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

Zhang Heng held onto the door and paddled in the opposite direction of the tsunami.

He saw many tragedies along the way, including floating bodies, mothers who lost their children, and children who lost their mothers. They were all sitting on whatever high place they could find, and they seemed to have lost their souls. There were also people holding the corpses of their loved ones, sobbing uncontrollably. No help seemed to be available to them right now, and the more resourceful survivors were looking for food and drinking water floating around them.

Zhang Heng remained unmoved by the sight and continued to paddle toward the target location. After all, this was just a dream, and nothing would change even if he decided to help them.

Han Lu's Childhood