The Butterfly Effect - Chapter 15: Time Stopped

Yang Youyou put on that turtleneck sweater again, then suddenly realized that she had to go to work tomorrow, and this outfit was too eye-catching. She needed to go to the mall to buy a suitable turtleneck sweater... There was still some work to be done, and the parts she had organized before needed to be reviewed again to ensure there were no mistakes.
Although she had no appetite and the feeling of hunger seemed to have disappeared, she still needed to eat and live well. She had to stop being so depressed at this moment and bring that criminal to justice.
Yang Youyou went out, her damp hair still tied in a low ponytail. She looked unwell, but her spirits seemed alright. The security guard saw her and quickly hid, afraid of being spotted if their eyes met. Only after she had walked a distance did the guard stand on tiptoe, watching her departing figure with a smirk.
She glanced at the time, her heart suddenly filled with two conflicting emotions: one was an anxious urge to fly to the hospital for the results, the other a desperate wish that time would just stop. Yang Youyou stared at the sky, her throbbing head making her dazedly board a bus heading to the city. By the time she realized she wanted to get off, the bus had already started moving again. The bus, despite being a Sunday, wasn't crowded; there were still plenty of empty seats in the back. She sighed, chose a seat, and turned to look out the window.
The bus moved slowly forward, and when it passed an inconspicuous pothole, the entire bus shook violently, causing Yang Youyou, who was lost in thought, to have her vision blur for a moment. When she came to her senses, she found that she was no longer on the bus. She stumbled and almost fell to the ground without warning.
Where is this...? Yang Youyou shook her dizzy head. The scene in front of her was a landscape that was out of her memory. She was standing on a mottled and cracked asphalt road. The road was not wide, barely enough for two private cars to drive side by side. On the right side, the community property management had marked parking spaces with yellow lines, while the left side was a road shared by vehicles and pedestrians.
Rows of towering peach trees lined both sides of the road, their canopies spreading wide, their pale pink petals blooming on the barely green branches. The vast expanse of peach blossoms formed a pink sea, stretching layer upon layer to the end of the road, the rich fragrance of the flowers filling the air. A gust of wind blew, and the petals drifted down gracefully, a sight that was beautiful, yet also incredibly eerie.
Yang Youyou stood in the middle of the road, still unable to understand how she had suddenly ended up here when she was just on a bus heading to the hospital. She looked up at the vibrant sea of flowers above, wondering where she could see such a large expanse of peach blossoms in June, since peach blossoms typically bloom in April.
Was she dreaming? But what sense of smell or touch could she have in a dream? A petal fell and gently bumped against her shoulder with a soft 'smack'. She habitually raised her hand to glance at her watch. The second hand ticked incessantly but didn't move an inch; the time was stuck at 2:32 PM.
She moved her feet, a surprising calm settling over her. She didn't know how her materialistic self could explain her current situation, but the only explanation she could think of was that the divine had heard her desperate plea to escape. Did gods truly exist? Or was fate simply playing another trick on her? She looked around; all she saw were old-fashioned buildings, the tallest no more than seven stories high.
The unknown filled her with fear, but staying here would only make her more afraid.
Walking forward, her footsteps treading on fallen petals, Yang Youyou looked around. She didn't encounter a single person along the way, nor did she see any signs of human life. The outdoor clotheslines were all empty, every window was dark, there were no children crying or making noise, no birds chirping... only the sound of her footsteps.
All of this was undoubtedly terrifying, as if a monster had been lurking in some dark corner, ready to pounce on her at any moment and tear her apart and devour her.
Yang Youyou didn't stop walking. Her pounding heart made her feel like something was watching her intently. She was certain it wouldn't be too far; perhaps in some unexpected moment, perhaps at the very end of this road.
The quiet, winding road faded into the distance. Suddenly, she turned around alertly and saw swathes of pink peach blossoms being swallowed up by the darkness at a visible speed. Yang Youyou's heart nearly stopped; a chill ran from her feet to the top of her head. She tensed all her muscles, only to be met with the sudden arrival of night and a sharp drop in temperature.
As darkness fell completely, a series of sharp, snapping sounds suddenly rang out from ahead, followed by the streetlights on one side of the road turning on, casting dim, yellowish halos of light. Everything became even more eerie and unpredictable.
Some people fear the dark, some don't. Yang Youyou used to be the latter, both in mind and body, but after the events, her heart remained the latter, though her body had become the former. She clasped her hands together, trying to calm her chilled mind. Since they had gone to such lengths to guide her, it would be incredibly foolish of her to remain stagnant. Besides, she needed to figure out where she was, didn't she?
The air was so cold that she couldn't help but breathe on her palms, and she was even a little glad that she was wearing a sweater and a coat.
As she walked, in the dim light of the streetlights, she suddenly spotted a tall, somewhat familiar architectural sculpture in the distance. Yang Youyou unconsciously quickened her pace. When the large sculpture finally came into view, and she realized it depicted seven galloping horses riding on auspicious clouds towards the east, she suddenly remembered that this was Anyi District of Baihai City, where she had lived before she was fifteen.
This place was actually where she used to live.
Yang Youyou unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. She stood in front of the sculpture, looking around carefully with a mixture of confusion and reassurance. But apart from the air conditioning and cool breeze, the streetlights, the trees, the shadows... she still couldn't hear any other sounds. She suppressed the urge to call out, after all, it was too quiet here, so quiet that she was even afraid to hear her own voice.
She quietly recalled that the neighborhood where she lived back then was called "Shunyi Fourth District". The park in front of her was located at the junction of Shunming First District and Shunning Second District, about a 30-minute walk from the Fourth District, which was her home.
She had come here with her friends before, but because Seven Horses Park was a bit far from the fourth district, and she also had to study and do housework, she couldn't come here to play very often, even during winter and summer vacations.
The park was unusually quiet at the moment. She gritted her teeth and stepped onto the stairs to the right of the sculpture.
The vast, oval-shaped plaza was deserted. A ring of exercise equipment stood around its edge. To the left, a staircase led to four rows of bulletin boards; to the right, another staircase led to several long wooden benches spaced about five meters apart. The surrounding trees showed little green, and the lawn was a patchwork of yellow and green. There were no lights in the park; only by the dim glow of the streetlights and the images that had been awakened in her memory could she barely make out the park's general outline.

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The Butterfly Effect - Chapter 15: Time Stopped

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