With something this big happening—their entire neighborhood crossing over—as a resident of Taiping Luxury Garden who’d encountered anomalies, they needed to discuss it properly.
At least… find out what was going on with Mengjia City outside?
Having made up his mind, at eight in the evening when almost every household was active—even Aunt Qian next door had turned on the TV to watch old dramas—Bo Ting leaned on the balcony with peace of mind and sent a message.
“Folks—that—I think something’s happened.”
“Whoever has location services on their phone, open it and check.”
Bo Ting figured it was more convincing to let the neighbors check their own phones than explain endlessly.
The evening neighborhood group was lively.
Half an hour earlier, after Bo Ting asked Elder Wen for the old community award photo, the older uncles had popped up, full of emotion.
Messages flooded the chat one after another.
But luckily, someone saw Bo Ting’s message right away.
Elder Wen: “Eh? Little Bo’s active today.”
“Young people should be this energetic.”
Old folks like him loved reminiscing.
“Right, Little Bo, what is it this time? Open location?”
Elder Wen replied a couple times. Having a good impression of the young man downstairs, when he saw Bo Ting ask to open location, he instinctively fumbled to do so.
A few minutes later, Elder Wen sent his location to the group.
“Little Bo, Uncle Wen opened it.”
“This should be it, right?”
“What’s going on?”
The glaring “Mengjia City” popped up in the group.
Bo Ting was somewhat helpless: “Uncle Wen, look at the city on your location.”
After his reminder, Elder Wen finally tapped to check. But as soon as he looked, he was a bit dazed.
“Hmm?”
“Is the location glitching?”
“What’s going on?”
Aunt Qian across the way mocked him.
“Old Wen, your phone is ancient. It’s long overdue for a system glitch.”
This was because her son Qian Zheng had recently bought the latest model for her and her husband.
Aunt Qian was incredibly smug. After showing it off in the group chat, she casually tapped her own location.
In the dim living room, her eyes behind her reading glasses blurred for a moment. Aunt Qian suddenly froze for a second, finding it strange.
“What’s going on?”
“My location is the same as Old Wen upstairs?”
“This is the latest model. It shouldn’t be.”
Unwilling to believe it, Aunt Qian snatched her husband’s phone and found it showed the same location. She immediately fumed and yelled.
“Qian Juan, how do you talk?!”
Elder Wen in the group chat was caught off guard by the jab at his phone and nearly fell over in anger. He immediately demanded an explanation.
The neighbors who had been watching the drama finally stepped in to mediate.
Bo Ting: …
Bo Ting watched Aunt Qian post her location and then act all guilty. He twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.
“Auntie Qian.”
“Have you ever considered your phone might not be the problem?”
“How is that possible?”
“If it’s not broken, why is the location so ridiculous?”
Though Aunt Qian usually loved bragging about her son, she wasn’t stupid. Her location system clearly matched Old Wen’s—it pointed to some nonsense “Mengjia City.”
She’d never even heard of it.
“Um, maybe.” Bo Ting cleared his throat:
“We’re actually in Mengjia City right now.”
After guiding them for a while and seeing they were about to argue again, Bo Ting quickly laid out the facts.
The group didn’t believe it at first.
“Hahaha, Little Bo, what kind of joke is this?”
“Young people these days have such exaggerated senses of humor.”
“What do you mean by time travel? Impossible.”
Elder Wen, who had just been righteously blasting Aunt Qian, immediately laughed and was the first to dismiss it.
Bo Ting fell silent for a moment, then quietly posted a night view photo he’d borrowed from Mr. Xu’s Moments.
“What’s this place?”
The Upstart Bro from Building 1 couldn’t help asking about the unfamiliar scene below.
Bo Ting: “Mengjia City.”
The glaring “Welcome to Mengjia City” appeared in the night view, even illuminating the surrounding strange, unfamiliar buildings.
The group went silent for a bit, then everyone rushed off to make phone calls.
Bo Ting saw that everyone could muster some skepticism and relaxed a little. He even found Aunt Qian’s voice, shouting across the balcony, quite pleasant.
After several rounds of verification, the group fell into a speechless quiet.
It lasted until late at night when the Upstart Bro from Building 1 finally spoke up:
“Damn.”
“We really time-traveled, huh.”
“Pretty high-tech.”
The Upstart Bro sighed, his tone unchanged. After all, his houses from demolition compensation were all in the neighborhood, so it didn’t affect him much.
The others, however, exploded instantly.
“No wonder I couldn’t reach Qian Zheng. Turns out we time-traveled.”
A few days ago, the link Aunt Qian posted was one she’d found herself. She couldn’t get through to her son and thought something had happened.
The group chattered chaotically.
Bo Ting smiled faintly as everyone realized the severity. He closed his phone and finally went to bed.
Though the transmigration was scary, the entire neighborhood had come along, with familiar faces around. He felt relatively reassured.
Beside him, Doudou’s bloodshot eyes swiveled in confusion. What had happened so late at night?
This human had just blown everyone’s minds and kept them up, then went to the bathroom to wash up… and sleep?
…
That entire night, while Taiping Luxury Garden buzzed with discussion,
At the Resurgence Management Office:
The electric meter remotely linked to the neighborhood timely issued an alert.
The “squeak squeak” strange noises woke the on-duty staff in the monitoring room.
The Third Esper Squad member responsible for the incident rubbed his eyes and sat up, startled.
“The electric meter’s changed?”
Since they didn’t dare approach Taiping Luxury Garden directly, and conventional methods often forgot about it, the Resurgence Management Office had tried various approaches without success. Now, they resorted to indirect means, modifying the electric meter for gentler contact with the neighborhood.
As a standard auxiliary tool, the electric meter could detect power usage in nearby buildings. In a way, it provided some information.
For instance, previous data showed the neighborhood operated like others, with normal daily usage.
But tonight… The Third Squad member looked puzzled and quickly called Captain Lu on duty.
“Captain, tonight’s power usage is up from usual.”
“And… it’s not just a little?”
It was past 1 a.m. What was happening inside? Everyone using power?
Lu Jingshan glanced at the screen and felt a headache coming on.
They had little intel on the inside. Guessing wouldn’t help.
“If only we could trace where their power comes from via the meter.”
He knew it was impossible, but Lu Jingshan took it seriously. He waved the member off and stayed in the monitoring room for the latter half of the night.
However, the alerts on the meter’s screen didn’t stop.
Taiping Luxury Garden’s lights stayed on all night. Not just one house, but nearly all buildings lit up, as if coordinating something.
This eerie phenomenon put the Resurgence Management Office, which had barely stayed calm, on high alert again.
Was… something big happening?
Inside the neighborhood:
Bo Ting slept until late morning.
After tossing the issue to the group, he felt much lighter. He sat up groggily and remembered to check the chat.
He didn’t expect it, but when he looked, it showed “1000+” messages.
How long had they been chatting?
Bo Ting yawned and scrolled to the latest page.
Hmm.
They’d discussed all night.
But seemingly got nowhere?
After going quiet at 9 a.m., no one spoke.
Everyone must have crashed after staying up.
Bo Ting noticed even the morning exercise group, who usually blasted music in the neighborhood garden for square dancing, hadn’t shown up. It showed how hard they’d pulled an all-nighter.
The down-to-earth neighborhood rarely looked so listless.
Bo Ting sat up intending to order takeout, but remembered Wu Ge and his wife had likely stayed up too. His conscience stirred, so he decided not to bother them.
He’d just boil some instant noodles.
It had been ages since he’d had instant noodles. He actually missed it a bit.
Tch. Before, he hadn’t noticed, but now that he knew about the transmigration, Bo Ting looked at his instant noodles with unexpected fondness.
These were bought before the time travel!
He only had a few packs left?
This thought sobered him. He wondered if Mengjia City’s food habits matched their world’s.
It had started as casual chatting with netizens to unwind. But now, it needed a new purpose.
From today, he should observe Mr. Xu’s daily life more closely…
So, just as Xu Qinglai finished his morning wash-up, he got a sudden message from the stranger across the way.
“Mr. Xu, what did you have for breakfast today?”
Bo Ting, holding his notepad, sent it and twirled his pen.
Xu Qinglai: …
Why ask that?
A weird disconnect hit him. He raised an eyebrow slightly, paused, and took coffee and a sandwich from the dining counter.
“Oh, it’s this?”
This strange transmigrated city had these too.
Bo Ting was pleasantly surprised and quickly jotted a page in his notepad.
He sent a photo of his own.
Xu Qinglai paused, then replied with a smiling emoji.
Of course. He’d saved it from a netizen last time—he rarely used them himself.
“Feeling better today?”
He sipped his coffee and asked.
Last night’s chat, Xu Qinglai noticed Bo Ting was distracted. Not bad mood, just off from usual.
Thoughtfully, he asked since things seemed normal now.
Huh?
Mood?
He hadn’t been in a bad mood, just surprised.
Bo Ting coughed awkwardly.
“I’m recovered.”
“By the way,” Bo Ting’s eyes brightened a bit: “Mr. Xu, the dog food you sent Doudou yesterday was delicious.”
“Doudou loved it.”
The image of that bone dog flashed in his mind. The man with a playful expression smiled gently.
“Is that so?”
“If it likes it, I can send more next time.”
After two exchanges, Xu Qinglai set his phone down to head to work.
But three hours later, at noon, Bo Ting messaged again.
“Mr. Xu, had lunch yet?”
A cat peeking emoji popped up.
Xu Qinglai, with his usual smile, had his brow twitch slightly. A strong sense of dissonance surged.
He lightly tapped his temple, then scrutinized the chat. Finally, he pinpointed the odd feeling from morning.
—This guy was observing him?
