Gao Ming opened his eyes and, for no apparent reason, looked toward the only table in the room, as though someone else were standing beside it.
His head felt a little groggy. He felt as though he had just slept.
"Are you awake?"
He slowly rose and discovered a momentary disconnect between his body and his consciousness. It was like knowing he was dreaming and consciously trying to touch something, only for his body to fail to respond.
"I definitely heard a voice."
Every anomaly around him had disappeared. The world before Gao Ming's eyes had returned completely to normal.
The books were no longer made of human skin, the ghostly silhouette in the computer had vanished, and even the Divine Statue in the innermost room was nowhere to be seen. The medicine racks held only medication for psychological disorders.
"I never fell asleep. Why would he ask that?"
Standing in the Counseling Room, Gao Ming remained on high alert. The entire building had been engulfed in anomalies earlier. How had they all vanished in the blink of an eye?
"Was I trapped in an illusion? Or did I fall asleep?"
Gao Ming walked toward the room's door and pulled the cloth off its glass window, his eyes slowly narrowing.
The corridor outside had returned to normal. An urgent missing-person announcement played over the speakers, and light shone on yellowed tiles. The doors to all the wards on either side of the corridor were shut tight.
"I think I saw the past..."
The glass in the door reflected Gao Ming's figure. He wore his work uniform from Hate Mountain Prison, his expression solemn, and held a slip of paper.
"A slip of paper?"
Gao Ming looked down at his hands. He was wearing a black coat and clutching a chain