60 Seconds

In the dim bathroom, Chen Ge sat alone in the bathtub, breathing repeatedly to expel the residual stale air from his lungs.

Three forty-four in the morning is the intersection of night and dawn; he only had one chance, and he had to be cautious.

The room was silent, and there was no movement in the hallway; the monster in the mirror did not seem to have come over.

Time ticked away, and Chen Ge kept the digital watch he had specifically sought out to one side. When the numbers representing the time on the screen turned to forty-three, his focus became highly concentrated, and he opened his mouth to begin inhaling slowly.

As the candle flame flickered, Chen Ge's body slowly tilted backward, his gaze fixed on the digital watch from start to finish, focused as never before.

When the numbers on the screen changed again, Chen Ge did not hesitate, tilting his head back and lying down into the bathtub.

Three forty-four in the morning!

A cold sensation seemed to come from all directions, submerging him.

Holding one's breath in the dead of night—the feeling was peculiar.

Absolute darkness, as if he were the only thing left in the world, constantly sinking; absolute silence, where the only sound he could hear was the beating of his own heart from within his body.

The icy sensation stimulated every nerve. Chen Ge lay at the bottom of the bathtub, casting aside all distracting thoughts and counting his heartbeats silently.

"Sixty seconds, I only need to hold on for sixty seconds."

He had never experienced anything like this before. The night and the air seemed to merge into one; that faint, flickering candle flame was like a lighthouse drifting further and further away, while he himself felt as if he were constantly sinking into the deep sea.

"One, two..."

After the first ten seconds, time seemed to slow down significantly.

The sound of flowing water echoed in his ears, and the four walls were filled with darkness. Chen Ge silently recited his parents' names, maintaining his initial posture, his hands gripping the handle of the kitchen knife, letting his body be swayed by the ripples.

The oxygen in his lungs was slowly being consumed, and Chen Ge felt a slight discomfort, as if some heavy object were pressing down on him.

"Fifteen, sixteen..."

Every heartbeat consumed the oxygen in his lungs. As his heart rate slowed, time seemed to slow down even further, each second split into countless segments.

The feeling of discomfort gradually became intense, as if a pair of hands were slowly pressing against his throat, tightening bit by bit.

Lying in the bathtub, Chen Ge opened his eyes. The night was so deep he could see nothing; it was as if he had been locked into another world.

After about three or four more seconds, his complexion grew increasingly ghastly, a pallor beyond the ordinary.

"How long have I held on? It should be almost time, right?"

Drip, drop—water droplets slid past his ear, and a strange sound suddenly emerged from the dead silence.

It seemed to come from the hallway outside. Chen Ge did not know why he could hear it so clearly; perhaps the other party had made the sound on purpose, just to distract him.

"Footsteps? Is someone pacing back and forth in the hallway?"

His slowed heart rate began to accelerate again, and his body tensed involuntarily. It might be the monster from the mirror coming for me. I hope the Ragdolls can hold the line; I can finish the task in thirty seconds at most!

His thoughts began to move slower and slower, and a buzzing noise started to fill his ears. Chen Ge's condition was not good. The footsteps in the hallway made him highly nervous, but he stubbornly refused to lose focus, continuing to recite his parents' names while calculating his heartbeats.

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine..."

Even though there was no water around him, Chen Ge felt as if water were pouring into his ears, the sounds becoming distorted. The footsteps gradually grew hurried; the other party seemed to be trying to find a way in as well.

A few seconds later, Chen Ge felt as if a giant rock were pressing down on his chest. The veins on his neck began to bulge, his hands and feet grew cold, and a sense of powerlessness washed over his body.

His brain's reaction time grew slower and slower; Chen Ge was now relying entirely on his own willpower to persist.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Without any warning, something slammed against the door.

Chen Ge's heart jumped into his throat. The thing outside the room couldn't hold back anymore!

Perhaps because there was a Ragdoll placed behind the door, the entity stopped its meaningless actions after slamming it three times and finding it wouldn't open. The room fell silent once again.

The situation remained much the same as before, the only difference being Chen Ge himself. Normally, he could easily hold his breath for a minute, but the footsteps in the hallway and the slamming of the door had accelerated his heart rate; in a state of tension, a person's oxygen consumption increases significantly.

He felt he was reaching his limit. The last trace of oxygen in his lungs was being squeezed dry, and every second was a form of torture.

"Thirty-nine, forty..."

When he counted to forty, a wave of dizziness hit Chen Ge's brain. His physical condition no longer allowed him to continue counting.

He couldn't afford to be distracted. The feeling of suffocation grew more intense, and Chen Ge's consciousness began to blur. He couldn't remember many things, only instinctively recalling memories of his parents.

Veins stood out on his pale skin, the thick cords on his neck pulsed, and his fingers, gripping the kitchen knife, gradually loosened.

He felt as if he were on the verge of death, and at the same time, he understood the meaning of the words in the task.

When time reaches the gap between night and dawn, one can see the people they wish to meet on the edge of life and death.

The meaning of this sentence was clearly that at the moment when day and night transition, a person on the brink of death can see a glimpse of the other world!

Chen Ge stared unblinkingly at the bathroom ceiling. His pupils were dilating, and everything was drifting further and further away. He saw no one he wished to meet; before his eyes was only darkness, a darkness so deep it was despairing.

His lungs felt as if they were being crushed flat—an indescribable feeling of stifling pressure.

"No, if this continues, I might really suffocate."

Most of the forty-fourth minute of three in the morning had already passed. The people Chen Ge wanted to see had not appeared. He no longer held onto any fantasies, or perhaps, in his heart, he felt a sense of relief—that his parents had not appeared at least meant they were still alive.

His cold arms braced against the bottom of the bathtub, and with his last shred of reason, he made his decision: it was time to give up.

With his hands exerting force, Chen Ge was just about to stop his Breath Holding when he suddenly felt something was wrong!

Something was covering his nose and mouth, preventing him from leaving.

His dilated pupils shrank to pinpricks as Chen Ge looked above his head, where there was clearly nothing at all!

The Ragdoll had sealed off the door and the area around the bathtub; the monster in the mirror shouldn't have been able to get in, so who was playing tricks?

The veins on his neck bulged, and Chen Ge's expression turned terrifyingly grim. With his life hanging in the balance, he used the last shred of his strength to swing the kitchen knife in his hand toward the space above his head and in front of him.

Deprived of oxygen for so long, his body and will had reached their limit, like a spring stretched to its breaking point, ready to snap at any moment.

As the kitchen knife swung, Chen Ge felt in a daze as if he had struck something, and a crisp "snap" echoed in his ears as the force above his head vanished instantly.

With no more obstacles, Chen Ge sat up from the bathtub in one motion, gasping for air in huge, desperate gulps!