After eavesdropping on his parents' conversation in this life, Yan Junze felt an inexplicable warmth rise in his heart. Even though he didn't have inherent feelings for them, he could still feel the affection.
However, he really hadn't rested well last night, and before he could adjust to the emotional touch, he had already fallen asleep.
When he woke up, it was already late at night.
Yan Junze started up, opened his eyes, and found the world before him a blur; only then did he remember that this body needed glasses. He reached for his glasses and hastily put them on.
Checking his phone, it was 1:03 AM.
He perked up his ears to listen to any noise outside the bedroom. Hearing nothing, he presumed that Yan Daguo and Li Man were already asleep.
Fortunately, the mission brief was clear. All he needed to do was to wash his hair once in the bathroom after midnight to pass. It hadn't specified that it must be washed at exactly midnight, so even though it was past 12 o'clock, as long as the red-dressed little girl Ke'er was still there, completing the hair-washing would count as completing the task.
Stealthily getting out of bed, Yan Junze fished out the spare bathroom key from his clothes, walked to the bedroom door, gently opened it, then tiptoed onto the corridor.
He dared not turn on the light, using only the faint glow of his phone to retrieve the key and insert it into the lock of the bathroom door very slowly.
Taking about five or six seconds, without making too much noise, he got the key fully inserted. Then Yan Junze began to slowly turn the key, ready to unlock the latch.
Silence enveloped the surroundings, save for the ticking of the wall clock in the living room. The darkness, like an incoming tide, threatened to submerge Yan Junze's line of sight entirely.
The dim light from the cell phone struggled against the encroaching darkness.
Two rotations of the key in, an eerie chill traveled through the doorknob into Yan Junze's hand. He didn't know if it was an illusion or a genuine coldness.
But Yan Junze had no intention of stopping.
Just one more turn, and at the moment the latch would unlock, a clicking sound would occur — the moment Yan Junze feared would wake his parents.
Taking a deep breath, Yan Junze bit down on his teeth, his tongue involuntarily pressing against the roof of his mouth as he exerted force to twist.
Click!
The lock opened.
Yan Junze stood at the door, letting out the stale breath. He listened intently, and there was no movement from his parents' bedroom.
Taking another deep breath, he pushed open the bathroom door.
The door made no noise as it opened.
Almost simultaneously with its opening, Yan Junze reached in to find the light switch and immediately turned it on.
Turning on the bathroom light wouldn't affect his sleeping parents in the bedroom because their door was closed. The escaping light only touched a small area of the corridor outside the bathroom.
Just opening a bathroom door made the whole process feel like filming "Mission Impossible." At the moment, Yan Junze genuinely felt a delusion of turning into Tom Cruise. Except he wasn't there to steal a chip, but to face a red-dressed girl with a twisted neck and broken feet.
The moment the light switched on, Yan Junze's gaze swept through the bathroom. He didn't see the figure of the red-dressed girl Ke'er.
Of course, he couldn't see behind the door from where he stood. He would need to enter the bathroom fully to catch a glimpse of all possible locations and ensure that a red-dressed girl wasn't standing in some corner with her back to him.
Yan Junze was all in. Standing at the entrance, he glanced once more at his parents' bedroom. With no sound forthcoming, evidently Yan Daguo and Li Man were sound asleep.
He pulled up the Spacetime Atlas in his mind, the dimly glowing two nodes, and the Rewind line connecting them materialized before his eyes.
It might be just one chance, so he had to seize this Rewind well.
Yan Junze knew that the Rewind couldn't exceed five minutes, and the task of [Washing Hair] must be completed within three minutes.
This meant he could set the starting point of the Rewind at the moment he entered the bathroom and the endpoint five minutes later.
As long as he moved quickly and didn't dawdle upon entering the bathroom, starting the hair-washing immediately and keeping it under three minutes, he wouldn't exceed the five-minute total of the Rewind line.
If something happened during that time, Yan Junze could use his sole opportunity to Rewind.
Having run through the plan in his mind, Yan Junze stood in front of the door, taking several deep breaths. He set his phone screen to stay on, opened the timer, and set it to remind him after three minutes. However, he didn't start the countdown immediately, instead mentally marking the current moment as the starting point of the Rewind line.
At the same moment, the first node in the Spacetime Atlas dimmed instantly.
Starting point set successfully!
Yan Junze then thought about setting the end point of the Rewind line five minutes later, and the second node in the Spacetime Atlas dimmed as soon as he did.
End point set successfully!
"Here we go!"
Yan Junze stepped into the bathroom and gently closed the door behind him.
The moment the door closed, he quickly turned around, scanning every corner of the bathroom, including behind the door, but he didn't find Ke'er's red figure.
Although he didn't see the little girl, it didn't affect the mission proceeding right now.
Yan Junze moved in front of the sink, facing the mirror.
In the mirror, a gaunt face with somewhat messy hair and a pair of glasses with over three hundred degrees prescription was seen; his expression was slightly nervous, and his eyes occasionally glanced behind him in the reflection.
To say he wasn't nervous would certainly be impossible. Firstly, Yan Junze placed his adjusted phone below the mirror, leaning it towards himself at an angle for easy viewing of the time.
He pressed the drain stopper in the sink to close it, then began to run the water. After it became hot, he tested the temperature with his hand. Once the sink was more than half full, he turned off the tap.
After checking the phone screen, he rolled up his sleeves, placed the towel and shampoo within easy reach, and then Yan Junze pressed the three-minute countdown timer on the phone with his index finger.
It took him less than a minute to enter the bathroom and complete these actions.
The hair washing officially began.
Yan Junze bent over, dipping his head into the water to thoroughly wet his hair.
Because he was in a rush, unfortunately, water got into his eyes.
Instinctively, he closed his eyes.
At that moment, Yan Junze suddenly felt a chill, not sure if it was an illusion or something else, as if the bathroom had turned into a refrigeration unit and the temperature had been drastically lowered.
"Huh!"
A very faint sound suddenly came from behind him.
As his nerves were taut at all times, Yan Junze was in a state of high alert, making his senses extraordinarily sharp, and he heard the sound very clearly.
With a shiver, Yan Junze reached for his towel, quickly drying his eyes. However, he remembered that during the process of washing his hair, he shouldn't perform any actions unrelated to hair washing.
Wiping his eyes was permissible, but he dared not turn his head to look behind. Turning your head to look back while washing your hair obviously exceeded the scope of the task.
Being bent over, he could only sneak a quick glance behind him at the floor not far from beneath his legs.
Nothing was there.
From this angle, he did not see Ke'er's conspicuous red figure.
But the chill in the room was intensifying.
He couldn't waste time, Yan Junze reminded himself, and quickly opened the shampoo to pour some into his hand, applying it to his hair.
Soon, a great deal of foam emerged.
However, he quickly realized that this shampoo seemed to cost money.
Damn, he squeezed too much!