Zhou Ming returned to his bachelor apartment, where everything was still exactly the same as when he left.

As he stepped on the familiar and slightly worn floor, looked at the things in the room that had never changed, and listened to the humming sound of the fan from the computer host that was always on, his thoughts finally calmed down a little bit.

A subtle and indescribable feeling floated in his heart. Zhou Ming stepped over the scattered debris on the floor, came to the tightly closed window, and looked at the thick white fog that was constantly rising and falling outside.

He stared at the fog for a long time, then reached out and pushed the window - of course, the window didn't move at all.

The flour sprinkled on the windowsill and the several cans deliberately stacked up still remain in the same state as at the beginning, as if silently conveying to oneself an atmosphere of loneliness and silence.

For a long time, he stood quietly in front of the window, looking out at the thick fog, without thinking about anything. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly blinked and turned his head to the side like a stone sculpture awakened.

Next to the unmade bed, the computer monitor on the desk was glowing faintly, and the "Network Not Connected" prompt box still popped up from time to time in the lower right corner. The notebook where I took notes when I left was still thrown on the corner of the table. I hadn't opened that notebook for a long time.

Zhou Ming walked over and sat down at the desk. He stared at the blank screen for a while, then reached out and grabbed the keyboard and mouse that he had pushed to the corner before, opened the browser, and typed a line of text in the search box -

〖Does the world outside the thick fog still exist?〗

Of course, the browser did not give any valid search page - after pressing the Enter key, the cursor on the screen flashed a few times, and then the following popped up -

"The network connection between your computer and the VPN server could not be established because the remote server is not responding."

This result was naturally expected. Zhou Ming knew from the beginning that he had used this computer that was in a strange state to make various attempts to contact the outside world a long time ago when the thick fog had just blocked the room.

He didn't expect that this time the screen would show anything different than before.

He just wanted to type that out - not asking anyone, not expecting any answer.

Listening to the monotonous hum of the fan, Zhou Ming exhaled, threw the keyboard and mouse back into the corner, then took the notebook, flipped to a blank page, bent over and wrote carefully on it:

〖To the world outside the thick fog, the people in the room say hello to you.

Soon, I will arrive at a place on the "other side" of the door. It is a city-state located in a borderland. I am going there to confirm some things.

But even without confirmation, I think I already know the answer, because in that strange world on the other side of the door, countless unimaginable things are actually happening, and my "intuition" over there has always been very accurate.

Based on this, I no longer expect to get a response from outside the thick fog, nor do I expect anyone to pass through the thick fog and knock on my door or window. I still can't be sure what is happening in this world, but maybe... it's not me who is experiencing changes, but you.

In my quiet and narrow little house, everything is still the same as before. I have a bed, a sofa, a coffee table, a desk, and a chair. My wardrobe is next to the bed, and there is a large shelf, most of which is still empty...

I haven't cleaned my room for a long time.

There is almost no dust here - I know that more than half of the dust in human residences comes from human skin flakes shed and pollution caused by daily life, and I don't spend most of my time here, so most places here are still very clean.

But even without the dust, the room now looks a little messy, because I was in a hurry when I returned to the room several times before and didn't clean up before leaving.

It’s not good to keep it this messy all the time - if everything is really as I thought, I think... I should make this room clean and tidy.

Also, maybe I shouldn’t say this, maybe it’s meaningless to say this, but... I hope everything is well with you outside the thick fog.

Goodbye, now I have to go clean this room.

Zhou Ming exhaled lightly, threw the pen back into the pen holder, carefully read what he had just written, then closed the notebook and placed it in a corner of the desk.

Then he quietly stood up and began to do what he had planned in his notebook - clean and tidy up the room.

Start with the slightly messy bed, fold the quilt, and arrange the pillows and sheets. Then look at the things on the table, the things on the coffee table, then the wardrobe, bookshelf, and the miscellaneous items on the sofa and floor.

There wasn't much dust and there was no need to mop the floor. He simply wiped the only dust off the surfaces of all the furniture with a piece of paper and threw it into the trash can.

At the very end, Zhou Ming came to the window.

He looked at the things on the windowsill silently. After standing there for a long time, he reached out and put the tools he had tried to use to open the window - including a hammer and a wrench - into the toolbox beside him. Then he put the stacked cans and other miscellaneous items in their proper places.

Then he wet a tissue, held it with his left hand and pressed it against the windowsill. He stayed in this position for a full ten seconds, finally taking a deep breath and slowly wiping the windowsill.

The flour that was used to confirm whether someone had opened the window and entered the room was wiped clean with wet paper towels.

Now, the room is completely clean and tidy.

Zhou Ming exhaled, looked around the room calmly, confirmed the results of his work, and then picked up a bag of garbage he had just picked up - the black plastic bag was not very heavy, because it was mostly waste paper and empty cans, but when he picked them up, he still felt that the bag was quite heavy.

He carried the bag of things that needed to be discarded to the door of the bachelor apartment and opened it.

The dark and surging fog was still surging and rising at the door as usual. The fog seemed to hide all the secrets of the world, but it was too chaotic to be explored by reason.

Standing in front of the rolling black fog, Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and threw the bag of garbage into the fog.

The moment the plastic bag slipped from his hands, he had a strong urge to pull the bag back, as if those waste papers and empty cans were the only treasures left in the world, and he was the only gambler left in the world, and he had to hold on to every gram of matter in the room - but this urge was ultimately suppressed by him. He opened his hands and calmly watched the plastic bag fall to the other side of the door and disappear in the surging mist in an instant.

He knew that those things would not "reach the other side of the door" - only he himself could reach that world as "Duncan", and all other matter would disappear in the surging fog when passing through the door.

Now, those things that should be discarded have completely disappeared into the "world outside the room".

Zhou Ming wiped his hands, took a step forward, and prepared to leave this place - on the other side of the gate, Alice was still waiting for him to have dinner.

But just as he was about to step through the door, a faint sound caught his attention. It was the sound of the computer fan suddenly speeding up.

Zhou Ming stopped instantly, retracted his steps and looked in the direction where the sound came from.

On the dimly lit computer screen, the interface that previously displayed prompts of network interruption and remote server non-response was flashing, and then the prompt text suddenly disappeared, and then, the loading progress bar at the bottom of the page turned from red to green and began to move forward slowly.

Zhou Ming felt that his heart seemed to explode at this moment, and a suffocating feeling filled his lungs. The next second he slammed the door and rushed to his desk.

The loading progress bar at the bottom of the browser interface was still moving forward, the faint green color seemed to be a fire that was spreading slowly and steadily, and on the originally blank page, the content that was actually being loaded appeared -

That's a picture.

Zhou Ming stared at the picture that was gradually emerging.

Moon.

It seemed to be a perspective taken directly from a certain position in space. The picture showed the moon floating in the dark universe. Its grayish-white surface was covered with gullies formed by craters, like many strange light and dark lines. Even though Zhou Ming was not an expert in astronomy, he was very familiar with this classic image.

He also confirmed once again that the picture he saw in Tirian's office was indeed the moon - the details were exactly the same, and it was obvious that only someone who had seen the moon with his own eyes could have drawn it carefully by tracing it at close range.

Zhou Ming slowly sat down on the chair and leaned back, staring at the moon image that almost occupied the entire screen with a frozen expression. After a long time, his eyes moved upwards to the line of text he had just entered in the search box:

〖Does the world outside the thick fog still exist?〗

He was silent for a long time before he suddenly "woke up" from his stone-like state, quickly took the keyboard beside him, and typed new words in the search box:

Is this an answer?

〖Who gave this answer?〗

After quickly typing out these two questions, Zhou Ming stared at the computer screen in front of him.

However, no "person" responded, and no new pattern or loading bar appeared on the screen. Only the cursor was turning dully in place, like a silent and dull eye. Apart from the gradually returning low and slight sound of the fan turning, the only sounds in his ears once again were his own breathing and heartbeat.

After a moment, the moon image on the screen was refreshed due to a loading failure, and the interface returned to paleness, with only one line of text remaining:

"The network connection between your computer and the VPN server could not be established because the remote server is not responding."