"Beep beep beep~~~~~"
A short, piercing alarm suddenly rang out from the silence.
In the darkness, Lin Fei's consciousness gradually woke from the silence and despair.
He suddenly opened his eyes wide.
It was a cramped bedroom, to the right was a double-layered bookshelf, densely packed with books.
To the left was a desk with a black lamp, its neat surface casually scattered with an open math book.
Next to it was a partially completed homework notebook.
Bright, glaring sunlight penetrated from outside above the desk, falling on his face. A warm sensation touched Lin Fei's central nervous system from the sun-kissed skin.
His somewhat bewildered gaze slightly cleared up, and he stretched out his hand hazily to block the glaring sunlight.
"I...wasn't I...dead?" he muttered. His brain's last remnants of memory were still caught in that instant filled with countless dancing flames in Purgatory.
His parents lay silently in a pool of blood in the kitchen, and in addition, many strangely dressed corpses were scattered around the living room.
His sister and two strangers were injured, confronting a man with fiery red hair.
The man wore a black trench coat, the hem of which fluttered slightly in the myriad of surrounding flames.
He had just gotten off work and returned home to find it on fire. The first scene he saw when he rushed in was this.
"Is this some kind of movie?" His mind was in disbelief one moment, but in the next, the red-haired man suddenly turned around, and his figure vanished instantly.
Then came a familiar scream, and Lin Fei could distinguish that it was his sister, Lin You. Then followed endless darkness.
He threw the covers off himself, Lin Fei, drenched in sweat, swung out of bed and sat on the edge. At the instant of his murder, he felt astonishment, no pain or grief, just complete astonishment.
"Click." He pressed down on the still ringing alarm clock. Wiping his forehead, his hands were full of sweat. Suddenly he noticed something odd, when had his hands become so fair?
After graduating from college, he often traveled, and his originally fair skin had completely turned wheat-colored. And...
Lin Fei picked up the silenced alarm clock again.
The clock had a round white casing with a Doraemon cartoon sticker on it, some of the white paint had started to peel off due to prolonged use.
"Isn't this the alarm clock I used in high school?"
Lin Fei looked at the familiar object, and then looked around at the surrounding setting, suddenly stunned.
"What is this, time travel? Rebirth?"
He suddenly felt some confusion in his brain. The death of a moment ago was still vivid, and then immediately following was rebirth?
Lin Fei quickly stood up and walked to the desk, on it was indeed his high school math textbook.
The notebook next to it, the homework was full of blackened marks where he had scribbled out errors impulsively and then restarted writing.
Still puzzled, he opened the room door, and what met his eyes were familiar scenes.
The somewhat narrow living room was empty, the floor still had that typical pebble-patterned tile, common in that era.
The living room had a cluster of brown sofas, some of the leather had peeled off, exposing the cloth material underneath.
Across from the sofa was a black television set, turned on, displaying familiar scenes, but muted without sound.
Xu Xian and Lady White, dressed in ancient costumes, were standing on a broken bridge holding an oil-paper umbrella, exactly at the ending scene.
The sound of chopping from the kitchen wafted faintly, and the warm air brought a scent of frying eggs.
"Is that you, Fei? Finally awake, hurry and wash up, dinner's almost ready,"
The voice of his mother, Jiang Feng, sounded young and vigorous, totally unlike the weary tone of a woman nearly in her fifties from his memory.
Lin Fei felt like everything was like a dream, pinching the flesh on his thigh hard, a sharp pain reached his brain.
"Looks like it's not a dream! Stay calm! Stay calm! Getting overly emotional won't solve any problems!! First, I need to figure out exactly what's going on."
Lin Fei repeated this to himself in his mind. His slightly agitated emotions gradually stabilized.
He quickly glanced at the calendar on the side, May 13, 2004, underneath the bold black letters there was a line of small print: Hua Nation Agricultural Bank giveaway.
"First off, if this is real, then I must have returned to the beginning of my junior year in high school."
Responding to his mother's calling, Lin Fei walked into his parents' bedroom next door and stood in front of the only full-length mirror in the house.
Reflected in the glass was an ordinary young man with a crew cut.
The young man was tall and skinny like a pole, with bright eyes and slight pillow marks on his face. A hint of stubble was emerging around his lips. He wore a cream-colored vest and a pair of boxer shorts.
Lin Fei silently watched himself in the mirror—so young, so naive—as countless memories continuously replayed in his mind.
"Hua Nation? Isn't it China?" Having read countless online novels, he had some guesses. But his mind was still a bit confused.
He stood in front of the mirror for over ten minutes.
"Fei?" A concerned voice came from behind Lin Fei, suddenly interrupting his silence, snapping him out of his reverie.
Lin Fei shuddered and quickly turned around. It was his mother, Jiang Feng, looking a bit plump yet puzzled, staring at him.