Mystery Hunting Grounds
With a system in tow, Dean arrived in a seemingly ordinary America of the 1980s. At first, he believed this was just an average world, but soon he realized that normality was merely a façade, with mys
Las Vegas, a shabby neighborhood.
Night had descended, turning the day’s unbearable heat into a refreshing coolness. The stars and moon hid in the darkness, while an unending chorus of insects played among the garden flowers below, like a lullaby coaxing the world to sleep.
Yet on this night, an uninvited soul awakened.
“Where am I?”
Ludian clumsily tore away the rope that had been strangling his neck, gasping for breath. He groped in the dark until his fingers found the wall switch.
Light poured into a bedroom that radiated a student’s aura.
Directly ahead stood a desk and chair, a globe, a lamp, and a calendar adorned with a landscape reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz—early May, 1980.
The room’s previous owner was clearly a Star Wars fanatic. The walls were covered with dazzling movie posters: the Dark Lord Darth Vader, cloaked in black, red lightsaber in hand; Captain Han Solo, brandishing a Mauser pistol in a black jacket; Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, hair white as snow, eyes bright with wisdom...
Next to the posters, the three-tiered wall cabinet was stacked neatly with high school textbooks: English, Chemistry, World History, and a pile of horror novels—The End of the World, Night of the Vampire...
The book covers glistened gently under the light, and all the titles were in English. For someone from China, it should have taken him a moment to process, yet now he understood them at a glance, as if by instinct.
He turned his head—and his pupils shrank.
Beside the bed, a gray four-legged stool lay overturned. A