Trembling

Snap.

A streak of purple-blue lightning flashed past the window, illuminating the entire night sky in a ghastly white.

Wang Yiyang sat upright in the training hall. His eyes, which had been tightly shut, suddenly snapped open.

He wore the crisp suit he had worn to work. His hands rested on the arms of the wooden chair, sweat beaded on his forehead, and his lips were dry and cracked.

His black hair had grown a little long, partly covering his eyebrows. Wang Yiyang lowered his head and breathed deeply, his lungs frantically drawing in oxygen from the outside air.

"W-where... where am I?" He looked around.

The familiar training hall surrounded him.

It was the old, once-abandoned training hall back in his hometown.

His grandfather had supposedly been a skilled martial artist. When he was young, he had opened this martial arts school in his hometown, hoping to bring glory to his family and honor their name.

Unfortunately, things hadn't gone as planned.

The school had managed to stay open, but technology had advanced, and very few people were still willing to devote themselves to learning martial arts.

Even Wang Yiyang had no interest in it.

He had tried practicing a few times as a child, but found it dull and tedious, so he had given up on his grandfather's instruction completely.

Later, he went through school and exams as expected, got into a decent university, and, after graduating, found a job at a fairly good internet company thanks to his solid technical skills.

He had only been working for two years, and hadn't even had time to find a girlfriend, when he suddenly received devastating news from home.

The martial arts school had caught fire. His grandfather hadn't made it out. All thirteen people in the school, including his grandfather, had perished.

As soon as he got the news, Wang Yiyang booked a ticket home without hesitation.

After a tortuous investigation, he finally uncovered the truth.

The one who had killed his grandfather was none other than the school's strongest student, the senior disciple, Zhong Can.

Unable to break through for a long time, Zhong Can had believed that Wang Yiyang's grandfather was hiding a crucial secret from him and deliberately holding him back. In a fit of rage during an argument, he had attacked.

His grandfather had been beaten to death on the spot, and the others had been caught up in the disaster as well.

But Wang Yiyang still had his doubts about the truth.

He wasn't interested in martial arts, but he knew enough to recognize the basics.

Given Zhong Can's strength, killing his grandfather in a short time and then taking out everyone else at the school just as quickly didn't seem realistic.

While assisting the police with their investigation, he had received some shocking news.

It seemed the senior disciple, Zhong Can, had a rather mysterious organization backing him.

The organization's motives were unknown, and its methods were cruel and brutal. It was quite possible that the organization had been behind his grandfather's death and the deaths of everyone else at the school.

With the help of a highly skilled friend, Wang Yiyang had found a few clues about the group in police records.

The organization was called Mantis.

Just as he had begun to get closer to the truth, a sudden car accident had completely snuffed out his consciousness.

When he woke up again, he was sitting in the training hall of the martial arts school back in his hometown.

The air was damp and chilly.

Wang Yiyang felt the right pocket of his suit. His familiar phone and car keys were inside.

The phone's plastic texture and slightly raised buttons reassured him a little.

He took out his Rol smartphone and checked the time.

'March 11, 4471, 7:42 p.m.'

"This time...!" Wang Yiyang's pupils contracted.

Wasn't this the day, two months ago, when he had returned home to visit his grandfather?

He had happened to have three days off for a public holiday and had thought it had been far too long since he'd last visited.

So he had bought some fruit and nutritional supplements and gone home to see his eighty-nine-year-old grandfather, Wang Xinlong.

Although Wang Xinlong was already eighty-nine, he looked no older than someone in his seventies.

When he saw his eldest grandson come home, he was delighted and dragged Wang Yiyang into a long session of drinking baijiu.

In the end, they had both gotten drunk.

Wang Yiyang had staggered off to sleep in the training hall, still in a daze. He only came to the next day, realizing he hadn't gone back to his room and had spent the entire night sitting in the training hall.

In the darkness, Wang Yiyang's face was grim, his eyes flickering.

"Who would've thought that two months later, Grandpa and everyone at the school would die for no apparent reason?"

He didn't believe his grandfather could have died in the fire for no reason.

Wang Xinlong was in excellent shape. Not long ago, he had taken part in an ultra-distance running rally and come in second.

It had been a ten-thousand-meter endurance run. With that kind of fitness, what sort of fire could have stopped him from escaping?

Wang Yiyang didn't believe it.

"And I just happened to get into a car accident, too."

He lowered his head and examined his hands.

His fingers were short and thick, his palm lines clear. A faint scar marked his right thumb.

He'd gotten it while drinking with his grandfather. He'd used too much force opening a bottle and accidentally cut himself with the opener.

Hah.

Wang Yiyang slowly stood up, went to the training hall window, and looked out at the quiet courtyard.

Only his grandfather, Wang Yiyang, the senior disciple Zhong Can, and a hired housekeeper lived at the martial arts school. The other students all went home instead of staying there.

"Could it be that I really came back? Back to two months ago?" Wang Yiyang still couldn't quite believe it.

He pushed open the door and walked into the courtyard.

A large tree stood in the yard. He didn't know what kind it was, but every year it grew plenty of purplish-red leaves.

Every autumn, a few of its purple-red leaves drifted down in the breeze each day. It was a beautiful sight.

Wang Yiyang stood beneath the tree, took out his phone again, and opened the messaging app, Feixun.

Then he opened his company group chat.

He ignored his coworkers' banter and went straight to the group announcement.

The latest announcement had been posted three minutes earlier. Its full timestamp appeared below it.

'March 11, 4471, 7:45 p.m.'

Still unconvinced, he opened his other apps and checked the time everywhere he could.

Ten minutes later.

Wang Yiyang was finally certain. He had truly been reborn.

He had returned to two months earlier.

"Yiyang, you're sober already?"

A deep male voice suddenly came from behind Wang Yiyang.

He jumped, but kept himself composed and turned around quickly.

A burly man at least two meters tall stood behind him.

In the darkness, the man's eyes gleamed faintly like a hungry wolf's, making him seem intimidating.

"Brother Zhong Can?" Wang Yiyang's heart skipped a beat. He recognized the man at once.

Zhong Can's origins and age were unknown. When Wang Yiyang was in his teens, Zhong Can had suddenly appeared at the school one day, then stayed on to learn martial arts from his grandfather.

He had always been quiet and honest, a man of few words, but he kept his promises. He was naturally strong.

Though Wang Yiyang had never been close to him growing up, he had always respected him.

He respected anyone who kept their word.

Keeping one's word was, after all, no easy thing.

"I slept for a while and feel a bit more awake. I came out to get some air," Wang Yiyang said, forcing a smile.

"You're not wearing enough. You'll catch a cold. You should go back and get some sleep," Zhong Can said in a low voice.

"I know. You should get some rest too, Brother Zhong Can. You've had a long day."

"It's fine." Zhong Can replied briefly, then slowly walked beneath the tree toward his room.

His figure looked faintly sinister in the dark, leaving Wang Yiyang with an inexplicable chill.

Wang Yiyang watched him go inside before looking away.

His grandfather had always treated him well. Then, two months later, disaster would strike, and he himself would suddenly get into a car accident.

There were far too many coincidences here.

"When there are too many coincidences, they stop being coincidences. They become inevitable..." Wang Yiyang's thoughts sank into silence.

He didn't know how he had come back to life and been reborn, but since he was back, he would investigate what had really happened to his grandfather.

"But where should I start?"

He was just an ordinary office worker who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. The toughest thing he had ever done was kill a chicken with a knife.

The chicken had fought back and scratched him hard.

"Should I just go to the police?" Wang Yiyang frowned.

What reason could he give them? Was he supposed to say, "I think Zhong Can will kill my grandfather two months from now, so I want to file a report in advance"?

Wouldn't they think he was crazy?

But investigating on his own was obviously dangerous, too.

The fire at the martial arts school, followed by his extraordinarily convenient car accident, made it clear that someone was very likely pulling strings behind the scenes.

"Too bad my parents aren't here... Though they probably wouldn't be able to do anything even if they were." Wang Yiyang felt a little irritable.

He placed a hand on the tree trunk. The rough, cool bark soon calmed him down.

"Maybe I should go straight to Grandpa and drop a hint?" He thought about it for a while and came up with that plan.

Knowing his grandfather, he would probably clap him on the shoulder and laugh, dismissing it as a dream.

Wang Yiyang couldn't settle down. He thought it over and over, but still couldn't find a way to break the deadlock.

He couldn't be sure whether he had just had a nightmare, but the memories in his mind were so clear that he couldn't help believing they were real.

'Even a hallucination couldn't be this clear, could it?'

After hesitating for more than ten minutes, he finally made up his mind to go talk to his grandfather and drop a hint.

He turned and started toward his grandfather's room.

Suddenly, his gaze swept past the window of the senior disciple Zhong Can's room, where a pair of eyes reflecting a faint light watched him calmly.

Wang Yiyang had no idea how long Zhong Can had been watching. He only felt his skin crawl as goosebumps rose all over him, layer after layer.

It was the same feeling he'd had once when he'd run into two rabid dogs in the city.

Only this time, it was far, far more intense.

Wang Yiyang felt as though a huge hand had gripped his heart tight, leaving him unable to move.

Even breathing had become difficult.

His vision began to blur, his face gradually reddened, and a chill ran down his back.

But for some reason, he couldn't tear his gaze away from those eyes.

"W-what's happening to me?" Wang Yiyang tried desperately to break free, but to no avail.

It was as if someone were controlling the flow of blood and qi through his body. It grew slower and slower.

Creak.

Just then, the sound of a wooden door opening broke Wang Yiyang out of his dangerous state.

He sucked in a sharp breath and came to. When he looked back at Zhong Can's window, it was empty. There was nothing there.