The jingle, jingle...
Lu Heng was awakened by a noisy ringing.
He stared at the ceiling light for a long time.
"Am I not dead?"
He raised his slender left arm, the sleeve of his pajamas sliding down, and there was no scar on his wrist.
His last memory was being bitten on the wrist by a zombie. To avoid turning into one of those terrifying creatures, he had ended his own life with a gunshot.
He slowly lowered his left hand, pinched his thigh hard, and felt pain. He could feel the pain.
Had he been reborn?
He grabbed the incessantly ringing phone beside him and looked at the time displayed: 6 AM, March 29, 2041.
He didn't remember what he had experienced on that day, but three days later, April 1, 2041, Lu Heng would never forget.
That day was the default April Fools' Day, and heaven played a huge joke on humanity.
The apocalypse had arrived.
That morning, the sky did not brighten as usual; the world outside remained shrouded in darkness.
People got up at their usual times. Many walked out onto the streets with flashlights, not letting the lack of daylight delay their commute to work.
Lu Heng had taken leave that day. He worried that someone might play a prank on him and decided to stay home and not go anywhere.
So he didn't get up early. He was woken by the frantic cries and screams from outside the building.
Lying in bed, he chuckled self-deprecatingly. Indeed, this year's April Fools' Day was exceptionally stimulating. Listening to the noisy sounds outside, the commotion was quite significant.
He walked to the window while brushing his teeth, pulled aside the curtains, and looked out. The scene outside stunned him into silence.
He quickly lowered the curtains, held his toothbrush, and swallowed. The coolness of the mint instantly swept down his throat, stimulating him to full consciousness.
He had just seen many zombies, like those in movies, chasing and tearing at humans downstairs.
And those who were injured by the zombies gradually transformed from cold corpses into zombies.
He didn't go out during the chaos. Instead, he waited until it gradually quieted down outside before packing some food and water, grabbing a metal baseball bat, and leaving his home.
In the apocalypse, Lu Heng had survived by being cautious for eight years. Yet, he was bitten by a zombie during a mission and ultimately chose to commit suicide.
Clutching his chest, Lu Heng forced himself to stop recalling those terrifying scenes. Since heaven had given him a second chance at life, he wanted to be prepared and not repeat his previous mistakes.
Although he had survived for eight extra years by chance, those days had not been easy. In the apocalypse, many people would go to any lengths for a bite to eat.
In the post-apocalyptic world, being able to eat a steamed bun was a luxury.
Just as this thought popped into Lu Heng's mind, a warm steamed bun appeared in his hand.
He thought he was hallucinating, but the warmth in his palm told him the bun was real.
He instinctively took a bite. In his previous life, he hadn't eaten a full meal before he died, and his mind was still telling him he was hungry.
After devouring the bun in a few bites, Lu Heng remembered that it had appeared out of nowhere.
Could it be...
The thought of this possibility made his heart race.
Was this the meaning of his rebirth? Had heaven bestowed him with a golden finger before the apocalypse?
Lu Heng suppressed his elation and tried thinking "Bun! Bun!" in his mind.
He thought too quickly, and two more steamed buns immediately appeared in his hand.
Having already eaten one, he couldn't eat these two buns now.
With a thought, the two buns vanished from his hand, but the warmth of the steamed bun still lingered on his palm.
Sitting on the bed, he decided to test if this golden finger had other functions. He waved his hand towards the television in the room, and sure enough, the TV disappeared.
With another wave, following his thoughts, the TV reappeared in its original position.
Excitedly, Lu Heng stood up and paced back and forth in the room.
He used his phone to search the internet, typing in "golden finger." A lot of information popped up.
Golden Finger: It has a space for storing and retrieving items. Some spaces have fertile land and ancient wells, while some are medical rooms... All spaces allow the host to come and go freely, moving at will between the space and the real world.
To verify the reliability of the information, Lu Heng closed his eyes and thought, "Go in."
But when he opened his eyes again, nothing had changed. He was still standing in the apartment he rented, and the items around him were placed as they were before.
The only difference was the unusual quiet outside. He had heard car horns earlier, but after entering, the sounds from outside had ceased.
He got up and looked out the window, and Lu Heng was surprised to find that all the cars on the road were parked by the roadside, and there were no pedestrians moving about.
Looking at the scene outside the window, a thought suddenly struck him. He then silently thought, "Go out."
Looking out the window again, he saw cars coming and going, pedestrians bustling about, and car horns occasionally reaching his ears.
His thoughts shifted again, and he returned to the quiet room.
Glancing at the scene outside the window once more, he quickly changed his clothes, wanting to verify the idea in his mind.
Lu Heng grabbed the phone on the bed, opened the door, and walked out quickly. He rented a seven-story apartment building, and there was an elevator. He looked at the illuminated indicator light on the elevator and pressed the call button.
The elevator slowly stopped on the third floor where he was. He entered the elevator, pressed the button for the first floor, and as the elevator doors opened again, he stepped out on the first floor.
The security guard who greeted him every day at the first floor was not in the guard room. He glanced inside the guard room; it was empty. Although the surveillance screens displayed the areas very clearly, no one could be seen walking by.
Walking out of the apartment building, he saw a new well at the bottom. It was an ancient-looking well. He peered into the well and saw clear spring water.
But he remembered that outside this apartment building was a flat concrete road, and there was no such well there.
Walking away from the apartment building, he found the surroundings very quiet. Apart from the sound of his own footsteps, he heard no other sound.
Just then, a doorbell rang. Lu Heng, inside the space, willed it, and he was back in his room. However, the clothes he was wearing were the ones he had changed into in the space.
Ignoring the doorbell, he quickly walked to the closet. Sure enough, a set of clothes identical to the ones he was wearing was hanging there.