Chapter Six: The First World
When Lin Ye woke up, rain was falling outside the window.
He did not open his eyes right away.
The sound of rain was familiar.
Fine and steady.
Falling on the windowsill, the awning, and the asphalt road in the distance.
He had heard that sound countless times.
But this time, it filled him with fear.
Because he knew.
He had just experienced a world reboot.
And the white-haired old man's final words remained branded in his mind.
—Welcome back to the First World.
Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes.
A white ceiling.
An old chandelier.
A calendar on the wall.
A desk.
A wardrobe.
A nightstand.
Everything was ordinary.
So ordinary that it felt unreal.
He sat up.
His first move was to check his phone.
The screen lit up.
No countdown.
No ZERO.
No message from an unknown sender.
Only the normal lock screen.
Time:
7:18 a.m.
Date:
August 15, 2019.
Lin Ye froze.
“2019...”
He stared at those four numbers.
His fingers began to tremble.
This was impossible.
He remembered being born.
He remembered turning eighteen.
He remembered turning twenty-one.
He remembered his father's disappearance.
He remembered his mother's death.
He remembered three worlds.
But now...
The date on his phone was a full seven years before the life he had originally lived.
Lin Ye threw off the covers and got out of bed.
The moment his feet touched the floor, dizziness washed over him.
He grabbed the desk.
His breathing quickened.
“The First World...”
A voice came from outside the door.
“Xiaoye.”
Lin Ye jerked his head up.
That voice.
There was no way he could ever forget it.
“Are you up?”
Lin Ye did not answer.
The voice came again from outside.
“If you don't get up, breakfast is going to get cold.”
Lin Ye's eyes instantly reddened.
He rushed to the door.
His hand closed around the doorknob.
But he stopped.
Because suddenly, he was afraid.
Afraid the person outside would not be the one he wanted to see.
Afraid this was another trap.
Afraid that when he opened the door, he would see a stranger's face.
The person outside knocked again.
“Xiaoye?”
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
He drew a deep breath.
Then he opened the door.
His mother stood outside.
Young.
Healthy.
She held a steaming bowl of congee.
She wore light-colored loungewear, her hair loosely tied behind her head.
When she saw Lin Ye, she smiled.
“What happened to you today?”
Lin Ye did not answer.
He only stared at her.
His mother frowned.
“Why do you look so pale?”
Lin Ye suddenly threw his arms around her.
His mother froze.
“Xiaoye?”
Lin Ye held her tightly.
As if he were afraid that the moment he let go, she would disappear.
Only after a few seconds did his mother gently pat his back.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“What did you dream about?”
Lin Ye did not answer.
He wanted to say:
I dreamed you died.
I dreamed you died three times.
I dreamed I searched for you for a long time.
I dreamed the world rebooted again and again.
I dreamed you made me kill you in the end.
But he could not say a single one of those things.
Because the mother in this world did not know about ZERO.
She did not know the future.
She did not know she was going to die.
She simply stood in the doorway, gently patting his back.
“It's okay.”
“Dreams aren't real.”
Tears fell from Lin Ye's eyes.
“They are real.”
His mother froze.
“What?”
Lin Ye let go of her.
“It's nothing.”
His mother looked into his eyes.
She did not press him.
She simply handed him the bowl of congee.
“Eat breakfast first.”
Lin Ye took the bowl.
Steam washed over his face.
He looked at the plain congee.
Suddenly, he remembered something.
Three years earlier, before his mother's first death, she had said to him:
“When people die, they don't become stars.”
“They become memories.”
Lin Ye lowered his head.
Tears fell into the congee again.
His mother jumped when she saw them.
“Why are you crying again?”
“It's nothing.”
“Is work wearing you out?”
“I don't have a job yet.”
“Oh, right.”
His mother smiled.
“You're only fourteen.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“Fourteen?”
His mother nodded.
“Today is your fourteenth birthday.”
The bowl nearly slipped from Lin Ye's hands.
His birthday?
Fourteen?
He looked at the calendar on the wall.
August 15.
So this was his fourteenth birthday.
Which meant...
The First World.
Nothing had begun yet.
His father was still alive.
His mother was still alive.
ZERO had not officially started.
And he was still only fourteen.
“Where's Dad?” Lin Ye asked.
His mother paused.
“Your dad is at the office, of course.”
“Will he come home today?”
“He will tonight.”
“What time?”
“Why are you asking?”
Lin Ye fell silent.
His mother thought for a moment.
“Probably before eight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Probably.”
Lin Ye did not ask anything else.
He lowered his head and took a sip of the congee.
The flavor was bland.
Yet it was the most familiar taste in his memory.
He suddenly understood.
The white-haired old man had not sent him back three years.
He had not sent him back to the age of twenty-one.
He had sent him all the way back to the beginning.
Fourteen years old.
Nothing had happened yet.
This was the First World.
And it was also where ZERO began.
Ten in the morning.
Lin Ye sat at his desk.
A math textbook lay open in front of him.
But he could not take in a single word.
He pulled out a sheet of paper and began writing down everything he remembered.
The first line:
[Father: Lin Guofeng.]
The second line:
[Mother: Shen Yun.]
The third line:
[Grandfather: Lin Guoan.]
The fourth line:
[ZERO.]
The fifth line:
[Number Twenty-Eight.]
He stopped.
Then he wrote beneath it:
[The other me.]
When he finished, Lin Ye stared at those six words.
“What exactly is real?” he whispered.
A car horn suddenly sounded outside.
Lin Ye looked up.
On the street, a black sedan slowly drove past.
He could not make out the license plate.
But for some reason, a powerful unease suddenly rose in his chest.
He stood and walked to the window.
The sedan stopped below.
The door opened, and a man in a gray coat got out.
The man raised his head and looked toward Lin Ye's room.
Lin Ye's heart gave a violent thump.
The man was not wearing a hat.
And his face was not Lin Ye's.
He was a strange middle-aged man.
The man smiled at him, then turned and walked away.
Lin Ye stared at his back.
He did not know why.
He simply felt that something was wrong with the man.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong.
Lin Ye stepped out of his room.
His mother was in the kitchen.
“Xiaoye, go see who it is.”
Lin Ye stood before the door.
He did not open it right away.
Ding-dong.
A second time.
He looked outside through the peephole.
The man stood at the door.
The same man from downstairs.
Lin Ye did not open the door.
“Who is it?”
The man smiled.
“Hello.”
“I work with your father.”
Lin Ye did not answer.
“Is Lin Guofeng home?”
“No.”
“Then can I come in and wait for him?”
“No.”
The man paused.
“Why not?”
“My mom says I can't let strangers inside.”
The man smiled.
“Very clever.”
Lin Ye's heart sank.
The man looked directly at the peephole.
“Then I'll see you another day.”
He turned and walked away.
Lin Ye did not relax.
Only after the footsteps had completely faded did he turn around.
His mother stood in the living room.
Her expression was strange.
“Who was it?”
“One of Dad's coworkers.”
His mother fell silent.
“What did he look like?”
Lin Ye described him.
His mother's face slowly went pale.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
She walked to the door.
“Really nothing?”
“Yeah.”
But Lin Ye knew she was lying.
Two in the afternoon.
His father came home.
Much earlier than expected.
Lin Guofeng opened the door with a black briefcase in his hand.
When he saw Lin Ye, he smiled.
“Happy birthday.”
Lin Ye stood in the living room and looked at his father.
Three years.
Seven years.
One hundred and seven years.
Across countless worlds, he had been searching for this man.
Now his father stood right in front of him.
No scars.
No white hair.
No exhaustion.
Just an ordinary middle-aged man.
Lin Ye suddenly ran over and hugged him.
His father froze.
“What happened?”
Lin Ye said nothing.
His father patted him on the shoulder.
“Why is everyone acting so strange today?”
His mother laughed from the kitchen.
“It's his birthday.”
His father smiled too.
“Fourteen already.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Will you always stay with me?”
His father's smile paused for a moment.
“Of course.”
“No matter what happens?”
“Of course.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Promise me.”
His father held out his pinky.
“Okay.”
Lin Ye hooked his pinky around it.
“A promise.”
His father smiled.
“A promise.”
But Lin Ye did not smile.
Because he knew this promise would still be broken in the end.
Six in the evening.
The family sat around the dining table.
A cake sat in the middle.
For Lin Ye's fourteenth birthday, his mother lit fourteen candles.
His father took out a camera.
“Okay, look at the camera.”
Lin Ye sat in the middle.
His mother was on the left.
His father was on the right.
The three of them smiled together.
Click.
The photo was taken.
Lin Ye stared at the camera.
Suddenly, the flash went off again.
But this time, no one had pressed the shutter.
Click.
His mother frowned.
“Did you just take another picture?”
His father shook his head.
“No.”
The camera screen lit up by itself.
A new photo had appeared in the gallery.
Three people.
The same dining table.
But behind Lin Ye, there was someone else in the picture.
A person wearing a gray raincoat.
Lin Ye shot to his feet.
His chair toppled backward.
His mother jumped.
“Xiaoye?”
Lin Ye snatched the camera away.
The photo had already disappeared.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You look awful.”
Lin Ye did not answer.
His father looked at him, his expression growing serious.
“Did you see something?”
Lin Ye looked up.
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you know about ZERO?”
The chopsticks fell from his father's hand onto the table.
Clack.
His mother froze too.
The entire room fell silent.
Lin Ye knew he had guessed correctly.
His father stared at him.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“Answer me.”
His father did not answer.
“Dad.”
Lin Ye stood up.
“Do you know about it?”
His father slowly rose.
He looked at Lin Ye's mother.
The same fear filled her eyes.
His father walked to the window and pulled the curtains shut.
Then he turned off every light in the house.
Lin Ye stared at him.
“Why?”
His father turned around.
“Because the moment you said that name...”
“We ran out of time.”
Lin Ye's heart sank.
“What exactly is ZERO?”
His father was silent for a long time.
Finally, he walked to the bookshelf and pulled down a thick book.
A black box was hidden behind it.
The instant Lin Ye saw the box, an image suddenly flashed through his mind.
Fourteen years old.
The same table.
The same box.
His father handed it to him.
“If you ever forget...”
“Open it.”
Lin Ye reached out.
But his father suddenly pulled the box back.
“You can't know yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because you aren't ready.”
“When will I be ready?”
His father looked at him.
“When you're eighteen.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Eighteen?”
His father nodded.
“When you turn eighteen...”
“ZERO will come looking for you.”
“It will find you. It always does.”
Lin Ye gritted his teeth.
“What about you and Mom?”
His father fell silent.
“Are you and Mom going to die?”
His mother suddenly began to cry.
His father closed his eyes.
“If we do everything right...”
“No.”
“And if you do it wrong?”
His father did not answer.
Lin Ye already knew the answer.
Eleven at night.
Lin Ye lay in bed, unable to sleep.
The time on his phone read 11:41 p.m.
His father's words kept repeating in his mind.
Eighteen.
ZERO will come looking for you.
But he already knew the future.
Did that mean...
Could he change it?
If he stopped ZERO ahead of time, his father would not disappear.
His mother would not die.
The second Lin Ye would not have to be trapped for one hundred and seven years.
The world would not need to reboot four times.
Everything could change.
Lin Ye sat up.
He took out a sheet of paper and wrote:
[First: Find ZERO.]
[Second: Stop the first experiment.]
[Third: Protect my parents.]
[Fourth: Find Grandfather.]
He stopped.
The fifth thing.
He wrote:
[Do not trust the other me.]
After he finished, Lin Ye folded the paper and hid it in the desk drawer.
But the instant he closed the drawer, a voice came from inside it.
“Do you really not trust me?”
Lin Ye froze.
He slowly pulled the drawer open.
There was nothing inside.
Only the sheet of paper.
But one additional line had appeared on it, in words he had not written.
[Fifth: Do not trust yourself.]
Lin Ye stopped breathing.
He immediately turned around.
No one was in the room.
The window was closed.
The door was closed too.
But beside the bed, there was a gray raincoat that had not been there before.
Lin Ye stared at it.
Water still dripped from the raincoat.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The window was clearly closed.
Where had the water come from?
Lin Ye slowly approached.
A sheet of paper protruded from the raincoat's pocket.
He reached in and pulled it out.
There was only one sentence on it.
[Happy fourteenth birthday.]
Signed beneath it:
[Big Brother.]
Lin Ye's hand began to tremble.
“Were you here?”
The room did not answer.
Suddenly, the wall clock stopped.
11:59 p.m.
The second hand did not move.
Lin Ye stared at the clock.
He knew true midnight was about to arrive.
But this time, it was not midnight.
It was fourteen years ago—the day he was born for the first time.
The second hand began to move backward.
11:59:59.
11:59:58.
11:59:57.
Lin Ye's room began to warp.
The walls turned transparent.
The floor became black.
His bed disappeared.
The entire room transformed into a vast white laboratory.
Lin Ye stood in the center.
A group of people appeared around him.
Twenty-eight people.
They were all still children.
Some were ten.
Some were eight.
Some were only five.
Lin Ye froze.
“What is this...?”
A white-haired old man walked into the laboratory.
Lin Ye recognized him at once.
Lin Guoan.
His grandfather.
The old man walked to the center, holding a pocket watch.
“Today...”
“is the beginning of the First World.”
All the instruments lit up at once.
Lin Guoan raised his head.
“Time...”
“from this moment forward...”
“no longer belongs to humanity.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What did you do?”
Lin Guoan seemed to hear him.
He turned and stared straight at Lin Ye.
“You're finally here.”
Lin Ye took a step back.
“You can see me?”
“Of course.”
“You know who I am?”
“I do.”
“I'm your grandson.”
“No.”
Lin Guoan shook his head.
“You are the first successful result.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Result of what?”
Lin Guoan raised the pocket watch.
“The first time humanity successfully carried a memory out of time...”
“that person was you.”
A sudden headache tore through Lin Ye's mind.
“I wasn't born until I was fourteen.”
“No.”
His grandfather looked at him.
“The day you were born...”
“was actually the third time.”
Lin Ye's pupils widened.
“The third time?”
“Your mother became pregnant for the first time.”
“Failure.”
“The second time.”
“Failure.”
“The third time...”
“you were finally born.”
Lin Ye's mind went blank.
“Then the first two...”
“You were born then too.”
“You just didn't remain.”
Lin Guoan stepped closer.
“ZERO's earliest experiment...”
“was not the study of time.”
“It was the study of life.”
Lin Ye stared at him.
“You used me?”
“No.”
“We used your mother.”
“What did you do to her?”
Lin Guoan did not answer.
Instead, he opened the pocket watch.
There were no hands inside.
There was a tiny black disk.
At the center of the disk was a single number:
0.
Lin Guoan said:
“The world's first midnight...”
“was not midnight.”
“It was the second you were born.”
Boom!
The laboratory suddenly shook.
All the children opened their eyes at once.
One of them stood up.
He looked about fourteen.
He wore a gray raincoat.
When Lin Ye saw his face, his breath stopped.
It was another version of himself.
But not the way he looked now.
This one was fourteen.
“Big Brother...”
The other Lin Ye looked at him and smiled.
“You can finally see me.”
Lin Ye stepped back.
“Who are you?”
The other boy did not answer.
He simply walked to Lin Guoan's side.
The two of them looked as if they had known each other for a long time.
Lin Ye looked at his grandfather.
“You're working together?”
Lin Guoan shook his head.
“No.”
“He is not one of mine.”
“Then what is he?”
Lin Guoan looked at the other Lin Ye.
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
“He is ZERO.”
Lin Ye froze.
“ZERO... is him?”
“No.”
His grandfather spoke slowly.
“He is merely the consciousness ZERO produced in its first successful experiment.”
The other Lin Ye smiled.
“You finally understand.”
Lin Ye stared at him.
“Are you time?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”
“I am every version of you that you forgot.”
“How long have you existed?”
“Longer than you.”
“How long?”
The other Lin Ye raised his head.
“Since before you were born.”
Lin Ye suddenly remembered his mother once saying:
“You two aren't two people.”
“You're one person.”
But now, he finally understood what she had really meant.
The other self was not a future version of him.
He was not a copy.
He was every Lin Ye who had been deleted.
Every reboot.
Every failure.
Every version abandoned by the world.
They had all been gathered inside him.
That was why he remembered one hundred and seven years.
Those one hundred and seven years were not one person's life.
They were the accumulated time of countless deleted worlds.
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What do you want?”
The other Lin Ye approached.
“I want everyone to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“Remember that they once lived.”
“Even if those worlds are already dead.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
For the first time, he did not know whether he should hate him.
The other Lin Ye spoke softly.
“You think I want to destroy the world?”
“I only want to bring the dead worlds back.”
“But that would make the current world disappear.”
“That's why I need you.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Choose.”
“Choose what?”
The other Lin Ye pointed at Lin Ye's chest.
“Choose which one of us gets to live.”
Lin Ye did not answer.
But his grandfather suddenly said:
“Don't listen to him.”
The other Lin Ye turned his head.
“You haven't changed.”
His grandfather stared coldly at him.
“You don't understand the true cost.”
“I do.”
“You don't.”
“Then tell me.”
His grandfather did not answer.
The other Lin Ye smiled.
“Because you've forgotten too.”
“You've forgotten how the First World died.”
Lin Ye looked at his grandfather.
“How did the First World die?”
Lin Guoan closed his eyes.
“Because of me.”
Three words brought silence to the entire laboratory.
“I activated ZERO for the first time.”
“I wanted to bring back the dead.”
“But...”
He looked at the twenty-eight children.
“I mixed everyone's time together.”
“Some people lived twice.”
“Some lived ten times.”
“Some lived a hundred times.”
“In the end...”
“No one knew which world they were actually living in.”
Lin Ye asked, “Then why did you keep going?”
His grandfather looked at him.
“Because of your mother.”
“She was the only one who successfully stabilized time.”
Lin Ye froze.
“So you used her?”
“I only wanted to save people.”
“You killed her!”
His grandfather fell silent.
“I know.”
For the first time, Lin Ye felt genuine hatred toward his grandfather.
“What about my father?”
“He wanted to stop me.”
“So you sent him into ZERO?”
“Not me.”
His grandfather shook his head.
“He went in himself.”
“He wanted to save you.”
Lin Ye said nothing.
The other Lin Ye suddenly spoke.
“Your father is at the end of the First World right now.”
“If you want to find him...”
“you must complete the first reboot.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“How do I do that?”
The other Lin Ye held out his hand.
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Back to the day you were born.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the real exit is hidden there.”
“Where?”
“The place where your mother died for the first time.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
“Didn't you say she hasn't died yet?”
“She means now.”
“Not the past.”
Lin Ye suddenly understood.
“You want me to go back to her first death?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because her first death...”
“was when ZERO truly began.”
Lin Ye looked in the direction of where his mother was.
At that moment, she was still alive.
Waiting for him at home.
If he could change that day, could he change everything?
But the other Lin Ye shook his head.
“Don't fantasize about changing it.”
“Why not?”
“Because the First World...”
“is already dead.”
Lin Ye asked, “Then where are we now?”
The other Lin Ye looked at him.
“In the First World's memories.”
Lin Ye froze.
“So...”
“We didn't go back into the past.”
“We entered the past.”
“The real First World died three years ago.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
That meant his parents in front of him were not real.
They were memories left behind by the First World.
But he could still feel his mother's embrace.
He could smell her scent.
He could hear his father's voice.
If everything was fake, why did it feel so real?
The other Lin Ye looked at him.
“Because memory itself...”
“is a world.”
Lin Ye lowered his head.
He finally understood what was truly terrifying about ZERO.
It was not changing time.
It was creating a past you were willing to believe in.
Inside it, you could see the dead again.
Return to the happiest days of your life.
Even live your life all over again.
The only price...
was that you could never leave.
“So...”
Lin Ye raised his head.
“That is why you have always wanted to get out?”
“Yes.”
“Because this place is too real.”
The other Lin Ye smiled faintly.
“If you stay too long...”
“you won't be able to tell...”
“which one is the dream.”
Lin Ye did not answer.
He turned and walked toward the laboratory exit.
“Then we'll get out.”
The other Lin Ye asked, “You don't want to stay?”
Lin Ye stopped.
He thought of his mother.
He thought of his father.
He thought of himself at fourteen.
He thought of the birthday cake.
He thought of the photograph.
If all of this was memory, he still wanted to remember it.
But he could not stay here.
Because there were still people waiting for him in the real world.
“I have to find Dad.”
“I have to find the real Mom.”
“I have to find out who really created ZERO.”
“And...”
He looked at his other self.
“I want to get you out too.”
The other Lin Ye froze.
“You don't want to kill me?”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
Lin Ye smiled faintly.
“Because you're me too.”
“I've already killed you too many times.”
The other Lin Ye's eyes slowly reddened.
“You really remember?”
“I remember.”
“One hundred and seven years?”
“No.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“All of it.”
“Even the years you spent waiting for me.”
The two of them fell silent.
Finally, the other Lin Ye held out his hand.
Lin Ye took it.
Two completely identical people stood together for the first time amid the ruins of the First World.
And the instant their hands met, the entire world suddenly began to collapse.
The sky split open.
The earth shook.
The distant city began to shatter like glass.
Lin Ye looked up.
“What happened?”
The other Lin Ye's face changed dramatically.
“The First World has detected us.”
“Who?”
“No one.”
“The world itself.”
High above them, a gigantic black number slowly appeared.
0.
Then a line of text surfaced:
[Illegal memory holders: 2]
[World rejection initiated.]
[Time remaining: 10 minutes.]
Lin Ye stared at the countdown.
“Ten minutes?”
“Where do we go?”
The other Lin Ye pointed into the distance.
At the center of the city stood a massive clock tower Lin Ye had never seen before.
A man stood at the top.
He wore a white research coat.
Lin Ye recognized him at once.
His father.
“There!”
Lin Ye turned and ran.
The other Lin Ye followed.
The two of them raced through the collapsing city.
Everyone in the streets stood frozen.
They all turned their heads at once to watch them.
Some were children.
Some were old.
Some were people Lin Ye had seen before.
Others were complete strangers.
None of them had any expression, as if controlled by some unseen force.
Suddenly, a little girl walked up to Lin Ye.
“Big Brother.”
Lin Ye stopped.
The girl raised her head.
“Do you remember me?”
Lin Ye froze.
“I...”
The girl smiled.
“You forgot.”
“You saved me once.”
“But then you forgot me.”
Her body began to turn transparent.
Pain stabbed through Lin Ye's heart.
“Wait!”
The girl reached out her hand.
“Don't forget me.”
“Please.”
She vanished.
Lin Ye stood where he was, tears falling from his eyes.
The other Lin Ye did not urge him on.
He only said:
“This is the First World.”
“Everyone who was forgotten...”
“is here.”
Lin Ye clenched his teeth.
“I won't forget anyone again.”
They continued forward.
The clock tower drew closer and closer.
His father stood at the top, watching them.
Suddenly, he smiled.
“Xiaoye.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“Dad!”
His father did not answer.
Instead, he took out a black box and held it high.
“If you truly want to save everyone...”
“open it.”
Lin Ye stared at the box.
“What is inside?”
His father said, “The first midnight.”
“And the final answer.”
Lin Ye exchanged a look with his other self.
Then they walked toward the clock tower together.
But at that moment, his phone suddenly lit up.
[World collapse: 08:21]
[08:20]
[08:19]
Another message appeared at the very bottom of the screen.
[The fifth reboot is about to begin.]
[Number Twenty-Eight, prepare yourself.]
Lin Ye looked up.
The sky split apart.
Countless black clocks emerged from behind the clouds.
Every clock was stopped at midnight.
Then all the clocks began moving at once.
Counterclockwise.
His father stood atop the clock tower, looking down at Lin Ye.
“Hurry.”
“Before the fifth reboot begins...”
“find the true first person.”
Lin Ye shouted, “Grandfather?”
His father shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
His father looked at the other Lin Ye beside him.
“That’s him.”
Lin Ye froze.
The other Lin Ye froze too.
His father's voice echoed across the dying city.
“The first person in ZERO...”
“was never Lin Guoan.”
“Nor was it your mother.”
“It was—”
His father paused.
“You.”
Lin Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Before you were born...”
“you already existed.”
Above them, all the clocks struck midnight at once.
Boom!
The First World died completely.
And in the final moment, Lin Ye heard his father say:
“Xiaoye.”
“The real you...”
“has always been after midnight.”
Darkness swallowed everything once more.
End of Chapter Six