Chapter 1: Awaken  

Luo Jian had that dream again, he often dreamed about it. There was always this person who would talk to him in his dream, but he could never see their face. Luo Jian struggled to open his eyes wide in order to see the other person’s face, he also concentrated deeply in order to hear the other person’s words, but all of this was in vain.

Imagine having the same dream so many times, having doubts exist within your heart, urgently wanting to obtain the answers, eagerly desiring to reach out with both hands, only for both hands to be left empty, only to realize you’ve grasped at nothing.

Luo Jian then woke up. Just as every morning, he would open his eyes at his bed, feeling at a bit of a loss. His mind was blank for the first few seconds, but immediately after, he realized that something was amiss.

This wasn’t his own bed, and this room wasn’t his own room.

Consequently, Luo Jian instantly and swiftly got up from the bed, puzzled and vigilantly observing his surroundings. He found himself in a small, dilapidated room that was less than twenty square meters, it was evidently one of those old houses from the 1980s. There was a window and a door at least. The dim lights from the chandelier overhead shined down from the ceiling lighting the surrounding area. He glanced around and saw that this room only contained a single bed and a writing desk.

A simple and monotonous arrangement. Apart from that bed and desk, there were no other decorations. It was just that this room appeared to be rather incongruous, but it seemed as though Luo Jian couldn’t detect where exactly this sense of incongruity came from. And so, Luo Jian just sat on the bed, somewhat dumbfounded. Then he thought of the key issue—where was he?

The last memory he had was that he came home from work as usual, took a bath after dinner, wrote documents for work the next day, and then went to bed on time. He was like a robot; there was not a day in a decade where his daily routine changed. But then why was it that when he woke up, he appeared in this strange room?

Luo Jian’s head began aching and he simply couldn’t think anymore. He only felt that the room was exceedingly small, small enough to make him feel a little suffocated. He got up and walked towards the single door in the room, a door made of deep crimson wood. This door appeared to be very old and had an iron handle. Luo Jian extended his hand to grab the door handle and gave it a strong twist. However, the door didn’t budge.

What’s going on? Am I locked in?

Luo Jian harshly pulled on the door handle. Whether he pushed forward, pulled back, or even moved left and right, the door didn’t move one bit, it was as if it were permanently set into the wall with molten iron. Luo Jian once again blanked out, he forcefully pounded on the door. He felt that there was someone outside, so he shouted out loud:

“Hey? Is anyone outside?! Why am I here?!”

There wasn’t any response. The room was deathly silent. Luo Jian leaned his ear against the door, trying to hear any sound outside. Ages passed, but he still couldn’t hear a thing, not even the sound of the wind blowing.

Luo Jian felt rather alarmed, his back was covered in chills and cold sweat ran down his forehead. He asked himself, how did this happen? Who knocked me unconscious and sent me here? But if I really am kidnapped, then shouldn’t ransom be demanded? Ask for the phone number of one’s closest person, wasn’t this how blackmailing went?1

But nothing. No one came. There was no sound.

Luo Jian took a deep breath, he felt that he should calm down. Perhaps the people outside were still discussing how much ransom they should demand for him; therefore, they shouldn’t come in for him for a while. He must have panicked too much, he just needed to wait.

So, Luo Jian tried to calm himself down. He went and stood in front of the only window in the room and drew open the grey curtains. Sure enough, the windows were barred and the glass remained intact. But the exterior of the window was covered with a hard tinplate, completely obscuring the scenery outside. There was only a twinkling luster from the metal plate.

Luo Jian unconsciously sighed, he once again drew the curtains. He understood, at this moment, he was entirely in an impenetrable chamber. It blocked all contact from the outside world, like the cage of a small animal, perhaps it couldn’t even compare to the cages of small animals.

Luo Jian took a step back and withdrew from the edge of the window, but almost immediately, he turned his body once again. He discovered something at an extremely conspicuous location. It was tacked onto the wall near the window and was directly at his eye-level—a piece of paper.

It was a note with purple patterns on the lower right-hand corner.

At the top, a set of densely packed words were beautifully written with a fountain pen; it was clearly left aside for the sole living being in this locked chamber, a message specifically for Luo Jian.

Luo Jian immediately leaned forward; he didn’t pull the pin out, but instead, directly tore the note off the pin in the wall. The beautifully and neatly written cursive words caught his eyes, and he read the writing at the beginning:

【Our dearest selected candidate, Mr. Luo Jian.】

The first line simply confused Luo Jian. What selected candidate? And the other side obviously knew his name and his identity, but he had no more time to think on that, he had to move on:

【You must be puzzled about your current situation, but I regret to inform you that I cannot tell you any more. The most important thing you need to do at present time is find a way to leave this chamber within one hour. Otherwise, you will be eliminated.】

“What does that mean? What will be eliminated?” Luo Jian couldn’t fathom this inexplicable thing, he was baffled. But the words regarding elimination and the shocking content made him bite the bullet and continue reading:

【In order not to create a new homicide case in this chamber, I shall give you a couple of hints:】

【First: ‘Within an hour’ started from the moment you opened your eyes and woke up. There is an alarm clock on the writing desk; you can use all the time from the twelve o’clock mark to the one o’clock mark.】

【Second: The door is the only way you’ll be able to leave this chamber. Don’t count on the window, unless you wish to die.】

【Third: This is not a joke.】

【The aforementioned hints are over. I wish you the best of luck! 】

There was only so much content on the note, it was such a light piece of paper, but Luo Jian felt that it weighed a thousand pounds1. He took the note to the single writing desk in the room. There was indeed a small, round alarm clock, the hour hand pointed in the 12 o’clock direction, and the minute hand was pointing in the direction of the number 8, which signified that eight minutes had passed since he woke up.

Leave this room within an hour; otherwise, be eliminated.

“This is clearly a joke!” Luo Jian simply thought this was ridiculous, but the word ‘eliminated’ on the note made him feel uneasy. He placed the note down and walked back to the door. He pushed on the door again, but it still wouldn’t budge. Luo Jian was getting flustered. Regardless of whether the words on this note were true or false, escaping within an hour wasn’t that much of a bad idea either; he really didn’t like being confined in such a tight, small space. It was just too stifling.

Luo Jian then lowered his head, and once again, he looked back at the door. The door handle had a keyhole, indicating that it could be unlocked with a key. He reckoned the possibility that someone locked the door from the outside. If there was a key hidden somewhere in this room, then good. If not, then Luo Jian must think of another way to open this door.

Luo Jian returned to the desk; except for the small, round alarm clock sitting on top of the table, there were only a handful of books randomly piled on top of one another. The book covers were very thick, but it was awfully strange that the books were written in a foreign language. He was unable to make any sense out of the densely packed words that resembled tadpoles. He casually flipped through them, and finding nothing worth mentioning, conveniently placed it in the corner.

The writing desk had four drawers, and the top most had a keyhole. Luo Jian tugged it a bit and found it to be locked, so he gave up and immediately opened the second. Inside was a notebook with a black jacket. Luo Jian sorted through it and noticed that only the first few pages had words written on them, followed by a large blank space. He felt that it wouldn’t take much time, so he decided to skim it.

The first page read: “My left side is a crooked reflection of the dead2.” Luo Jian automatically read it out loud, while reading the words on this page, he subconsciously looked to his left. There were only walls of white, but some of the white paint chipped off, revealing traces of crimson brick.

Luo Jian suddenly felt his blood run cold, then he opened up the next page, continuing to read, “The murderer buried himself with his weapon.”

Utterly confusing! Luo Jian shook his head, and opened up the third page; he proceeded to read the next words aloud, “God! God will never forgive me for what I’ve done…what is the meaning of this?” Luo Jian couldn’t comprehend it much. However, the third page had two lines, and the second line was written at the very bottom of the page. Three shocking words were written in red: “I killed him!”

Luo Jian frowned, he turned to the fourth page. It was blank. The fifth page. Blank. The sixth page. Blank. …He kept turning the pages until he eventually reached the last page, and he finally saw some writing, it was a distorted sentence: “Do you want to leave?” Then there was nothing left.

“What kind of dog shit is this?!” Luo Jian was unbelievably confounded; these few sentences made him feel extremely vexed. He threw the notebook onto the floor, and opened up the third drawer. Inside were a pair of scissors, a wire, and a ballpoint pen. Not bad. If he were a thief who aced at lock-picking, he could’ve opened the door. But unfortunately, he wasn’t.

Afterwards, Luo Jian opened the final drawer. Inside, there was an awl and…a gun. Luo Jian’s soul flew out of his body and he stood lifeless for a moment, before reaching out with his hand to bring out the gun. It was quite heavy in the palm of his hand, and from the quality of its structure, it was obviously not a fake or a model. This was the first time Luo Jian ever held a real gun. His hand that gripped the gun trembled ever so slightly. Luo Jian studied the gun for a while, he dawdled a bit and then unloaded the magazine, only to pause. He only found one bullet inside.

Why is there a gun here? Luo Jian quickly thought of this issue. The domestic control of firearms was heavily strict. Unless you were a police officer or an armed licensed bodyguard, you still needed permission to shoot even if you had a gun permit. A firearm in this country was rarely seen around, and at this moment, Luo Jian was holding a gun right before his eyes. Black in color, unrecognizable in model, and very much real.