The green-headed fly, which had been hovering three centimeters in front of his mouth, was flung away at the speed of sound, vanishing into the farthest reaches of the sky.

The stars in the sky faded, suddenly brightened, then quickly darkened again, and then lit up once more.

The speed was so fast that the shifting shadows of time, flying by like shuttles, cast flickering light and darkness across Eric Bennett’s body.

Everything around the neighborhood was changing rapidly. Eric Bennett watched in disbelief as the newly built seven-story building beside him quickly disassembled—from a finished structure to a shocking skeleton, then disappeared, followed by a sunken foundation, which, once filled, turned into an empty lot, and then “grew” countless old tile-roofed houses with mottled walls.

The grocery store remained, its wooden and concrete structure gradually transforming from its original worn-out appearance to something bright and new, looking fresher and fresher.

The previously empty sky above was gradually replaced by a dense, intricate web of antennas. Concrete utility poles began to sprout along the roadside, the streets narrowed, and the trees vanished.

Eventually, Eric Bennett simply adapted to the world collapsing and transforming around him. What truly made his skin crawl was that, from beginning to end, he didn’t see a single person!

Not a single human figure! The world changed in utter silence, like a pantomime. Panic and fear slowly crept into the heart of the motionless, statue-like Eric Bennett.

Then the passage of daylight gradually slowed, slower and slower, until it was as slow as that moment he had first frozen in time, until it slowed to a complete stop once again.

By now, the surrounding neighborhood had already been utterly transformed, as if it had regressed to the scene from more than a decade ago.

Time froze again for a full ten seconds.

Back to normal!

“Cough! Cough!” Having not breathed for what felt like ages due to psychological effects, Eric Bennett immediately coughed, taking deep breaths, his gasps and coughs ringing in his ears.

There was sound! Finally, there was sound—my God! I’m finally back in the normal world!

Then, the noise of the bustling surroundings flooded his ears. Eric Bennett blinked, and after seeing his surroundings clearly, realized he was in the midst of a crowded throng—specifically, a crowd of students.

Boys and girls, some with backpacks, some pushing carts, brushed past him. Ahead, there were even more students. He was in a passageway for students leaving school, with people constantly jostling past him. The suddenly stationary Eric Bennett felt as out of place as a rock in a rushing stream.

Golden sunlight poured in from the side, spilling across the ground, a stark contrast to the previous dim dusk. There were countless small grocery stores and convenience stands nearby, all seemingly doing good business.

There were no post-90s non-mainstream outlandish outfits yet. Instead, a few girls who looked like the “bad girls” from his own school days stood in groups by the stalls, next to a steaming fried potato stand.

Eric Bennett instinctively checked his watch, but was startled—was this his hand? Why did it look so much thinner!

And his shirt and suit were gone, replaced by bare arms and a thin, well-worn white T-shirt. Below, he wore equally faded jeans, and on his feet, a pair of Double Star brand sneakers, a bit worn. Two tightly pulled straps on his shoulders supported the weight on his back.

In the crowd, Eric Bennett twisted his arm behind his back in a strange posture, reaching and turning his head as if trying to see a flea on his back. But what he saw was… a backpack.

On the backpack, in bold, righteous letters, was printed—“addis”!

My God! The antique student backpack I’d long since left behind was actually hanging on my back again, and it’s such a blatant knockoff!

The first thing Eric Bennett wanted to do was figure out what had happened to him, and he thought the wisest move was to find a mirror. Finally, standing in front of a half-broken mirror at the grocery store, Eric Bennett saw his full reflection.

His face, more than ten years younger, still had a hint of youthfulness. His hair, unlike the short, neat cut he wore for work, was now soft, slightly messy, and fell in a fluffy, medium-short style over his forehead. Below, the T-shirt outlined a slightly thin frame, with jeans and sneakers—a typical student outfit. He was nearly ten centimeters shorter than his previous height of 1.74 meters.

After standing there in a daze for half a minute, Eric Bennett finally asked the most melodramatic question of his life: “Boss, excuse me… what year, month, and day is it today? What time is it?”

A girl with beautiful eyes in front of him blinked. She had been leaning on her hand, staring blankly at the stream of students outside the grocery store, but was amused by Eric Bennett’s question. She turned her head and called inside, “Mom, there’s a student here asking me what year, month, and day it is!”

An older middle-aged woman came out from the shop, wiping her freshly washed hands with a cloth, and chuckled, “Whose kid has studied himself silly, doesn’t even know what year it is—must have come back to life!”

Eric Bennett thought to himself, You’re actually right, my current situation is pretty much coming back to life.