Chapter 1 Strange Changes

The baseball bat froze, suspended in mid-air.

Li Cheng颐's eyes widened in astonishment as he looked at everything before him, unsure how to react.

In front of him was a wide, dimly lit parking lot.

The square, empty space held no cars, resembling a closed, long box illuminated only by the dim lights on the ground.

The lights were a ghastly white, of two kinds.

One type, on the right, was a long strip, fixed to the black ceiling, stretching into the distant darkness.

The other, on the left, was a line segment of about a meter in length, hung horizontally from the ceiling every ten meters or so, one after another, similarly extending into the distant darkness.

The black, slightly reflective ground was illuminated by the lights, appearing faintly white, with some blurry white lines marking parking spaces.

'What the hell? Am I dreaming?' Li Cheng颐 gently put down the baseball bat and pinched his thigh hard.

Sharp pain quickly spread throughout his body, jolting him awake.

'It doesn't seem like a dream,' he quickly realized.

Even time-travel had happened, so anything else seemed normal.

He took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling, which calmed his expression slightly.

Standing at the doorway, he paused.

'First, confirm if this is a dream.'

Picking up the baseball bat, he brought it close, almost touching his face, and carefully observed its texture at close range.

The surface of the bat had tiny, smooth rust spots, and the silver paint reflected the distant lights.

In the middle section, there was an inscription of a scroll-like pattern, with a line of small characters: "Life lies in striking hard."

Below the small characters was the brand company: Bi Jia Sports. Further down were two neat characters representing the company.

'Dreams wouldn't have such clear and fine details!'

Li Cheng颐 felt a chill in his heart. He gripped the non-slip handle of the baseball bat. The dense texture provided a rough sensation, further convincing him that this was not a dream.

Generally, based on his experience, to determine if he was dreaming, he only needed to observe the details to find clues.

Details in dreams are often a blur.

But now...

He stood at the doorway, took a deep breath, looked at the parking lot outside, and didn't want to go out at all.

Subconsciously, he took a step back, wanting to retreat into the room and close the door.

'Maybe closing the door and opening it again will restore things to normal.'

He thought to himself, but his back pressed against a cold wall.

'!!!' Li Cheng颐's body stiffened, and he quickly turned his head to look.

The bedroom behind him had somehow turned into a grayish-white wall!

The room was gone!?

His bedroom was gone!?

He stood there dumbfounded, holding the baseball bat, wearing only the gray underwear he slept in, not understanding what had happened at all.

The room was gone.

The door frame was also gone.

Behind him was only a stone wall, identical to the other walls.

If it weren't for the baseball bat he was holding, he might have thought that his sleeping in the room earlier was the illusion.

Reaching out, Li Cheng颐 gently touched the wall in front of him.

The hard, cold touch, and the rough texture, all told him that the wall in front of him was real.

The wall even had some tiny damaged spots, as if it had been hit by a sharp object, revealing another layer of gray-black material underneath.

'What... exactly is going on!?!!'

Li Cheng颐 was utterly stunned.

He turned around again, looked at the parking lot, and took a deep breath.

After hesitating and pausing for a moment, the expression on his face gradually calmed down, and the look in his eyes changed rapidly.

After a while, he finally exhaled a long breath and took a step forward.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the world spun, and Li Cheng颐's eyes blurred, his consciousness entering a moment of confusion.

He felt as if he was floating, spinning.

Beep beep beep....

An ear-piercing alarm clock vibrated beside his ear.

Li Cheng頤's vision gradually returned.

The parking lot in his eyes transformed into the white ceiling of his room.

Square metal panels were pieced together, white squares, black lines—this was the simple ceiling pattern of his home.

He sat blankly on the bed, and the phone on the bedside table vibrated slightly.

It was the set alarm.

The words "Exercise" appeared on the light blue screen.

The time was 7:32.

Li Cheng颐 breathed deeply, feeling his heart still pounding wildly.

The scene just now had been so realistic that he hadn't been able to recover from it yet.

Sitting on the bed, waiting for his blood flow to slow down a bit, he slowly picked up the phone amidst the alarm.

The phone's background was a deep blue sea, with three young people in red life jackets lying together on a round inflatable raft in the center.

The three had their hands behind their heads, all smiling happily.

Golden sunlight, a gray inflatable raft, red life jackets, and the three people's bright smiles formed a warm picture in the center of the deep blue sea.

Li Cheng颐 looked at the background photo on the screen, his hand holding the phone suspended in mid-air, waiting for a while, only vague memories surged out in his mind.

'Lin Sang, Chen Xudong.'

He remembered the names of the other two people besides himself.

The girl was called Lin Sang, and the sturdy boy was called Chen Xudong.

This was taken by an aerial photographer when the three of them went to Bisha Islands near Lanyang two years ago.

Putting down the phone, he examined the phone's exterior.

It was just a simple rectangular silver box, not much different from the phones of his previous life.

It was all screen, with no buttons.

With a rustle.

He put down his phone, lifted the blanket, stood up, walked to the window, pushed aside a few coats hanging on the window, and opened the window.

The cool air outside turned into a gust of wind, blowing on his cheeks, and the aroma of fried eggs also entered his nostrils.

The light outside the window was pure white. The window was on the fourth floor, and below were rows of cars of various colors.

Across the street was another grayish-white building of more than ten stories. From here, he could see the gradually stirring families in the windows between the floors.

Li Cheng颐 turned his head and looked into the sky further away.

In the蔚蓝 (wèilán – azure) sky, hazy white clouds resembled cotton wool, sometimes blocking the sunlight, sometimes revealing a bit of gold.

He composed himself, turned and walked to the table, and took out a clean mirror from the drawer.

He looked at himself in the mirror.

The mirror reflected an ordinary-looking young man with yellowish skin and dark eyes.

His eyebrows were slightly thin, and the corners of his eyes were slightly upturned, as if he was always smiling. Other than that, there were no features that would make anyone remember him.

His nose was neither high nor low, and his mouth was neither wide nor narrow, neither thick nor thin.

He was about twenty years old, with a curious and slightly surprised look in his eyes.

'It doesn't seem to be much different from my previous life?'

The thought flashed through Li Cheng颐's mind.

According to the original owner's habits, he should be getting dressed and going out to exercise now.

Although his memory was vague, he remembered many things.

He opened the closet, quickly found a gray tracksuit, put it on, then opened the door and went into the living room.

The living room was empty. The original owner's parents and sister were no longer there. There were also fewer shoes in the shoe cabinet at the door.

On the gray, rectangular stone table was a box of something that looked like a gray jelly.

Li Cheng颐 walked over, picked it up, and looked at it.

The outside of the box was printed with a line of words: "Silver Ear Fungus and Mung Bean Porridge - Gu Ding Brand."

After hesitating for a moment, he tore open the lid of the box, tilted his head back, and drank it.

It tasted sweet, no different from what he had eaten in his previous life.

He quickly finished breakfast, changed his shoes, and put on a sports fanny pack.

Li Cheng颐 carefully reviewed his vague memories, took his phone and keys, and walked out the door.

In the empty and cold stairwell, the silver elevator was faster than he had expected.

Almost as soon as he pressed the button, he counted to four seconds in his mind, and he was on the first floor.

Leaving the stairwell, walking out of the building entrance, his feet stepped on the gray ground outside for the first time, feeling the hard and solid sensation. Li Cheng颐 suddenly felt grounded.

He stood at the entrance of the building, feeling the warm breeze blowing on his body. The wind carried the fragrance of flowers and the aroma of breakfast. An indescribable sense of freshness welled up in his heart.

Ding-a-ling.

Suddenly, the sound of a bell came from the opposite building entrance.

An old man with gray hair was helping his granddaughter onto the back seat of a bicycle. He took one step, two steps, three steps forward, jumped onto the bike, and rode off, taking his granddaughter to school.

The little girl, not yet ten years old, was carrying a schoolbag, yawning, with still a bit of tear marks on the corners of her eyes, and a fingerprint mark remaining on one side of her small face.

Li Cheng颐 stretched his ankles while watching the little girl and the old man gradually move away.

He lightly jumped twice, following the direction of the bicycle, and trotted after them.

That was the direction to exit the residential area, and the location where the original owner usually exercised was on the side of this Happy Residential Area, in a small park.

Inside the residential area, cars drove past from the side, all people going out to work.

The leaves and branches above his head rustled in the wind, constantly scattering bits of light yellow debris, which seemed to be some kind of petals, or fluff from the leaves.

Li Cheng颐 ran out of the residential area along the road, paused in front of a large stone with the words "Happy Residential Area" engraved in red on the right side of the entrance, and then continued to run towards the right side of the residential area.

Fresh air, a comfortable temperature, bright light, and clean streets.

The streams of cars and people going to work and taking their children to school, as well as the people getting up early to exercise.

The reality of everything gradually calmed Li Cheng颐's somewhat uneasy mood.

He ran to the entrance of the small park in one breath, stopped at the edge of a circular open space, and waited.

Those who exercised with the original owner were the other two people in the background photo on his phone: Lin Sang and Chen Xudong.

Five days a week, they would come here together for morning exercise.

Li Cheng颐 felt both anticipation and trepidation. Everything in this world was new to him.

The interpersonal relationships and past of the original owner were both familiar and strange to him.

While thinking about how to deal with his two other friends, the uneasiness brought about by last night's strange experience was gradually left behind.

He vaguely had a feeling of confusion, as if this was the real him, and the previous life in his memory was just an extremely realistic dream.

But this feeling was quickly thrown to the back of his mind.

Because someone was already jogging towards him from the right.

"Xiao Yi!" That person called out from afar, his running posture very standard.

This person was tall and big, at least 1.9 meters tall, with a buzz cut, bulging muscles, and a large build. He was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and gray-white sweatpants, with thick eyebrows and large eyes, and a large red mole on the left side of his brow. It was Chen Xudong, Li Cheng颐's good friend and classmate from the original owner's memories.