Time manager

Shi Jing looked around for a week. Although the lobby on the first floor was very dark after the power outage, in his eyes, everyone's timeline was like a firefly, emitting its own light.

He walked up to the young man to observe, and found no abnormality in the timeline, so he called the central control room.

The other side was surprised: "The power supply has returned to normal, why, is there still no power on the first floor?"

Shi Jing hung up the phone, moved the young man to a chair in the newspaper reading area, and said, "Release it."

[Static release. 】

At the same time that the flow of time resumed, the lights came on, and the panicked crowd in the hall quickly returned to calm.

Teacher Wang Xu noticed that the phone had already been disconnected, so she couldn't help being stunned for a moment. When she looked around again, she found that the young man who was in front of the reading desk ran to the newspaper reading area at some point, and Shi Jing was standing beside him. When he looked over, he nodded to her. Nodding, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Order is back on track, and people go about their business as usual, as if nothing had happened.The young man looked at the changed scene in astonishment, suddenly put away the ferocity of the previous moment, relaxed his exhausted body, panting heavily and sweating profusely.

"How is this going……"

He muttered to himself blankly, when suddenly someone beside him said to him, "Go out and talk?"

"You are... the one from yesterday..." The young man hesitated for a moment, then quickly remembered that this was introduced by the thrift shop owner, so he got up and followed out.

"Are you a staff member here?" The young man asked eagerly, "Just in time, can you do me a favor, I must get that book back, otherwise..."

"Otherwise you will be like just now?" Shi Jing interrupted him.

It's not that he doesn't want to help, but...

The special collection stack of Huaixi Library is different from other libraries, almost like a treasury.As far as he knew, the books that went in never came out.

And Mr. Wang Xu's words were obviously just for emergency, and he casually said to dismiss the young people.Damage is not the reason for books to enter the special collection library. There is a restoration department in the library, which is dedicated to repairing damaged books, because the overseer mad curator loves books like his life——

"As long as the book is damaged, it is like a knife in the heart." (Original words of the curator)

For the health of the curator's heart, the deputy curator formed a repair team.

Therefore, the book was probably locked into the special collection library by the curator not because it was damaged, but because there was something abnormal.According to Shi Jing's summary over the years...

"Curse", "It is not suitable for human beings", "The spread of the peerless sword manual will set off a bloody storm in the world", etc., are the most commonly used unreliable rhetoric by the curator.

As for why such books are not destroyed, of course it is because... when books are burned, the curator often looks ashamed like heartburn.

Shi Jing imagined the curator's collapsed into a pile of ashes and shut himself up, and felt that it was better not to torture the old man.

But the young man's obsession with that book really confused him.

"Why do you need that book?"

The young man sighed and said, "I can't finish this matter in a few words, why don't we talk about it while eating, and I'll treat you."

Shi Jing nodded, he is very happy to be able to use the time effectively.

So the preoccupied young man was taken to the noodle shop by him.

As the hot noodle soup was circulating, the young man picked up a chopstick of noodles, sipped it down, took another sip of the soup to moisten his throat, and said, "My name is Chen Nian. I used to be a trainer in a circus. Has Teacher Shi ever seen a circus?"

"I've seen it on TV." Shi Jing said.His life pattern is very simple, basically leaving the vegetable market in the apartment library at three o'clock, and there are few recreational activities beyond the scope.

"Really." Chen Nian said somewhat wistfully, "It's no wonder that now that animal protection is being advocated, the audience is quite disgusted with it. Our original group actually broke up for a long time."

He recalled a bit, then bowed his head and said: "Actually, I am not a qualified animal trainer. When I first joined the regiment, I saw lions and tigers with weak legs, so I could only tame some docile animals. Until later, I Got a book."

"It's an interesting novel about an animal breeder who is a novice who knows nothing about animal behavior, but he has a system."

Having said that, he paused and said, "I don't know if you usually read novels?"

"Look." Shi Jing nodded, then asked in confusion, "What system?"

Chen Nian just laughed: "It seems that you haven't read much. The protagonists of this kind of novel will be bound to a so-called system, and then they can receive tasks from the system and get rewards like playing a game. In that novel , the breeder is with the help of the system, brushing up the favorability of the animals, and finally reached the pinnacle of his career."

Shi Jing had never seen it, but it was not difficult to understand.After all, the notes asked him to improve his personality, and from a certain point of view, it was like clearing quests.

"So, you also got a...system?" Shi Jing said hesitantly.

"That's right." Chen Nian smiled helplessly, "Yes, through the tasks issued by the system, I will be regarded as the same kind by the animals, and even become the most powerful existence in their eyes, and I can control them without hindrance. Of course, I also learn from it. I got a lot of skills to communicate with animals, so even if the circus broke up, I wouldn’t have nothing to eat. Later, I transferred to the zoo as a breeder. But I didn’t expect that after the book was lost, the system would suddenly disappear gone."

"Your abilities also disappeared?" Shi Jing asked.

"This... I don't know either." Chen Nian said in confusion, "Because I have already completed the progress of the task at the beginning, even if there is no system, I can still communicate with animals. Later, the circus was disbanded, and I went to find a new job. I ignored that book. When I found a job, I found out that the book was lost. After I lost it, I began to... often feel that I am not human, and my temper has become more and more irritable. Especially in the dark place, sometimes I feel like I'm... more and more like a beast."

"You mean, if you retrieve that book, you can retrieve that system, and you can return to normal?" Shi Jing tried hard to understand and analyze.

"I'm just trying." Chen Nian said with a wry smile, "Because the system told me that after the task is completed, the book must be returned before it can return to the headquarters to end the project."

Shi Jing drank the last sip of soup and said, "But the book has already been returned."

"But I didn't pay it back. Or... because I was overdue?"

Overdue in Huaixi Library, definitely not a problem...

Shi Jing thought to himself, carefully observed his timeline again, and made sure there was nothing abnormal, and finally said: "I think this may be your psychological problem."

Chen Nian suddenly became anxious: "You, you don't believe what I said?"

"No, I believe you." Shi Jing said sincerely.

He thought of the middle-aged woman who borrowed the gourmet book. After returning the book, the ball of light on her timeline disappeared.

I remembered that Lian Ping complained later that the book was not a gourmet recipe, but a fantasy novel.Of course, it does describe the practice of many dishes.

System, task, disappeared.

After contacting those strange people and things he had seen in the past, he probably understood that this so-called system is probably what he saw, the ball of light on the timeline of those people!