Chapter 21 No One Can Understand

How long could my present self exist? That was the first thought that came to mind every time I regained my self-awareness.

My original self was continuous, with every minute connected to the next in a continuous line that was never broken.

But now, that wasn’t the case. I had been cut into individual selves that were isolated in different times. Their consciousness was interrupted and their memories weren’t connected at all. It was only my inner self which didn’t trust itself—that self that was still scared and sensitive no matter how tough it was—that discovered this detail.

I found out every time and immediately started executing plans each time, leaving traces and marks for the next me to find so that I could figure out a way to escape next time.

It was at this moment that I realized that if it weren’t for the restful life I’d been living in Fujian, which made my heart sensitive and weak, it would have been impossible for me to jump out of my consciousness and discover the clues.

In addition, if it weren’t for my ten-year-long lethal decisiveness, it would have been absolutely impossible for me to immediately leave traces and marks for myself and treat myself as cold-blooded as a rock.

Countless past versions of myself, including the self I disliked and the self I despised, all appeared at the same time in countless moments and began to help me.

So, I figured it didn’t matter how long my present self could exist.

I would continue to leave clues for the next me. Every time I regained my sense of self, I needed to take myself one step closer to escape.

I looked at the watch. It had displayed 36:83 the first time and 19:67 the second time.

The moment I was currently in must be real, so I was now facing the number 19:67. The time in my memory was all messed up, but when I was conscious, it should be right.

The numbers I saw now were much lower than the previous ones.

Was it a countdown?

I looked at the watch again and quickly realized that it wasn’t a countdown, but the remaining hours left on the battery for the light function and the remaining days for the timer function.

For example, 36 meant that this watch could illuminate for 36 hours when the light was fully turned on.

The 83 on the end meant that the watch’s timer function could last for 83 days if the light wasn’t turned on.

When I put on Xiao Hua’s watch, it was still counting down. Then it had suddenly changed and become what it was now.

This showed that there was a version of myself who had adjusted the watch’s display the moment I woke up.

This was for accurate timing, so that I could understand my own timeline.

If the time displayed on the watch every time I woke up was a normal time, it would be difficult to tell how much time had really passed. For example, if I woke up this time and saw that it was showing a time after three o’clock, but when I looked again after a while and saw that it was showing a time after four o’clock, I would think that only an hour had passed. It would be hard to imagine that a whole month had actually passed.

If I didn’t realize that I was under the effects of the heavenly gift for a whole month, I wouldn’t be able to cope with anything in front of me.

Because I would find that in this hour, not only had the world around me undergone earth-shaking changes as if by magic, but my body had also undergone earth-shaking changes.

But I would only think that I was hallucinating; I wouldn’t know that a whole month had passed.

The first crucial piece of information in fighting against the heavenly gift was time.

So, I had no other choice but to use the watch’s display function.

But now I at least knew that it had been at least sixteen days since I last looked at the watch. Although there would be some errors, they wouldn’t be too big.

No wonder my whole body hurt so much. I must have gone through countless things during these sixteen days, but I didn’t know anything.

And looking at my hands again, I must have gone through some horrendous excavation during this period.

I was really trapped in a crevice before, but now I was out and in another space, although it still seemed to be underground.

Sixteen days.

Not only had I completely missed Fatty and the others, but I didn’t know what had happened to Poker-Face, Xiao Hua, or Black Glasses.

The flashlight still worked, which meant that I must have recharged it by hand. I also didn’t know what I had been eating. There was no taste in my mouth, but I hadn’t lost too much weight.

I looked at the corpse dust in front of me and then at my other hand, which was still gripping the sutra tightly.

I turned my head to observe my surroundings and found that there were very narrow openings on both sides of this crevice. I must have crawled through one of them, grabbed the corpse’s hand here, and then woke up.

You can wake up by grabbing their hands.

I immediately moved forward to look at the corpse dust, but it was only after poking around for a while that I understood that this ancient corpse contained bronze. That was why I was able to escape the heavenly gift’s influence the moment I touched it.

I immediately stuffed the corpse dust into my pockets until they were full and then continued looking around. Although this was a new environment, I could see that there were a bunch of primitive murals on the rock wall of this crevice again.

At the same time, I also saw one of Poker-Face’s marks on a rock off to the side.

Was I still tracking him even in this situation?

He and Xiao Hua had clearly been here before. I touched the mark and thought to myself, I’ll be safe as long as I catch up with them. They’re carrying bronze on them.

In any case, I must have left some kind of message for myself. I unbuttoned my shirt to see if I had carved any words on my body and found that, sure enough, I had used my fingernail to scratch a few words on the left side of my chest: You’re here to look for water. You have to go back and save the shepherd. He was injured and needs water. He saved you.

Ok, I said to myself, take a moment to think about the possibilities.

There were many other words carved on the side that had almost disappeared, but they were all crossed out with scratches, which seemed to indicate that these records had all been invalidated. Only this one hadn’t been crossed out, which meant that it was an ongoing matter.

I had apparently been saved by a herdsman, but he was injured and needed water. When I came out looking for water, I received the heavenly gift and left a message for myself.

I felt behind me and found that I was carrying a sheepskin water bag with water in it. It seemed that I had already found the water.

In that case, I still had to save that person first. But there were openings on both sides, so which way should I go?

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