In the first month after moving into Splendid Spring Garden, Sheng Huaijing discovers that he’s trapped in the same day.
Every morning, he wakes up on June 12. The security guard, Old Zhou, always asks the same question. A faint smell of chlorine always seeps from beneath the door of Apartment 1501 next door.
He tries jumping off a building. He dies. Then he wakes up on June 12 again, and there’s one more crack in the ceiling.
A polite text from the System informs him: Please follow the rules. We wish you a pleasant stay.
Rule One: Do not trust the time after four in the afternoon.
Rule Two: Do not ride the elevator alone.
Rule Three: If someone knocks, look through the peephole first. Even if you recognize them, don’t open the door.
Then he finds a notebook from three years ago on the coffee table. A name is written on the title page: Lin Qi.
He’s never met Lin Qi. But the last page of the notebook is in his own handwriting:
“Sheng Huaijing, ninth loop. Don’t die again this time.”
The black umbrella used by the girl who disappeared three years ago is in his hands. Seventeen letters she wrote to the dead are locked in the third drawer of the property management office. And the smiling woman who just moved in across the hall has his name and apartment number branded on her wrist.
They all say, “Welcome to Splendid Spring Garden.”
This is a story about loops, rules, and the price they demand.
The condition for clearing the game? Stay alive.
The real question is: after dying nine times, do you still remember who you came back for?
[Content warning]
This story contains psychological contamination, cognitive distortion, and eerie rule-based scenarios.
Some scenes may cause intense discomfort. Read with caution.
