Shattered World

Going to pray to Buddha just as a crisis and change is about to happen seems a bit like trying any cure for a desperate illness.

However, Qing Chen felt that the supernatural phenomenon on his arm should be handled by supernatural beings.

For Qing Chen, praying wouldn't hurt him.

He liked to get his preparations done in advance, leaving no room for regret.

The time was 9:30 PM.

Qing Chen sat on the bed and glanced down at his phone. The only light in the bedroom was the faint glow from the screen. WeChat only showed a few brief messages from his deskmate, Nan Gengchen; no one else had messaged him.

His mother, Zhang Wanfang's, WeChat profile picture was still and quiet, which made Qing Chen feel a pang of disappointment.

Of course, it was only a pang.

He didn't know what he was expecting.

Actually, he didn't blame his mother.

His father had gambled away multiple properties, had a history of domestic violence and infidelity, and Qing Chen didn't think his mother was wrong for initiating the divorce at all.

On the contrary, having witnessed his father hit his mother firsthand, Qing Chen was even happy for his mother's decision.

Because it was the right thing to do.

Before his parents' divorce, his maternal grandmother had advised his mother not to divorce: "You're a woman with a teenage son, a burden. How will you ever remarry? Who will marry you again?"

Hearing all this, Qing Chen chose to live with his father when his parents divorced.

He remembered the shocked expressions on their faces then, but Qing Chen knew it was also the right choice.

Now that his mother had started a new life and formed a happy new family, Qing Chen might feel a bit lost, but he was still very careful not to disturb her.

Countdown: 2:31:12.

Qing Chen suddenly thought of a question: if these were the last two and a half hours of his life, what should he do?

This question was both serious and romantic.

Because it asked you what you most wanted to do in your life, but hadn't had the chance to do yet, or hadn't dared to do.

Unexpressed love, people you met but didn't see, places you wanted to go but didn't, words you wanted to say but didn't, all fell within the scope of the answer.

This question went straight to the heart.

Qing Chen got up and put on his jacket. With so little time left on the countdown, he chose to go out again.

He pushed his old bicycle out of the house, got on it, and sped towards his destination.

The autumn night wind was a bit cool, and the pedestrians on the road were gradually thinning out.

Qing Chen rode his bicycle with a calm expression, the hem of his jacket fluttering behind him in the wind from the bridge.

He truly had many regrets and many things he hadn't dared to do in this life.

But tonight, he didn't need to be timid or fearful; he only needed courage.

At one moment, Qing Chen thought that if he was really going to die tonight, he should at least finish the most important things; he was out of time.

He first went to the Peony Grand Hotel, then to the Luocheng Grand Hotel, and also to the Luoyin family compound, but he couldn't find the people he was looking for there.

Qing Chen rode his bicycle through alleyways, across the Qili River Bridge, and arrived at the bottom of a residential building.

When he saw the familiar old second-hand motorcycle parked downstairs and heard the sound of mahjong being played on the second floor...

He then picked up his phone and dialed 110: "Hello, police officers, I want to report gambling activity at Unit 2, Room 201, Building 17, Longteng Residential Area, JX District."

The police dispatcher on the other end seemed to freeze for two seconds before reacting, "Okay, we'll dispatch officers now."

Only then did Qing Chen relax and turn his bicycle back home.

His mind was at ease.

Upon arriving home, Qing Chen glanced at the white patterns on his arm. The countdown read 1:02:21.

He began to re-examine his preparations.

Wait, was he going to face that moment at home?

Qing Chen had watched a horror movie before. The story was about a protagonist who encountered something evil, and a ghost would find him every night at midnight.

The protagonist kept hiding, even in the deep mountains and old forests, but the ghost always found him.

At that time, Qing Chen wondered why the protagonist didn't go to a crowded place.

Although the ghost was powerful, people generally felt safer in crowded places.

For example, the protagonist could go to a nightclub. When the ghost came looking for him at midnight, with hundreds of people in the nightclub headbanging to loud music, it seemed like the ghost would be more scared...

So, Qing Chen began to ponder if he should also go to a crowded place.

Or, he could directly go to Luocheng's Baima Temple... after all, there were Buddhas there.

Not only Guanyin Bodhisattva, but also Manjushri Bodhisattva and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

It seemed like a safe place to be.

However, Qing Chen ultimately chose to stay at home. He felt that compared to demons and ghosts, it was more likely that something like zombies would appear when the countdown ended.

If this thing truly appeared, then going to a crowded place would be no different from seeking death. On the other hand, it seemed the Bodhisattva didn't handle this kind of business.

Qing Chen had already prepared supplies at home. If zombies were to attack, he could at least hold out at home for a while.

Countdown 00:31:49.

During the last half hour, Qing Chen turned on the desk lamp and quietly wrote a suicide note, leaving it on the desk.

If he died today, perhaps his family and friends might see his final words someday in the future.

If he survived, perhaps his life would be a completely different story.

Countdown 00:00:12.

After finishing the suicide note, Qing Chen sat up straight. He tightly gripped the boning knife in his right hand, his clear eyes narrowing instantly.

The closer it got to the final moment, the more serene his emotions became.

It was like the moment before a tsunami engulfs a deserted island, everything stills. There were no undercurrents beneath the surface of the sea, only profound thought and burning courage!

10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1.

No ghosts, no zombies, no disaster.

Qing Chen quietly watched as time around him fell into a standstill. The time on his phone seemed to be eternally frozen at 12:00:00.

The second hand on the clock on the wall suddenly stopped ticking, and the light outside the window ceased to flicker.

He stood up, and the frozen time seemed to shatter with his movement. The world in his eyes cracked like a mirror.

Qing Chen, holding the boning knife, scanned his surroundings. The desk was gone, the room was gone, and only darkness remained.

Then, he too fell into darkness.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, yet it felt like only an instant. In this moment, Qing Chen suddenly lost his sense of time.

In the darkness, the fragments of the world began to reassemble. Those fragments, coming from an unknown source, instantly formed a brand-new world.

Qing Chen lay on a narrow, hard board bed in a completely unfamiliar environment he had never been in before.

He first looked at his palm; it was empty, and the boning knife he had been holding was long gone.

He then looked at his arm and was startled to find that the white markings on his arm had changed.

"Return countdown 48:00:00."

48 hours, which was 2 days, Qing Chen mused.

The next moment, the countdown ticked down by one second: Return countdown 47:59:59.