From Robinson Crusoe

Seeing that General Manager Liu was chatting with the factory's engineers, the gatekeeper stopped talking, held his cigarette butt, and tilted his head, waiting for Chen Zhou to reply to General Manager Liu.

Unexpectedly, Chen Zhou, who was limping over, just stood there silently for a long time after hearing what President Liu said.

"Xiao Chen?"

The awkward silence lasted for about five or six seconds before Mr. Liu, who had been left standing in the car, finally couldn't help but speak up to remind them.

"Oh, it's nothing..."

Chen Zhou wanted to call him "General Manager Liu" as he used to, but the words wouldn't come out. He could only mutter a perfunctory reply before lowering his head and continuing to walk forward.

Seeing this, General Manager Liu did not stop him, but his expression became increasingly strange.

"These young people nowadays seem quite disciplined at work, but they become lazy as soon as they get off work."

That's why I always say that young people aren't as energetic or driven as the older generation. Look at him, he can't even walk properly.

I'm not criticizing him, but what kind of behavior is this?

Although our factory isn't a military unit, people still need to maintain proper decorum. To be honest, the internal management of our factory is still too lax..."

Before Chen Zhou had gone far, General Manager Liu took a drag of his cigarette and deliberately raised his voice to continue talking to the security guard.

The gatekeeper glanced at Chen Zhou's back and thought to himself, "You're not afraid of offending people. Do I need to make enemies with people for the little money I earn in a month?" He lowered his voice when he replied and just nodded repeatedly in agreement.

While the two were talking, Chen Zhou had already walked more than 30 meters.

It was late, and there were no vehicles around the remote cement plant. Only a gentle breeze was blowing, obscuring the sounds of people.

In an open outdoor environment, it is difficult for the average person to hear a voice speaking at this distance.

However, when Chen Zhou subconsciously focused his attention to catch the voices of General Manager Liu and the security guard, he could clearly hear every word they uttered.

If you concentrate even more, you can even hear the beating of their hearts and the sticky sound of their saliva in their mouths when they talk.

In addition to these, there's the roar of car engines, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind on the roadside trees, the footsteps of pedestrians in the distance, the music playing in other people's Bluetooth headphones, the rustling of stray cats crossing the green belt...

All the sounds that were emanating from the entire area, which he had never heard before, flooded into Chen Zhou's ears.

In an instant, it felt as if a bomb had exploded in his brain, making him dizzy and causing his body, which had been standing steadily on the side of the road, to sway.

Fortunately, there was a poplar tree nearby. When Chen Zhou swayed, he leaned against the thick trunk and forced himself to stop focusing on the sound, thus interrupting the terrible flood of information.

After about ten seconds, his brain returned to normal and was no longer disturbed by the various sounds.

"What's wrong with me?"

Touching his ear, Chen Zhou felt a lingering fear as he recalled what had just happened.

He spread his arms in front of him, looking at the young and familiar body in disbelief. He felt that the changes in his body after returning to modern society were far more than just "post-time travel syndrome".

While practicing walking in his dormitory, he discovered that his body seemed to be much stronger than that of a normal person. No matter how many times he fell, he would not get a scrape or even a bruise.

The strange behavior he just exhibited further demonstrates that he is already extraordinary in some aspects. If he weren't still adapting to his body and organizing his memories, we could probably uncover even more unusual behaviors.

"What exactly did the Time and Space Administration do to me?"

Rubbing his face to clear his head, Chen Zhou searched for a taxi on the street while reflecting on the unusual events surrounding his participation in the challenge—

What puzzled him most was whether the Time and Space Administration had transferred his consciousness to a "clone Chen Zhou" in another world, or whether it had taken him entirely to another world.

If it's just a matter of transferring consciousness, why did he have so much difficulty adapting to his body after returning?

If he were taken to another world, would the body in that world not be his original body, and would the physical form in that other world have been destroyed...?

Looking back now, the clause in the Time and Space Administration's unfair terms that "the organizer reserves all rights to interpret this challenge" was indeed well-written.

He suffered a lot on the way back and forth, while the Time and Space Administration made things easy for him by simply dropping him off and disappearing. There was no such thing as "after-sales service."

Sighing, and remembering that his body hadn't fully recovered, Chen Zhou could only try his best to suppress the urge to use his extraordinary hearing to pry into other people's privacy, and continued hailing a taxi—

His stomach was growling loudly; if he didn't eat something soon, he probably wouldn't even be able to walk.

……

There are never many taxis near the cement plant, so Chen Zhou walked slowly forward while searching for the light green body of a taxi on the road.

Perhaps it was late, or perhaps he was just unlucky, but he couldn't hail a taxi even after walking all the way to the end of the street.

Frowning as he gazed into the distance, he suddenly remembered that he could use his phone to hail a taxi.

So Chen Zhou quickly took out his phone from his pocket and started swiping his fingers across the lit screen.

The island has received a considerable number of valuable items over the past 28 years, but very few of them are related to electronic products. There are not a single portable electronic product like a mobile phone. His graphics card has been sitting on the island for 28 years without receiving a matching computer motherboard.

As a result, Chen Zhou, who has returned to the modern world, is actually a little unaccustomed to the presence of a mobile phone.

As he clumsily fiddled with the apps on his phone, he noticed the battery indicator in the upper right corner of the screen was almost empty, a dangerous red light.

After returning last night, he was trying to control his body and had no idea to charge his phone. He didn't check it before leaving the house and just put it in his pocket.

Seeing that the battery was down to only 12%, he felt a sense of urgency and tried to recall the steps of hailing a ride on his phone, swiping the screen repeatedly.

……

However, the more anxious you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes. What should have been a task that could have been solved in the first ten seconds is now taking several minutes to figure out.

Chen Zhou looked down as the battery level dropped another one percent, and sweat began to bead on his forehead.

While he was anxiously moving forward, he suddenly smelled the aroma of food.

Looking into the distance, you can see several vendors' carts parked by the road leading to the back mountain park. Some sell barbecue, some make grilled cold noodles, and some sell hand-pulled pancakes.

It was getting a bit chilly at this time of day, and most of the people who went for a walk in the park had already gone home, while the small vendors were also preparing to pack up their stalls.

The small car selling scallion pancakes had its small window closed, and the person selling the pancakes was taking off their apron, about to drive away.

The woman making the grilled cold noodles was a bit slower than the man selling hand-pulled pancakes in packing up her equipment, but she had already finished packing up the raw materials and tools on the table in her car.

Only the barbecue vendor hadn't packed up yet; the charcoal fire under the grill was still emitting smoke, and the aroma of the food came from his cart.

“There’s food!”

Seeing several cars, Chen Zhou was delighted. He quickly stuffed his phone back into his pocket and walked towards the intersection as fast as he could. The small vendors knew each other, and when they packed up, they would inevitably chat, gossip, and discuss recent major events in town—

That day, someone jumped off the hospital building again; apparently, they had some kind of illness.

Several cars collided at an intersection in town, and when the traffic police checked, they found that one of them was driving under the influence of alcohol without a license. It's a pity that a student died in the accident.
A student at the Third Middle School hanged himself with his shoelaces in the toilet after being scolded by his teacher. It is said that the site where the Third Middle School was built was originally a mass grave, which is a bit eerie, and something bad happens every year around this time.

Last year, some students were being mischievous and picked up stones to throw at a mentally ill person. As a result, the madman hacked two of them to death at the school gate. I heard their necks were even cut off...

From a distance, Chen Zhou was forced to "listen" to the stall owners' gossip.

These thoughts merely passed through his mind without leaving any trace; all he wanted now was to find something to fill his stomach.

……

When people are extremely hungry, they often become thick-skinned and bolder.

Not long ago, Chen Zhou was unable to communicate normally with his superiors. But when he smelled the aroma of lamb skewers, his eyes lit up with excitement. Afraid that the owner would close up shop early, he shouted loudly before even reaching the stall.

"Boss, don't leave work yet, give me a hundred skewers of lamb!"

"Nothing."

Upon hearing his words, the shop owner, who was busy packing up, waved his hands repeatedly and pointed to the empty table—

Most of the stainless steel plates on the table were empty, with only a few unpopular skewers remaining.

Before the boss could even refuse, Chen Zhou had already walked up with a limp, almost paralyzed gait.

"What's left? Grill it for me first."

He glanced at it quickly, then pointed to the few plates with more left, wishing he could bake them himself.

The owner glanced awkwardly at the middle-aged woman next to him, who seemed to be encountering such a customer for the first time. Just as he was about to politely decline, the young man reached his hand onto the table, picked up a skewer of mutton that had been burnt earlier, and started eating it.

"Hey, that's burnt!"

Before the boss could stop him, the burnt mutton had already gone into Chen Zhou's stomach.

"This one works too, are there any others?"

Chen Zhou licked the wooden skewer as if he could suck oil out of it, his eyes fixed on the boss's cart without blinking, making one's heart pound with unease.

"Hey bro, are you hungry or what...?"

"I'm starving, starving! Hurry up and grill it, I'm not short of money."

A skewer of burnt lamb not only failed to quell Chen Zhou's ravenous appetite, but instead fueled it, making him even hungrier.

He urged the owner on, his eyes scanning back and forth between the three stalls, looking as if he was about to grab some raw meat and stuff it into his mouth.

The boss had just finished discussing the mentally ill man's murder with the woman when he noticed that this man's behavior was different from that of an ordinary person. He walked as if he were paralyzed on one side and spoke illogically. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

He intended to refuse to serve this man and simply pack up and run away. However, seeing that Chen Zhou was tall, he was afraid that Chen Zhou would grab him. In that case, not only would his life be in danger, but he would also be beaten up, which was not worth it!
You know, mentally ill people don't get into trouble for killing others. If he was beaten for no reason, he would have no recourse.

"Brother, if you're hungry, I have two scallion pancakes here. Just don't mind if they're cold."

The barbecue vendor was in a dilemma when the hand-pulled pancake vendor, who had already finished tidying up his stall, noticed something was wrong and quickly came to his rescue.

"Okay, I don't mind!"

Chen Zhou had no idea how frightening his behavior was. Upon hearing that there was food, he rushed to the scallion pancake stall in two steps.

The three vendors exchanged glances discreetly and all agreed that the man was not quite right.

They showed no fear or concern for people with intellectual disabilities, maintaining a facade of calm.

Those packing up their stalls continued, but their movements were much slower.

The car is barely a closed space, and you feel safe inside. But once you leave the stall, you're exposed to the outside world. Who knows if this mentally ill person will suddenly have an attack? You can't judge this kind of abnormal person by common sense.

The most cautious woman even took out her phone, ready to call the police immediately if things got suspicious.

On the other side, Chen Zhou had already taken the scallion pancake handed to him by the scallion pancake uncle and started to wolf it down.

The island lacked modern seasonings for its hand-pulled pancakes, and he hadn't eaten them in 28 years. Coupled with his intense hunger, his eating manners were far from elegant.

A scallion pancake stuffed with shredded potatoes was gone in less than 8 seconds. His wide-open mouth was like a shredder, and the pancake seemed to slide into his stomach without being swallowed.

He barely tasted anything, casually tore open the paper bag containing the scallion pancake, and soon the second scallion pancake disappeared into Chen Zhou's hands.

Licking the oil from the corner of his mouth, Chen Zhou turned to look at the scallion pancake vendor.

"Any more?"

The man who makes scallion pancakes has been making them for seven or eight years, and this is the first time he has ever seen someone eat a scallion pancake faster than a noodle. He even thinks that the young man is slurping the scallion pancake into his stomach.

Seeing Chen Zhou's eager gaze, and then glancing at the table, he looked to the other two for help.

"Young man, look, Auntie doesn't have much food left, just a few sausages. If you're hungry, you can take them and eat them. You don't need to pay."

As soon as the grilled cold noodle stall owner finished speaking, Chen Zhou arrived at the car.

"Of course I'll pay. I'm not trying to dine and dash. Just give me the sausage first."

……

Under the streetlights, three stall owners who hadn't yet packed up watched Chen Zhou sweep up all kinds of food like a vacuum cleaner.

Hand-pulled pancakes, sausages, cooled shredded potatoes, and freshly grilled, piping hot skewers—no food can "survive" in his mouth for more than 10 seconds.

Amidst the billowing smoke, the barbecue stall owner helplessly grilled skewers, his gaze towards Chen Zhou gradually becoming concerned.

"Even if there is an intellectual disability, you can't starve the child! Look how hungry the child has become!"

The adults in this family are also irresponsible. How could they let someone with mental problems run around like that? What if they cause trouble?
Even if no one gets hurt, raising a child this age is no easy feat. If they were to cross the road and get hit by a car, their family would be filled with regret…

The remaining skewers on the table were quickly devoured by Chen Zhou, and once he had filled his stomach, he began to behave more normally.

The barbecue stall owner had a vague feeling that this unfamiliar face didn't seem to be mentally ill.

But for his own safety, Chen Zhou didn't muster the courage to ask the question that had been bothering him, even after finishing the last skewer. (End of Chapter)