Episode 1

I must be insane.

Even in his wildest dreams, Wu Qingchen never imagined that one day he would appear before the emergency United Nations assembly wearing a crumpled shirt and pants, topped with a bulletproof vest, a life jacket and two panels of bulletproof glass standing upright in front of him. In front of him sat rows upon rows of people, representing every color of the human race, displaying emotions of anxiety, panic, surprise, hope and much more.

I must be crazy.

Wu Qingchen lowered his head and pressed his throbbing forehead hard, trying to wake up from this dream. It was as surreal as the dream he had five hours ago, in an old house thousands of kilometers away.

I don't know if it's true or not, but according to a rumor, when a store manager recommended wooden doors to a customer in the home decoration market, in addition to the beauty, environmental protection, and health benefits, the most important reason for recommending it was because of its soft and pleasing knocking sound.

However, whether it's a metal door, wooden door, or a plastic door that higher-end stores refuse to provide, when it is knocked on for five minutes straight without any response, there is something called the environmental destruction factor of the "bad temper" door that changes the knocking sound from the originally melodic "thump, thump, thump..." to not-so melodic "bang, bang, bang...".

And then, it changes to now, this sound that cannot be connected with anything pleasant: "clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!" The effect is significant.

Half a minute later, the door slowly opened, revealing a young man who was still yawning. No one is ever happy to be awakened in the middle of their sleep, and even though the young man who just opened the door was still yawning, his face accurately expressed impatience and irritability. However, in less than a second, as soon as he saw the guests outside the door, the young man's yawn, impatience, and irritability disappeared instantly. His sleepy eyes widened immediately.

This is normal. It's not every day that someone wakes up from a nap and finds two stern-faced police officers and two even more serious-looking soldiers at their door.

"Are you Wu Qingchen?"

Without complaining about why it took them so long to come to the door, or apologizing for disturbing him, the door was opened, and while the young man glanced at the police officer who was standing at the forefront, the officer seemed very casual as he moved forward, naturally placing his right foot between the doorframe and the door.

"Yes...it's me..." The young man involuntarily moved back, his left hand that had opened the door hanging uselessly at his side as he tugged at his wrinkled pants.

"You moved in here on May 3, 2011?"

"Yes…" The young man named Wu Qingcheng swallowed nervously, his identity confirmed.

"Did you graduate from the Jiangxian West Elementary School? Did you get in a fight with a classmate because of a dispute in your classroom in fourth grade? Did you hurt your left eyebrow, leaving a 7mm scar?"

"What...yes...yes..."

A small fight that happened more than a decade ago, and only now they come to investigate? Or is it an old injury that finally flares up after years? This question made Wu Qingchen feel a bit stunned. Unconsciously, his hands left his crumpled pants and began to absentmindedly, yet fruitlessly, straighten his equally crumpled shirt.

The police officer sitting across from him seemed to have completely ignored Wu Qingchen's panic and nervousness. He stared at the root of Wu Qingchen's left eyebrow for a while, then lowered his head and, with a few pages of documents that had clearly been crumpled beyond recognition in his hand, began to ask a series of questions.

Some of these questions were straightforward enough, revolving around Wu Qingchen's past or present situation, his education, work and resignation, and so on. These were easy to answer, and the content left for Wu Qingchen to fill in was limited to the meager responses of "yes," "yes indeed," and "sort of."

However, some questions were much more troublesome, as they required Wu Qingchen to remember various small marks left on his body due to fighting, outdoor work, household chores, or even natural causes. For example, "is there a 5-millimeter semi-arc-shaped scar on the first joint of your left ring finger?" "Are there two black spots about 13 centimeters from the back of your right forearm, with radii of 0.3 and 0.2 millimeters, respectively?"...

Of course, Wu Qingchen could not remember these kinds of questions too clearly. No normal person could remember them completely. Fortunately, the middle-aged police officer and another soldier who had come over at some point did not really care about Wu Qingchen's answers to these questions. They simply compared Wu Qingchen's body with the descriptions in the documents, paying very close attention to the details.

What's going on here? Do the police need to be so meticulous in verifying someone's identity? No, wait, why are they arresting me? No, no, why are they arresting me without a reason? Suddenly realizing this, Wu Qingchen felt quite angry, and to make matters worse, the middle-aged police officer in front of him was manipulating him like a monkey, repeatedly asking him to pull up his pants leg and tilt his head. Finally, when the middle-aged police officer for the seventh or eighth time asked Wu Qingchen to "raise his left hand higher, even higher," Wu Qingchen completely lost it! This young man who still hasn't figured out what's going on since he opened the door... This young man who hasn't had a chance to say a word since he opened the door... This young man who has been disregarded of his dignity, right to know and property rights since he opened the door, when he heard the middle-aged police officer's nagging voice, saw his disgusting appearance, and heard his rude language for the seventh or eighth time telling him to "raise his left hand higher, even higher," he suddenly raised his left hand... Just a little higher... Without going any higher... And so, the police and military personnel got the cooperation they wanted, and Wu Qingchen expressed his dissatisfaction and anger. And this subtle way didn't waste any time, although the police and another military member's inspection was quite careful, the progress was still quite fast.

Within a maximum of three to five minutes, Wu Qingchen's hands, forearms, and lower legs, which were not particularly awkward parts, had already been examined carefully by the two police officers several times. The middle-aged police officer had also flipped through the document in his hand to the last page and finally made the first request that Wu Qingchen should be more cooperative: "Mr. Wu, please lift up your shirt, and the last spot." Wu Qingchen, wanting to continue being irritated, continued to be subtle and obedient to this request. When he lifted his shirt, Wu Qingchen's movements were relatively light. This was purely an instinctive reaction by his body, probably due to feeling a little discomfort in his abdominal area from an unimpressive posture while napping at noon, perhaps involving a stuck zipper or button. When he pulled up his shirt, he naturally avoided the slightly painful spot. Due to his head being low and lack of sensitivity, the highly serious police officers and soldiers, who had been wearing almost no expression since entering, had not been noticed by Wu Qingchen. Almost simultaneously, however, they displayed expressions of astonishment when Wu Qingchen lifted up his shirt. Following the four pairs of eyes, Wu Qingchen just raised his head, then immediately lowered it again. At the location he had been staring at, which was being scrutinized by five pairs of eyes, there was neither a black spot, nor a scar, nor a swelling, nor any previous trace from the examination, only a small round depression about 5 millimeters in diameter and 10 millimeters deep----scientifically known as the belly button. Except for the skin being slightly dimmer than when he was eighteen, it was simply the abdomen of an ordinary young person. However... Strange? Wu Qingchen carefully observed his stomach and wondered why there was a red mark there. It looks like it's a bit painful here!

So Wu Qingchen raised his right hand and lightly pressed it. Then there was a uniform sound of inhaling. "What are you doing!" "Put it down!" "Stop!" "Take your hands off!" Wu Qingchen did even better: he raised both hands. From this standard surrender posture, it can be seen how severe these four shouts were. There was no laughter, as if Wu Qingchen's raised hands could shoot deadly bullets, or there was a hidden deadly killer in the bright corridor. The four stared at Wu Qingchen tightly, scanning the surroundings with searching eyes, and then sizing each other up and down. After discovering that there was no abnormality for a long time, they finally visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "From now on, don't move..." Compared to a few dozen seconds ago, the middle-aged policeman's complexion was a little pale, and there was sweat on his forehead. He felt that the requirements were too broad and paused. The middle-aged policeman added, "It's similar to normal, but try to make the movement smaller." "Yes...yes..." Do I look so dangerous? Is there a shirt on my body that can hide a gun, or can I touch a knife in my belly button? When Wu Qingchen was shouted at by the four at the same time, he thought he was going to be shot on the spot in the next moment, and his mind went blank, and his legs were almost unable to stand still. At this moment, although the voice of the middle-aged policeman had become quite soft, Wu Qingchen still felt stiff all over his body, even his tongue was a bit knotted.

"Okay, put your hands down. What's wrong with your stomach? Does it hurt? How do you feel?" Another soldier standing next to Wu Qingchen noticed his sudden and rigid movement and couldn't help but raise his right hand to pat Wu's shoulder to relax him, but then suddenly thought of something and withdrew his hand stiffly.

Wu Qingchen didn't notice this change and just answered honestly, "Well, I feel a little uncomfortable, maybe it's a hiccup, feels like... feels like...".

"Feels like getting tripped by tree branches and falling onto a stone, luckily the stone is round, and it just hiccups, not really painful?"

"Huh..." It doesn't make sense? Wu Qingchen was extremely surprised.

This description is overly accurate.

Because that was exactly the last scene in Wu Qingchen's surreal dream at noon.

At noon, Wu Qingchen had a bizarre and strange dream.

In the dream, Wu Qingchen suddenly found himself in a countryside frequently seen in Western films, with blue skies, white clouds, undulating hills as far as the eye could see; green grass, murmuring streams, and a breeze blowing through a few tall trees.

What's ridiculous is that in such a magnificent landscape, Wu Qingchen was not riding horses, nor accompanied by young, ignorant blondes. Instead, he held an unrecognizable tool in his hand, standing in a small patch of vegetation he had never seen before, with two completely unfamiliar strangers beside him...

At the same time sweat was pouring down his back, his face was full of dirt and his body was sore... as if he was doing some kind of farm work that he had never heard of.

Even more ridiculous was that in the dream world, when companions talked to each other or spoke to Wu Qingchen, she couldn't understand a word. Standing in the midst of the plants, she didn't know what she should do. After messing around for a while, Wu Qingchen naturally walked out of the plants, put down her tools, and found a grassy area to lie down and rest. Then, after who knows how long, one of the strangers suddenly walked out of the plants and stood next to the grassy area, starting to talk to Wu Qingchen. Perhaps because Wu Qingchen had not been understanding all along and had not responded, the stranger suddenly began to swing the tool in his hand with force, seeming to get angry. Wu Qingchen became somewhat afraid, stood up trying to walk away quickly, but accidentally tripped over a tree branch, fell onto a stone, and made a sound. However, it didn't seem to be painful. At this point, in her dream, Wu Qingchen was just woken up by an unrelated phone call, hung up the phone and turned it to silent mode, intending to go back to sleep, but she continuously felt a headache and was in a daze in bed for an unknown amount of time. Finally, she was disturbed by the banging sound of the door. This was the bizarre dream Wu Qingchen had at noon, the last scene of which was described exactly the same as the military man's. Wu Qingchen couldn't hide her surprise, which ultimately evoked a cough from the second policeman standing in the hallway near the wall. The police officer, now with some white hair on his head, said to the other military man who had been standing in the hallway all along, "Isn't it clear enough by now? This...is not a suitable place."

"I don't need it. In the city, you guys are indeed the experts, but...as you know, this situation isn't just something I'm uneasy about. It's better to be thorough." The second soldier shook his head, and quickly dialed the phone with his right hand, which had been behind his back. "Yes...it's confirmed...there...there...there...yes...yes!"

After hanging up the phone, the soldier with some white hair nodded at the police officer, who was looking at him inquiringly. "It's still in your jurisdiction for now. You come," he said.

The white-haired police officer nodded and approached the door. He took out his police badge from his pocket and said, "Mr. Wu Qingchen, assisting in a public security investigation is the duty and responsibility of every citizen. There is currently a major case that requires your cooperation. Please pack your belongings and come with us."

When Wu Qingchen heard the words "major case," he didn't want to "come with us" at all.

Perhaps his nervousness was the reason, but Wu Qingchen's lips trembled slightly. He accidentally blurted out, "Did I commit a crime?" instead of what he wanted to say: "What have I done?"

No one was amused by this statement. Suddenly, another voice came from the direction of the stairs: "Yes, you did commit a crime, and a big one at that...you're suspected of kidnapping the entire human race...how about that? This is a big crime and quite fresh, isn't it?"

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