August 15, 11:59 p.m.
The rain was coming down hard.
The city was shrouded in a heavy curtain of rain. The lights of the high-rises in the distance blurred through the moisture, like countless stars on the verge of going out.
Lin Ye stood outside the convenience store.
He held a cup of freshly purchased black coffee in his left hand and an unlit cigarette between the fingers of his right.
He wasn't in a hurry to go home.
More accurately, he didn't even know why he was standing there.
His place was only two intersections away.
But tonight, he simply didn't want to go back.
Maybe it was because the room was too quiet.
Maybe it was because his dreams had been getting stranger lately.
Or maybe...
It was simply because today was August 15.
Three years ago today, his father disappeared.
There had been no suicide note.
No body.
No trace that could explain anything.
In the end, all the police left him with was one phrase: no contact.
But Lin Ye knew it wasn't that simple.
Because the last thing his father left behind before his disappearance wasn't a letter or a recording.
It was a time.
00:00.
Lin Ye had been only eighteen then.
The night before his disappearance, his father had sat in the living room, staring at the wall clock for a long time.
Lin Ye had been playing a game in his room.
It wasn't until after midnight that he heard his father call his name.
“Xiao Ye.”
It was the last time his father ever called him.
Lin Ye walked out of his room.
His father stood in the middle of the living room, holding an old black fountain pen.
“What’s wrong?”
His father didn't answer.
He only asked, “If one day you discovered that time wasn't real, who would you believe?”
Lin Ye had laughed.
“Dad, are you under too much pressure at work?”
His father didn't laugh.
The face that was usually so gentle looked unusually exhausted at that moment.
“Remember this.”
“Remember what?”
“After midnight, don't trust anyone.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Why?”
His father glanced at the wall clock.
11:59.
“Because certain things...”
He paused for a long time.
“...only wake up after midnight.”
The next second—
All the lights in the house suddenly went out.
Lin Ye jumped.
By the time he turned on his phone's flashlight again, his father was gone.
That night, he searched the entire house.
He couldn't find his father.
The next day, he called the police.
Later, they checked the surveillance footage.
There was only one bizarre sequence.
11:59:58.
His father stood in the living room.
11:59:59.
Static filled the screen.
12:00:00.
His father disappeared.
12:00:01.
The picture returned.
The living room was empty.
It was as if someone had been cut out of the world for one second.
And today—
Three years later—
Lin Ye was standing outside the convenience store again.
The time.
11:59:31.
He glanced at his phone.
Raindrops splattered across the screen.
He raised a hand and wiped them away.
11:59:34.
“It was the same time three years ago...”
he murmured.
The convenience-store clerk beside him looked up.
“Sir, what did you say?”
Lin Ye froze for a moment.
“Nothing.”
The clerk nodded and lowered his head to play on his phone.
Lin Ye looked outside again.
There were plenty of cars on the street.
Taipei's nights were never truly quiet.
Taxis.
Buses.
Scooters.
Delivery drivers.
Pedestrians.
Everyone was rushing somewhere.
He was the only one who didn't know where he was going.
His phone suddenly buzzed.
Lin Ye looked down.
It was a news alert.
【The global time synchronization system may experience a brief anomaly tonight. Experts remind the public not to panic.】
He opened the article.
It was short.
The gist was that atomic clocks and network time services around the world might experience a one- or two-second discrepancy tonight.
This kind of thing wasn't particularly unusual.
But what caught Lin Ye's attention was the time the article had been posted.
11:59.
He frowned.
“Time synchronization?”
Those four words made him think of his father.
His father had once said,
“Time doesn't exist naturally.”
Lin Ye hadn't understood him at all back then.
But his father had continued:
“We think clocks are telling us what time it is.”
“But that's not true.”
“Clocks are telling the world what time we're supposed to believe it is.”
Lin Ye had always dismissed that as the wild ramblings of a man under too much pressure from his research.
Until three years ago.
Until his father disappeared.
And now, the news was reporting an anomaly in time synchronization.
Lin Ye stared at his phone.
11:59:42.
11:59:43.
11:59:44.
For some reason, his heartbeat suddenly sped up.
11:59:45.
The hum of the air conditioning inside the convenience store abruptly stopped.
Lin Ye looked up.
The clerk looked up too.
“Power outage?”
The lights were still on.
But the air conditioning had stopped.
The compressor in the refrigerated display case had stopped too.
The entire convenience store suddenly became unnaturally quiet.
Lin Ye looked outside.
The cars were still moving.
The rain was still falling.
But the sounds seemed farther away.
As if they were coming through a thick pane of glass.
11:59:50.
His phone buzzed again.
This time, it wasn't a news alert.
It was a message from an unknown sender.
There was no phone number.
No sender.
Only a string of incomprehensible letters and numbers.
Lin Ye opened it.
There was only one sentence on the screen.
【Don't let time reach midnight.】
Lin Ye's breath caught for an instant.
He immediately checked the time on his phone.
11:59:53.
“Who is this?”
He sent a reply.
There was no response.
11:59:54.
He typed again.
【Who are you?】
The message wouldn't send.
The signal bars in the upper-right corner of his phone suddenly dropped to zero.
11:59:55.
The convenience-store lights began to flicker.
Click.
Bright.
Click.
Dark.
Click.
Bright.
The clerk stood up.
“Sir...”
His voice had suddenly become very small.
“Don't you feel...”
“Feel what?”
The clerk didn't answer.
He stared at the digital clock on the wall.
11:59:56.
Lin Ye looked over too.
The next second, the numbers on the digital clock suddenly changed to:
88:88:88.
Lin Ye froze.
The clerk's face instantly went white.
“What the...”
Click.
All the lights went out.
The world fell silent.
This wasn't an ordinary power outage.
All sound vanished at once.
The sound of rain.
The sound of cars.
The sound of the air conditioning.
The sound of the refrigerated display case.
Even the clerk's breathing.
Everything was gone.
Lin Ye stood in the darkness.
He couldn't see his own hand.
He couldn't hear his heartbeat either.
But he knew he was still alive.
Because he could feel fear.
A very clear, very intense fear.
Suddenly, a sound came from the darkness.
Drip.
Like an electronic clock ticking forward one second.
Drip.
Another second.
Drip.
The third second.
Then a woman's voice sounded beside his ear.
“Lin Ye.”
His entire body went rigid.
He recognized that voice.
It was his mother.
But his mother had been dead for seven years.
“Lin Ye.”
The voice sounded again.
“Don't look back.”
Lin Ye's eyes widened.
Cold sweat broke out down his back.
He wanted to ask why, but his throat felt blocked by something.
“Don't look back.”
The woman's voice drew closer and closer.
“No matter what you hear...”
“...don't look back.”
Lin Ye stared desperately into the darkness ahead.
Behind him—
Footsteps suddenly sounded.
Click.
One step.
Click.
A second step.
Click.
A third step.
Someone was approaching him.
Lin Ye slowly tightened his fingers.
He wanted to run.
But his legs felt nailed to the floor.
The footsteps stopped.
Right behind him.
Very close.
Close enough that he could almost feel a cold breath falling against the back of his neck.
Then the voice laughed.
“Do you remember me?”
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
That wasn't his mother's voice.
It had been a moment ago.
Now it had changed.
It had become a man's voice.
The voice of a man he didn't know.
“Lin Ye,”
the man said softly.
“Three years.”
“You're finally back.”
Lin Ye's eyes flew open.
Boom!
The entire city suddenly lit up.
The sound of rain returned.
Car horns returned.
The air conditioning started running again.
The refrigerated display case began to hum.
The convenience-store lights returned to normal.
Lin Ye spun around.
There was nothing behind him.
The clerk stood beside the counter, his face pale.
“Sir...”
“Just now...”
Lin Ye panted.
“Did you hear someone talking just now?”
The clerk stared at him blankly.
“No.”
“You didn't hear it?”
“I just...”
The clerk paused.
“What just happened?”
Lin Ye froze.
“You don't remember?”
“Remember what?”
The clerk looked at him with genuine confusion.
Lin Ye didn't answer.
He looked at his phone.
12:00.
Midnight.
He slowly raised his head.
The digital clock on the convenience-store wall.
12:00.
The electronic billboard on the street.
12:00.
The dashboard displays of the cars.
12:00.
Every clock showed the same time.
Lin Ye's hands began to tremble.
Because at that exact moment, his phone screen lit up again.
There was no notification sound.
No vibration.
It simply lit up on its own.
A line of white text appeared against the black background.
【Time correction complete.】
Below it was a countdown.
【Remaining: 31 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds】
Lin Ye stared at the screen.
The countdown began.
31 days 23 hours 59 minutes 58 seconds.
His mind went completely blank.
“What is this...”
At that moment, another line of text appeared on his phone.
【The first person has awakened.】
Lin Ye frowned.
The next second—
【The second person is about to awaken.】
【The third person...】
【The fourth person...】
The number kept increasing.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Ten seconds.
The number climbed from four to seventeen.
Then to one hundred.
One thousand.
Ten thousand.
Lin Ye watched the screen.
The people in the city continued living their normal lives.
No one knew what had happened.
But on his phone, the number kept climbing.
【128,421】
【128,422】
【128,423】
【128,424】
Lin Ye suddenly thought of the news.
The global anomaly in time synchronization.
He quickly opened his browser.
The internet was back.
But the homepage of the news site now displayed a strange headline.
【Brief “mass lapses of consciousness” reported in multiple locations worldwide at midnight.】
Lin Ye opened it.
The article had been posted less than a minute ago.
It read:
“At midnight today, surveillance systems in at least seventeen countries around the world recorded abnormal phenomena. Large numbers of people experienced gaps in consciousness lasting approximately three to seventeen seconds at the same time.”
Lin Ye's finger stopped moving.
The final paragraph read:
“Some researchers believe this may be related to the recent anomaly in the global time synchronization system.”
Lin Ye continued scrolling.
Suddenly, a photograph appeared on the screen.
It had been taken at some research facility.
A man in a white research coat stood behind a glass door.
The photograph was extremely blurry.
But Lin Ye recognized him at a glance.
That person—
was his father.
Lin Ye shot to his feet.
The chair toppled over behind him.
The clerk jumped.
“Sir?”
Lin Ye didn't answer.
He enlarged the photograph.
A date was stamped in the lower-right corner.
Three years ago.
August 15.
11:59.
Lin Ye's breathing grew faster and faster.
He immediately took a screenshot.
But the image suddenly disappeared.
The news page refreshed.
The article was gone.
As if it had never existed.
“Impossible...”
He searched again.
Nothing.
Even his search history was gone.
Lin Ye stood inside the convenience store.
For the first time, he truly realized—
what had happened tonight might not be a phone malfunction.
It might not be a hallucination.
And it might not be a coincidence.
Someone was changing time.
And his father—
had probably known all along.
Lin Ye turned and left the convenience store.
The rain was still falling.
The people on the street continued as normal.
No one paid any attention to him.
He had taken only a few steps when his phone buzzed again.
This time, it was a real text message.
The sender was listed with only three characters.
“Dad.”
Lin Ye stopped dead.
There was only one line on the screen.
【If you still remember me, go to the old research center immediately.】
The next line:
【Don't bring anyone.】
The third line:
【Don't trust the police.】
Lin Ye stared at his phone.
The final line slowly appeared.
【Especially don't trust the police officer who found me three years ago.】
Lin Ye's expression changed.
Because three years ago, the police officer in charge of his father's disappearance case had been his uncle.
He was also the person Lin Ye had trusted most since childhood.
Lin Ye stood in the rain.
For a long time, he didn't move.
Then he suddenly remembered a detail from three years ago.
After his father disappeared, his uncle had asked him:
“Did your dad say anything to you before he disappeared?”
Lin Ye had answered:
“No.”
Because he hadn't told anyone.
His father had said:
“After midnight, don't trust anyone.”
But now, his father's message was telling him—
don't trust his uncle.
Lin Ye slowly tightened his grip on the phone.
Just then, every traffic light at the corner suddenly turned green.
Every direction.
Green at the same time.
The cars began to collide into chaos.
Horns erupted all at once.
Lin Ye looked up.
In the distance, a black sedan came racing toward him against the flow of traffic.
It was moving fast.
Its headlights were blinding.
Lin Ye instinctively dodged to the side.
The black sedan shot past, scraping his body.
Bang!
The side mirror slammed into his shoulder.
Lin Ye fell to the ground.
His phone flew away.
The black sedan didn't stop.
It vanished directly into the curtain of rain.
Lin Ye clutched his shoulder.
The pain cleared his head.
He got back up and searched for his phone.
It lay in the middle of the road.
The screen was cracked.
But it was still lit.
The last message on it wasn't from Dad.
It was from a name he didn't recognize.
【Lin Ye, don't go to the research center.】
Lin Ye froze.
Because beneath the name was a photograph.
The person in the photograph—
was standing behind him.
Lin Ye slowly raised his head.
Through the curtain of rain, a person in a gray raincoat stood less than twenty yards away.
The hood was pulled low.
He couldn't see the person's face.
The figure didn't approach.
It simply stood there.
Then it raised its right hand.
And pointed at Lin Ye.
Just like his father had in the surveillance footage three years ago.
Lin Ye's breath stopped.
The man in gray slowly raised his head.
A pale face emerged.
The instant Lin Ye saw it clearly, his entire body felt as if it had been struck by lightning.
Because that face—
was his face.
Not similar.
Not a resemblance.
Exactly identical.
Another “Lin Ye” stood in the rain.
The two of them stared at each other across the street.
The corners of the other's mouth slowly lifted.
Then he said something.
Lin Ye couldn't hear the voice.
But he understood the shape of the words.
“You're not the first.”
The next second, every traffic light went dark.
The city plunged into darkness again.
And Lin Ye's phone began to count down.
【31 days 23 hours 42 minutes 17 seconds.】
【31 days 23 hours 42 minutes 16 seconds.】
【31 days 23 hours 42 minutes 15 seconds.】
He didn't know what would happen after thirty-one days.
He knew even less about who the “himself” standing in the rain really was.
But he would understand soon enough.
Three years ago, his father hadn't disappeared.
He had been deleted from the world.
And now—
the world was preparing to delete a second person.
Him.
End of Chapter 1, Part 1.