He stepped onto the staircase,and the mist began to swirl around him—fading as the world shifted.
Time reset.
It was May 21st, 2024.
Yu Yung-an opened his eyes and found himself standing in a familiar yet unfamiliar office.The air was thick with the scent of paper and coffee.Fluorescent lights glared overhead, casting sharp shadows on the desk cluttered with documents.
The papers were arranged neatly, but the air around them felt charged—a quiet undercurrent of unease.His gaze fell on the header of the topmost file:
"Linzi Precinct, Prevention Division – Zhang Zhi-an"
——This was Zhang Zhi-an's desk.
"Why am I…"
Yu Yung-an murmured softly, but the memory had already taken over.His consciousness was merely a passenger now,carried along by the flow of time.His eyes drifted toward the wall clock—
17:40.
Time was still caught in that Tuesday evening.
A knock echoed from the door.A familiar voice followed—
"Zhi-an, didn't you say you'd hand over the guest list?Why isn't it done yet?"
It was his supervisor's voice,calm, but edged with impatience.
Yu Yung-an didn't speak.He wasn't truly there.But even as a silent observer,he could feel the tension coiling in Zhang Zhi-an's chest.
Zhang Zhi-an's hand trembled,his eyes falling to the open notebook—
Blank.
"The list?"Confusion flashed in his eyes.He remembered doing it,but the memory was gone.
"When was this? I should remember…"
Yu Yung-an's heart clenched.
The fracture in time had begun.
Just then, Zhang Zhi-an's gaze shifted.
In the corner of the desk lay a black envelope—almost blending into the surface,silent and unassuming,yet emanating a subtle unease.
Yu Yung-an's eyes followed Zhang Zhi-an's.And he saw what was inside—
A tiny cross-shaped pendant, faintly glimmering in the light.
But it wasn't an ordinary cross.
It was a triple-layered cross.
Zhang Zhi-an reached out.The moment his fingertips touched the pendant—
The world tilted.
His vision blurred.The walls dissolved.He saw himself standing by the Tamsui River,the water reflecting fragments of different timelines.He heard a voice—the same one that echoed through his dreams.
"On the third day… he rose again."
The third day. Resurrection.
"No… this is…"Zhang Zhi-an's pupils contracted.He tried to pull his hand away—
But it was already too late.
The origin of Tuesday was never a choice.It was an awakening, triggered by a single touch.
The world tilted at his fingertips.
Zhang Zhi-an's fingers still pressed against the triple-layered cross. The chill of the metal was gone—replaced by an unbearable heat, as though a warning surging up from the depths of time.
Yu Yung-an stood at the edge of memory, watching helplessly as Zhang Zhi-an's world began to shatter—
The layers of time had started to unravel.
——The office before him blurred. The clock on the wall began to reverse, the second hand and minute hand spinning erratically, torn by some invisible force pulling them in opposite directions.——Papers on the desk lifted into the air, swirling like fallen leaves caught in a rogue wind.——Zhang Zhi-an's shadow stretched across the floor—but it fractured, splitting into three overlapping silhouettes, each one shifting out of sync with the others,as if he were existing in multiple layers of time simultaneously.
"This isn't an illusion…"Yu Yung-an's voice echoed in his own ears,but it carried the weight of Zhang Zhi-an's fear.
"This… is the sign of the anomaly."
Zhang Zhi-an's face had turned pale, his eyes wide with confusion.He tried to let go of the cross—but his fingers wouldn't move, as if they had fused with it.
"Why… is this happening?"His voice trembled, filled with a fear he couldn't contain.
And then—
Time cracked.
A sharp, splintering sound echoed through the air,like a world once locked away finally breaking free.
Yu Yung-an's gaze was drawn toward the desk—
The notebook flipped open on its own,pages turning wildly until it stopped at the last entry.Fresh ink bled through the paper:
"Tuesday will reset.""Time is no longer a straight line."
Yu Yung-an's heart clenched.
"Time… is no longer a line?"
He looked up—and saw Zhang Zhi-an's pupils reflecting the shadow of the triple-layered cross.
——One timeline could no longer contain him.——Tuesday had become the point of endless reset.
"Tuesday… there's no turning back."
And Zhang Zhi-an,was beginning to vanish.
Zhang Zhi-an's figure began to blur.
Yu Yung-an felt a powerful pull—an invisible force tearing at his consciousness,dragging him deeper into the layers of memory.He tried to call out, but his voice was swallowed by time,every sound dissolving into the folds of this fractured space.
"Tuesday… there's no turning back…"
The words echoed in his mind.But just as Zhang Zhi-an was about to disappear completely—
——A crack opened within the layer of time.
Something seeped through—not from Tuesday,but from another timeline.
A faint, almost familiar pulse rippled through the breach.
"What… is this?"
Yu Yung-an had no choice.His consciousness was pulled through the rift,plunging toward another layer of time.
When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.
Time was no longer trapped within Tuesday.
The light was softer,and the Tamsui riverside shimmered faintly in the distance.But this time—
There was no reflection of Zhang Zhi-an in the water.
"Where… am I?"Yu Yung-an murmured under his breath.
The ground beneath him was no longer cold office tile.Instead, he stood on a path covered in fallen leaves.He looked down—and saw something glimmering faintly amidst the leaves.
A cross.
But this time,it wasn't the triple-layered cross.
He knelt and touched it.The cross was cold,but there was no burning heat—no sign of Tuesday's mark.
"A different cross… a different layer of time?"
The air around him quivered,and from somewhere deep within the fissures of time,a faint voice echoed—
"The choice of Friday… has yet to begin…"
"Friday?"
Yu Yung-an's pupils narrowed slightly.
"Is this… the timeline Zhang Zhi-an never chose?"
He lifted his gaze,and in the distance,the familiar sound of a bell echoed gently—
The reflection of "Friday"was shimmering on the other side of time.