Chapter 606 - 2: Mental Illness
The gatekeeper saw President Liu chatting with the factory’s engineer, and feeling it was no longer his place to speak, he pinched the cigarette between his lips, tilted his head, and waited for Chen Zhou to respond to President Liu.
Unexpectedly, Chen Zhou, limping as he walked over, listened to President Liu’s words but stood still for a long time without speaking.
"Xiao Chen?"
The awkward silence lasted about five or six seconds before President Liu, left alone in the car, couldn’t help but speak up to remind him.
"Oh, it’s nothing..."
Chen Zhou wanted to call out to President Liu like before, but the words got stuck in his throat, so he could only mutter in a low voice, and then he lowered his head and continued walking forward.
President Liu did not stop him when he saw this, but his expression became increasingly uneasy.
"Young people these days seem quite disciplined during work hours, but as soon as they get off work, they become lax.
That’s why I always say young people don’t have the spirit and drive like the older generation does. Look at him, he can’t even walk properly.
I’m not criticizing him, but how could he carry himself like this?
Although our factory is not the military, personal demeanor should still be upright, honestly, the internal management of our factory is still too lax..."
Chen Zhou hadn’t walked far when President Liu took a puff of his cigarette and deliberately raised his voice to continue speaking with the gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper glanced at Chen Zhou’s back, thinking, you’re not afraid of offending people, but am I really earning so little a month to make enemies with someone? So in reply, he lowered his voice, nodded repeatedly, and agreed in quick succession.
As the two spoke, Chen Zhou had already walked over thirty meters away.
It was late, and there were no vehicles passing by the secluded cement factory, only the occasional light breeze muffling the voices.
In such an open outdoor environment, it’s difficult for a normal person to hear voices from such a distance clearly.
However, when Chen Zhou subconsciously focused his attention on capturing the voices of President Liu and the gatekeeper, he could hear every word they said clearly.
If he concentrated even more, he could even hear the heartbeats of the two, the sticky sound of saliva in their mouths as they spoke.
Besides that, he could hear the roar of car engines, the sound of leaves on roadside trees rustling in the wind, even footsteps from pedestrians further away, music from someone’s Bluetooth earphones, and the rustling of a wild cat passing through a green belt...
All the sounds from the whole area that he had never heard before flooded into Chen Zhou’s ears.
In an instant, it felt as if a bomb had exploded inside his brain, causing him to feel dizzy, and his body, which had been standing steadily on the roadside, started to sway.
Luckily, there was a poplar tree right next to him, and as he swayed, he leaned against its sturdy trunk, forcing himself not to focus on the sounds, finally interrupting that terrifying torrent of information.
After about ten seconds, his brain returned to normal, free from the interference of various sounds.
"What’s happening to me?"
He touched his ears, recalling the recent experience, feeling a lingering fear.
Opening his hands in front of him, he looked at this young and familiar body in disbelief, feeling that the changes after returning to modern society were far more than just "aftereffects of time travel."
When practicing walking in the dormitory, he realized that this body of his seemed to be much tougher than a normal person’s. No matter how many times he fell, he wouldn’t break his skin, nor would bruises appear.
The recent anomaly further showed that he was already different from ordinary people in some aspects. If it weren’t for his ongoing adjustment to the body and sorting out memories, he might discover even more abnormal traits.
"What exactly did the Space-Time Administration Bureau do to me?"
Rubbing his face to clear his mind, Chen Zhou searched for a taxi on the street while pondering the unusual aspects before and after participating in the challenge —
The thing puzzling him the most was whether the Space-Time Administration Bureau transferred his consciousness into another world’s "clone Chen Zhou" or brought his entire being to another world.
If it was only his consciousness transferred, why was adjusting his body so difficult after returning?
If they brought his entire person to another world, does this world’s body not belong to him originally, and is the shell in the other world destroyed...
Thinking about it now, the Space-Time Administration Bureau’s clause in their terms — "All explanation rights of this challenge belong to the organizers" — really wasn’t written for nothing.
He endured many hardships going back and forth, while the Space-Time Administration Bureau saved itself trouble, dumped him back, and disappeared, with no so-called "after-sales service" at all.
Sighing ruefully, realizing his body hasn’t fully recovered, Chen Zhou had to restrain the impulse to use his super hearing to invade others’ privacy and continued to flag down a taxi —
His stomach was growling with hunger, and if he didn’t eat something soon, he feared he wouldn’t be able to walk anymore.
...
Taxis rarely pass by the cement factory area, so Chen Zhou walked slowly while searching the road for the light green color of a cab.
Perhaps it was because it was late, or due to bad luck, he walked to the end of the long street without successfully hailing a cab.
Furrowed brows gazed into the distance, he suddenly remembered he might use his phone to call a cab.
Thus, Chen Zhou hurriedly pulled out his phone from his pocket and swiped his finger over the lit screen.
He had been sent many valuable items during his 28 years on the island, but among them, very few were related to electronics, and there were no portable electronic devices like mobile phones at all. His graphics card had been on the island for 28 years without getting a compatible computer motherboard.
As a result, after returning to the modern world, Chen Zhou was truly a bit unaccustomed to the presence of mobile phones.