My Day Has 48 Hours

My Day Has 48 Hours Author: Zimo Synopsis: Tokyo Drift [Mission Objective: Win the underground car modification race] Survive on a Deserted Island [Mission Objective: Survive for 40 days] Apollo Program Training Camp [Mission Objective: Try to see Earth from a different perspective] ... A month ago, Zhang Heng discovered that his day had an extra 24 hours. At the same time, he got drawn into a dangerous game. --- Volume One: Black Flip Chapter One: The Extra 24 Hours Zhang Heng discovered that his day had an extra 24 hours a month ago. The first change was with his watch, a Seastar Automatic III mechanical watch by Tissot, given to him by his parents in Iceland for his eighteenth birthday. It was a perfunctory order placed on Taobao, with the seller shipping it out and even filling in the wrong class in the address field. Zhang Heng had long given up complaining about his parents. They had eagerly packed up and flown to Europe to start a new life before he even finished elementary school. They met at an academic conference, both being theologians. As experts in the study of religious mythology, it was naturally tough to thrive in the materially-driven great motherland. Unlike those fraudulent swindlers, Zhang Heng's parents had genuine expertise. One graduated from Oxford University, specializing in Norse and Greek mythology, while the other was a master's graduate from Durham University, focusing on Christian mythology. They had published several papers and were said to be quite influential in their field. However, after returning to China, they couldn’t make a living. ... Coincidentally, Zhang Heng's father's mentor received a large project and needed more hands. So, his parents decided to leave Zhang Heng with his grandfather and began their globe-trotting research life. They returned home only once a year, so Zhang Heng spent most of his childhood with his grandfather. Perhaps out of guilt, the two didn’t skimp on expenses for the old man and the boy. Apart from tuition and accommodation fees, Zhang Heng’s annual living expenses for university amounted to 30,000 yuan. Although it couldn’t compare to the wealthy second generation driving sports cars, it was already quite generous among ordinary students. Back to the topic at hand. The watch incident was quite eerie. Zhang Heng woke up and instinctively looked at the time, only to find the dial had changed from twelve to twenty-four. He was stunned for a moment but calmly put the watch back, covered himself with the quilt, and went back to sleep. An hour and a half later, a dorm mate texted him, regretfully informing him that he had been called on in advanced mathematics. It wasn’t a dream? Zhang Heng took ten minutes to wash up and sat at his desk, opening his computer. He first logged into Taobao and searched for double-scale watches, prank, but the search results showed—sorry, no related items found. So Zhang Heng deleted "prank." Still no matches. Not a prank? Zhang Heng rubbed his chin. Ignoring the inexplicable extra twelve scales, the time on the watch matched the computer, and after careful inspection, he confirmed that the twenty-four scale watch was the same Seastar he had always worn. Including the scratches on the back cover and the creases on the strap, details only he, as the owner, would know. Of course, there might be some hardcore players who could replicate these details perfectly, but who would go to such lengths for a prank? With such skills and dedication, why not work at the f*******n City restoring relics? In conclusion, Zhang Heng knew he was in for something. Ordinary people would be scared stiff encountering such paranormal phenomena, but Zhang Heng wasn’t ordinary, thanks to his extraordinary parents. While other parents told their kids bedtime stories about bunnies and squirrels, his parents didn’t waste their professional knowledge. Zhang Heng grew up listening to stories from Norse mythology and the Bible. Although he ultimately didn’t disappoint nine years of compulsory education and became a staunch materialist, his childhood foundation remained. Zhang Heng's acceptance of such matters was far greater than that of ordinary people. Using the concept from the popular board game "Call of Cthulhu," his character's SAN value dropped very slowly. Instead of fear, he became deeply interested in what was happening to him. Ordinary watches have twelve scales, with the hour hand making two full rotations representing a day. Now, with his globally limited edition twenty-four scale Seastar, it only took one rotation to mark a day. It seemed no big deal, and after getting used to it, it was even a bit cool. But Zhang Heng believed that whoever did all this wouldn’t be satisfied with just giving him a new dial. Instinct told him that the real fun would start when the hour hand completed a full circle. There were about fifteen hours left until the end of the day, and Zhang Heng didn’t plan to waste that time. He skipped the morning advanced mathematics class, as he had already been marked absent, which meant a five-point deduction from the final exam score according to the professor’s rules. This couldn’t be salvaged. Zhang Heng decided to make up for his missed morning run at the track. Classmates considered Zhang Heng quite mysterious. After entering university, no one wanted to wake up early, but he persisted with morning runs. Yet, he didn’t participate in sports meets or other group activities and especially disliked gatherings. However, when you got to know him, you’d find he wasn’t as aloof as he seemed. On the contrary, he was quite interesting. There were rumors among the girls that Zhang Heng was multi-talented. Some said they saw him playing Liszt’s “La Campanella” alone in the piano room. This piece, adapted from the theme of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, is known for its difficulty and tests a pianist's skills with each repetition of the theme. Others claimed they saw him training at an archery range, and according to his dorm mates, he was a member of a rock climbing club. All these rumors were true, but also not true. Zhang Heng wasn’t as extraordinary as people made him out to be. His morning runs were a habit forced by his grandfather, and he continued them out of habit, making him just slightly better in stamina and speed than the average person, but nowhere near the level of sports recruits. He had just recently taken up archery on a whim and had attended three classes, barely a beginner. His enthusiasm for rock climbing waned after registering and getting the membership card. The only constant was piano, which he had been playing since childhood, but even his skill level was around amateur grade eight or nine. The recording of "La Campanella" was saved on his phone, and he played it in the piano room for himself, which inadvertently sparked those rumors. Therefore, Zhang Heng wasn’t as unordinary as he seemed. He was interested in many things around him but was limited by time, which is fair to everyone. Whether you cherish it, use every minute effectively, or just want to lie in bed cosplaying as a sloth, everyone only has 24 hours a day to allocate. Not a minute more, not a second less.