It was 12:06 in Yunshan City time.
After opening his eyes, Bo Ting felt somewhat dazed.
He clearly remembered that he had lost his job the night before. After returning home, he had just pitifully taken a shower and gone to sleep.
So why did the world feel so off when he woke up?
He frowned slightly, staring at the misty shadows floating in the air outside. It felt very strange.
Was there… supposed to be something like that in the sky?
How had he never noticed it before?
Sure, he was just a miserable wage slave too busy with work to pay attention to life, but breathing this low-quality air every day, Bo Ting knew he wouldn’t have been so oblivious.
So, what the hell was this?
After spacing out for a while, the cold and stern young man climbed up from the sofa and walked to the bedside, intending to pull back the curtains for a closer look.
But as soon as he opened the blackout curtains, the question marks in his mind didn’t decrease—they multiplied.
Not only were there those floating misty shadows outside, but it was already noon, and the sky was still pitch black.
A solar eclipse?
That was the first guess that popped into Bo Ting’s head, but there hadn’t been any news alerts about an eclipse.
Moreover, with it this dark outside, wasn’t the neighborhood too quiet? In his memory, whenever there was some special celestial event like this, the city would be buzzing.
He observed for a long time, but with everything shrouded in darkness, he couldn’t make out much downstairs. Bo Ting finally withdrew his gaze, figuring he’d wait for an official notice.
Anyway, something this big wouldn’t happen without any warning.
Oh, right—speaking of which.
Where was his phone?
Normally, the first thing he did upon waking was grope for his phone.
But today, he’d been inexplicably distracted by the misty shadows in the neighborhood air and hadn’t checked the group chats yet. What if he missed some important messages?
A quick scan of the sofa didn’t reveal his familiar phone.
Hm? Had he left it in the bathroom?
He vaguely remembered playing games in the bathroom for a while after getting home from being fired last night…
Bo Ting turned and headed back to the bathroom to search. Sure enough, there it was on the shelf above the sink, placed haphazardly.
“Good thing it wasn’t lost.”
The young man sighed in relief with a smile on his face. This phone had cost him half a month’s salary—if it were gone, it would hurt like hell.
He reached out to pick it up.
The next second, an unexpected shock hit him.
Bo Ting glanced at the mirror, then at himself. His expression froze as his mind raced.
What was going on?
Had he gone blind in his old age?
Not buying it, Bo Ting blinked suspiciously, but the scene in the mirror grew even more absurd.
The figure in the mirror shook violently twice, and all his words boiled down to one sentence.
—”What the fuck?”
Had someone pranked his mirror with high-tech trickery?
As far as he knew, besides him and the landlord, no one had keys to the apartment.
The landlord owned dozens of properties in Yunshan City, was financially free, and was off traveling the world—his IP had been overseas yesterday, so no way he’d snuck in at night for this.
Though if the landlord really wanted to mess with him, Bo Ting would gladly accept, since he could claim a hefty mental distress compensation.
But the problem was, the landlord wasn’t that bored.
So, what was up with this mirror?
—Why did the reflection of himself look nothing like the “himself” in his imagination?
Bo Ting could clearly recall all his memories from elementary school to junior high, and from junior high to university graduation.
But the “himself” in all those memories didn’t look like this at all…?
After staring at the mirror in the bathroom and pondering life for a bit, Bo Ting steeled himself and leaned in closer.
At the same time, an eerie shadow reflected back from the opposite mirror surface.
Yes, a shadow—not a human figure.
That was why Bo Ting suspected he’d been pranked.
Because what appeared in the mirror wasn’t a person with a human face at all.
It was a square, angular, precisely modeled head like something chiseled by an axe—yet not handsome at all. It stood at 1.4 meters tall, 50 centimeters wide, and had a display panel: a freestanding printed air conditioner.
It looked a bit outdated, but fair enough—models like this were still on the market.
Bo Ting glanced at the model year; it was still under warranty.
So… he himself was an air conditioner?
Bo Ting’s face remained expressionless as he suspected the crappy mirror was malfunctioning. After all, a single piece of evidence wasn’t conclusive—it could just be misleading him.
Though scouring his memories, he couldn’t think of anyone who’d spend that much to prank an utterly ordinary guy like him.
But something this ridiculous couldn’t possibly happen, right?
Unwilling to accept that his humanity had been so casually revoked, Bo Ting gritted his teeth, grabbed his phone, and smoothly switched it to camera mode. His brows relaxed.
See? That was the biggest glitch—he was clearly an air conditioner, yet he had hands!
Busted, huh?
With a cold sneer full of confidence in debunking superstition, Bo Ting raised his arm and aimed the phone’s selfie camera at himself.
The phone’s flash activated, barely illuminating Bo Ting’s square forehead in the dim living room.
Though it was just a flash, it was glaringly obvious.
Bo Ting: …
Fuck.
Still an air conditioner?!
No matter how he snapped photos, the freestanding AC in the lens didn’t change.
In a fit of anger, Bo Ting checked every reflective surface in the house, but the result was the same.
After all that fussing, he was exhausted.
The energy from a full night’s sleep had been drained in no time. Bo Ting had no idea what curse had befallen him, but at this point, he trembled as he wiped his face—time to eat first.
Bo Ting comforted himself: even an air conditioner needed to recharge energy.
Eating wasn’t shameful.
He casually ordered from Lele Fast Food Restaurant downstairs in the neighborhood. After placing the order, he lay back on the sofa with a world-weary expression, contemplating his air conditioner life.
If he couldn’t change it, better to accept it.
Life’s blows had made this wage slave adapt smoothly.
Probably because the morning shocks had been too much, his thoughts were now a jumbled mess. He even wondered:
Could it be that the manager recognized his true nature as an air conditioner and fired him yesterday because of it?
They couldn’t afford the electricity bill?
Damn it!
He’d thought being human was hard, but being an air conditioner was even worse.
Was there no place in this society for an innocent AC like him?
Bo Ting lowered his gaze, staring down his angular reflection on the phone screen with a grim face.
Then an even more horrifying realization hit: if he really was an air conditioner, wasn’t he burning electricity just by existing in this sweltering forty-degree summer heat?
Too much!
Half an hour later, a ding sounded, followed by a clang in the hallway. Then the elevator doors opened outside.
Thinking of food at last, Bo Ting snapped out of his despair.
“Delivery.”
Along with the knock, a low, raspy voice came through the security door, sounding like decades-old chronic pharyngitis.
Bo Ting instantly recognized it as the dedicated delivery guy from Lele Fast Food Restaurant— the husband of the restaurant’s Boss Lady.
Normally, he’d open the door, take the food, and chat amiably with Wu Ge about current events.
But now, suspecting he was an air conditioner, he couldn’t casually go out without knowing how he looked to others beyond mirrors and phones. Scaring people required compensation, after all.
The part-time rider—Boss Lady’s husband—knocked twice and was about to continue when he received a message on his phone.
“Thanks, bro. Just leave it outside; I’ll give you a good review later.”
Not opening the door was rude, but freshly unemployed and broke, Bo Ting could only express his gratitude with a five-star review.
Perhaps his politeness caught the man off guard; there was a pause outside before the raspy voice continued slowly: “There’s a restaurant promo coupon. It has to be handed directly to the customer to activate.”
The phlegmy voice across the wall sounded a bit smoother this time, probably from talking more.
Bo Ting: …Damn it!
He’d missed out on a few yuan coupon again.
If not for his current appearance, he’d have grabbed it for sure.
Boss Lady’s husband waited quietly. Inside, Bo Ting replied weakly after a few seconds, still refusing.
“No need, Wu Ge. Just leave it at the door.”
Neither spoke across the door.
After a moment, Bo Ting heard the elevator open and close again.
Their rundown neighborhood was called Taiping Luxury Garden, but it was neither luxurious nor peaceful.
The elevators installed a few years ago were cheap junk—the doors clanged loudly, easily audible through the thin floors. The group chat was full of complaints from upstairs and down.
Bo Ting waited a few more minutes, then quietly peeked through the peephole. Seeing no one, he opened the door, snatched the delivery in seconds, and slammed it shut.
The door on the 13th floor banged. Across the hall, Aunt Qian shuffled out upon hearing it, her voice stiff.
“It’s that kid Bo from across the hall.”
“It’s been so long since he went out.”
“These young people nowadays—can’t even walk a short distance and have to order delivery.”
Uncle Qian’s agreeing voice chimed in.
“Good thing our Qian Zheng doesn’t take after that Bo kid across the way.”
The muffled voices turned into casual gossip.
Bo Ting listened to the intermittent chatter and twitched his mouth.
Aunt Qian and Uncle Qian across the hall meant no harm. When he’d first moved in, they’d even invited the new tenant over for meals a few times.
They were just like typical old folks, a bit boastful. Always comparing other young people in the building to their son, who graduated from a top university and was making it big in the city.
Bo Ting kept listening as he returned to the living room and unpacked the delivery.
To save money, he’d ordered a basic boxed meal.
Two veggie dishes, not a scrap of meat.
The voices faded soon after. As Bo Ting was about to toss the bag, he paused, shook it, and out fell a red five-yuan discount coupon.
Bo Ting: …
Wu Ge was pretty decent.
Even without opening the door, the guy had left the coupon behind. Cold exterior, warm heart.
Sigh, he’d definitely order from them again.
And maybe because he’d been hungry so long, even these simple veggie dishes tasted pretty good.
Had the Boss Lady at Lele Fast Food Restaurant improved her cooking skills again?
