Chapter 1, The Strange Hourglass

He glanced around, quickly walked to the window, opened it, and threw the hourglass out with a flick of his hand. The hourglass, flying through the air, had already completed its countdown of sand flowing out

Xiao Zhi was astonished; he was working in the north, and in the blink of an eye, he had arrived in Hong Kong

This is a madman

paranormal events

Has someone returned it

He fell down.

This damned madman

The surrounding environment has unexpectedly transformed into another unfamiliar place

Trembling, he took out a small wooden box from his pocket

It is somewhat difficult to accept when it happens to oneself

What has happened to me

Xiao Zhi, having just squeezed out of the crowded main lane and turned into a one-way street, saw a middle-aged man in a trench coat staggering towards him. With a loud bang, the man collapsed onto the front of the car, motionless.

After much contemplation

Inside the box lay a finely crafted mini hourglass, approximately the size of an adult's index finger. The upper and lower ends were pitch black, with a cold, metallic feel, while the middle was made of transparent glass containing light red sand...

I do not want it. Xiao Zhi is determined to push it back.

This middle-aged man has deep-set eyes, with the whites of his eyes veined with blood, and his skin is unnaturally pale, giving the overall impression of someone who has been awake for several days and nights, consumed by a drug addiction.

In the evening, during the peak hours of getting off work, the roads are bustling with a continuous flow of vehicles.

A slightly cool breeze brushed against his cheek, and Xiao Zhi opened his eyes. He looked around in a daze, and his scalp gradually began to tingle

Little did anyone know, as soon as the words were spoken

Xiao Zhi hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to open the wooden box to take a look

He reached into his pocket and felt around; the hourglass was still there

Xiao Zhi felt a sharp pain in the index finger that brushed against the hourglass, a wound appearing on the fingertip, with blood dripping onto the glass of the hourglass

There is still a bit of cleverness

Uncle Yan looked at Xiao Zhi with suspicion from top to bottom: "You are already here and still not clear? This is the public building you reserved to stay in. I dare say there is no place in all of Hong Kong that is more economical and affordable than this! Moreover, the security is top-notch, and there is absolutely no gang violence like what you see on television..."

The middle-aged man lying on the hood of the car slowly raised his head

He frowned and said, "What is this place?"

The middle-aged man, seeing that Xiao Zhi was not accepting, and noticing the crowd around him, could not help but reveal a hint of anxiety in his eyes. He pulled out a spring knife from his pocket and pointed it at his neck, his face contorting into a grimace: "You take it, if you don’t, I will die right here! If I die, you won’t be able to escape responsibility!" In a fit of emotion, ... the tip of his knife pierced the skin of his neck, and bright red blood flowed down the blade, dripping onto the ground ...

Xiao Zhi extended his left hand into his pocket, preparing to take out his phone to call the police, while trying to appear more amiable: "Alright, alright, don't get agitated. You want me to take this thing, right? I'll take it, just put down the knife first..." He was stalling for time... Once the police arrived, whether he lived or died would no longer be his concern...

Hiss

The two individuals merely paused briefly in the middle of the road, and already a circle of onlookers had gathered around them! The love for watching the commotion seems to be ingrained in everyone's very bones, as if it were a part of their genetic makeup

Is it a scam?

That hourglass

At that moment, someone patted him on the shoulder, and his body instinctively rolled away. He hurriedly got up and looked back, only to see a round-faced old man in a white security uniform, with a head full of white hair and a smile on his face

Hong Kong, it is actually Hong Kong!

It brought itself here

It spreads out translucent ripples in circles in the air

Xiao Zhi's eardrum suddenly felt as if it were pierced by thousands of steel needles, causing a sharp pain. The veins on his forehead bulged, and he staggered a few steps before leaning against the car body. However, this pain was very brief, lasting only for a dozen seconds before gradually subsiding

He appeared directly on a patch of concrete from a high-end apartment complex! Surrounding him were tall buildings, with rooms closely packed together, resembling a honeycomb of square holes. The buildings formed a square shape, and he sat in the concrete open space at the center of this square building complex

Strange things have happened; the sand, which was originally solid and block-like, has become loose and started to leak from the top downwards. Moreover, the light red color is gradually deepening, becoming increasingly red, as if it has been soaked in blood

He frowned

What is the matter with this wooden box

Xiao Zhi's complexion turned ashen, unexpectedly getting involved in such a matter

What is the purpose of the hourglass bringing itself here

However, the middle-aged person is right; if he dies like this, it will likely cause him a lot of trouble

Xiao Zhi felt a sinking sensation in his heart and took half a step back.

Who would have thought! ... The middle-aged man who was just about to commit suicide now staggered into the crowd in the distance, and as the throng surged, he quickly vanished from sight, as if fearing that someone might catch up to him

Xiao Zhi does not remember having any medical history

As a modern individual who has been exposed to various explosive pieces of information, Xiao Zhi does not find it difficult to accept supernatural events

The round-faced old man awkwardly scratched his cheek and said: "I just saw you sitting on the ground and wanted to greet you. Did I scare you? I am the administrator of this public building, and everyone calls me Uncle Yan. You must be the tenant who came from the mainland, Xiao... Xiao Zhi, right"

Xiao Zhi opened the car door, approached the middle-aged man in the trench coat, and pointed to the dashcam, saying: "There is a camera here. Will you leave on your own, or should I call the police?"

No, the time is too short. This community has access control at the entrance, and the room doors are also equipped with high-security locks. The stringent time conditions are insufficient to support such an event occurring

Hearing Xiao Zhi's words, the middle-aged man struggled to lift his body and hoarsely said: "I don't, I am not a scammer..."

He wanted to extract some information from Uncle Yan, but at that moment, a yellowed piece of paper suddenly floated down from the sky. Xiao Zhigui, as if guided by an unseen force, reached out and caught it. The paper was rough, with a texture reminiscent of old tree bark, but it bore a line of striking blood-red characters: "Please survive until the end in the imagined world of martial arts star Qian Xiaohai... Task completed."

Xiao Zhi only felt the world spinning around him, desperately trying to retreat, but his body was being pulled by the invisible force of the hourglass. Something tripped him underfoot, and he collapsed onto the ground

It hurts so much

Feeling slightly better, Xiao Zhi casually tossed the wooden box into the nearby trash bin

Intuition told Xiao Zhi

There are quite a few surveillance cameras on this road, choosing to engage in scams here is not wise

Is a middle-aged person threatening to commit suicide just to give away this little toy

Without further ado, it was shoved into Xiao Zhi's hand, and the voice became somewhat sharp: "This is for you, as my apology..."

What was just said seems to be the fulfillment of some kind of vow

This does not seem like a good thing

Xiao Zhi was taken aback; the name was correct, but what was going on with the mainland tenant

He was drenched in sweat, his fingers trembling, and he instinctively glanced at the middle-aged man

It is uncertain how much time has passed, perhaps a long time, perhaps just a moment

When speaking, his gaze fell on Xiao Zhi's face, and he was momentarily taken aback, as if confirming something, staring intently at Xiao Zhi for quite a while... The vacant and lifeless eyes suddenly surged with complex emotions, fear, pain, excitement, and relief intertwining with one another

Driving back to his own studio apartment, the matters of middle age made him feel uneasy! Perhaps taking a break would help; as he prepared to take off his coat, he sat down on the bed and felt a hard object jab him. Xiao Zhi reached out to retrieve it, his pupils constricting—it was the small wooden box that he had personally thrown into the trash can!