Forty-Seven Seconds Later, Both Truths Are True

There was a power outage for forty-seven seconds during evening self-study. After the lights came on, Teacher Han finished counting the heads: "Forty-two, that's all." But Lin Chuan's best friend Zhou Mu disappeared. Zhou Mu's name is not on the roster. In the seat he had occupied for one semester, there was an additional transfer student with all the procedures in place. Everyone thought it was normal. Only Lin Chuan knew who the table originally belonged to. What's even weirder is that Lin Chuan can see them sitting on the chair at the same time. Both people are real. In order to leave evidence of Zhou Mu's existence, Lin Chuan must bear the conflicting truths again and again. Every time he endures it, he loses a sense of certainty about himself: what color is the door of his house, who has he promised to, and whether he is himself or not. And he soon discovered that the more it proved that the new person was qualified to live, the more it seemed like Zhou Mu had never existed. The world is willing to leave only one. Lin Chuan insisted on keeping both.