Chapter 1

Cough, cough, cough....

After a bout of intense coughing, Zhou Ze took deep breaths to relieve the oxygen deprivation.

This severe cold is so uncomfortable, his head ached as if it were about to explode, and his ears rang incessantly. Zhou Ze massaged his head, trying to take deep breaths.

As the headache eased, a musty smell hit his nose.

Could it be that the house has been damp due to the recent rain?

He instinctively reached out to the left, but his hand found nothing.

He didn't grab the lamp or the glasses; instead, his fingers seemed to touch some wet, stringy objects.

Zhou Ze instantly opened his eyes. The room was dimly lit, and his vision gradually returned.

He subconsciously touched his cheeks, realizing he wasn't wearing his glasses, yet his vision was surprisingly clear.

There was no time to marvel at this, as the environment around him made him instinctively hold his breath.

In the center of the room was a low table, with three walls around it. The wall behind him had a 30x50 cm window at the top. The walls were not papered or painted; they were made of stones, with black-brown spots densely covering the stones and the gaps between them.

It was obvious that these were dried bloodstains.

Under his buttocks lay some black, moldy straw, which was the source of the musty smell.

The so-called wall opposite him was made of wooden bars as thick as his arm, with very small gaps. The only door was locked with a chain.

The only light in the room came from an oil lamp on the wall next to the bars. The light flickered as a cold breeze blew through.

Where am I?

Given the setup, could this be an ancient prison cell?

I have a high fever from the cold, but it can't be a hallucination, can it? Can hallucinations have a smell?

Who would be so bored as to play a room escape game with a forensic doctor?

Admittedly, the setup is quite convincing.

Zhou Ze sighed, bent one leg, and prepared to stand up and call for help. He didn't want to play; he was on sick leave and wanted to sleep.

As he moved his leg, a sharp metallic clink made him pause. Looking down, he saw a small iron chain with two large iron rings locked around his ankles.

The iron rings had no visible opening or welding marks and were almost flush with his ankles.

His feet were dirty, and the skin on his ankles was raw from friction, with some wounds deep enough to expose bone.

He poked one of the scabs, and it hurt.

Zhou Ze was stunned. The pain indicated that he was awake and that everything was real. These wounds were real, and this wasn't just a room escape game.

So, how did these iron rings get on his ankles?

Why was he locked up here?

He examined his hands; there were no calluses from holding a knife, and his fingers were thin and weak. When he touched his stomach, the flab was gone.

This wasn't his body!

Could it be... a穿越 (穿越 means "穿越" in Chinese, which translates to "time travel" in English)?

The last thought made Zhou Ze shudder, and he quickly moved back, leaning against the wall.

A distant shout broke the suffocating silence, and Zhou Ze held his breath to listen carefully.

"Prisoner Zhang Xingquan of Cell D, your last meal is here!"

The sound of chains, and the door seemed to open.

"No, no! I am innocent! Please, Head Guard, have mercy and plead with Magistrate Xu for a retrial!"

"Ah, hurry up and eat. I'm just a minor official; I don't have the power to help you....

"Or let me see the Chief of the Badass Corps. This is truly the work of a demon, beyond human control...?"

The head guard sighed.

"Demons? Do you have any evidence? Seeing anyone now is useless. The sage wants the case closed. Accusations are meaningless. Do you want the Chief of the Badass Corps to suffer the same fate? Eat your last meal well; there won't be another one tomorrow."

With the sound of chains, the footsteps faded, leaving only the sobs of the man who had been shouting.

The oil lamp flickered, making the room feel even colder.

From the sound, the Cell D was not far from here.

Being served the last meal right away was terrifying, and the conversation between the two men was full of unfamiliar terms like "Magistrate" and "Chief of the Badass Corps," and talk of demons.

Could these things be connected?

Regardless of whether it was time travel or something else, he had to get out of here. Zhou Ze's eyes scanned the room, and the idea of escaping filled his mind with countless plans.

However, looking at the bars on the window and the iron chain on his feet, Zhou Ze felt discouraged.

Escaping was unrealistic. The iron rings wouldn't budge, and he had no idea what was outside. Escaping would just mean dying in a different place.

As he thought, his gaze fell on a depression near the oil lamp. It seemed something was wedged in the stone crevice below the lamp, and the flickering light made it look deep.

Without hesitation, Zhou Ze, dragging the chain on his feet, crawled toward the lamp as quietly as possible.

It took him a full fifteen minutes to cover the distance of a few meters.

When he got close, he picked up the lamp, shielding it from the wind to shine down. Indeed, something was wedged in the stone crevice, a neatly folded piece of paper.

Zhou Ze looked around, picked up a hard twig, and poked at the paper for a while until it came loose.

He placed the oil lamp on the table, clamped the chain between his feet, and listened carefully to the outside.

Apart from the sobs of Zhang Xingquan, there was no other sound, suggesting the prison wasn't heavily populated.

This realization made Zhou Ze clench his teeth.

Death row inmates were usually kept together. If the man was so close, did that mean his last meal was also near?

He unfolded the small, nail-sized piece of paper and examined it closely by the light of the oil lamp.

It was a letter, with messy handwriting, as if written with a dip pen. Some parts were thin, while others were thick, even piercing through the paper.

The letter read:

If you can read this letter, at least you're not an idiot.

Let me chat with you a bit more. I'm about to die anyway, so it's a true release.

I guess your name is also Zhou Ze, and perhaps you have another name, Zhou San Yuan. I don't know which era you come from or if you've seen the movie "Triangle."

This place is like an infinite loop. I don't know how many times I've died and come back to life, but I can never escape the final outcome.

I'm tired, scared, and don't want to repeat this endlessly anymore.

I know that only suicide can end this.

From the moment you wake up until your execution, you have six hours. Estimate how much time you've wasted; the waiting is the hardest part.

You might think that since the prisoner Zhang Xingquan in Cell D has had his last meal, it's not your turn yet.

Ha, there are only two of you in the entire prison.

He tried to shift the blame to you by calling for the Chief of the Badass Corps. His shouts must have confused you, claiming he was innocent and that it was all the work of demons, not his fault.

Don't be naive. The Chief of the Badass Corps isn't just a head of the police. He only uses informants to gather intelligence. Complaining or pleading to him is useless.

I once heard the head guard say that the Chief of the Badass Corps is a demon hunter.

I don't know his rank, but I know they belong to the Demon Hunting Bureau. They are the true powerful forces in this country, capable of slaying demons, capturing ghosts, monitoring officials, and controlling the nation's fate. They can do anything you can imagine or can't imagine.

After so many loops, I overestimated myself. I don't know who is involved or who the real culprit is, but I'll tell you everything I know.

This is the Tang Kingdom, not the prosperous Tang Dynasty of history, but a parallel space similar to it.

There are likely ghosts or cultivators here, as they don't find such bizarre claims shocking or hard to accept.

Your name is Zhou Ze, with the courtesy name San Yuan, and you are the third son. You are a student at the Imperial Academy and have just taken the autumn imperial examination for the Jinshi degree.

Half a month ago, your father, General Zhou Yifu, was ordered to lead the Western Zhou wedding delegation back to Chang'an. The emperor received the envoys, and your father escorted them to the Western Pavilion at night.

At the third watch of the night, a sudden demonic wind arose, and the pavilion was enveloped in red mist. As the lunar eclipse dissipated, everything in the capital returned to normal, except for the Western Pavilion, which remained in the red mist. Screams echoed throughout the night, but no one could enter.

The next morning, the only survivor in the Western Pavilion was the Deputy Minister of Rites, Zhang Xingquan. He was disheveled and kept shouting about demons.

Your father, Zhou Yifu, was nowhere to be found. The nearly hundred members of the delegation were all beheaded, with no blood on their bodies or the surroundings, and their bodies were stiff and their faces terrified.

The outer guards were all poisoned to death, showing no signs of resistance, and they died peacefully with smiles on their faces.

Subsequently, the Left Jinwu Guard arrived at your home, and all twenty-odd family members were beheaded.

Your father was still missing, and you were kneeling in the courtyard, covered in blood, holding your father's saber with red eyes.

No one knew who killed the nearly hundred members of the delegation, who killed your family, or where your father had gone.

To appease Western Zhou, the emperor ordered the execution of the Deputy Minister of Rites, Zhang Xingquan.

As for you, the Chief of the Badass Corps will use magic to make you look like General Zhou Yifu and execute you by lingchi (death by a thousand cuts).

I've suffered enough from lingchi. After my consciousness fades, you will return to this point in time, repeating the same process, waiting for death again.

You have less than twelve hours left. Think about how to escape.

The letter was signed "Zhou Ze" and had a smiley face drawn at the end.

Looking at the smiley face, Zhou Ze's hands trembled with the paper.

Unprecedented fear enveloped him. As a forensic doctor, he had always cut people, never expecting to be cut himself, and alive at that. Was this karma?

If he couldn't escape this time, he would have to repeat it endlessly. How could he do that?

Should he follow the other man's example and end his own life?

At that moment, a pure black rat jumped out from somewhere, landing on the table and staring at Zhou Ze with a sinister smile, its face inches from his.

"Chirp, chirp!"

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