The coordinates pointed to a seemingly ordinary office building in the east of the city. Qiyue stood across the street, the collar of his black trench coat turned up to shield half his face. Rainwater slid down the ribs of his umbrella, pooling into a small puddle near his shoes. With ten minutes left until the agreed time, he carefully observed every detail of the building.
An unusual blue light glowed from a third-story window. At the entrance, two security guards looked nonchalant, but their stances betrayed professional training. More suspiciously, despite being labeled as the "Stellar Technology Research Institute," the building bore no company logos or reception desk.
His phone vibrated, and Su Muqing sent a message: "North freight elevator, passcode 7749. Come alone."
Qiyue put away his umbrella and circled to the back of the building. The freight elevator was hidden beside the fire escape, its keypad covered in a thin layer of dust, clearly showing it was rarely used. After entering the passcode, the elevator descended silently.
When the doors opened, Su Muqing was already waiting. Today, she was unusually clad in an all-black combat uniform, with some kind of electronic device tucked into her belt. "You're two minutes late."
"I took a lap around," Qiyue made no effort to conceal his caution. "This place doesn't look like an ordinary research institution."
"Of course it isn't." Su Muqing led him through a dimly lit corridor. "This is a Class-B facility for the Beacon Project."
"The Beacon Project?"
"The official name is 'Human Potential Development and Anomalous Phenomena Research'." Su Muqing stopped in front of a metal door and aligned her eyes with an iris scanner. "We research people like you."
The moment the door slid open, Qiyue’s breath hitched. Before him lay a circular control room where a dozen monitoring screens displayed different scenes. At the center was a holographic projection of Earth, marked with dozens of red dots. Six staff members operated their equipment with intense focus, none of them glancing up.
"This is the monitoring center," Su Muqing explained in a low voice. "Each red dot represents a known anomaly."
Qiyue counted them—forty-seven red dots in total. "Do they all have precognitive abilities like me?"
"They vary." Su Muqing led him toward another door. "Some can influence probability, some can read memory fragments, and others can briefly warp reality... Of course, all of them are very weak."
After passing through three security doors, they entered a room resembling an archive. The walls were lined entirely with metal drawers, and the central long table was strewn with documents and old-fashioned cassette tapes.
Su Muqing locked the door, her expression suddenly tense. "We have limited time, so I'll keep it short. Stellar Investment is a venture capital firm on the surface, but in reality, it's a shell company providing funding for the Beacon Project. Thirty years ago, a secret military experiment accidentally created the first batch of anomalies, and my mother was among them."
Qiyue frowned. "Your mother?"
"She could foresee death events within twenty-four hours." A trace of imperceptible tremor laced Su Muqing's voice. "When the founder of Stellar discovered this, they recruited—or rather, kidnapped—her and other anomalies for research. The goal was to create super soldiers."
The ticking sound of the wall clock's second hand suddenly grew unbearably loud. Qiyue's throat tightened. "Then me—how did the original Qiyue get dragged into this?"
Su Muqing opened a drawer and pulled out a file labeled "A-17": "Three years ago, Zheng Mingyuan approached a faction within Stellar, hoping to acquire a means to 'eliminate business rivals.' They chose Qiyue as a test subject and provided a type of neurotoxin."
Inside the file was the original host's pre-accident physical examination report, with blood tests revealing anomalous substances. Qiyue's fingers trembled slightly. "Why choose him?"
"Because of Lin Yaru." Su Muqing sneered. "She was Zheng Mingyuan's university classmate, and the two had a secret affair long ago. For seven years of marriage, Qiyue never found out, until he started investigating the Star Port City project..."
Flashes of transferred fund records crossed Qiyue's mind. Everything made sense now—Zheng Mingyuan and Lin Yaru had not only betrayed the original host but also used the mysterious organization's technology to murder him. And as for himself, a soul from a parallel world had mistakenly usurped this body.
"What about me?" Qiyue looked straight into Su Muqing's eyes. "What's going on with my precognitive ability?"
Before Su Muqing could answer, an alarm suddenly wailed, and red warning lights began to spin. A mechanical female voice announced: "Security protocol initiated, all sectors locked down."
"Damn it!" Su Muqing swiftly closed the file. "Someone found out we're here."
She grabbed Qiyue, ran to the corner of the room, and pushed aside what looked like a fixed painting to reveal a hidden passageway. "Go straight and take a left; it leads to the back alley. Tomorrow's attack by BlackBear starts at 9:30. Remember, their weakness is excessive leverage."
"You're not coming?" Qiyue caught her wrist.
"I'm staying to buy time." Su Muqing wrenched herself free and shoved a USB drive into his pocket. "Everything you need to know is in here. Go, now!"
The moment the passage door closed behind him, Qiyue heard hurried footsteps and questioning voices from outside. Groping his way forward in the dark, his heart hammered like a drum. At the end of the passage was a rusted iron door; pushing it open immediately let the cold rain pelt his face.
The back alley was piled high with dumpsters. Staggering, Qiyue ran toward the main street and hailed a taxi. Not until the car had driven several blocks away did he dare look back. The building still stood quietly in the rainy night, showing no signs of anything unusual.
Back home, Qiyue immediately checked every room to confirm no one had broken in before plugging the USB drive into his computer. It contained only a single encrypted folder, with the password hint: "The day you first foresaw."
June 12th—the day NT Technology skyrocketed. Upon entering the date, the folder unlocked, revealing dozens of research notes and video files.
The topmost document bore a title that made Qiyue's blood run cold: 《Feasibility Report on Parallel World Travelers》.
The file's contents showed that the Beacon Project had begun researching "consciousness projection" technology five years ago, attempting to transfer a person's consciousness into their counterpart in a parallel world. The success rate was a mere 0.03%, but there were already three "partially successful" cases.
One of those cases bore the exact designation A-17—the original Qiyue.
"This is impossible..." Qiyue muttered to himself. If the report was true, his crossing wasn't an accident, but the result of some experiment? But why choose him? Who was pulling the strings?
Most of the video files were surveillance footage showing different people undergoing various tests. The final video was dated the day of the car accident. On screen, the original Qiyue sat in a white room with a vacant gaze while a doctor-like figure injected him with some kind of medicine.
"A-17 receptor ready, beginning the 7th consciousness projection attempt," a voiceover calmly recorded. "This time using a novel catalyst, expected success rate increased to 0.7%."
The screen suddenly turned to static. When it cleared again, the original host was already slumped in the chair, white foam trickling from the corners of his mouth. Medical personnel rushed forward to administer aid, while the voiceover remained calm: "Projection failed, receptor clinically dead. Cleanup crew prepare."
The video ended. Qiyue's stomach churned, and he rushed to the bathroom to dry-heave. Not only had he usurped someone else's body, but he was also likely the byproduct of some insane experiment. Even worse, the experimenters clearly believed the original host was "clinically dead"—they had no idea the consciousness projection succeeded, just originating from Qiyue of another world.
Thunder rumbled outside the window, lightning illuminating every corner of the apartment. Qiyue stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at his own reflection on the glass. This face, this identity, this life—all of it was built upon another man's death.
His phone suddenly vibrated with an urgent message from Zheng Xue: "BlackBear just released a warning announcement; tomorrow morning they will expose Tianyue Financial for 'major financial fraud.' The media is going crazy, and the stock plummeted 15% after hours!"
Qiyue checked the time—1:23 AM. Less than eight hours remained before the short-selling attack began. He forced himself to calm down; now was not the time to dwell on his origins. He had to weather the immediate crisis first.
According to Su Muqing's intelligence, BlackBear's weakness was high leverage. If they expected the stock to drop 30% but it only fell 10%, they would face massive losses. To counter the short, he had to stabilize the stock price or even make it surge against the trend.
Qiyue closed his eyes and tried to actively trigger his precognitive ability. A headache struck immediately, but this time he clenched his teeth, persisted, and focused on imagining the opening scene of the stock market tomorrow.
In the dark, numbers and images flashed past like lightning: 9:42, the stock price drops to 18.7 yuan; 10:15, a certain key report is published; 11:03, BlackBear begins covering its positions... The information was too fragmented to piece together a complete picture.
Qiyue opened his eyes; a nosebleed had dripped onto his shirt. Wiping it away, he quickly jotted down all the critical timestamps and numbers. Then he opened his stock trading software and began setting up a series of complex option orders.
This was a high-stakes gamble. If his precognition was accurate, he would not only thwart the short-selling attack but also make a massive profit; if he was wrong, Tianyue Financial might truly be doomed beyond salvation.
Having completed all operations, Qiyue collapsed onto the sofa, utterly exhausted. Outside, the rain was easing, but the dark clouds lingered. Tomorrow would be a fierce battle, and he had to win—not just for the company, but to uncover the truth.
The next morning, Qiyue arrived at the company two hours earlier than usual. The security guard looked at him in surprise: "Mr. Qiyue, you're awfully early today."
"Important meeting," Qiyue replied briefly, heading straight for the private elevator.
In his office, he pulled up all his preparatory work. True to form, BlackBear released its report right at 8:00, accusing Tianyue Financial of inflating profits, concealing liabilities, and even hinting that Qiyue's unstable mental state had led to poor decision-making. The "internal documents" cited in the report were clearly fabricated, but they were enough to spark market panic.
Before the market opened at 8:30, Tianyue Financial's stock had already tumbled 18%. Qiyue took a deep breath and hit the preset buy button—purchasing 5 million shares of company stock at the bottom.
"Mr. Qiyue!" Zheng Xue rushed into his office. "The board of directors is asking if we should suspend trading! The media is already swarming the lobby!"
"No need to suspend trading," Qiyue said calmly. "Notify the PR department to hold a press conference at 10. Also, send this email to all major shareholders."
The email contained a record of all BlackBear's failed short-selling cases over the past three years, along with their financial transaction history with Zheng Mingyuan. The final page was a simple statement: "Tianyue Financial will announce a government cooperation project worth 2 billion today."
It was a bluff—the company had no such project whatsoever. But according to his precognitive vision, at 10:15, the media would report on an upcoming fintech pilot program launched by the Ministry of Finance, and Tianyue Financial happened to fit the criteria.
At 9:42, the stock price fell to 18.7 yuan as foreseen and then began to rebound. Qiyue immediately launched his second wave of operations: heavily buying call options while dropping hints through the media that "a mysterious buyer is buying the dip on Tianyue Financial."
At 10:15, Financial News indeed published an exclusive story on the Ministry of Finance's pilot program. Though it didn't directly mention Tianyue Financial, the industry connection was enough to spark association. The stock price rose in response.
Right at that moment, Qiyue's headache suddenly intensified. He braced himself against the desk as an unforeseen image flashed before his eyes: Zheng Mingyuan in an underground parking garage, handing a small vial to a man wearing a flat cap.
As the vision vanished, Qiyue immediately dialed the security company: "Strengthen inspections at all company entrances, especially watch out for an Asian male wearing a black flat cap and standing about 1.75 meters tall."
At 11:03, BlackBear began covering its positions, driving the stock price up further. Qiyue seized the opportunity to sell a portion of his shares and lock in profits. By the midday market close, Tianyue Financial's stock was down only 3% from the previous day—far below the short-sellers' expected 30% drop, leaving BlackBear with heavy losses.
"Mr. Qiyue, that was amazing!" Zheng Xue ran in excitedly. "The media is calling this the best short-selling counterattack case of the year! The board just unanimously passed a vote of confidence in you!"
Qiyue managed a strained smile. The joy of victory was washed away by the blinding headache and that dangerous vision. He was certain Zheng Mingyuan had been driven to desperation and was preparing to resort to more extreme measures.
"Where is Zheng Mingyuan today?" he asked.
"He took a sick leave, claiming he has a cold," Zheng Xue lowered her voice, "but a friend of mine saw him go to the Stellar Club this morning."
Stellar. The word made Qiyue's nerves taut now. He recalled last night's files, Zheng Mingyuan's connections to a faction within Stellar, and that neurotoxin responsible for the original host's death.
"Notify the security department that I'm not attending any public events today," Qiyue stood up. "Also, help me check the shareholder structure of the Stellar Club."
After Zheng Xue left, Qiyue locked the door and took the USB drive Su Muqing had given him out of his pocket. There were still a few files he hadn't had time to look through, one of which was named "Antidote."
The file described a compound formula capable of neutralizing the neurotoxin, with a note reading: "Exclusive to A-17 receptor, effective within 48 hours." Even more shocking was the file creation date—the day before the car accident! Su Muqing had foreseen long in advance that the original host would be poisoned!
Yet why hadn't she stopped it? Was there no time, or was there another story hidden beneath the surface?
As Qiyue pondered, the office lights suddenly went out, and the computer screen went black as well. The backup power should have kicked in immediately, but nothing happened. The entire building plunged into darkness.
"A power outage?" Qiyue fished out his phone, only to find zero signal.
An instinctive sense of crisis washed over him. He crept silently toward the door, peering through the frosted glass to see the sweep of a flashlight beam in the corridor. It wasn't the standard-issue equipment of security guards—the light was too dim, and the movement was too stealthy.
The man in the flat cap from his precognitive vision! Qiyue quickly retreated to the bookshelf and pressed the hidden alarm button. No response; the system had clearly been cut off.
Outside the door, the footsteps stopped right in front of his office. The doorknob slowly turned...
Qiyue held his breath, grabbing the bronze paperweight off the desk. At that exact moment, his phone vibrated—someone had bypassed the signal jammer to send him a message. The screen displayed only two words:
"Air conditioning"
In a flash of understanding, Qiyue looked up toward the ventilation vent. A wisp of nearly transparent gas was slowly seeping out from within...