The electric bike slipped in the puddles, and Lin Tianming squeezed the brakes while cursing. The raincoat hat had been blown away by the strong wind, and the rainwater from the back of his neck flowed down his spine into his pants waistband. He raised his hand to wipe the bangs stuck to his face, and the order interface on the mobile phone holder was flashing wildly - there were still twelve minutes before the time limit, and the rear wheel of his electric bike was making a "sizzling" sound of electricity, and the rear tire was firmly stuck in half of the rusty billboard iron sheet.
"Damn, how many times has the tire burst today?" He kicked the muddy pedal, and the battery on the car gave off a burnt smell. As an old rider of Meituan Crowdsourcing, he knew what this meant: tonight's peak night snack period was a waste, and what was even more terrible was that the system would definitely deduct service points again, and he would not be able to grab even the high-quality orders during the morning peak tomorrow. The old phone in his trouser pocket suddenly vibrated. It was not a new order, but a rent reminder text message from the landlord. The red bold "Pay within three days" was like a needle piercing his retina.
Suddenly, there was a sound of glass bottles breaking in the rain. He looked up and saw three men in black jackets surrounding a girl in a white dress at the alley ahead, with a broken milk tea cup rolling down at her feet. The street lamps shone dimly in the rain, illuminating the girl's tightly grasped schoolbag straps - exactly the same style as her sister Xiaoyu's schoolbag every day. The school badge on her chest reflected the light, and the four gold-plated characters "Shenhai No. 1 Middle School" made his temples throb. Xiaoyu also walked through this alley after class tonight.
"I'm asking you a question!" The steel pipe of the crew-haired man hit the wall, sparks flew, "Hand over your phone and wallet, don't force me to do it." The girl shrunk back and hit the trash can with a clang, and rain dripped down her eyelashes, but Lin Tianming noticed that her knuckles were white when she was holding the schoolbag straps tightly, but she was not really scared - it seemed like she was waiting for something.
The first thought was to run quickly. Last week, he saw a fight in a convenience store. He hid in the stairwell and waited for twenty minutes until the police came. But at this moment, the girl raised her eyes, and the water drops on her eyelashes reminded him of Xiaoyu's eyes when she was blocked by the school bully. The second thought came to his mind: If Xiaoyu encountered such a thing, would someone pretend not to see it like him?
He turned the electric car key to the bottom, and the rear wheel spun in the water, splashing water half a person's height. When the third thought flashed through his mind, "At worst, I will be beaten up," he had already rushed into the alley, and the rain in the hem of his raincoat was all thrown on the back of the crew cut man.
"Hey! The police will be here soon!" As soon as he said this, he wanted to slap himself. This lame excuse couldn't even fool the dog in the convenience store. The crew cut man turned his face, and the scar stretched from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth: "Boy, do you want to be a hero and save the beauty?" The moment the steel pipe came over, Lin Tianming suddenly felt that the world slowed down. Raindrops hung in the air like unthreaded glass beads. The distorted face of the man with the buzz cut was reflected in his pupils. He could even see the raindrops hanging on his nose hair clearly.
The body moved before the brain. He grabbed the girl's wrist and ran to the alley. His palm touched her cold skin. There were still red marks on her wrist from being rubbed by the steel pipe. Time returned to normal the moment he stepped out of the alley. The heavy rain fell on his head and the curses of the gangsters came from behind. "Run to the convenience store!" He dragged the girl into the alley. The battery car had been abandoned at the alley, and he could only rely on his two legs. When the broken bricks hit his back, he suddenly remembered that he broke his collarbone while delivering an order last month. He rolled on the ground for ten minutes in pain, but finally got up and continued to deliver food - because he was afraid of being deducted for overtime.
The warm light of the convenience store was just ahead. Lin Tianming was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the TV behind the cashier suddenly flashed a news clip: "Three floating corpses were found in the port this morning. The deceased all showed symptoms of skin metallization..." The girl suddenly grabbed his sleeve and said in a trembling voice: "They are coming."
The man in the black windbreaker blocked the main entrance. Sunglasses covered half of his face, and rain dripped from the brim of his hat, creating dark dots on the ground. Lin Tianming noticed that his left ring finger was wrapped in gauze, but his fingertips were shining with metallic luster - exactly the same symptoms as the deceased in the news.
"Leave the person here." The man spoke, his voice like rusty gears rubbing. The convenience store owner hid behind the cashier, not daring to breathe. Lin Tianming's throat was tight, and the "pause time" he had just used made his temples throb. There was warm liquid flowing down his nasal cavity, dripping on his raincoat and spreading dark red dots.
The girl suddenly thrust a silver ring into his hand, with a twisted "7" engraved on the ring. "Run!" she whispered, her fingertips swiping across his palm quickly, as if pressing a switch. Lin Tianming instinctively grabbed her backpack strap, but saw metal claws popping out from the man's fingertips, glowing coldly under the light. Only then did he realize that from the attack at the alley to the siege of the convenience store, all the coincidences were too precise - for example, the gangsters only robbed bags but did not hurt anyone, and the black-clad man appeared just after he used his ability.
"Who are you?" He hid behind the shelf and lowered his voice, his nosebleed dripping on the ring, making a buzzing sound. The girl wiped the rain off her face, revealing the same pendant as his on the collar of her school uniform: "Kai Lan." Her fingertips brushed the pendant, and fine lines appeared on the metal surface. "The ring of the Seventh Awakener can only recognize its owner once. If you accept my ring, you will be tied to the same boat with me from now on." The glass door of the convenience store suddenly exploded, and the metal claws flew past his ears. Kai Lan dragged him to break open the fire door, and the heavy rain poured in instantly. When they ran through three intersections, a silver SUV with flashing double lights was parked at the alley, and the man in the baseball cap made a "7" gesture to them. "Get in the car!" Kai Lan suddenly pushed him away, but ran in the opposite direction. Lin Tianming was stunned for half a second before he realized that she was leading the pursuers away. "Stupid X!" He cursed and turned to chase. When he used his ability for the second time, his temple seemed to be hit hard by a stick, and the world fell into stillness again. He saw Kailan hiding behind a trash can, with her school uniform sleeves rolled up to her elbows, revealing a blue scale tattoo on her forearm - exactly the same skin as the floating corpse in the news.
The SUV sped through the rainy night, and Kailan leaned back in the seat with her eyes closed, her fingertips still bleeding. "You'll have a nosebleed the first time you use your ability, and you'll see hallucinations the second time." She suddenly spoke, "For example, what you fear most - your sister being dragged out of bed and stuffed into a black van."
Lin Tianming turned his head suddenly and found that she was holding a photo in her hand, which was a snapshot of Xiaoyu at the school sports meeting. "The scavengers in the lab have located your phone." Kai Lan stuffed the photo back into his hand, her fingertips running over the golden lines on the back of his hand, "Now you have two choices: either go to the safe house with me, or go home and wait for your sister to be dissected to get the pendant - the pendant on your neck and the chip in my ring were all mines planted by your parents three years ago."
The car radio suddenly rang with noise, and the driver cursed: "They're catching up!" In the rearview mirror, more than a dozen motorcycles approached in the rain, the riders wearing the same skull helmets, and the headlights formed a hideous smile. Kai Lan suddenly grabbed his hand and pressed the ring into his palm: "Don't be afraid, the side effect of time reversal is to accelerate cell metabolism, which will make you ten years older at most - but if you die, your sister will have no one to protect her."
As the SUV drifted in the water, Lin Tianming saw that the scale tattoo on the back of Kai Lan's neck was glowing. She turned and smiled at him, with raindrops dripping down her chin: "Is it a special fate that I took you through the life-and-death race on our first meeting?" The next second, she suddenly pushed the car door open and rolled into the rain in his shocked eyes - the pursuers' attention was all attracted by her.
"Kai Lan!" He rushed to the car door, but was held down by the driver. In the rearview mirror, Kai Lan was running in the rain, her school uniform skirt was soaked in mud, but she looked like a stubborn white butterfly. When the first motorcycle was about to catch up with her, she suddenly turned around, and a blue light flashed on her fingertips - exactly the same light in his pendant.
The car turned sharply at the corner, and Kai Lan's figure disappeared in the rain. Lin Tianming touched the ring in his pocket, and the "7" on the ring was still hot. The driver handed over a wet wipe: "Don't look at it, she's always like this." The man took off his baseball cap, revealing the scar on his forehead, "Three years ago, the laboratory exploded, and she was the only experimental subject to escape. She has been looking for the seventh awakener all these years - that is, you."
The rain gradually subsided, and the neon lights of the city flowed on the car window. Lin Tianming watched the golden lines on the back of his hand slowly disappear, and the back of his neck still retained the strength of Kai Lan's pulling him. He suddenly remembered that at the moment when the convenience store paused time, there was no fear in Kai Lan's eyes, only a kind of almost crazy persistence - as if she had known that he would turn around at the last moment.
The phone suddenly vibrated, it was a new order notification. Lin Tianming smiled bitterly and shook his head. Even after going through so much, the system still would not understand his overtime. But this time he didn't accept the order, but took out the pendant and used the street light to see the engraving on the inside clearly - I don't know when, a line of small words appeared around the word "Tianming": Seventh Awakener, holder of time reversal ability, side effect: lifespan is reduced by 24 hours each time it is used.
The car stopped in front of a shabby apartment, and the driver threw him a room card: "3rd floor 307, don't turn on the lights." When the man started the car, he suddenly looked at him in the rearview mirror: "Kai Lan didn't tell you? Your parents participated in the laboratory's fire plan back then. You and your sister are the twin containers of the seventh awakener."
The voice-controlled lights in the apartment corridor were broken. When Lin Tianming went upstairs in the dark, he heard a harsh brake sound coming from downstairs. He clenched the ring tightly, and his palms were full of cold sweat. Kai Lan's words echoed in his ears: "In this world, kindness is the most dangerous superpower." But he couldn't help but wonder, if he hadn't stopped at the alley just now, if he hadn't taken the ring, would he still be riding a battery-powered scooter with a flat tire, running in the heavy rain for a delivery fee of five yuan per order?
Footsteps suddenly came from the corner of the third floor, the sound of metal colliding. Lin Tianming tensed up all over, and suddenly heard the familiar jasmine scent coming from above his head - it was Kai Lan's smell. He looked up and saw her lying on the ventilation duct, her school uniform was soaked by rain, and there was a deep scratch on her arm: "What are you doing? Climb up! The scavenger's thermal imaging camera can penetrate the wall, and only the duct is safe."
When she reached out, Lin Tianming saw the barcode on the inside of her wrist - exactly the same as the number of the floating corpse in the news. But at this moment, she had an impatient smile in her eyes, like an ordinary girl urging her companions to play games: "Why are you daydreaming? If you are half a minute slower, your takeaway box will be pierced by sharp claws."
The smell of rust in the ventilation duct mixed with rainwater. When Lin Tianming crawled with Kai Lan, he suddenly heard her whisper: "Just now at the convenience store, you actually had a fourth choice - push me out as bait and run out of the back door yourself." She paused, her voice as light as the sound of rain, "But you didn't choose."
In the darkness, Lin Tianming couldn't see her expression, he could only hear his own violent heartbeat. He suddenly remembered that Xiaoyu always said he was stupid, always helped customers take out garbage when delivering takeaways, built sheds for stray cats on rainy days, and was obviously poor, but always gave the rebate for good reviews to novice riders. At this moment, the ring on his palm hurt him, and he suddenly laughed - yes, he was so stupid, so stupid that he knew there was a trap ahead, but he still dragged himself into this muddy water because of a similar school badge.
A faint light came out from the end of the pipe. Kai Lan stopped and turned around with the neon lights in the distance in her eyes: "The safe house is ahead." Her fingertips ran over the lines on the back of his hand. This time, there was no coldness, but the burning heat of body temperature. "From now on, there will be no more takeout orders in your life, only a countdown of life and endless scavengers."
When she came closer, Lin Tianming saw the water drops on her eyelashes, and suddenly realized that this girl who claimed to be an experimental subject was actually about the same age as Xiaoyu. But there were too many things hidden in her eyes, like a bottomless well, reflecting the lights of the laboratory, the pursuit in the rainstorm, and the conspiracy he couldn't understand.
"Do you regret it?" Kai Lan asked softly.
Lin Tianming touched the pendant on his neck, thinking of the blurred photos on his parents' tombstone, and Xiaoyu's words on the phone, "Brother, I seem to be able to hear what others are thinking." He suddenly grinned, and blood dripped down his chin onto the ring: "Regret shit." He said, "At least now, I can protect the people I want to protect."
Outside the ventilation duct, heavy rain poured down again. In a corner of the city, seven golden dots of light were flashing on the huge screen, and the seventh dot was surrounded by faint ripples of time. The man in the white coat pushed his glasses and sneered: "Finally activated." He pressed the intercom, "Start the second phase of the plan, the sister of the seventh awakener, it's time to go to school."