Crack (I)

"Wish me a happy wedding, wish me a happy wedding..."

In the warmly decorated apartment, Shang Li hummed a song cheerfully and walked to the mirror to carefully tidy up his appearance.

After tying up his long black hair, he looked at the mobile phone standing next to him which was on a video call.

On the other end of the phone, a short-haired young man was bending over a desk in the library, writing seriously.

"I'm ready to go."

Shang Li said in a sweet tone.

The young man turned his head upon hearing this, and his delicate and cold facial features were immediately exposed to the camera.

"Okay, I'll wait for you to pick me up."

Unlike his appearance, his tone was extremely gentle and his voice was as clear as a stream. "I just booked a table at your favorite restaurant to celebrate our... "

"Celebrating our third wedding anniversary?"

"Congratulations on your successful entry into the Bureau of Special Abilities as outstanding graduates."

The young man smiled and said, "After graduation, you don't have to look for a job and can go straight to work. Are you happy?"

"Damn the Supernatural Bureau."

Shang Li hummed twice.

The communication ended after a few sweet words. Shang Li took the bouquet of roses placed in the hallway cabinet and opened the door of his home in the most glamorous and beautiful manner.

However, before he could take a step forward, a crisp sound of breaking wind was heard.

The next moment, Shang Li felt as if something hit the back of his head violently.

“Bang!!”

The intense pain knocked him to the ground in an instant, and his soul seemed to be torn into several pieces.

Soon, his eyes went dark and he lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, Shang Li finally regained his sense of the outside world under the constant stimulation of pain.

The first thing I felt was the rough concrete floor, the cold wind blowing across my cheeks, and the smell of dust entering my nose.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

What happened? I was attacked?

He forced his body, which seemed to be about to fall apart, to sit up and opened his eyelids with great difficulty.

Seeing the scene in front of him, Shang Li couldn't help but be stunned.

The original apartment corridor disappeared, becoming a strange rooftop with high grid walls surrounding the edges. The dark night was pressing overhead, and the moonlight was like an incandescent bulb, illuminating the dust floating in the air.

Countless tentacles made of black shadows were floating outside the rooftop, as if they were watching the prey in the cage. Some tentacles were approaching eagerly, but seemed to be afraid of something and never dared to take any real action.

Here is the rift.

Rifts are independent spaces that appear at random locations for some reason. They gather countless monsters and will devour all creatures from the outside world as food. If ordinary people enter, they will be in danger of death.

How did I suddenly come to this place, with a rift born at my doorstep?

Shang Li's first reaction was to take out his cell phone.

A special positioning system is installed inside, and information can be sent directly from the cracks inside to the outside world to request rescue.

But when he took out his cell phone and put it in front of his eyes, ready to open it, he immediately frowned.

The model of the mobile phone...how did it become like this?

Shang Li began to check his appearance through the reflection of the black screen.

His appearance has become more mature, and his black hair, which was originally longer than his thighs, is now short enough not to touch his shoulders. His clothes have also changed from a red shirt to the standard black combat suit of the Ability Bureau.

The only thing that remained the same on his body was his pair of red eyes.

“Pah.”

He turned on the screen, and several large numbers popped up on the lock screen page.

[New calendar September 26, 2025 18:48]

Shang Li remembered very clearly that the calendar hanging by the entrance before he left the house clearly showed 2015.

I came to ten years later?

“Tick, tick.”

Sensing familiar footsteps approaching, Shang Li pulled his thoughts back and looked behind him.

The first thing that came into view was the long black hair blown by the strong wind. Then, slender fingers pushed the hair apart, revealing a very familiar face.

It’s my wife!

Shang Li's eyes lit up.

All parts of his body quickly became active, and the man who had been extremely weak just now suddenly felt no more headache or back pain. He stood up and wanted to stick to it.

However, the next second, a cold silver light flashed through the air, and the sharp tip of the knife instantly touched his neck.

The long-haired man held the hilt of the knife, and his indifferent silver eyes met Shang Li's gaze.

"Killing you here is also a good option." He said coldly.

Shang Li: “…”

Shang Li:? ! !

He raised his eyebrows and quickly looked the person in front of him up and down twice.

Just now, the owner of this face was smiling gently at me during the video call, but now, his attitude was like treating a lamb to be slaughtered, with no mercy at all.

But there was no doubt that this adult male with long hair and silver eyes was his wife, Cui Lan, whom he had been married to for three days.

Shang Li was sure.

The time gap was too great, and he stared at his new partner whom he had never seen before, and his consciousness began to drift away unconsciously.

Ah, my wife's face has become more mature, and her silver-gray eyes are as beautiful as ever, but she has a lot more hair, just like mine.

Is that red scarf the one I gave you this year? It looks really cool with the black windbreaker. But it’s a little early to wear it now. Won’t it be hot?

Although I still have no idea what happened...

But it’s not impossible for my wife to kill me now to vent her anger.

Anyway, this is an artificial body controlled by the brain's central system. If it's gone, we can just replace it.

Thinking of this, Shang Li grinned, tilted his head slightly, letting the blade leave a red mark on his pale neck, waiting for it to pierce through his flesh in the next second.

Then I waited for a powerful roar to come from afar.

"Cui Lan! If you let Shang Li go now, maybe the Supernatural Bureau will give you a chance to live!!"

Shang Li:?

He looked in the direction of the sound.

A rift appeared in the void, and a middle-aged man with graying hair on his temples tumbled out from the rift, shouting in the direction of the two men.

So it’s you, Shang Li thought.

If memory serves me correctly, this person's name is Chen Jin. After he and Cui Lan officially join the Supernatural Bureau, he will become their direct superior without any unexpected incident.

Listen to what you said...

Ten years later, my wife has become an enemy of the Supernatural Bureau, and I haven’t followed suit?

Feeling the long sword against his body trembling slightly, Shang Li turned his gaze back to Cui Lan.

The hand holding the knife had been trapped by invisible shackles without realizing it. The claws as hard as steel tightly grasped the long legs wrapped in short boots, making Cui Lan unable to move.

"Give up, you can't escape my superpowers." Chen Jin raised his eyebrows and glared.

"You can't move while you're trapping me. When your strength is exhausted, you still won't be able to stop me." Cui Lan said in a flat tone, as if he didn't take him seriously.

Chen Jin gritted his teeth and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll help me solve it."

"Deep in this chasm?"

The long-haired man raised an eyebrow. "Don't forget, your team members are already busy dealing with the monsters outside."

"Who else can help you now?"

“…”

Shang Li, who was standing nearby watching the show, suddenly felt something extra in his palm.

a revolver.

Wow, it's me who's responsible for this.

At Chen Jin's silent urging, Shang Li pulled the trigger of the revolver, raised his arm and slowly aimed it at Cui Lan's forehead.

Cui Lan remained calm and did not react to this sudden action.

"call--"

After a while, a biting cold wind blew between the two of them.

"Shang Li!"

Seeing that his subordinates were slow to act, Chen Jin could not help but shout, "You have been enemies with him for ten years. Are you so soft-hearted that you can't do anything about it now?!"

Old enemy?

Shang Li blinked and laughed twice briefly.

"No, I can do it naturally."

He turned his wrist suddenly and pulled the trigger decisively.

“Bang!!”

Chen Jin knelt down on the ground in response.

In the last moment before he lost consciousness, he saw his trusted subordinate blowing lightly at the smoking gun and showing a sick smile, "Since you think he and I are old enemies, don't come here to interfere with the affairs between our 'old enemies'."

"If you don't know, you two would think you are old enemies~"

After dealing with the third person present, Shang Li put down his revolver and said to Cui Lan, who had been untied, with a gleam in his eyes: "Okay, Xiao Cui, let's continue."

“…”

Cui Lan did not immediately raise his knife to chop as he expected.

The hostile tone in his voice turned into suspicion, and he slowly said, "You... just traveled through time?"

When Shang Li heard the word "travel through time", it seemed as if an invisible tail immediately rose up from behind him.

As expected of Xiao Cui, she guessed so quickly that I had just traveled from ten years ago to the present!

"Yes, yes!"

He held his face with his hands, looking as if he had suffered a great injustice. "I was just about to go out three minutes ago, but someone ambushed me, and when I woke up I found myself here!"

"I don't know anything yet."

"...You admitted it quite straightforwardly."

Cui Lan's eyes lit up a little and then dimmed completely.

"It's my delusion."

He murmured in a low voice: "In the end, it's another time traveler."

"well?"

Before Shang Li could fully react to the meaning of these words, the blade hanging by his neck was gently moved.

“Bang!!”

Powerful supernatural energy burst out from it, and Shang Li was easily lifted into the air like a weightless feather, and landed accurately on Chen Jin who was far away.

"I'll let you off for now."

Cui Lan sheathed his sword, turned around and walked towards the edge of the terrace, apparently not wanting to continue the conversation.

"The next time we meet, it will be the day you die."

"wait--"

Shang Li stood up subconsciously, wanting to follow the tall and thin figure.

However, before he could finish his words, a huge dark tentacle smashed in between the two of them from the sky, perfectly blocking his sight.

The aura that made them fearful left, and the lurking monsters finally couldn't hold back and began to capture the prey in the cage.

Looking at the tentacles that surrounded him, Shang Li's expression completely fell. He narrowed his red eyes and made an impatient "tsk" sound.

Half a moment later, Shang Li dragged the unconscious Chen Jin with his left hand and walked in the dim corridor leading from the rooftop to the basement.

He always leaves a way out when doing things to avoid irreversible consequences.

So Chen Jin would naturally not be killed casually. Shang Li just used his supernatural powers to perform some tricks to make the old man dizzy, allowing him to talk to Cui Lan alone.

Of course, in the end, I failed to figure things out.

Chen Jin couldn't wake up for a while, so Shang Li had to work hard to move him.

The monsters lurking in the corridor approached the fresh prey eagerly, but suddenly turned away under the man's spooky gaze, and opened a narrow path like a surging black tide.

Still lost.

Shang Li let out a long sigh.

Xiao Cui moved too fast, and even with her supernatural powers, she couldn't keep up.

Oh, honey, I already miss you less than ten minutes after we've been apart.

As he walked, he kept reviewing in his mind every action of Cui Lan since he traveled through time.

"What do you mean by 'another time traveler'? Am I not the only one who has traveled to the future ten years later?"

Shang Li muttered to himself, "What happened in these years that could be so serious that we parted ways and became enemies?"

"No, no matter how serious it is, Cui Lan likes me the most and will never regard me as an enemy."

"Could it be..."

An idea slowly emerged in his mind and he stopped abruptly.

Shang Li took out his cell phone with his empty right hand as quickly as possible, bit his lower lip, and flipped through the messages inside.

The software in this phone has changed a lot. Cui Lan, who should have been at the top of Hongxin, has disappeared, and the linked list has become a variety of unfamiliar people.

The content of the chat was normal and the tone was polite and calm, which was what he usually said when he was pretending to be serious in public.

Shang Liyi moved his fingertips again, opened his eyes and recorded the unknown trumpet.

The account has been updated at a certain frequency for ten years, and the content is always similar to the previous 100-word emotional essays.

"Haha, as expected."

He stared at the account number with his red eyes for a while, then sneered and threw the phone into the strangely opened mouth next to him.

"A time traveler has traveled through time for me."