Evenings.
Dong Xuebing carried the English-Chinese dictionary back to his apartment in the Bureau Family Quarters. He quickly prepares a simple dinner and starts experimenting with his new power.
MENU!
A clock and a few numbers appeared.
MENU!
The clock and numbers disappeared.
After trying a few times, Dong Xuebing thinks he knew what the numbers meant, and decided to try it out. He called out the MENU first, followed back ‘BACK one second.” The MENU flashed and Dong Xuebing can confirmed time had returned to one second ago. He looks at the numbers above the clock and found the last number had changed!
The last digit had changed from 4 to 3!
Dong Xuebing immediately knows the numbers represent his remaining BACK’s time!
That means Dong Xuebing’s remaining time is… 3 minutes and 43 seconds. It’s almost about the same as Dong Xuebing’s rough estimation.
Dong Xuebing laughed. This MENU will help him greatly. He had used BACK several times by seconds, and it is hard to keep track of his remaining time. He couldn’t record the number of seconds on paper as most of the time, when he uses his powers are in an emergency. With MENU, it will be more convenient.
This power is good.
No. I must confirm this again to make sure I am right.
Dong Xuebing waited until 12 midnight. When the seconds hand on the clock passes at 12 am, he immediately called out MENU and saw the numbers had changed. 3 minutes and 43 seconds had become 4 minutes and 43 seconds. At 12 midnight every day, Dong Xuebing will get one minute of power, and the numbers represent the remaining time! After confirming this, Dong Xuebing starts to think if other commands are not discovered by him. What other commands are there other than BACK and MENU?
Turning back, the time has always been Dong Xuebing’s trump card. Since Dong Xuebing knows that he might still have other powers, he will not miss the opportunity.
But how is Dong Xuebing going to discover other commands?
Dong Xuebing comes up with the dumbest solution. Reading all the words in the dictionary one by one!
I don’t believe I cannot discover other commands after reading the whole dictionary!
Dong Xuebing got more excited despite it is midnight. He did not intend to sleep and start reading the dictionary loudly. About an hour later, Dong Xuebing felt his eyes watering and is getting giddy. This stupid method is not going to work. There are a few hundred thousand words in the dictionary, and he doesn’t know how to pronounce many of the words inside.
No. If I continue to read the dictionary like this, it will take more than two months.
What should I do? Is there a simpler solution?
After a while, Dong Xuebing comes up with another idea. Since it’s the command to activate his power, then he can ignore those profound words. All he needs to do is to find the words that sound like commands.
That’s right. Let’s do this!
“ON.”
“OFF.”
“LEFT.”
Dong Xuebing finally cannot take it at around 4 am and fell asleep.
Morning. The alarm rang, and Dong Xuebing got off his bed to wash up. After washing up, he immediately picks up his dictionary to continue.
As Dong Xuebing read the words, he swore he will never revise English again in his life. After reading the words from the dictionary last night, he got sick and tired of English words. But he had no choice now and needs to find out other commands for his future.
As Dong Xuebing was busy reading the dictionary, his phone rang.
Ring… ring… it was Hu Silian calling.
Dong Xuebing put aside the dictionary and answered. “Hello, Sister Hu.”
Hu Silian laughed. “Mayor Xie asked me to inform you to drop by her office today when you are free.”
“Ok. Thanks for informing.”
“Oh, after you take over the Investment Promotion Agency, you can bring one person with you. This person can be put under the Investment Promotion Agency Office’s headcount, as the Deputy Chief. Still, he will be your secretary to assist you. I think Mayor Xie is asking you to bring someone with you, after all, the Investment Promotion Agency is formerly Party Secretary Xiang’s…… understand? But it’s fine if you don’t have anyone in mind. I can help you get someone suitable from the County Government.”
I can also get a secretary?!
Dong Xuebing had never considered this before. “Err… Sister Hu, I have not decided about the secretary. Still, I wish to transfer a former subordinate to our Investment Promotion Agency. Do you think it is possible? His name is Guo Panwei, and he is currently working with Beijing State Security.”
“It’s quite far from us. Are you familiar with the leaders there?”
“Yes. If we can accept him, I will call the State Security to get them to release him.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem. I… I will inform Mayor Xie for you.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Haha… don’t mention it.”
Hu Silian is not at work and is more comfortable speaking to Dong Xuebing at home. It’s been a while since they met, and she is curious about what Dong Xuebing did in Korea. She laughed and asked. “Chief Dong, did you just wake up? Your voice sounds hoarse. Did you catch a cold?”
Dong Xuebing sighed. “I am practicing English.”
“Ah?”
“I had been reading English words the whole day, and it is giving me a headache.”
“Haha…”
Dong Xuebing flipped, opened his dictionary, and grumbled. “Why are there so many English words in the dictionary? I spent the whole night reading, and I didn’t even finish one quarter.” Dong Xuebing said and points at some random words. “Song, Sorry, Stop… I think I still need a few days more before I can finish it.”
… suddenly, the surrounding air froze, and Dong Xuebing can feel the air pressure increasing several times!
Dong Xuebing frowned. “Sister Hu? Sister Hu? Did the line cut off?” No one answered him.
Dong Xuebing did not realize what happened, but one second later, he noticed something is wrong. The phone in his hand seems to have frozen in mid-air, and he couldn’t move it. He was shocked and stood up immediately.
Everything around Dong Xuebing made him speechless!
The English-Chinese dictionary and Dong Xuebing’s iPhone is floating in mid-air. The clock on the wall had stopped, and even the gas stove’s flames under the kettle stopped moving. It’s like a photograph where everything is fixed in its position.
How is this possible?!
Damn! What is going on?!
Dong Xuebing started to panic and ran to the window to look downstairs.
Around seven or eight sparrows sitting on a telephone pole, had their wings spread and looks like they were about to take off. Qin Yong, who was on his way to work, had his left leg raised, and had a smile on his face. A young man, riding a motorcycle, had stopped beside Qin Yong, and the pedestrians and traffic on the streets were frozen in place. Everything in the world had stopped!
The only person that can move about is Dong Xuebing!
“God!” Dong Xuebing was stunned and was trying to make sense of what is going on. It is dead silent, and Dong Xuebing can hear his own heartbeats. The whole world seems to be frozen like a picture, except for Dong Xuebing!
Dong Xuebing’s face turns pale, and realized it might have something to do with his powers. He immediately shouts, “MENU!”
4 minutes 11 seconds!
Dong Xuebing remembered cleared he had 4 minutes and 43 seconds last night, and his time decreased!
4 minutes 10 seconds… 4 minutes 9 seconds… 4 minutes 8 seconds… Dong Xuebing looked at his remaining time and knew he had stopped time. The time stop will use up his remaining time, and every second he stopped the time, his remaining time will decrease. This is the only explanation!
WTF!!
But… how does Dong Xuebing resume the time?
Dong Xuebing suddenly remembers something. When he was speaking to Hu Silian over the phone, he had said some English words. That’s right. But what did he said? After looking at the strange phenomenon around him, he had forgotten what he said earlier. He quickly walks over to grab the diction, but he cannot move it!
It is the same for Dong Xuebing’s phone! He could not lift it up!
Maybe, everything in the world is fixed in place now!
Dong Xuebing refused to accept it. He used more strength to grab the dictionary and managed to pull it closer to him. The dictionary is very heavy and felt like a dumbbell. He lets go of the dictionary, and the dictionary remains in mid-air without dropping onto the floor. This is like Harry Potter’s spell book floating in the air.
Dong Xuebing had not time to be amazed and quickly looks at the words in the dictionary.
Yes! Dong Xuebing remembers what he had read!
It’s STOP! He had said STOP earlier, and it is the command!
Dong Xuebing took a deep breath and shouted. “STOP!”
…… the air pressure returns to normal!
Pa… pa… the dictionary and phone fell to the ground, and the kettle in the kitchen is boiling. The clock on the wall started moving again, and Dong Xuebing saw Qin Yong continued with his way out of the quarters. The sparrows also flew off from the telephone pole!
Time had resumed!
STOP is the command to stop time!
“Hello? Chief Dong? Chief Dong?” Hu Silian said over the phone.
Dong Xuebing quickly picks up the phone. “Hello, Sister Hu? It’s me.”
“What happened? Is the signal bad? Hahaha…” Hu Silian continued, where they stopped. “I should also learn from you. I had not to use English for some years, and I should start revising.”
Dong Xuebing looked around him and asked. “Err… did anything happen earlier?”
“Earlier? What happened?”
Hu Silian did not notice anything strange, and that means only Dong Xuebing knows about this. “Huh? Nothing… the line seems to have lost connection for a second.”
“Alright. It’s time for me to go to work. Bye.”
After hanging up, Dong Xuebing sat on the sofa covered in sweat. He was still shocked by what happened.
Is this also my power?
BACK will return to the past, and STOP will stop time?
Dong Xuebing lit a cigarette. He is both surprised and happy at the same time as it is a good thing to have one more trump card. After calming himself, he quickly accepted the fact that he has a new power. He can accept that he can turn back time, and stopping time is not surprising to him. Dong Xuebing had only discovered BACK in the past and thought turning back time is his power. But now, he realized his power should be controlling time.
Time control?!
Dong Xuebing immediately got excited.
After what happened earlier, both BACK and STOP will use the same remaining time Dong Xuebing accumulated from the one minute he gets every day. Also, STOP is not like BACK, where each command is one minute. STOP is like MENU, and saying the command once will trigger it, and saying it again will stop it.
Dong Xuebing experiments with STOP a few more times.
STOP… STOP… in the end, Dong Xuebing thought of one possibility. Something in him might have changed when he was dead in the accident, and he got an extra minute compared to other people in this world. During that accident, from the time he was dead to his revival, it was about one minute. Could it be that the minute is not counted in the world, and that’s why he has an extra 60 seconds every day?! But this extra one minute cannot be used in the world, and that’s why he can accumulate it. He can turn back time, or stop the time, is because of his extra time?!
This is the most logical reason Dong Xuebing can think of.
