Deep Sea Embers

The boundless thick fog rolled outside the window, and it was so thick that it seemed as if the whole world had disappeared on the other side of the fog. Only the chaotic skylight penetrated the fog and shone into the room, making the quiet room maintain a kind of half-darkness. bright light.

In the slightly messy bachelor's apartment, Zhou Ming was sitting at his desk. The sundries on the desk were roughly pushed aside, and he, who looked haggard, was writing furiously:

"On the seventh day, the situation did not change. Thick fog enveloped everything outside the window, and the windows were blocked by unknown forces... The whole room seemed to be 'cast' by something into some kind of abnormal space...

"There was no way to communicate with the outside world, and there was no water or electricity, but the lights were always on and the computer could be turned on - even though I had unplugged its power cord..."

It seemed as if a slight wind sound suddenly came from the direction of the window. Zhou Ming, who was immersed in writing in his diary, suddenly raised his head, his haggard eyes lit up slightly, but the next second he realized that it was only his own. Hallucination, there was still only the lingering pale thick fog outside the window, and a dead world indifferently enveloped his small dwelling.

His eyes swept across the window sill and saw the wrenches and hammers that had been carelessly discarded—these were traces of his attempts to leave the room in the past few days. However, now these hard and rough tools were just lying there quietly, as if mocking his predicament.

After a few seconds, Zhou Ming's expression became calm again - with this unusual calmness, he lowered his head again and returned to his writing:

"I am trapped, completely clueless. In the past few days, I even tried to remove the roof, walls and floors, but I tried my best and failed to leave a trace on the wall. This The room becomes like... like a box 'cast' with the space, with no way out...

"Except for that door.

"But what's going on outside that door...is even worse."

Zhou Ming stopped again. He slowly looked at the handwriting he had just left, and flipped through the diary carelessly, looking at what he had left in the past few days - suppressed words, meaningless thoughts. , irritable graffiti, and cold jokes written when forced to relax.

He didn't know what the meaning of writing this was, and he didn't know who these nonsense would be shown to in the future. In fact, he wasn't even a person who was used to keeping a diary - as a middle school teacher with limited leisure time, he But not much energy is spent on this.

But now, whether he likes it or not, he has a lot of free time.

After waking up, he was trapped in his room.

Outside the window is a thick fog that will not dissipate. The fog is so thick that you can't even see anything except the fog. The whole world seems to have lost the alternation of day and night. The constant, dim light fills the room twenty-four hours a day. The windows are locked. He died, the water and electricity were cut off, and his cell phone had no signal. No matter how much noise he made in the room, he would not be able to attract outside rescue.

Like a ridiculous nightmare, everything in the dream is running against the laws of nature, but Zhou Ming has exhausted all methods to determine one thing: there are no hallucinations or dreams here, there is just a world that is no longer normal. , and a relatively normal self for the time being.

He took a deep breath, and his eyes finally fell on the only door at the end of the room.

It was an ordinary cheap white wooden door, with a calendar nailed on it that I had forgotten to replace last year and kept until today. The door handle was polished and the door mat was a little crooked.

That door can be opened.

If this closed and alienated room is like a cage, then the most vicious thing about this cage is that it actually retains a door that can be pushed open at any time, luring the prisoners in the cage to push the door and leave at all times—— But the "outside" opposite the gate was not the "outside" Zhou Ming wanted.

There are no old but friendly corridors, no sunny streets and vibrant crowds, and nothing familiar to me.

There is only a strange and unsettling foreign land, and "over there" is also an inescapable dilemma.

But Zhou Ming knew that there was not much time left for him to hesitate, and the so-called "choice" did not exist from the beginning.

His food reserves are limited, and only the last quarter of several barrels of mineral water are left. He has tried all means of escaping and seeking help in this closed room, and now there is only one way in front of him. That is to be prepared and go to the other side of the "door" to find a chance of survival.

Perhaps, there will be a chance to investigate and find out what caused this strange and embarrassing supernatural situation.

Zhou Ming took a gentle breath, lowered his head and wrote the last few paragraphs in his diary: "...But no matter what, the only choice now is to go to the other side of the door. At least there is still room on that weird ship. I found some food, and the exploration and preparations I made there in the past few days should be enough to survive on that ship... although the preparations I can make there are actually limited.

“Finally, to those who come after me, if I fail to come back, and one day in the future someone like a rescue worker opens this room and sees this diary, please do not write down what I wrote. All of this is regarded as a ridiculous story - it really happened. Although it is creepy, there is really a man named Zhou Ming who is trapped in a crazy and strange space-time phenomenon.

"I have tried my best to describe the various anomalies I have seen in this diary, and also recorded all the efforts I have made to get out of trouble. If there are really any 'latecomers', please at least Remember my name, at least remember this happened."

Zhou Ming closed the diary, threw the pen into the pen holder next to him, and slowly stood up from behind the desk.

It's time to leave, before falling completely into passivity and despair.

But after a brief thought, he did not go directly to the only door that could lead to the "outside world", but went straight to his bed.

He must face the "foreign land" on the other side of the door with a sound attitude - and his current state, especially his mental state, is not good enough.

Zhou Ming didn't know if he could fall asleep, but even if he forced himself to lie on the bed and empty his mind, it would be better than going to the "other side" when he was too exhausted.

Eight hours later, Zhou Ming opened his eyes.

There was still a haze of chaos outside the window, and the unclear skylight of day and night brought an oppressive gloom.

Zhou Ming simply ignored the situation outside the window. He took out the food from the few remaining reserves and ate until he was eighty percent full. Then he came to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room.

The man in the mirror still had messy hair, looked quite embarrassed, and had no temperament at all, but Zhou Ming still stared at himself in the mirror, as if to imprint this appearance in his mind forever.

He stared at the mirror like this for several minutes, then whispered to himself, as if he was speaking to the person in the mirror: "Your name is Zhou Ming, at least 'here', your name is Zhou Ming , always keep this in mind.”

After that, he turned around and left.

Arriving at the all-too-familiar door, Zhou Ming took a deep breath and put his hand on the handle.

Except for a suit of clothes, he didn't bring anything extra, neither food nor self-defense equipment. This was the experience left over from the previous "explorations" - he couldn't bring anything except himself. Go through this door.

In fact, he even felt that even this "self" was a question mark, because...

Zhou Ming turned the handle and pushed open the door. A cloud of gray-black mist that expanded and contracted like a kind of curtain appeared in front of him. In the erratic mist, he seemed to have heard the sound of waves coming in. ear.

Stepping through the layer of fog, the slightly salty sea breeze came face to face. The illusory sound of the waves in his ears became real, and there was a slight shaking sensation under his feet. After a brief dizziness, Zhou Ming opened his eyes and saw There is a wide and empty wooden deck, a tall mast standing under the dark clouds, and the slightly undulating sea with no edge visible outside the ship's side.

Zhou Ming lowered his head and saw a body that was stronger than he remembered, a captain's uniform that looked exquisitely made and expensive but with a completely unfamiliar style, a pair of palms with thick joints, and the hand in his hand, A black flintlock pistol with a classic and exquisite appearance.

Yes, even "self" has to be put in question.

(Oh my god! I'm back!)