Chapter 109: The Hourglass

“Case 1112” is a major population anomaly case.

The SSS-level confidentiality isn’t due to its “scale”—in fact, the number of people involved isn’t that large.

The confidentiality level primarily stems from its “anomaly.”

1112 is a date.

November 12th.

This is merely the earliest traceable date when this anomaly case erupted.

From pattern analysis, every year on November 12th, February 12th, May 12th, and August 12th, population anomaly events are concentrated.

Conveniently, they occur every three months.

According to the records, the earliest suspected anomaly event occurred on November 12, 1960.

Yes, you read that right, it’s 1959.

And not the recent 2024.

Sixty years ago, during the “Three Years of Hardship” period etched in the country’s history.

In those years, the birth rate was nearly zero, and countless people starved to death.

The anomaly’s protagonists were a brother and sister from a rural area in a small northern county.

During the hardship period, due to geographical and climatic constraints, northern people had it tougher than those in the south.

In Big Elm Tree Village, the grain distributed to each household after the autumn harvest was far from enough to last through winter.

To dig up edible roots, the mountain’s surface was scarred.

Villagers still went hungry.

The dry corn cobs originally used for kindling were ground into coarse powder and mixed into thin rice soup for cooking.

The first to succumb were the elderly. An elder known as Uncle Gong passed away.

Villagers went to pay their respects.

The next day, November 12th, a young man who attended the wake suddenly went mad, running wildly through the village, hiding from everyone.

The young man’s name was Zhou Qiushi.

He had a sister, Zhou Chunhua.

Zhou Chunhua was also the Brigade Secretary of the village.

The day Zhou Qiushi went mad, Zhou Chunhua was in a daze for a long time.

The villagers said they had encountered something evil at Uncle Gong’s wake.

Uncle Gong’s body lay at home for a long time, and the family didn’t dare to bury him.

It was rumored that in other places, people would dig up newly buried graves.

Eventually, a thin coffin was sent into an underground river.

That winter, the second life lost in Big Elm Tree Village was a five or six-year-old child.

The child starved to death.

Before dying, the child was frequently in a coma, and when occasionally awake, would cry out, “Mother, I’m hungry.”

Each time the child cried, they were fed a spoonful of rice soup.

Yet, it wasn’t enough to save them.

This child lived next door to the Zhou siblings.

The day after the child’s body was taken care of, Zhou Chunhua went out. When she returned, she brought good news to the village; she had secured grain.

This grain ensured that Big Elm Tree Village did not lose any more people that winter.

On February 12th, Zhou Chunhua secured a second batch of grain and distributed it.

The villagers knew that applying for grain from above was nearly impossible, so they kept it a secret from outsiders to protect their own interests.

On May 12th, Zhou Chunhua secured a third batch of grain.

At this time, supplies were running low, and many households’ grain bins were empty.

Every family had a few relatives from other villages.

With surplus grain in their hands, some villagers quietly supported their relatives from other villages…

Then, outsiders began coming to Big Elm Tree Village to borrow grain. When they couldn’t borrow any, they threatened Zhou Chunhua, accusing Big Elm Tree Village of underreporting production and hoarding grain.

Zhou Chunhua was unmoved, firmly insisting there was no grain.

Starving and desperate, groups from other villages clashed with Big Elm Tree Village.

In the chaos, the mad Zhou Qiushi was beaten to death—according to eyewitnesses.

Zhou Chunhua took her brother home.

The next day, Zhou Qiushi was alive and well, running around the village.

The outsiders, thinking they had killed someone, became emboldened and reported Zhou Chunhua.

During the investigation, Zhou Chunhua couldn’t explain the source of the grain.

At the time, the town’s grain station reported a theft.

Although the quantities didn’t match, the case was hastily closed.

Zhou Chunhua was imprisoned.

On August 12th of that year, she died suddenly in the labor camp at night.

On the same day, Zhou Qiushi, who was being cared for by villagers, also died suddenly in his sleep.

After Zhou Chunhua’s death, it was discovered that the grain station theft was an inside job and had nothing to do with her.

The source of her grain remains a mystery to this day.

These materials were investigated only after stability was restored and do not include the confirmed causes of death or autopsy reports for the Zhou siblings.

The subsequent materials come from a special period of cultural upheaval.

The protagonist is a gentle and refined university professor who had studied in Germany when he was young, during which time life was difficult.

Unable to endure the humiliation, he was on the brink of suicide, despite his family’s repeated attempts to dissuade him.

One morning, he awoke suddenly excited, telling his family he had found a way to save the world. But no matter how much they asked, he wouldn’t say what this salvation was.

From then on, he stopped attempting suicide and began drawing things no one could understand.

The professor’s transformation didn’t stop there.

His sudden mental vigor led the committee and guards who persecuted him to believe he was resistant to reform, intensifying their actions against him.

In the past, such circumstances would have meant new wounds over old ones when he returned home at night.

However, since his sudden revitalization, it was as if he was shielded by an invisible armor. Physical harm no longer affected him.

In the fervent atmosphere of the time, the guards initially didn’t believe in the supernatural and subjected him to various experiments: drowning, hanging, slingshot to the head… none had any effect.

Faced with such results, some grew afraid, and the frequency of his persecution decreased, leaving him to perform heavy physical labor.

This peace lasted for half a year until the frenzied guards stormed into the professor’s home, injuring his family in the chaos.

In full view, the once gentle professor casually snapped two necks, as if he had done it many times before.

After this conflict, before the law could judge the professor’s crimes, he died suddenly of a heart attack.

The day the professor died was May 12th.

According to his family, the professor’s sudden change occurred in mid-November of the previous year.

After the professor’s death, his family sorted through his belongings, only to find that the stack of his scribbles had vanished, replaced by a pile of blank paper.

Records before the millennium are sparse, but after entering the 21st century, the data becomes much denser.

Yet, those seemingly ambiguous records, if judged by evidentiary standards, prove nothing.

They seem more like a collection of strange folk mystery stories.

If one must summarize, it’s that these stories all coincidentally occur on those four special 12th days, and some people experience inexplicable, miraculous changes.

For instance, in the 1980s, a mother went mad after her child died accidentally due to her negligence.

She was ill for ten years, and one day, while in a psychiatric hospital, she suddenly regained clarity and orchestrated an escape.

When found, she was lucid, articulate, and logically coherent.

However, during questioning, she told police and doctors she had found a way to awaken her child. As long as she fulfilled the conditions and made a wish to the gods…

Such delusional statements led her family to send her back to the hospital, from which she escaped again and began living actively.

Yet, two years later, on August 12th, this mother died in her sleep from brain hypoxia.

Another example is a person who suddenly awoke in the morgue after a bus accident deemed unsurvivable.

There are also those diagnosed with terminal illnesses who miraculously recovered…

But more often, there are cases of sudden death or madness.

This includes the madness incident Qin Qing personally experienced with Yang Guangmei, as well as the two sudden deaths in the Wuning Sub-Bureau that were reluctantly sealed.

The dossier in hand ends here.

The two people supervising Qin Qing’s review of the materials exited, and another, higher-ranking officer entered.

She extended her hand to Qin Qing, “Hello, Comrade Qin, I am the leader of the 1112 Special Project Group, codename Cisha.”

What a fierce name, completely mismatched with her round face and almond-shaped eyes.

Cisha gestured towards the dossier on the table and asked, “What do you think?”

Qin Qing replied, “There’s insufficient information to draw any conclusions.”

Cisha relaxed against the back of her chair.

“Comrade Qin, there’s no need to be so cautious. I’ve heard of your reputation for a long time. The case has been stagnant, and we’ve been hoping for your arrival.”

Though her words were polite, Qin Qing didn’t sense much expectation from Cisha.

“So… what’s next? You didn’t bring me here just to read the materials, did you?”

Cisha clapped her hands.

“Of course, there’s a tricky case.”

Qin Qing listened attentively.

Cisha explained, “What you just saw are the basic materials of Case 1112. The special project group has been established for nineteen years, and before me, there were three leaders. All died in office while investigating the case.”

Her tone was casual, devoid of any emotion regarding her own life and death.

“What you’ve seen is just the tip of the iceberg of the special project. Aside from being a bit miraculous, it doesn’t exhibit any aggression. But the reason it’s classified as SSS confidential is due to its strong societal destructiveness and unpredictability, with almost every incident being a cold case. I’m not referring to the bizarre sudden deaths you saw in the dossier, but rather…”

Cisha swiveled her chair, pressing something unknown. A screen slid out from one of the walls in the conference room, and she played a video for Qin Qing.

The video, shot with a law enforcement recorder, had a shaky perspective, as if the person filming was lying on the ground, giving a low vantage point.

The first half of the footage showed nothing but trees at night, nothing special, until the 39th second, when a figure appeared in the frame, lurking by a section of wall…

Suddenly, a heavy object fell from above the wall, instantly decapitating the lurking person, with blood spraying a long dark trail on the wall. The frame froze, showing the heavy object that had fallen—a machete.

The sudden gore made Qin Qing instinctively lean back and hold her breath…

The person filming seemed to have the same reaction, remaining motionless.

The footage cut back to a mundane empty shot, then the figure, lurking, the heavy object, the blood spray…

The subsequent footage repeated, once, twice, three times, four times, five times…

The only difference was the ambient audio.

Initially quiet, it grew increasingly filled with heavy breathing and the sound of chattering teeth.

After the initial shock, the repeated footage became less stimulating to the senses.

After watching the decapitation video ten times, Qin Qing was puzzled, “Why keep playing the same video?”

Cisha paused the video, looking at Qin Qing, her eyes finally showing some emotion.

“What if I told you this video wasn’t edited? Didn’t you notice the time on the law enforcement recorder kept moving? Don’t be so surprised; the fact is, someone died and came back to life many times within a certain timeframe, and this process was captured on film.”

The deceased in the video was a predecessor of the special task force, who had been involved in a counterfeit currency case. At that time, a large number of bills with identical serial numbers appeared on the market. These bills passed every test and inspection as genuine, yet everyone knew that was impossible. The case was so bizarre that many people were mobilized. However, the number of casualties only increased.

The former leader of the special task force sacrificed himself during this case.

Before his death, he left a message in a special way, stating that the mission was completed. The completion was achieved by destroying the root cause of the case, a one-minute Time Reset Device.

Cisha switched the screen, displaying the remnants of a small hourglass encased in glass.

Cisha said, “This is what the leader referred to in his message. Unfortunately, it has only been restored on a physical level and is no different from an ordinary hourglass.”