Xiao Daidzhao

Growing up with eccentric materialistic parents who left him in the care of his grandfather for a job overseas, Zhang Heng had learned to adapt and be unfettered by the oddities and challenges in life. But he would soon learn the baffling truth about the world he thought he knew when one day at midnight time froze and he found himself in a world so quiet and still it was deafening. That night, he discovered that he had 24 hours more than everybody else and thus, marked the beginning of his adventures. The mysteries surrounding his newfound ability only deepened when a strange old man claimed to have given Zhang Heng that ‘gift of time’ and recruited the young man to participate in a cryptic ‘life-changing’ game on his behalf. Little did Zhang Heng know that accepting those terms meant embroiling himself in many versions of reality and exposing himself to the hidden secrets of the world—a decision he could never undo.

48 Hours a Day

The elevator continued to rise on Launch Umbilical Tower, and the three astronauts got further and further away from the ground. Zhang Heng raised his head and looked toward the distant sky, where the crimson sun rose over the coastline. Light and dark perfectly intertwined at this moment, as if captured in time and frozen on film.

"I hope we'll get to enjoy such a beautiful sight again," Collins whispered from the side.

Although the astonishing height of Saturn V gave an illusion that the elevator would never reach the top, it eventually stopped in front of the bridge. The NASA technician opened the elevator door for them and nodded. At the same time, engineers had also completed the final inspections before the launch. The three of them walked across the bridge linking rocket and tower and ingressed into the narrow command module.

To Space