Chapter 2 The truth

Thump, thump, thump! The sight before Zhou Mingrui scared him so much that he took a few steps back. It seemed like he was looking at a corpse in the mirror, not himself. How could someone with such a serious wound still be alive? He couldn't believe it and turned his head to check the other side. Even though the light was dim and the distance was far, he could still see the wound and the deep red bloodstains. "This..." Zhou Mingrui took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He reached out to touch his left chest and felt his heart beating rapidly and vigorously. He also touched his exposed skin, which was slightly cold but warm underneath. After squatting down to verify that his knees could still bend, Zhou Mingrui stood up again, no longer in a panic. "What's going on?" He frowned and whispered to himself, intending to carefully check the wound on his head again. After taking two steps forward, he suddenly stopped because the light of the blood moon outside was too dim to support a "careful examination." A fragment of memory suddenly came to mind, and Zhou Mingrui turned his head to look at the gray and white pipes and metal grilles surrounding the wall lamp next to the desk. This was the current mainstream gas lamp, with a stable flame and excellent lighting effect. Given the family situation of Klein Moretti, even kerosene lamps would be considered luxurious, and using candles would be a more appropriate display of status and identity. However, four years ago, when he was studying hard and struggling to pass the entrance exam for Hoy University, his brother Benson believed that this was an important matter related to the family's future. Even if he had to borrow money, he wanted to create good conditions for him. Of course, Benson, who had been literate and working for several years, was not a reckless, unscrupulous person who did not consider the consequences. He persuaded the landlord to pay for the basic renovation by saying that "installing gas pipes would improve the apartment's grade and help with future rentals." He also used the convenience of working for an import and export company to get a new gas lamp at almost cost price, using only his savings and not borrowing money from anyone. Fragments flickered past as Zhou Mingrui returned to his desk, opened the valve of the gas pipe, and twisted the switch of the gas lamp. Click, click, click, the sound of friction and ignition echoed, but the light did not appear as Zhou Mingrui had expected. Click, click, click! He twisted it a few more times, but the gas lamp remained dim.

"Hmm..." He withdrew his hand, pressed his left temple, and squeezed out fragments of memory, searching for the reason. After a few seconds, he turned his body and walked to the mechanical device embedded in the wall next to the door, which was also connected by a gray-white pipe. This was the gas meter!

Glancing at the exposed gears and bearings, Zhou Mingrui took out a coin from his pocket. It was dark yellow in color, shimmering with copper luster, and had a man's head wearing a crown on the front and a cluster of wheat with the number "1" on the back. Zhou Mingrui knew that this was the most basic currency of the Rune Kingdom, called the copper penny. One penny had a purchasing power equivalent to about three or four yuan before he crossed over. The coin also had denominations of five pennies, half a penny, and a quarter penny, but it was still not refined enough. In daily life, he still had to round up to buy things.

After flipping the King George III copper penny in his hand a few times, Zhou Mingrui pinched it and inserted it into the slender "mouth" of the gas meter, which was vertically open. Ding, ding! As the penny fell to the bottom of the meter, the sound of clicking gears immediately sounded, playing a short and beautiful mechanical melody. Zhou Mingrui stared for a few seconds, then returned to his desk, reached out and twisted the switch of the gas lamp. Click, click, click, and then a flame burst into life, quickly growing larger. The bright light first occupied the interior of the wall lamp, then passed through the transparent glass, and covered the room with a warm color. The darkness suddenly receded, and the crimson color retreated from the window. Zhou Mingrui felt inexplicably relieved and walked quickly to the dressing mirror. This time, he carefully examined the position of his temple, not missing any details. After comparing it several times, he found that apart from the initial bloodstains, the gruesome wound did not bleed again. It seemed to have received the best treatment and bandaging. The slowly wriggling gray-white brain and the wound flesh that was growing visible to the naked eye were indicating the arrival of healing. Maybe in thirty or forty minutes, maybe in two or three hours, there would only be shallow scars left.

"The healing effect brought by time travel?" Zhou Mingrui raised the corner of his right mouth and whispered silently. Then he took a deep breath. No matter what the reason was, at least he was still alive! He calmed himself down and pulled open the drawer, took out a small piece of soap, and took one of the old towels hanging next to the cabinet. Then he opened the door and walked towards the shared bathroom on the second floor for tenants.

Hmm, he needed to clean up the blood on his head, so as not to always look like a crime scene and scare himself. It didn't matter if he scared himself, but if he scared his sister Melissa, who had to get up early tomorrow, things would not end well! The corridor outside the door was dark, and only the crimson moonlight pouring in from the window at the end barely outlined the contours of protruding objects, making them look like a pair of monster eyes silently watching the living in the deep night.

Zhou Mingrui walked cautiously towards the bathroom, feeling a bit scared. When he entered, the moonlight was even brighter, and everything became clear. He stood in front of the sink and turned on the tap. The sound of rushing water reminded him of the landlord, Mr. Frankie. Because the water bill was included in the rent, this short and thin man with a top hat, vest, black formal suit, always actively came to inspect the several bathrooms and listened to the sound of running water inside. If there was a loud noise, Mr. Frank would forget his gentlemanly demeanor and fiercely wave his cane, hitting the door of the bathroom and shouting, "Damn thief!" "Waste is a shameful thing!" "I remember you!" "If I see you again, you and your dirty luggage will be thrown out!" "Believe me, this is the most cost-effective apartment in the whole town of Gencheng, and you won't find a more generous landlord than me!"

Returning to his thoughts, Zhou Mingrui wet the towel and cleaned the blood stains on his face over and over again. When he looked in the broken mirror in the bathroom and confirmed that only the hideous wounds and pale face remained, Zhou Mingrui felt a little relieved. Then he took off his linen shirt and used soap to rub off the blood stains. At this moment, he frowned and remembered that there might be other troubles: the wound was exaggerated, and there were many blood stains. Besides himself, there should be traces in the room!

After a few minutes, Zhou Mingrui finished dealing with the linen shirt, took the wet towel and quickly returned home, first wiping off the blood handprints on the desk, and then relying on the light of the gas lamp to search for other residues. As he searched, he immediately found many blood splatters on the floor and under the desk, and a yellow bullet head on the left-hand wall. "…Used a revolver to hold it against his temple and fired a shot?" The clues suddenly connected, and Zhou Mingrui probably understood the cause of Klein's death. He didn't rush to verify it, but carefully wiped off the blood stains, dealt with the "scene", and then took the bullet head back to the desk. He opened the revolver's cylinder to the left and poured out the bullets. There were five bullets and one shell, all flowing with a brass luster. "Sure enough..." Zhou Mingrui glanced at the empty shell, while putting the bullets back into the cylinder one by one, nodding slightly. His gaze shifted to the sentence written on the open notebook, "Everyone will die, including me," and more doubts emerged in his mind. Where did the gun come from? Suicide, or disguised as suicide? What kind of trouble could a history graduate from an ordinary family cause? How could this suicide method leave such a trace of blood? Was it because he crossed over in time and had a healing benefit? After pondering for a moment, Zhou Mingrui changed into another linen shirt, sat down on the chair, and began to think about more important things. The fate of Klein was not his main concern at the moment. The real problem was to figure out why he crossed over and whether he could go back! Parents, relatives, best friends, friends, the colorful world of the internet, all kinds of delicious food... all of these were urgent desires to go back! Snap, snap, snap... Zhou Mingrui unconsciously flicked the revolver's cylinder with his right hand, then closed it again, repeating the action over and over. "Hmm, there's not much difference between this period of time and the past, except for a bit of bad luck. How did I cross over for no reason?" "Bad luck... right, I did a lucky ritual before dinner tonight!" A lightning bolt flashed through Zhou Mingrui's mind, illuminating his obscured memory. As a qualified keyboard politician, historian, economist, biologist, and folklorist, he had always claimed to "know a little bit about everything," and of course, his best friend often mocked him for "only knowing a little bit about everything." And one of those things was magic. Last year, when I went back to my hometown, I stumbled upon a bound vertical edition of "Secret Techniques of the Qin and Han Dynasties" at an old book stall. It looked interesting and I thought it could help me show off online, so I bought it and brought it back with me. Unfortunately, my interest waned as quickly as it had come, and the vertical format made it difficult to read. I only flipped through the beginning before tossing it into a corner.

It wasn't until recently, when I had a string of bad luck - losing my phone, clients running away, making mistakes at work - that I remembered the "Secret Techniques" had a ritual for changing one's luck. It was incredibly simple and required no prior knowledge. With nothing to lose, I dug out the book and performed the ritual before dinner. Nothing happened at the time, but to my surprise, I found myself transported to another time and place in the middle of the night.

"It's possible that the ritual had something to do with it... I'll try it again tomorrow and if it works, maybe I can go back to my own time!" With renewed determination, Zhou Mingrui put down his shaking gun and sat up straight. He had to try, even if it was a long shot.