Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Jiang Ning glanced at the comments one last time and saw someone post: "Don't be afraid, kid, your dad will come back to life tomorrow..."

After leaving the live stream, Jiang Ning closed his phone, slowly sat down on the sofa, and stared intently at the various images flashing across the TV screen, his heart unable to calm down for a long time.

The impact of saying "Dad died again" was no less than, or even greater than, the charred body of the driver I saw "yesterday".

Jiang Ning felt a mix of emotions, but mostly a chill ran down his spine.

A scene involuntarily flashed through his mind: in a hospital room, as the mother frantically went to find the doctor, the child stood calmly in front of his dying father, perhaps for only a minute, watching his father die.

Then, when Mom and the doctor arrived, seemingly wanting to spare them further trouble, she kindly reminded them, "Dad died again!"

Besides this scene, Jiang Ning kept replaying the comments he had just seen in the barrage of messages, with many people saying, "Save my child."

These comments naturally reminded Jiang Ning of the short story Chen Xiao had just told, and made him immediately understand why Chen Xiao said that the father might not want to be resurrected because of the world regressing.

"Phew~"

Jiang Ning took a deep breath, then inhaled sharply, trying to calm himself down.

After a long silence, his face contorted in a grimace, his fists clenched, he muttered to himself, "I did nothing wrong!"

"I just hope Lin Wei can be resurrected because the world goes backward."

Jiang Ning clenched his fists tightly and then quickly relaxed them, repeating this several times before his expression returned to calm.

He slowly got up and walked towards the bathroom, intending to wash up and then go out to take another look.

Upon entering the bathroom, Jiang Ning's eyes widened as soon as he turned on the sink faucet.

He looked at the mirror in disbelief. In the mirror, he still had a buzz cut that looked like a dog had chewed on his head, and a faint little wound on his left cheek.

"this……"

Jiang Ning reached out and touched the mirror in surprise, tilting his head to the left. In the mirror, his reflection also reached out and touched the mirror, tilting his head to the right.

"Isn't this a regression in the world?"

"Isn't it a matter reset?"

"Why haven't I changed along with it?"

At this moment, Jiang Ning felt his head buzzing and was very confused. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind: had the world stopped regressing, or had he been hallucinating these past few days, or was the whole world playing out his story, like an old movie—The Truman Show?

Jiang Ning looked at herself quietly for a while, then suddenly remembered something and quickly turned around and ran to the kitchen.

It's empty...

The red plastic bag wasn't in the kitchen hallway.

Instead, a bag of offerings for the dead was placed in a corner of the restaurant.

Jiang Ning hurriedly returned to the bedroom and opened the wardrobe, where a black windbreaker was quietly hanging on the railing.

"What exactly is going on?"

Jiang Ning subconsciously scratched his head, feeling an itch on his scalp, but the greasiness from his long hair was gone.

Jiang Ning took out the black windbreaker again, put it on, and quickly left the bedroom.

I have to go out!

Seeing is believing; only in this way can we truly verify whether the world is really regressing!

Only in this way can we determine whether this situation is an isolated case or a multiple case.

This verification mindset is one of the most commonly used methods he has employed as a sleep researcher over the years. The samples must be diverse, and the samples must also be compared.

"Woof woof woof..."

As soon as Jiang Ning opened the door, he heard a loud barking from next door.

Once outside, the stairwell was quiet, just like yesterday, with the doors of the two neighboring houses locked.

"Woof woof woof..." The dog barked even louder, and soon after, the sound of "What the hell are you barking about, you damn dog..." rang out.

Jiang Ning didn't stop; the elevator went down from the 21st floor to the 1st floor without encountering anyone.

To get from Building 7 to the main gate of the community, you have to cross half of the community square. At this moment, there are several figures walking quickly from the outside to the inside.

Jiang Ning silently watched them and noticed that they were walking hurriedly, covered in wind and frost, but their eyes held a hint of expectation, as if they had just returned from working a night shift, or as if they were travelers who had been on a long journey and were finally getting home.

These people noticed Jiang Ning's gaze, glanced up at him, and quickly looked away.

As I stepped out of the community gate, just like yesterday, there were several cars parked crookedly at the entrance. The only difference was that they didn't seem to be the same cars as yesterday.

"Hey young man, are you heading out?"

Just as Jiang Ning was about to continue walking forward, he suddenly heard someone speaking behind him. He turned around and saw a middle-aged man in his forties wearing a security guard uniform standing at the entrance of the guardhouse, looking at him.

Jiang Ning looked embarrassed and instinctively hummed in response, which was the word he used most often when speaking to others over the past year.

After isolating himself from the outside world for a month, he found that he no longer liked to talk. At first, he would respond to the concern of a few relatives and friends on social chat software, but later he blocked all contacts in his address book and uninstalled social chat software.

Now, when faced with this security guard, after replying with an "um," he wanted to say something more, but suddenly realized he couldn't say anything.

"Young man, you look unfamiliar. Are you from this neighborhood?"

After the middle-aged security guard finished speaking, he looked at Jiang Ning with a wary expression and carefully scanned him from head to toe.

Hearing this, Jiang Ning's expression became even more awkward. He thought for a moment, then tried his best to smile and said, "I...I'm Jiang the Weird..."

"Jiang the Strange Man?"

The middle-aged security guard was taken aback at first, then, as if realizing something, he repeatedly said, "Oh! Oh! Oh!"

"I remember now, you're that withdrawn, weirdo Jiang from apartment 2103 in building 7..."

After the middle-aged security guard finished speaking, he seemed to realize that it was impolite, so he quickly smiled awkwardly, looked Jiang Ning up and down carefully, and then apologized, "I'm sorry, I wasn't making fun of you, that's just how the neighbors describe you."

"It's alright!" Jiang Ning said calmly.

He was aware of the neighbors' gossip, of course. In the past, when he would go out once every ten days or half a month, he would be unkempt and slovenly, and people would point and whisper about him.

Initially, people from the community and property management would come to his door to inquire about the reason and visit him.

But after he stopped opening the door and showed no gratitude, these people never came again. The only person who would still come was Xiao Zhao from the property management office, who would come to collect the property fees on the 1st of every month.

However, I had savings when I quit my job, so even though I was feeling down and stayed home all day this past year, I never fell behind on property fees or mortgage payments.

Thinking about it, Jiang Ning suddenly realized that if the world were to regress, it seemed that he wouldn't have to pay his mortgage this month... and currency would seem to be useless!

"Are you really going out?"

Seeing Jiang Ning in a daze, the middle-aged man couldn't help but say, "I was originally having a few drinks in the dormitory, but I ended up back at the guardhouse on duty. In the past half day, all I've seen are residents rushing home, but I haven't seen a single one going out."

"I'm not afraid!" Jiang Ningjing replied calmly.