Chapter Seven: The Me Before Birth
The darkness had no end.
Lin Ye didn't know how long he had been falling.
A second.
A minute.
Or a hundred years.
He didn't even know whether the concept of “time” still had any meaning here.
His body had no weight.
No direction.
No up or down.
He simply kept falling.
Or perhaps—
he kept rising.
Every so often, sounds reached his ears.
Someone crying.
Someone laughing.
Someone calling his name.
Sometimes it was his father.
Sometimes his mother.
Sometimes another version of himself.
More often than not,
it was himself.
“Lin Ye.”
“Lin Ye.”
“Lin Ye.”
Countless voices overlapped.
Like countless worlds calling out to one person at the same time.
Lin Ye tried to open his eyes.
But his eyelids felt pinned down by some unseen force.
He tried to reach out.
But he had no hands.
He tried to breathe.
But his chest didn't rise or fall.
Until a voice rang out from the deepest part of the darkness.
“You're finally here.”
Lin Ye opened his eyes with a start.
Everything before him was white.
This time,
it wasn't the boundless white with no edges.
It was a room.
Very small.
Very quiet.
The walls were white.
The floor was white.
The ceiling was white, too.
In the center of the room
stood a crib.
Lin Ye stood beside it.
He saw a baby.
The baby was asleep.
Very small.
Its face was still wrinkled.
One tiny hand was clenched into a fist.
Its chest rose and fell faintly.
Lin Ye froze.
For some reason,
the moment he saw the baby,
an indescribable sense of familiarity rose in his heart.
“Who is this?”
No one answered.
He moved closer
and looked down at the baby.
The next second,
the baby opened its eyes.
Black eyes.
Clear and utterly free of impurities.
Lin Ye's heart gave a sudden jolt.
The baby was looking at him.
Not looking in his direction,
but looking at him.
As if it knew him.
“Who are you?”
The baby didn't answer.
Of course it couldn't answer.
But Lin Ye suddenly heard a voice.
He didn't hear it with his ears.
It appeared directly in his mind.
“Big brother.”
Lin Ye went completely rigid.
“What… did you call me?”
“Big brother.”
The voice sounded again.
“You're finally here.”
Lin Ye took a step back.
“Who are you?”
The baby smiled.
“I am you.”
Lin Ye's breathing stopped.
“Impossible.”
“That’s what you always say.”
“Who are you?”
“You before you were born.”
Lin Ye stared at the baby.
His father's final words suddenly flashed through his mind.
—The real you has always been after midnight.
“Where is this?”
The baby closed its eyes.
“The first memory.”
“What does that mean?”
“The first memory of everyone.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Mine?”
“No.”
“The world's.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
The baby's voice sounded again.
“Before the world had time for the first time,”
“this place already existed.”
Lin Ye looked up.
The room's walls suddenly turned transparent.
Outside was a boundless darkness.
Within it,
countless points of light drifted.
Every point of light
looked like one person's memory.
Lin Ye saw someone laugh for the first time.
Cry for the first time.
Hold hands for the first time.
Leave home for the first time.
Lose a loved one for the first time.
Say “I love you” for the first time.
Those memories drifted like stars.
“What are these?”
“People.”
“Every one of them?”
“Every one.”
The baby answered.
“The world isn't made of matter.”
“It’s made of memories.”
Lin Ye said quietly,
“So ZERO…”
“Isn't a machine.”
The baby finished for him.
“It is the world's way of managing memories.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
He had actually already guessed the answer.
But hearing it for real
still filled him with fear.
“Then why do you exist?”
The baby opened its eyes.
“Because you shouldn't exist.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What?”
“Your birth.”
“Was a mistake.”
“When your mother became pregnant for the first time,”
“the world did not allow you to be born.”
“The second time,”
“the world still refused.”
“The third time,”
“you were born successfully.”
Lin Ye stared at the baby.
“So I’m a mistake?”
“You’re an exception.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Mistakes can be corrected.”
The baby smiled.
“Exceptions can’t.”
Lin Ye stood beside the crib,
silent for a long time.
At last, he understood
why ZERO had kept pursuing him,
why he could retain his memories every time he rebooted,
and why another version of himself existed.
Because he wasn't an ordinary person at all.
His birth
was itself a time anomaly.
“Then what about my big brother?”
The baby fell silent.
“He is also you.”
“Then why did he appear?”
“Because the world corrected you the first time.”
“It split you into two parts.”
“One part remained.”
“The other was sent into midnight.”
Lin Ye asked,
“So that’s why he was trapped for a hundred and seven years?”
“No.”
“Then how many years was it?”
The baby looked at him.
“There were no hundred and seven years.”
Lin Ye stared.
“What?”
“He wasn't there for a hundred and seven years.”
“He was there for seven seconds.”
Lin Ye went completely rigid.
“Seven seconds?”
“Yes.”
“But he said…”
“Because one second in midnight”
“can equal decades outside.”
Lin Ye slowly began to understand.
Outside of time,
time had no fixed speed.
So the hundred and seven years claimed by the other him
might truly have been only an instant.
Or it might have been a hundred and seven years.
“Then where is he now?”
The baby didn't answer.
Lin Ye looked up.
The room's door
suddenly opened on its own.
A person stood outside.
A gray raincoat.
Lin Ye's face.
Another version of himself.
He didn't walk in.
He simply stood in the doorway.
“You finally saw it.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What is this place, really?”
“Your birth.”
“No.”
“Our birth.”
The other Lin Ye walked into the room.
He looked at the baby,
his expression becoming complicated.
“You’re still here.”
The baby smiled.
“I’ve always been here.”
“You knew he would come?”
“Yes.”
“Then do you know how this ends?”
The baby shook its head.
“No one knows.”
The other Lin Ye looked at Lin Ye.
“So.”
“There are two choices now.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Again?”
“This time, ZERO isn't demanding that we choose.”
“We are.”
“What choices?”
The other Lin Ye held up two fingers.
“First.”
“Let you return to the normal world.”
“You’ll forget everything.”
“Your father.”
“Your mother.”
“Me.”
“ZERO.”
“Everything.”
Lin Ye didn't answer.
“Second.”
The other Lin Ye lowered his hand.
“You stay.”
“You become midnight.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“What?”
“You’ll become ZERO itself.”
“And then?”
“Everyone who was deleted.”
“Every world that died.”
“Every memory that was forgotten.”
“They will all be preserved.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“The price?”
“You’ll lose yourself.”
“Everyone will remember.”
“But no one will remember that it was you.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
Neither choice was what he wanted.
“What about a third choice?”
The other Lin Ye smiled faintly.
“I knew you’d ask.”
“So.”
He pointed at the baby.
“The third choice.”
“Let him decide.”
Lin Ye turned around.
The baby was looking at him.
“Him?”
“The you from before true birth.”
“He’s the most complete.”
Lin Ye slowly approached the baby.
“What do you want to do?”
For the first time, the baby reached out.
A tiny palm
extended toward Lin Ye.
Lin Ye extended his index finger.
The baby grabbed it.
In an instant,
the entire world fell silent.
Lin Ye saw a woman.
She was lying on a hospital bed.
It was his mother.
Young.
Pale.
She was giving birth.
His father stood beside her,
nervous and helpless.
“Doctor.”
“How’s the baby?”
The doctor didn't answer.
The heartbeat from the monitor.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Suddenly became a flat line.
His mother cried.
“What about my baby?”
The doctor shook his head.
“No heartbeat.”
Lin Ye stood beside them,
watching the scene.
He tried to shout,
but no sound came out.
His father took his mother's hand.
“It’s okay.”
“We can try again.”
His mother shook her head through her tears.
“I don’t want another time.”
“I want him.”
Lin Ye's tears fell.
This was the first time
he had seen his first “birth.”
It had failed.
The scene changed.
The second time.
His mother lay on the bed.
His father stood beside her.
The doctor shook his head again.
“Still nothing.”
His mother closed her eyes.
Tears streamed down her face.
His father lowered his head,
his hands clenched tightly.
The scene changed again.
The third time.
His mother gave birth to a baby.
A cry rang out.
The doctor stared at the child in surprise.
“There’s a heartbeat.”
His father froze.
His mother cried.
“Let me see him.”
The baby was brought before her.
She reached out.
“My baby…”
Lin Ye stood in the corner of the hospital room,
watching himself.
That baby was him.
But
at the exact moment the doctor handed the baby to his mother,
every clock in the hospital stopped at once.
00:00.
The baby stopped crying.
The entire world froze.
His mother remained frozen in the act of holding him.
His father stood motionless.
Even the doctor stopped breathing.
Only the baby
opened its eyes.
It looked toward Lin Ye standing in the corner.
Then it smiled.
“Big brother.”
A chill ran through Lin Ye.
“You know me?”
The baby nodded.
“Because you are me.”
“You were the first.”
“The first what?”
“The first Lin Ye.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Then what am I?”
“You are Number Twenty-Eight.”
“Then what are you?”
The baby smiled.
“I am Number Zero.”
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
“Number Zero?”
“ZERO-00.”
“The first.”
“And the last.”
The room began to shake.
Cracks spread across the hospital walls.
Countless black symbols crawled out through the cracks.
Lin Ye saw the symbols.
Every one was the same number.
0.
His mother suddenly began moving again.
She looked down at the baby.
“Little Ye?”
The baby cried.
The world started again.
His father let out a breath of relief.
The doctor smiled and said,
“The baby is perfectly healthy.”
No one knew
that the world had just stopped once.
But Lin Ye knew.
Standing there,
watching his own birth,
he finally understood.
His true birth
wasn't the day his mother gave birth to him.
It was that midnight—
the moment the world first acknowledged that he existed.
The scene shifted again.
This time,
he was eighteen.
Lin Ye stood in the ZERO laboratory.
His father stood beside him.
“You really want to do this?”
The young Lin Ye nodded.
“I want to know why I remember those dreams.”
His father shook his head.
“They aren't dreams.”
“They're your memories.”
“But I never experienced them.”
“You did.”
“Just not as you in this world.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
His father looked toward the device.
“If you go in,”
“you may never come back.”
The young Lin Ye smiled faintly.
“What about you?”
“I’ll wait for you.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“No matter how long?”
“No matter how long.”
His father reached out
and shook his hand.
Lin Ye stood nearby,
watching the scene.
Tears slowly fell from his eyes.
Because he knew
this was the last time his father would ever speak to him.
The experiment began.
The black device lit up.
The world stopped.
The young Lin Ye disappeared.
His father rushed toward the device.
“Little Ye!”
Lin Ye watched his father.
His father fell to his knees.
For the first time, he cried like a child.
“Come back.”
“Please.”
“Come back.”
But Lin Ye could no longer see him.
Because his consciousness
had already entered midnight.
“Do you understand now?”
The other Lin Ye stood beside him.
Lin Ye opened his eyes.
“Understand what?”
“Why we exist.”
“Because of Number Zero.”
“Yes.”
“Then who is Number Zero?”
The other Lin Ye looked at the baby.
“You are.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Me?”
“The real you.”
“Then what am I now?”
“A version split off from you.”
“You too?”
“I am the memory that was deleted the first time you were deleted.”
“Then what about Number Zero?”
“The part that wasn't deleted.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
The baby was still asleep.
“If he is the complete me,”
“then why were we split apart?”
The other Lin Ye said quietly,
“Because the world couldn't bear the complete you.”
Those words
left Lin Ye unable to answer for a long time.
He suddenly thought of something.
“What about Grandpa?”
“Lin Guoan?”
“Yes.”
“He wasn't the true creator of ZERO.”
“Then who was?”
The other Lin Ye looked at the baby.
“Number Zero.”
“ZERO itself?”
“Yes.”
“But how could ZERO create itself?”
“Because time never began.”
“It was merely remembered by you.”
Lin Ye's scalp prickled.
“What does that mean?”
“You thought Grandpa created ZERO.”
“Actually, ZERO made Grandpa believe”
“that he had created ZERO.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
“So.”
“Everyone thought they were studying time.”
“But actually,”
“time had been studying us all along.”
Suddenly,
a chime rang through the room.
Boom.
Lin Ye whipped around.
The wall clock
showed a time for the first time.
00:01.
“Not midnight?”
The other Lin Ye's expression changed.
“No.”
“That’s the worst part.”
“Why?”
“Because after midnight”
“is the real world.”
The chime rang again.
Boom.
00:02.
The baby suddenly opened its eyes.
“Big brother.”
Lin Ye crouched down.
“What is it?”
“Someone’s here.”
“Who?”
The baby looked toward the doorway.
Lin Ye turned.
A person stood outside.
Lin Guofeng.
His father.
But he wasn't eighteen anymore.
He looked as he had the last time Lin Ye saw him.
A scar covered the right side of his face.
His hair was white.
He looked exhausted.
He stood in the doorway,
looking at Lin Ye.
“Little Ye.”
Tears instantly spilled from Lin Ye's eyes.
“Dad.”
His father walked in.
“You finally found this place.”
“You knew I would come?”
“Yes.”
“You knew about Number Zero?”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the other me?”
His father glanced at the Lin Ye in the gray raincoat.
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
His father fell silent.
“Because you had to find the answer yourself.”
“I already lost Mom.”
“I know.”
“She died so I could find you.”
His father's eyes trembled.
“She isn't dead.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What?”
“She’s still here.”
“Where?”
His father looked at the baby.
“Inside Number Zero.”
Lin Ye slowly turned.
“You mean… inside Number Zero?”
His father nodded.
“Your mother wasn't killed by ZERO.”
“She chose to leave part of herself inside.”
“That’s why she could appear again and again.”
Lin Ye's mind went blank.
“Then the one I killed…”
“Wasn't her.”
“Just a memory she left behind.”
Lin Ye sank to the floor.
“Then I never saved her.”
“You did.”
His father crouched down.
“At least”
“you kept her memory from being deleted.”
Lin Ye looked up.
His father gripped his shoulders.
“Now.”
“We have one more thing to do.”
“What?”
His father looked at the other Lin Ye.
“Take him back.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Back where?”
“To the real world.”
“But he said…”
“He always thought he could only leave by using your body.”
His father looked at the other Lin Ye.
“But actually,”
“there’s another way.”
The other Lin Ye frowned.
“What way?”
His father didn't answer.
Instead, he took a black chip from his pocket
and placed it on the table.
“Wake Number Zero.”
Everyone fell silent at once.
Lin Ye looked at the baby.
“What will happen if he wakes up?”
His father said,
“The fourth reboot will end.”
“The fifth won't begin.”
“But…”
“The world will lose time.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“What happens if there’s no time?”
His father looked at him.
“Everyone will live forever in the present.”
“They won’t age.”
“They won’t die.”
“And they won’t be born.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
“That isn't living.”
“No,”
his father said.
“So.”
“There’s one final choice.”
“What?”
“Let Number Zero reenter time.”
“Bring back all the deleted memories with him.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“What will happen to the world?”
His father didn't answer.
Because the answer
had already appeared on the wall.
【Fifth reboot: canceled.】
【All memories returning.】
【World stability: three percent.】
Lin Ye stared at the three percent.
“Only three percent?”
His father nodded.
“In other words,”
“if we let all the memories return,”
“ninety-seven percent of the people”
“will see things that don't belong to this world.”
“What will happen to them?”
“They’ll suffer mental breakdowns.”
“They may even lose their current identities.”
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
This was the real choice.
Not the world.
Not himself.
Everyone's memories.
He thought of his mother.
“When people die,”
“they become memories.”
But if all the memories returned at once,
the dead would come back.
Yet the living
might lose themselves, too.
His father patted him on the shoulder.
“You don’t have to answer now.”
“I do.”
Lin Ye opened his eyes.
“Because time won’t wait.”
His father smiled faintly.
“You’ve grown up.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“I only want to know one thing.”
“What?”
“Will you leave again?”
His father fell silent.
At last,
he said:
“Yes.”
Lin Ye smiled.
“I knew it.”
His father lowered his head.
“But this time,”
“it won’t be against my will.”
“It will be my choice.”
Lin Ye didn't stop him.
Because he knew
his father had already made his decision.
The room began to collapse.
Cracks spread across the white walls.
The baby began to cry.
The other Lin Ye crouched down
and picked up the baby.
“Don’t be afraid.”
The baby looked at him.
“Big brother.”
The other Lin Ye froze.
“You’re calling me?”
The baby nodded.
“You’re a big brother, too.”
Tears fell from the other Lin Ye's eyes.
“I always thought”
“you would only call him that.”
The baby smiled.
“You’re me, too.”
The other Lin Ye held the baby tightly.
Lin Ye stood nearby.
For the first time, he saw the other him cry.
Not from pain.
Not from anger.
But like someone who had waited a very long time
and had finally come home.
His father stood in the doorway.
“Little Ye.”
Lin Ye turned around.
“Yeah?”
“The real exit”
“is on the day you were born.”
“What?”
“You have to go back.”
“To the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“At the moment of your birth.”
His father looked at him.
“Stop midnight.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What if I stop it?”
“You’ll disappear.”
“And if I don’t?”
“The world will keep rebooting.”
Lin Ye gave a bitter laugh.
“Still two choices.”
His father shook his head.
“No.”
“This time,”
“you can create a third answer.”
“What?”
His father walked closer.
“Don’t stop midnight.”
“Let midnight pass through for the first time.”
Lin Ye didn't understand.
“What does that mean?”
“Let the world acknowledge”
“that you were always supposed to exist.”
“Only then”
“can you truly become a person.”
As his father finished speaking,
his body began to turn transparent.
Lin Ye grabbed him with a start.
“Dad!”
“Don’t hold on to me.”
“I don’t want to!”
“Little Ye.”
His father looked at him.
“You’ve already held on to me so many times.”
“This time,”
“let go.”
Lin Ye clung to him desperately.
“There’s still so much I haven’t said.”
His father smiled.
“I know.”
“I have a lot left to say, too.”
“But there isn’t enough time.”
“Then let’s not have time.”
His father paused.
Lin Ye looked up.
“If time really is only memory,”
“then we’ll remember.”
“We don’t need it to prove anything.”
His father looked at him
for a long time.
Then he smiled.
“Now that’s you.”
His father's body vanished completely.
Lin Ye stood where he was.
All that remained in his hand
was a black chip.
The other Lin Ye held the baby.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Before birth.”
“Back to the very beginning.”
Lin Ye looked at the door.
Behind it
was a blinding white light.
He drew a deep breath
and took his first step.
He saw the hospital again.
This time,
it wasn't a memory.
It wasn't an image.
It was real.
In the hallway,
doctors hurried back and forth.
Nurses pushed hospital beds.
His mother was in the delivery room.
His father stood outside.
The fourteen-year-old Lin Ye didn't exist.
The eighteen-year-old Lin Ye didn't exist.
The twenty-one-year-old Lin Ye didn't exist either.
There was only a child who had yet to be born.
Lin Ye stood outside the delivery room.
The other him stood beside him,
holding Number Zero.
“This is where it begins.”
Lin Ye nodded.
The wall clock showed
23:59:57.
Three seconds.
Lin Ye's heart began to race.
23:59:58.
His mother cried out in pain inside the delivery room.
His father gripped the doorframe.
“You can do it!”
23:59:59.
Lin Ye looked at Number Zero.
The baby opened its eyes.
“Big brother.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you ready?”
Lin Ye didn't know what he was preparing for.
But he nodded.
“I’m ready.”
Number Zero extended its tiny hand
and grabbed his finger.
In that instant,
the sounds of every world
returned at once.
The first world.
The second world.
The third world.
The fourth world.
A hundred and seven years of time.
Everyone who had died.
Everyone who had been born.
Everyone who had been forgotten.
Everyone who had ever loved.
All of them appeared in Lin Ye's mind at once.
He saw his mother laugh for the first time.
Saw his father hold him for the first time.
Saw the other him waiting in the darkness.
Saw his grandfather activate ZERO for the first time.
Saw countless worlds begin
and end.
He saw himself.
Countless versions of himself.
Some lived to ten.
Some lived to eighteen.
Some lived to twenty-one.
Some lived to seventy.
Some died at birth.
Every Lin Ye
looked at him at the same time.
“Remember us.”
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
“I will.”
The world began to shake.
23:59:59.
The final second.
It wasn't midnight.
It was a choice.
Lin Ye reached out
and placed his hand against the delivery-room door.
“This time,”
“I won’t stop you.”
“And I won’t let you reboot.”
“I’ll let you exist.”
Midnight
arrived.
There was no explosion.
No darkness.
No destruction of the world.
Only the cry of a baby.
Waaah—
Lin Ye opened his eyes.
Inside the delivery room,
the doctor smiled.
“Mother and baby are both safe.”
His father cried.
His mother cried, too.
The baby was placed in his mother's arms.
She looked at him.
“Little Ye.”
She smiled and said,
“Welcome to the world.”
Lin Ye stood outside the room.
Tears fell from his eyes.
The other him stood beside him
and slowly turned transparent.
“You’re leaving?”
Lin Ye asked.
The other Lin Ye smiled.
“No.”
“I’m finally home.”
His body transformed into a beam of light
and entered Lin Ye's chest.
Lin Ye didn't stop him.
Because he knew
he hadn't disappeared.
He had returned.
The complete him
was finally one person again.
Lin Ye lowered his head
and looked at his hands.
For the first time,
he felt whole.
No division.
No missing pieces.
No other self.
Only him.
But just when he thought everything was over,
the clock on the delivery-room wall
suddenly flickered.
00:00.
The next second,
it changed to:
00:01.
Lin Ye froze.
Every sound vanished.
The doctor stopped moving.
His father stopped breathing.
His mother stopped crying.
The baby stopped wailing.
The entire world
froze again.
Lin Ye slowly turned his head.
At the end of the hallway
stood an old man with white hair.
Lin Guoan.
His grandfather.
He held the pocket watch.
The old man smiled.
“Good.”
“You succeeded.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What do you want?”
The old man didn't answer.
He opened the pocket watch.
Inside wasn't zero.
It was an entirely new number.
1.
Lin Ye's expression changed.
“This isn't ZERO.”
The old man smiled.
“That’s right.”
“It’s called ONE.”
“What is ONE?”
The old man looked at Lin Ye.
“ZERO handles deletion.”
“ONE handles creation.”
“And you”
“are the first.”
A chill rose in Lin Ye's heart.
“What do you want to create?”
His grandfather raised his head.
“A world without death.”
“What’s the price?”
“There is none.”
“There has to be a price.”
His grandfather smiled.
“There is.”
“Only, the price isn’t you.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Then who is it?”
His grandfather didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed toward the delivery room.
Lin Ye slowly turned around.
The baby in his mother's arms
opened its eyes.
Those eyes
weren't a baby's eyes.
They were an adult's.
Cold.
Deep.
As if they had seen countless worlds.
The baby looked at Lin Ye.
The corners of its mouth lifted faintly.
Then,
in a voice no baby could possibly speak,
it said softly:
“Big brother.”
“The fifth reboot.”
“Begins.”
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
The entire world
instantly went black.
A phone appeared in his hand from nowhere.
The countdown that had originally vanished
lit up on the screen again.
But this time,
it wasn't thirty-one days.
Not seven days.
Not one day.
It was:
【00:00:10】
【00:00:09】
【00:00:08】
Lin Ye stared at the countdown.
For the first time, he truly understood.
He had thought he returned to the beginning.
Actually,
he had only entered the next world.
And in that world,
someone had already awakened ahead of him.
【00:00:07】
His grandfather's voice came from the darkness.
“Welcome.”
“Number Twenty-Eight.”
【00:00:06】
His mother's voice followed.
“Little Ye.”
【00:00:05】
His father's voice followed.
“Don’t trust me.”
【00:00:04】
The other him spoke.
“Don’t trust yourself.”
【00:00:03】
Number Zero's voice spoke.
“Don’t trust the world.”
【00:00:02】
Everyone's voices rang out together.
“Trust only midnight.”
【00:00:01】
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
Then
the world returned to zero again.
End of Chapter Seven