Weird Regulator

November 24th was a cold and rainy day.

The weather in the entire Shanghai-Haihai area seems to have become erratic since the sudden blizzard.

There were only three days of sunny days interspersed with torrential downpours.

Ji Liku sat at the bottom of the building all night, and after drinking several bottles of wine, he fell asleep in the morning light.

Ji Li, who had never dreamed, had a nightmare in a short period of time.

In the dream, he saw neither ghosts nor people.

There is only an old, dilapidated building standing among the crowded and dirty streets.

It was the only building on this street. It was very tall, with eighteen floors.

Many of the tiles on the white walls have fallen off, exposing the gray walls.

It was covered with black cracks, winding and chaotic, like thin black hands holding the building tightly.

On that street, apart from black and white, there was only a red umbrella propped up on the edge of the rooftop.

Ji Li heard the patter of rain in his dream. The red umbrella was the only color in the picture, which made him remember it for a long time.

Until, when the wind blew, the umbrella was blown down from the rooftop, fluttering left and right in the air and falling.

That kind of fall made Ji Li feel a little weightless. When the umbrella fell to the street, he felt unreasonable compassion in his heart.

It seemed that in the heavy rain, what was lying on the deserted street was not a red umbrella, but a living girl with broken limbs and head.

Watching quietly from a third perspective, over time Ji Li suddenly saw the umbrella as a corpse.

The torn head and an eyeball that was knocked out of its socket were staring at him silently.

Neither of them spoke...

"Time is running out!"

An extremely miserable and sharp girl's scream suddenly appeared in Ji Li's mind, completely waking him up from his drowsiness.

He suddenly stood up from the back of the chair. In front of him was the same sleepy world and heavy rain as in the dream.

The female voice placed her non-existent hand on Ji Li's forehead and said the same thing:

"Time is running out……"

Ji Li stood there blankly. He looked at the world in front of him and listened to the words of the female voice. He felt confused and couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality.

After a moment, he showed a rare trace of panic, and eagerly grabbed the cigarette case from the table. The faint firelight illuminated his pale face, and the tobacco was floating upward.

"The store manager mission will start in three minutes. You are going to be taken away. I have to wake you up."

The tone of the female voice was still very gentle, so gentle that it was inaudible, so unreal.

Ji Li's breathing was slightly heavy, and the frequency of smoking increased involuntarily. He slowly looked at the female voice.

This dream must not be that simple.

Maybe this is a harbinger of the store manager’s mission.

The red umbrella, the tall building in the rainstorm, and the girl with the umbrella as its image.

Ji Li wiped the cold sweat from his face, and his sense of vigilance was raised to the highest level. He had not felt such a strong sense of oppression on a certain mission for a long time.

Just a specious dream has already caused him to have emotional fluctuations, which shows that the store manager's task will be unprecedentedly difficult.

He lowered his head and glanced at his watch. The precise hour, minute and second hands told him that it was only 4:37 in the morning.

This also explains why the outside world is so dark, and he will be pulled to the location of the store manager's mission at exactly four forty.

Ji Li calmed down and finished the countdown, which was exactly the time for a cigarette. The pointer on his dial reached four-forty sharp.

His vision blurred for a moment, and Ji Li, who was sitting in the chair, heard the sound of rain more clearly.

Little by little, it fell on his long hair, windbreaker, and boot tops. The wet touch heralded a change in space. He went from the sheltered seventh branch to the rain completely.

The heavy rain did not change, and Xiaomiao Street welcomed a guest who was soaked in the rain.

The long street in the rain looks psychedelic yet real. Countless crowded shops are located on both sides of the street, and the weatherboards crackle.

The neon billboards shining in the halo of rain and the long streets with very narrow aisles symbolize the large population and prosperity of this place.

The poor drainage system made the already narrow corridor dirty and messy. The water flowed away from his feet, but there was no place to drain it.

Various plastic garbage bags and bits and pieces of garbage were floating on the water. A chocolate bag got stuck in the gap of the manhole cover and was washed away but could not go down at all.

Ji Li's pale face was slightly raised, and the rain wet his face. Under the shining light, his feet were stepping on the water that had become a river.

The old-fashioned neon signs and traditional Chinese advertisements told Ji Li that this was not the world he was familiar with.

But it's a little bit familiar.

Because his vision reflected the appearance of the only tall building on this street, a black and white building that was incompatible with the entire street.

In his unclear vision, he saw the tall buildings that appeared in his dream, being torn down and crushed by the heavy rain.

Imagine if there is a red umbrella about to fall from the rooftop of this building, just like the death of a young girl.

"Is this right here..."

Ji Li silently asked himself, and a female voice appeared beside him, blocking his view with a black umbrella.

"Mr. Ji, where should we go?"

The female voice came a few steps later than him, but she still came. This is why Ji Li didn't want to pursue it now.

He turned his head to look at the direction behind him. The dream had already given him a hint of the store manager's mission.

This towering building in the rain is where his store manager works.

Ji Li turned around and returned, walking side by side with the female voice holding an umbrella, heading towards the main entrance of the building.

They walked along this street for a full ten minutes before they saw the true face of the building.

Finally, he found out that this street was called "Temple Street". Ji Li guessed that it was somewhere outside the mainland, and that it seemed like he had traveled through time and space.

Judging from the layout of the streets and alleys, it is obviously not the style of 2015, and it must be a return to the mission form of the past.

Ji Li frowned secretly. He was worried that this mission was related to time and space again.

Because he has some resistance against ghosts, but time and space have no countermeasures for him.

Getting closer and closer, Ji Li discovered that the black and white building stood in an ominous position.

Although it is on the edge of Temple Street, the three opposite corners are connected to three other streets.

Looking down from upstairs, you will feel countless traffic passing through from all directions. This kind of feng shui is extremely ominous and is called "thousands of arrows piercing the heart".

Ji Li walked unhurriedly to the bottom of the building step by step in the wind and rain.

But here stood a man, with his back turned to him, standing in the rain and looking up at the building.

The man was close to Ji Li in height, with a slender figure, his hands behind his back, and his slightly long hair combed behind his head.

It's just that his dressing style seems to be incompatible with this world. He is actually wearing a black tunic suit, but this suit of clothes can better modify his unique temperament.

Just a glance from behind made Ji Li frown.

Because this man was standing in the rain, but his clothes were as clean as ever, as if all the raindrops were moving around him.