Chapter Three: Number Twenty-Eight
The instant the door was smashed open, Lin Ye didn't think.
His body moved faster than his brain.
Almost as soon as the door fell inward, he turned and sprinted toward the bedroom.
"Get him!"
A man's furious roar came from behind him.
Footsteps exploded into motion.
Lin Ye rushed into the room and slammed the door shut behind him.
Bang!
He didn't try to lock it.
There was no point.
The people behind him had made his father disappear three years ago. There was no way an ordinary wooden door could stop them now.
He yanked open the closet.
There were no weapons inside.
No secret passage.
Nothing.
"Damn it..."
Lin Ye quickly scanned the room.
The window.
It was his only option.
Six floors up.
A jump could break his legs.
But it was still better than being taken.
He threw the window open.
Cold wind and rain came rushing in.
A narrow alley lay below.
Trash cans.
An awning.
A white van parked by the curb.
About six stories.
Lin Ye estimated the distance.
If he jumped onto the third-floor tenant's awning first, then dropped to the second floor, and finally...
Bang!
The bedroom door shuddered from a blow.
"Lin Ye!"
His uncle's voice came from outside.
"Don't make me do this."
Lin Ye looked back.
The door had already caved in.
The second impact was coming.
"Xiao Ye, your father was the same way back then."
"He refused to cooperate."
Lin Ye clenched his fists.
"What did you do to him?"
Silence came from outside the door.
Then his uncle answered:
"I didn't do anything to him."
"He chose that path himself."
Lin Ye gave a cold laugh.
"Then where is he now?"
"You'll see him soon."
"Alive?"
Silence fell outside again.
Lin Ye's heart clenched.
"Answer me!"
"...Alive."
Those two words left Lin Ye stunned.
His uncle continued:
"At least, the last time we saw him, he was still alive."
"The last time?"
Lin Ye stared at the door.
"What does that mean?"
"Today, three years ago."
"After midnight."
Lin Ye's breathing gradually grew heavier.
"What the hell were you researching?"
His uncle didn't answer.
Instead, he asked, "Do you remember ZERO?"
Lin Ye said nothing.
"You've remembered it already, haven't you?"
The voice outside sank lower.
"That means time has started to collapse."
"Xiao Ye, come with us."
"There's still time."
Lin Ye laughed.
"You want me to go with the people who killed my dad?"
"We didn't kill him."
"Then who did?"
His uncle didn't answer.
At that very moment, the light in the room suddenly flickered.
Lin Ye looked down.
The time on his phone had changed again.
00:03.
The next second.
00:02.
The second after that.
00:01.
Time was moving backward.
Lin Ye stared at the screen.
"What's happening...?"
The people outside seemed to notice the anomaly too.
Someone shouted:
"Time reversal!"
"Everyone stop!"
"Don't touch him!"
The entire room fell silent.
Lin Ye heard chaos outside the door.
Someone was panting.
Someone was shouting.
Someone fell.
And then—
All sound vanished at once.
Lin Ye looked out the window.
Raindrops hung motionless in midair.
It wasn't an illusion.
A single drop of water was suspended outside the glass.
Then the entire world began to slow down.
Car lights.
Rain.
Leaves.
The movements of pedestrians in the distance.
Everything looked as if someone had pressed slow motion.
But Lin Ye's heartbeat was getting faster and faster.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Suddenly, a crack appeared in the center of the room.
It wasn't in the wall.
It wasn't in the glass.
It was in the air.
A pitch-black crack.
As if someone had used a knife to slice open a wound in reality.
There was no light inside it.
Only endless darkness.
Lin Ye stepped backward.
The crack grew wider and wider.
Then a hand reached out from inside.
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
The hand was so pale it had no color at all.
Around its wrist was a scar.
Exactly like his.
"We've met again."
A voice came from inside the crack.
It was another Lin Ye.
Lin Ye stared at him.
"What the hell are you?"
The voice laughed.
"Me?"
A face slowly emerged from behind the crack.
"I'm the part of you that you've forgotten."
A chill spread through Lin Ye's entire body.
"What does that mean?"
"Three years ago."
The other Lin Ye looked at him.
"When you entered ZERO, you were split into two people."
Lin Ye said nothing.
"One stayed behind."
"The other was sent outside of time."
"You're the one who stayed."
Lin Ye looked at him.
"Then what about you?"
"Me?"
The other one smiled.
"I'm the one who was sent away."
Boom!
The bedroom door suddenly burst open.
His uncle charged in with several men in black.
"Don't look at that thing!"
His uncle shouted.
Lin Ye spun around.
But it was already too late.
The other Lin Ye reached out from the crack.
"Lin Ye."
"Come with me."
"This world isn't yours anymore."
His uncle drew a gun.
"Lin Ye, get down!"
Bang!
The gun went off.
The bullet shot across the room.
But it didn't hit the other Lin Ye.
The bullet stopped in midair, less than four inches from his face.
The next second, the bullet moved backward.
It flew along its original trajectory and returned to the gun's muzzle.
Bang!
The shooter's shoulder exploded.
Blood splattered across the wall.
Everyone froze.
His uncle's face went pale.
"A time field..."
The other Lin Ye looked at him.
"You still don't understand."
He extended a hand.
The entire room began to warp.
The table grew old.
The walls became new.
The puddle on the floor vanished.
Then reappeared.
The furniture changed rapidly, like a fast-forwarded film.
Lin Ye saw his home.
It became the home from three years ago.
Then it became the home from ten years ago.
Then it turned into a completely unfamiliar room.
Finally, it stopped in a white laboratory.
Lin Ye stood in the center of the lab.
He saw twenty-eight people.
Every one of them wore white lab coats.
One of them...
Was himself from three years ago.
Eighteen-year-old Lin Ye stood beside his father.
"Impossible..."
Lin Ye murmured.
"I really was here."
His uncle stood behind him.
He no longer tried to stop him.
Because he knew Lin Ye had already begun to remember.
At the center of the lab was a huge circular device.
There was no door.
No glass.
Only a black circle.
Like a sun without light.
His father stood beside the device, holding a document.
"ZERO's first official test."
"Twenty-eight test subjects."
"Objective."
"To determine whether humans can retain their memories after a time reset."
Eighteen-year-old Lin Ye asked, "What happens if it works?"
His father looked at him.
"Then we'll have proven one thing."
"What?"
"Time isn't continuous."
His father pointed at the device.
"It's a series of moments that have been remembered."
"As long as we can control memory..."
"We can control time."
Young Lin Ye frowned.
"What if it fails?"
His father didn't answer.
Instead, he looked toward the twenty-eight test subjects.
"If it fails..."
"We'll forget that we ever failed."
The scene suddenly flickered.
Lin Ye saw everyone close their eyes at the same time.
The device began to power up.
A red light appeared in the center of the black circle.
The red light gradually expanded.
Every instrument began to sound an alarm.
"Synchronization rate, seventy percent!"
"Eighty!"
"Ninety!"
"Ninety-seven!"
"Over one hundred!"
His father suddenly looked up.
"Stop!"
No one heard him.
The entire laboratory began to shake.
Every wall clock spun counterclockwise.
Lin Ye watched his eighteen-year-old body begin to turn transparent.
"Dad!"
He reached out and grabbed his father's hand.
"What's happening to me?"
His father held on to him with all his strength.
"Don't let go!"
"Dad!"
"Don't let go of me!"
The next second, a white light swallowed everyone.
Lin Ye suddenly returned to the present.
He was kneeling on the floor.
Both hands braced against it.
He gasped violently for breath.
"That day..."
He looked at his hands.
"What happened that day?"
His uncle stood in the doorway.
His face was filled with exhaustion.
"The first experiment failed."
"All twenty-eight people disappeared for three minutes."
"After three minutes..."
"Twenty-seven of them came back."
Lin Ye looked up.
"What about the other one?"
His uncle looked at him.
"You."
Lin Ye froze.
"But I came back, didn't I?"
"No."
His uncle shook his head.
"The person who came back..."
He paused.
"Wasn't the original you."
A deathly silence filled the room.
Lin Ye looked at his other self.
The other him didn't deny it.
"Then who am I?"
No one answered.
After a long time, the other Lin Ye spoke from inside the crack.
"You're Number Twenty-Eight."
"The only person time rejected."
Lin Ye gritted his teeth.
"So that's why you call me Number Twenty-Eight?"
"I'm not the one who named you that."
The other Lin Ye said, "They did."
He pointed at Lin Ye's uncle.
Lin Ye turned his head.
His uncle didn't deny it.
"Three years ago."
"ZERO went out of control."
"Twenty-seven people were rearranged by time."
"Only one person failed to return to his original position."
"You."
Lin Ye suddenly laughed.
"Then why are you still looking for me?"
"Because you're the key."
"The key to what?"
His uncle lifted his head.
"The key to starting the world over."
Lin Ye's smile slowly disappeared.
"Starting over?"
"Yes."
"When?"
His uncle looked out the window.
"In thirty-one days."
Lin Ye remembered the countdown on his phone.
"Thirty-one days..."
"ZERO will activate again."
"And this time..."
His uncle's gaze grew unusually heavy.
"It won't be an experiment."
"It will be a reboot."
1:20 a.m.
Lin Ye was taken away from his home.
He wasn't handcuffed.
His uncle hadn't even let anyone touch him.
Because no one dared get close.
Along the way, the city looked no different from usual.
The streetlights were normal.
The traffic was normal.
The convenience stores were open as usual.
Some pedestrians were even laughing and chatting.
But Lin Ye knew this was all fake.
Or, more precisely—
It might all have only thirty-one days left.
He sat in the back seat of a black sedan.
His uncle sat in front.
The driver didn't say a word the entire trip.
Lin Ye watched the view outside.
As they passed an intersection, he suddenly saw a girl.
She looked about twenty.
She wore a white coat.
She stood by the side of the road.
She wasn't holding an umbrella.
She was just watching the car.
As the car passed her, the girl raised a hand.
On the fogged-up window, she wrote a number.
28.
Lin Ye whipped around.
The girl had disappeared.
"Stop the car!"
The driver didn't react.
"Stop the car!"
Lin Ye grabbed the front seat.
His uncle turned around.
"Don't chase her."
"Who is she?"
"Number Seventeen."
Lin Ye froze.
"She was part of ZERO too?"
"She was."
"Where is she now?"
"The person you just saw wasn't her."
Lin Ye frowned.
"What does that mean?"
His uncle didn't answer.
Lin Ye looked out the window again.
The girl was standing on the corner.
She had appeared again.
This time, she wasn't looking at the car.
She was looking into the distance.
Then her body suddenly turned into a field of white static.
Like a television image being cut off.
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
"Did you see that?"
"I saw it," his uncle said.
"She's being deleted."
Lin Ye looked at him.
"Deleted?"
"Every hour..."
"The world deletes one person who shouldn't exist."
"In thirty-one days..."
His uncle paused.
"It'll be everyone's turn."
Silence filled the car again.
Lin Ye suddenly asked, "What about my dad?"
"He's still in ZERO."
"Didn't you say he was dead?"
"I said he was alive."
"Then why haven't you rescued him in three years?"
His uncle was silent for a long time.
"Because we can't get in."
"Why not?"
"Only you can get inside."
Lin Ye slowly sat up straighter.
"So that's why you took me."
"No."
His uncle turned his head.
"We've been waiting for you."
"Waiting for what?"
"For you to remember."
Lin Ye looked at him.
"Remember what?"
His uncle's voice was very soft.
"The last thing your father said to you."
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
The scene from three years ago appeared in his mind again.
The white laboratory.
The alarms.
His father.
Himself.
The black device.
And...
The final second.
His father held him and whispered in his ear:
"Xiao Ye."
"If you wake up..."
"Whatever you do, don't trust..."
The scene abruptly cut out.
Lin Ye's eyes flew open.
"Don't trust who?"
His uncle said nothing.
Lin Ye suddenly realized the car had stopped.
Outside was a massive underground base.
There were no signs at the entrance.
Only a metal door.
Carved into it were the words:
ZERO-01.
Lin Ye got out of the car.
The metal door opened automatically.
Cold air blew out from inside.
He walked forward.
Every step felt like walking into an unfinished dream from three years ago.
The base ran deep underground.
The elevator descended.
One level.
Two levels.
Three levels.
Lin Ye looked at the elevator panel.
There were no floor numbers.
Only:
-01
-02
-03
All the way to:
-13.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened onto a long white corridor.
Glass rooms lined both sides.
Every room held a bed.
Someone lay on every bed.
Men and women.
People of different ages.
Some were asleep.
Some had their eyes open.
Some didn't move at all.
Lin Ye stopped.
"Who are these people?"
His uncle answered:
"The first people rejected by time."
"How many?"
"One hundred seventy-nine."
Lin Ye looked at them.
Suddenly, a woman in the third room on the left opened her eyes.
She stared straight at Lin Ye.
Then she raised her hand and wrote a single word on the glass.
"Run."
Lin Ye froze.
The woman wrote again.
"He's not your uncle."
Lin Ye whipped around.
His uncle stood at the end of the corridor.
His face was expressionless.
The woman began pounding frantically on the glass.
"Run!"
"Run!"
The alarm suddenly blared.
Red lights began to spin.
Every door in the corridor locked at once.
His uncle raised his head.
For the first time, he wore a strange smile.
"She's finally awake."
Lin Ye slowly backed away.
"Who the hell are you?"
His uncle didn't answer.
He held out his hand.
Around his wrist was a scar.
Exactly like Lin Ye's.
Lin Ye's face instantly went white.
"Impossible..."
His uncle looked at him.
"Three years ago..."
"All of us were replaced once."
"Including you."
"Including me."
"Including your father."
Lin Ye felt as if the entire world were collapsing.
His uncle walked toward him.
"So the real question was never who is real."
He stopped in front of Lin Ye.
"It's this—"
"The world you believe in now..."
"Which reboot did it come after?"
In the distance, a massive metal door slowly opened.
There was no room behind it.
Only boundless darkness.
From within the darkness came a familiar voice.
"Xiao Ye."
Lin Ye suddenly looked up.
It was his father.
"Dad?"
The voice came again.
"Don't trust him."
Lin Ye looked at his uncle.
But his uncle only smiled.
"You heard him, didn't you?"
"Your father is in there."
"Now..."
"You can ask him yourself."
"What happened..."
"Three years ago."
Lin Ye stood before the door.
Deep in the darkness, it seemed that a pair of eyes was watching him.
The countdown on his phone continued.
[31 days 22 hours 39 minutes 11 seconds]
[31 days 22 hours 39 minutes 10 seconds]
[31 days 22 hours 39 minutes 09 seconds]
Lin Ye clenched his fists.
Then he walked into the darkness.
The metal door behind him
Boomed shut.
And before it closed completely, the last thing he saw was his reflection in the corridor glass.
But that reflection didn't follow him.
It remained where it was.
It raised its head.
It smiled at him.
Then it mouthed:
"The third time."
The door closed completely.
End of Chapter Three