(A collection of uncanny tales. Some may feature the uncanny, and some may not.)
One: The Memory Maze
When Jin Yulin opened his eyes, he found himself standing on an unfamiliar street.
The time was 3:17 a.m.
He glanced at his watch. The second hand was moving normally, but the date read July 21, 2025.
Yet he remembered today as July 20.
Two: The Missing Step
Fu Huanan stood in the stairwell of his apartment building, counting the steps.
One, two, three... twelve.
He stopped, frowning.
Yesterday, there had definitely been thirteen steps.
He remembered it clearly. Every night on his way home, he counted them, and the thirteenth step always had a faint crack, as if something sharp had scratched it.
But today, the staircase ended at the twelfth step. The ceiling hung low, as if some force had compressed the whole building by the height of one step.
Fu Huanan didn't panic. He simply took a notebook from his pocket and wrote:
“July 15, 11:47 p.m. Abnormal number of stairs. Thirteenth step missing.”
Closing the notebook, he looked up at the mirror at the landing. His reflection remained stern, his gaze sharp as a blade behind his black-rimmed glasses.
But in the lower-right corner of the mirror, there was a line of tiny, almost invisible writing:
“Don't trust the numbers you've counted.
Three, four, five: ...”
