A terrifying thought suddenly struck me: Did the girl in white from the underground cave follow me home?

The more I thought about it, the stranger it became, so instead of answering the cousin at the door, I knocked forcefully on Grandpa's door again.

This time, there was no reaction from Grandpa's room whatsoever.

Seeing my strange expression, my cousin rushed over and asked me, "What's wrong?"

I replied to her, "I just heard you talking inside, but now you've walked in from the main entrance. There must be something wrong here."

My cousin looked astonished, stammering, "Brother, you... you aren't tricking me, are you? Did you hear wrong?"

I shook my head, absolutely certain in my heart.

My cousin was clearly also extremely perplexed, and she started knocking hard on Grandpa's door along with me.

But after we both knocked for a long time, there was still no sign of a response from inside.

I bit my lower lip, told my cousin to step back a little, and then shouted toward the door, "Grandpa, if you don't open up, for your own safety, I'm going to kick the door in!"

Knowing Grandpa would surely answer, I immediately kicked right at the location of the door lock.

The door burst open with a bang, and at the same moment, a dark, eerie figure rushed out of the room.

The figure moved with incredible speed, a motion impossible for an old man, so it was clearly not Grandpa.

My cousin had never witnessed such a scene. She let out a loud shriek and scrambled backward to hide.

To protect my cousin’s safety, I immediately turned to shield her.

However, the black shadow's target didn't seem to be us; it was charging straight toward the main door.

How could I allow this person to escape right under my nose?

So, I took three steps in two, caught up, and grabbed the person's sleeve.

That’s when I was even more shocked, because the clothing this person wore was Grandpa's clothing.

The figure was immensely strong; despite being held by me, its arm flexed violently, tearing the sleeve, and it hurried toward the main door.

I became frantic then, leaping up from where I stood and tackling the figure to the ground.

Since the sky was already darkening, I couldn't see the person’s face clearly, and we were locked in a struggle.

But what was strange was that this person was as hard as stone all over; the feel of its arms and body wasn't like muscle at all.

Aside from the clothes, it bore no resemblance to Grandpa.

Yet, it could somehow produce the exact same voice as my grandfather.

I heard it cry out, "Let go of me, Chuan Wazi! Are you rebelling? Daring to hit your grandfather!"

Hearing this, anger immediately flared within me. I thought, who the hell are you, daring to impersonate my Grandpa?

So, I tightened my grip.

I don't know where I got this strange strength from, but as I wrestled with the figure, its strength began to wane, until finally, I managed to pin its neck in my grasp.

At that moment, utilizing the last bit of available light, I saw the figure’s face.

My liver and guts nearly split from terror; I almost died of fright.

This person’s face looked like a bundle of straw—no nose, no eyes—yet it managed to let out ragged, panting sounds.

I forced myself to hold my breath and look closely, only to realize: this was a straw man, the kind that moved, the very same kind we encountered in the underground cave!

Judging by its attire and voice, it seemed to be mimicking my Grandpa entirely.

It hit me then: what I had brought back from the cave was never Grandpa, but this straw man in disguise!

But if Grandpa had always been a straw man, there was no reason I shouldn't have noticed.

So, I had my cousin fetch some rope to secure this fake Grandpa first, and then we returned to Grandpa’s room to continue searching.

Next, on Grandpa’s desk, we found a celadon box. Opening the lid revealed it was filled entirely with a brown powder.

Upon smelling it, I recognized it immediately as the powder from the Ming moth. I would never forget that pungent odor.

I quickly snapped the box shut, harboring a terrible suspicion.

I secretly thought: Could it be that the powder from this Ming moth really has the power to induce hallucinations... Was everything we experienced beneath the Lop Nur desert just an illusion?

Thinking this, I searched every corner of the room, but found nothing else. The girl in white was nowhere to be seen.

I was certain that the cousin's voice from earlier had come from that white-clad girl because, besides her, no one else could control these straw men. But she had clearly slipped away just as fast, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

This phantom-like person left me feeling deeply uneasy.

Turning, I saw my cousin still crying. I immediately picked her up, patted her back, and said, "It's alright. I promise I will find Grandpa. Lanlan, you go back to your room first."

The reason I told her to go back to her room was that this straw man was simply too terrifying for a child. Lanlan was so young; keeping her here would surely traumatize her.

I watched Lanlan climb the stairs before turning my attention back to the fake Grandpa.

"You two unfilial children, let me go quickly! This is treason, true treason!" the thing kept shouting.

My heart filled with rage. I strode over, grabbed the straw man by the collar, and demanded, "You’re not even an animal, so who the hell are you pretending to be here? Speak up! When did you start deceiving us? What happened to my Grandpa?"

I naively assumed this thing possessed human intelligence, but it only repeated: "Let me go quickly, you unfilial son guilty of high treason! I am your grandfather!"

It kept repeating this phrase, twisting its body stiffly, like a moving tape recorder.

I finally understood: it had no intellect. The words it spoke before were all pre-programmed by whoever created it. It was nothing more than a machine. The more I looked at its face, the more bizarre it seemed.

To keep myself from having a mental breakdown, I pulled away the branches and weeds on its chest and yanked out the bronze disc located where the heart should be.

As expected, the thing twisted a few more times and then became still.

Looking at the bronze disc in my hand, I grew more convinced that all of this was indeed a conspiracy, a massive, meticulously planned plot.

The goal was to trick me into dripping a single drop of blood onto that Kunlun embryo. Once that drop of blood was obtained, all the mechanisms would activate—not conclude.

Frustration, anger, anxiety—a flood of complex emotions washed over me. I began to suspect everyone, including *, Da Xiong, and the others, had played a part in a performance directed at me.

But this play was too real; I couldn't even be sure if I was still inside the performance now.

I returned to my room and washed my face with cold water. Looking at myself in the mirror, everything suddenly felt too false.

To verify the reality of the space I inhabited, I used a small knife to cut my hand.

But the authentic feeling of pain, the sensation of warm blood flowing into my palm—everything was so undeniably real.

"What is going on? What should I do?" I felt lost and uncertain.

Just then, my phone rang.

I looked at the number displayed on the screen: it was *.

After hesitating a moment, I decided to answer.

The voice on the other end sounded a little excited. * said, "Hello, Xiao Chuan. I have a new theory that might explain this phenomenon of time reversing."

I asked curiously, "What theory?"

replied, "After a complex process of organization, I discovered that this isn't time jumping, but time absence."

"Time absence? What does that mean?" I asked, confused.

continued, "It means something is stealing time."

"Explaining this is rather complicated. If we use the most appropriate analogy, it's like stealing electricity."

"Some people set up auxiliary lines to siphon power from a main cable. Although electricity is lost, it causes no noticeable impact on the original user at the time."

"In other words, even though the power is taken and energy is expended, the person who was supposed to use it doesn't notice until they get the bill, only then realizing they used much more electricity."

"If time is analogous to a massive form of energy, then stealing time is far more terrifying than stealing electricity."

"Because with stolen time, there is no bill to pay. The people normally using time find their allotted time becoming shorter—meaning everyone's lifespan is reduced, as they expend more energy while accomplishing less."

"The reason we experienced those previous phenomena of time reversal and stagnation is because the time thief couldn't control their greed. They intended to steal time secretly but got too greedy, pulling off an extra segment. To compensate for the stolen excess, they must use already elapsed time to fill the gap, causing time overlap and brief reversals."

The content he spoke was quite abstract, but through that example, I grasped his theory. Thinking it over, the theory was indeed remarkably sound.

This implied a definitive consequence for this phenomenon: everyone in the world would die faster, their lifespans unknowingly shortened.

But why hadn't this phenomenon affected us?

Did we do something special in the cave?

I asked * why this phenomenon spared us.

fell silent for a moment before saying, "I suspect this phenomenon originates with us. Because I found that I can manipulate this absence, like a superpower."

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