The door slowly opened. The clocks ticked in his ears. Luo Dong held the door frame and looked at the scene before him quietly. Various clocks hung in the small room. Each clock featured a human face. Or, more precisely, each clock represented one person. Luo Dong didn’t dare to barge in. He stayed at the door and looked around. This room looked no different from the others from the outside. However, it didn’t have a room number. After being at Prosperity Neighbourhood for some time, Luo Dong knew that the room numbers corresponded to the dates. The dates were something important for the room owners. For example, the room number for his own room was the date he met his wife.
“Where am I? Am I at the end of the future?”
Physical pain affected Luo Dong no more. He laid his heart over his heart, entered the room and closed the door.
Inside the room of clocks, the needles on the clocks ticked endlessly. Multiple fates careened towards the abyss. Everyone’s life was exposed before Luo Dong.
“Did the voice in my heart call me here? Or did I want to come here?” Luo Dong met Gao Ming two days ago. Gao Ming told him some strange things. Back then, Luo Dong didn’t understand any of it. However, as long as it was a request from Gao Ming, he would agree to it unconditionally because Gao Ming had once saved his family.
Luo Dong listened to the voice in his heart. Eventually, only the sound of one clock remained in his ears. Luo Dong shut out the disruptions and chased after the flow of time. When he opened his eyes, he was already inside the main bedroom. He was standing in the corner. Before him was a clock. In the room of clocks, this room appeared normal and unimportant.
“Is this the thing that has been calling me?”
Everlasting Life Apartments had hidden floors and rooms. It was the same for Prosperity Neighbourhood. Luo Dong knelt on the ground to study the clock. At that moment, footsteps came from outside the house. “Is the owner coming home?”
Luo Dong stopped hesitating. He opened the cover of the clock. His intention was to hide the clockface or destroy it. However, once his hand touched the needle, five thin strands curled onto his body. At the same time, Luo Dong’s heart started to beat at a fixed rhythm. His fate appeared to have been bound to something inside the clock a few days ago. The connection could not be severed.
Memories that didn’t belong to Luo Dong surged into his mind. He saw a pair of anxious couples. Like him, they once had a perfect and happy life. However, once the anomaly started, their child disappeared. The threads of fate bound tighter. Luo Dong’s heart was about to explode. He resonated with the couple’s pain and despair until his fate overlapped with theirs. Luo Dong gasped for air as his eyes flew open.
“I feel like I was sucked into the clock. Is there a hidden passage behind the clock? A lot of other people’s memories appeared in my mind. They are all related to a married couple. They tried their best to raise their child. They didn’t wish for great things. They just wanted their child to be safe. However, their child still disappeared mysteriously…”
As a parent, Luo Dong shared in their pain.
Luo Dong’s nostrils twitched from the smell of mould in the air. He looked around. “Am I not at Prosperity Neighbourhood anymore?”
The old building was structurally unstable. Bugs crawled along the rusted railings. The narrow corridors were crowded with laundry and trash. The cement floor was riddled with holes.
The wind blew. The laundry fluttered like ghosts. Luo Dong parted the laundry. He noticed light coming from one of the rooms.
The layout of the building was not complicated, but the corridors were strewn with so much trash that it impacted Luo Dong’s speed. Luo Dong was halfway to his destination when he paused. He heard footsteps. For the sake of security, he hid behind a pile of trash. He used an abandoned shirt to cover his head.
The footsteps slowly approached. Luo Dong turned to look. A trace of excitement crossed his eyes. The person who came down the stairs was Gao Ming!
Luo Dong’s lips opened, but he didn’t call him. He realised Gao Ming was a bit strange. He was young-looking. He carried a school bag and held an empty box. He wore a school uniform.
“This is so strange.”
Luo Dong continued hiding. Gao Ming came to one of the doors. He called out softly. The door opened from the inside. The corridor returned to silence. No sound came from inside the room either. Luo Dong frowned. “Is Gao Ming’s memory sealed inside the clock? Someone has stripped him of his memory… But something doesn’t feel right.”
Half an hour later, familiar footsteps echoed in the corridor again. Luo Dong, who was searching the corridor, hurriedly went back into hiding. He held his breath and stared down the corridor. When the owner of the footsteps appeared, Luo Dong’s pupils shrunk.
It was the same young face, school uniform, schoolbag and empty box. The same Gao Ming came to knock on the door and entered the door.
The door closed. Luo Dong was stunned. The room seemed to be a monster who specialised in eating Gao Ming.
“Why are there two Gao Mings?”
Luo Dong walked to the door. The room number was 716, and the 16th of July was the day after the Hungry Ghost Festival.
“For the room owner, the day after the Hungry Ghost Festival is the most memorable day of his life. What happened on that day? Is this really Gao Ming’s memory? If it’s not, why is he here? Could it be…” Luo Dong thought back to the things he saw when he first appeared there and the memories that surged into his brain. “Could this be his parent’s memory? Have they gone into the anomaly to search for him?” Р₳ŊốᛒЕȿ
After some hesitation, Luo Dong knocked on the door lightly.
Someone opened the door from the inside. It was a middle-aged man wearing a raincoat. Another person was in the kitchen because Luo Dong heard the sound of mincing meat.
Luo Dong’s expression became unnatural because nothing about this place was correct or logical.