At this moment, Zhao Douan, who was lying on the computer desk, forced open his heavy eyelids. His vision was at first blurry, then gradually cleared.

In his field of vision, the first thing he saw was the computer screen that had entered the "screen saver" mode due to long inactivity.

Then, it was the colorful "sticky notes" attached to the edge of the computer, each one neatly written with a "reminder".

This was his work habit, as there were too many "to-dos" to remember each day, to avoid forgetting, he got into the habit of sticking them in the most conspicuous place.

His gaze shifted to the side; the reverse side of the computer case, beside the black keyboard, was a stack of folders with light blue covers, the "spines" of which were labeled with document names.

At this moment, the top one was open, printed in black and white ink, a document issued by the higher authorities.

Behind him, in the room, the file cabinet stood, and through its semi-translucent doors, documents were packed like sardines.

"Is this... my office...?"

Zhao Douan's mind was groggy, his consciousness muddled, as if waking from a hangover, he sat dazedly.

"Beep beep—"

Outside the window, in the distance, came the sound of a car horn. He turned his head instinctively to look. On a summer's night, a gust of wind came through the window bars, blowing through the half-open curtains, disheveling his hair.

"I'm... not in the Imperial Palace, in the old building?" Zhao Douan's thoughts slowly returned, and then, suddenly, he remembered everything!

His memories of the Yu Country were too vivid, too lively, too complex to be explained as a "dream."

A huge shock and astonishment appeared on his face, and a thought flashed through his mind like lightning:

"Did I... somehow... travel back...?"

This assumption nearly made him jump up. As he stood up abruptly, his figure was unsteady. He staggered, reaching out to steady himself on the desk. His hand pressed down on the keyboard, the computer turned on, and an electronic document appeared.

It was the speech draft he was working on "before traveling," still incomplete, with the cursor blinking at the end!

Zhao Douan's eyes moved upward to the corner of the computer screen where the time showed just past midnight.

The date also matched.

"I didn't die suddenly? I've been gone so long, yet here I only seemed to be asleep for a moment?!"

Zhao Douan was incredulous. Almost instinctively, he pulled open a drawer, frantically rummaging through it until he found a personal identification card.

Opened it!

Clad with a freshly-stamped one-inch photo of his face on Earth, in the name section, was printed the words "Zhang Hui."

Zhang Hui... that was his previous name. Only now, it seemed a bit unfamiliar.

"Did I really travel back? But clearly, I was just visualizing the mural on the fourth floor..."

Zhao Douan's expression was dazed, his heart first excited then filled with a sense of longing. A year ago, facing life-threatening danger, returning was his greatest wish.

But now, he clearly had people he cared about in that world, new family, and friends...

Family...

Suddenly, Zhao Douan was taken aback. Clumsily, he grabbed his phone from the table, somewhat awkwardly opened the contact list, and pressed his parents' phone number.

Dialing...

However, the call did not go through. There was no busy tone, the signal was full, but bizarrely it just stayed on the "dialing" screen.

"Can't connect? That makes no sense..." Given the nature of his work, his phone credit was sufficient.

Zhao Douan then opened WeChat, almost as if by reflex, tapped into the red-dotted Moments, and then... Moments was completely empty.

"Is there a network problem?"

Zhao Douan was stunned, hurriedly using the computer to open the browser, only to find he couldn't connect to the internet. He turned the mobile data on and off, and after repeating it several times, was shocked to discover all networks were down.

"Something's not right..."

Belatedly realizing the anomaly, Zhao Douan abruptly took a step forward, pushed open the door, and ran out of the room.

The lights in the corridor lit up one by one as Zhao Douan, or rather "Zhang Hui," wearing a shirt, trousers, and leather shoes, ran down the stairs.

In the building late at night, the sound of his footsteps echoed.

Shortly, he reached the first floor and headed straight for the security office in the courtyard...

...

Half an hour later.

On a bustling nearby street, in a 24-hour convenience store, Zhao Douan walked out woodenly, sitting down unceremoniously on the steps of the road nearby.

He tossed his phone and keys on the ground, tore off the foil of a newly bought pack of cigarettes, shook out one, put it in his mouth, habitually shielded it from the wind with his hand, clicked open a lighter, and began to blow smoke.

In the smoke, his eyes turned hazy.

"Is this place... also a painting scroll?"

He murmured softly.

In the past half hour, through various attempts, he had confirmed the oddity of this world.

On the surface, everything seemed normal, the people in this city were living "normally," and verbal communication was possible.

But, all networks were disconnected, yet the cashier systems reliant on networks operated normally, he could even scan to pay...

On the street, in the early morning, food delivery riders were cycling like the wind, yet the map routes on their phones remained motionless, and bizarrely they seemed unaware of anything wrong...

The security officers he daily greeted recognized him, but upon closer, probing conversations, coworkers would display expressions of having forgotten something, unable to react correctly to certain topics.

It was as though... this metropolis of nearly ten million people had a bug...

"This world superficially maintains normal operation, but upon scrutiny... it's like an incredibly realistic dream..."

Connecting it to the fact that... Xu Zhenguan had previously mentioned, in the fourth mural, there was a strange world...

Then, everything became clear.