"Ring, ring-"
The alarm clock beside the bed rang. Su Bai struggled to reach a hand out from under the covers. Half asleep, he could not even remember to turn it off, and simply dragged it under the covers and held it down, drifting back to sleep to its muffled ringing.
The morning calls of birds came through the window, as if to say that Honghuai City was as peaceful and quiet today as ever.
Su Bai, who had been drowsily asleep just a second earlier, opened his eyes as though suddenly startled awake, then bolted upright in his warm, soft bed. Amid the ringing of the alarm, he looked around in confusion, only to find his familiar bedroom. He had lived in this simple but cozily furnished room for almost eighteen years. There was nothing strange about it.
The desk beside him was covered with the checkered tablecloth his mother had bought last week, though it was already buried beneath all sorts of study guides and notebooks bought for his final push before the entrance exam. It looked messy, but with only half a month left until the exam, there was nothing strange about it.
The school uniform he was to wear today was already folded on the chair. He could faintly smell the laundry detergent. It must have been brought in not long ago.
There was nothing strange about it.
"Something's wrong." A splitting headache suddenly struck Su Bai, making him furrow his brows in pain. "Something isn't right."
Su Bai had no idea what was happening. Everything before him was clearly normal, and there was clearly nothing strange about it, yet everything within his field of vision felt out of place.
*And why had I slept so deeply? Someone had come into my room to put down