, ow, ow! Don't hit me!"

"It hurts, it hurts!"

The belt struck his thigh. "Fire glass, huh!"

"Ah! Lighter, lighter!"

Smack! Smack! Fang Xiu angrily whipped him several more times. He still did not feel his anger had subsided. This guy was practically covered from head to toe in an aura that begged to be beaten.

"Making homemade gunpowder too, huh?"

Smack!

"Ah!"

"And Three Hundred Tang Poems too, huh?"

Smack!

"You had this planned all along! If you were sent back to ancient times, wouldn't that be a disaster? Your crime is doubly grave!"

"No!"

Fang Xiu felt that this guy was making a fool of him. He lashed out wildly with the belt. Once the other man finally behaved himself, sitting in the chair and sniffling like a little wife, his face full of fear and despair, Fang Xiu stopped.

Fang Xiu finally vented some of his anger. But after calming down, he began to feel that something was off.

This garage was beneath an old apartment building beside a pond in the East Gate District. There was no one nearby, and it was precisely where Fang Xiu had previously hidden his guns and belongings.

Fang Xiu went outside and lit a cigarette. Recalling what had just happened and the other man's answers, he felt that this guy did not seem much like a time traveler. His speech and mannerisms also did not resemble the image of the dispirited, near-thirty homebody in the photograph.

"No way, did I catch the wrong person?" Fang Xiu scratched his head. Had he just created a wrongful case? At that moment, Fang Xiu suddenly felt like one of those foolish, bumbling county magistrates from costume dramas—coming in, ordering twenty strokes of the paddle, then rattling on and declaring someone guilty.

Fang Xiu took out the Dominator of Time and Space Management Log and looked at Wang Hao's wanted notice.

The name, appearance, and location of time travel all matched. How could it not be him?

Fang Xiu's thoughts spun without pause, and he suddenly recalled another possibility.

"No way... could it be this?"