ALL NOVEL Chapter 23 - Absurd
In the early morning, the chirping of birds outside filled the air, happily humming little tunes. The sounds drifted close enough to enter the dimly lit room, stirring the person in bed, who moved slightly before pulling their wrist back under the covers.
The room fell silent once more.
Suddenly, the thick blanket that covered the bed from head to toe was thrown off, and the person inside sat up with a start.
The “wall” in front of the bed, which was covered by a curved curtain, seemed to receive some kind of special signal. It parted down the middle and slid open to reveal the scenery outside in full view.
It turned out that what the curtain concealed was not a solid wall but a large glass floor-to-ceiling window. Outside was a balcony, or more accurately, an intentionally designed open gardening corner.
From the perspective of the floor-to-ceiling window, there was an endless view of a garden filled with all kinds of flowers and plants, arranged in an orderly manner with vibrant colors. Aside from the neatly arranged flora, the extended gardening space felt anything but cramped; it was like a small garden oasis.
A small path led from this area to the side, suggesting that there was a similar garden on the other side.
With the curtains removed, a flood of sunlight poured in, instantly brightening the entire room.
The sunlight here is quite different from that on Blue Star. The sunlight on Blue Star is warm and bright, but at times can be glaring and scorching due to varying geographical and climatic conditions.
In contrast, the light on this planet is gentle, casting a slightly yellowish hue that feels natural and subtle, without a discernible warmth when it falls on the skin.
The light filtered through the small garden and finally landed on the person in bed… This should clearly be a very pleasant morning.
However, the person in bed at this moment was not in a good mood to appreciate it all; she had missed the moment to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Her current state of mind was utterly frustrated.
She knew last night was a dream.
But knowing it was a dream did not explain why she couldn’t wake up no matter what. She waited for a long time in the dream, growing increasingly annoyed. She tried every method she could think of, yet it felt as if she were welded to that spot, unable to wake up.
It made Jiang Hui doubt whether she really had returned, especially when she tried to open the door and found it still wouldn’t budge…
After tossing and turning for a while, she found herself unable to move anymore, and then… she fell asleep in that dream.
When she woke up again, she found herself back in the interstellar year.
So this is waking up? Jiang Hui thought. Waking up from this dream was quite the ordeal.
This showed just how much she missed her home on Blue Star; the moment she got a chance to dream about it, her subconscious even refused to wake her up.
However, it would be better to have fewer dreams like this in the future because dreams that you can’t wake up from can be quite terrifying.
Jiang Hui sat up and was about to get up when the window directly opposite her opened.
At that moment, it revealed a splendid garden scene; the light from inside reflected outward, highlighting the planets arranged along the horizon, giving off a somewhat artistic feel, reminiscent of a moonlit night.
But that wasn’t the problem—why was the sky outside black?!
That day in the hospital, she had discovered that the celestial phenomena on this planet were different from those on Blue Star. Later, when she got her light brain, she took the time to thoroughly study this part of the rules and common knowledge. While it was understandable that she didn’t know other things since the original body had just arrived in this star system, not knowing about time and seasons—basic interstellar knowledge—seemed a bit ridiculous.
Fortunately, she later discovered that she didn’t need to reconstruct much of this common knowledge, as it was said that the capital star system’s time and seasonal cycles were very similar to those of Blue Star, even close to a one-to-one ratio. Both systems had a year of three hundred sixty-five days, twelve months, twenty-four hours in a day, etc., just that the names were prefixed with “star.” This system was said to have been passed down from the original home planet before immigration and had not changed since.
Of course, the various star systems and planets outside the capital star system had many differences. The planetary movement rules varied, and some planets experienced only daytime with no nighttime, while others had only nighttime with no daytime.
Thus, for the sake of uniformity, the entire interstellar community used the time from the capital star system. Some planets retained their own calendars and time systems for their specific needs, which were used alongside the capital time.
The planet she was currently on, known as No. 732, was a new immigrant planet developed only in the past thousand years. It was not yet named and was considered to be of medium to high scale within the resident star system. The various resources matched the planet’s population, and its development and achievements could be considered relatively balanced.
However, the only downside to this planet was that its orbital rules did not align with the capital calendar, meaning that the planet never experienced sunset and thus had no nighttime.
This was evidently unsuitable for human circadian rhythms. Therefore, to accommodate human habitation, the immigration bureau built a nighttime ecological simulation system when constructing the city, capable of mimicking the nighttime environment according to the capital star system’s calendar.
In fact, instead of altering the planet’s environment, a projected ecological screen was constructed within the city system to simulate nighttime on this planet. This automatically created an ecosystem suitable for human habitation.
It was still dark outside, so was it not yet six in the morning?
Jiang Hui felt a bit incredulous. After all the tossing and turning in her dream and sleeping for such a long time, how was it still not dawn? Could it be that she had slept for two whole days and nights?
She immediately activated her light brain and looked at the time display in the lower corner. She was genuinely stunned.
No way, could she have misremembered the time? Not only had the date not changed, but the current time was also absurdly late. She had gone to bed around eight or nine in the evening and vaguely remembered falling asleep not long after.
What time was it now? The light brain displayed… nine forty-five at night!!
Wait a minute, had she really been dreaming for only ten minutes after all that time? This was too ridiculous! Jiang Hui quickly sat up, now unable to sleep.
She felt it was necessary to verify the situation. Otherwise, it would make her question whether this body had sustained a head injury in that recent accident, otherwise, how could she be so clueless about basic counting and timing?
If that’s really the case, then she might have to reconsider the compensation plan in her negotiations with the Hailusi Group. The previous offer was simply too cheap for them.
Thinking of this, Jiang Hui couldn’t lie in bed any longer. She took out the stack of medical records and receipts she had brought back when she was discharged from the hospital.
To be honest, she found the professional terminology in those documents too difficult to understand. However, she could understand the dates, so she just needed to check the recorded discharge time to confirm whether she had remembered it incorrectly.
But when she saw the discharge time recorded in the medical booklet, she was left stunned. It stated that she was discharged on August 2nd, Year 9983 of the Eighth Star Era at 5:30 PM. It was now August 2nd, Year 9983 of the Eighth Star Era at 9:49 PM.
So it was still the same day. Had she really only slept for ten minutes before waking up?!