Fortunately, the screen lit up again, and everything returned to normal.
“Whew~ scared me.”
Lin Mi lay back down, leaning against her big plush bear. She naturally opened the Note video app—her usual bedtime pastime.
Scrolling videos always helped relieve the stress of the day.
She tapped into the hot search list, wanting to check the day’s trending events. Working in planning, she had to keep up with current topics.
【#Shocking! Popular star Lin Ying announces her marriage and publicly states she’s willing to quit the industry for love# Time: September 16】
【#Serious car accident at the South City Overpass during this morning’s rush hour# Time: September 17】
【#Stock Market Flash: Fenghua Technology (code XXXXX) expected to hit its limit-up tomorrow# Time: September 17】
【#Starting September 18, Rong City will face three consecutive days of high temperatures#】
Lin Mi shot upright, stunned.
What!? Lin Ying is getting married?!
That’s a massive bombshell—she’s insanely popular right now, why would she suddenly make such an announcement?
Wait…
Something felt off.
September 16?
But today was only September 15.
Could the report have typed the wrong date?
Would a hot search make such a low-level mistake?
Unless… it was an early-scheduled headline that leaked?
Or a prank from a rival fanbase?
Lin Mi tapped into the trending topic.
But the comment section left her completely confused.
“What’s going on? Why are the comments timestamped the 16th too? Is the comment section bugged?”
She frowned.
If only the news timestamp was wrong, that might be understandable.
But the comment timestamps should reflect real posting times.
Yet the entire comment section was filled with tomorrow morning’s timestamps.
“So weird…”
Lin Mi backed out and searched the keyword again.
Surely not every platform got the date wrong?
But—
Except for the hot search entry, there wasn’t a single related report on the entire platform.
Not even fan discussions.
Was that normal?
She returned to the hot search list and scrutinized the entries again.
September 17 traffic accident?
September 18 heatwave?
September 17 stock surge?
“What the heck… Did the app lose its mind?”
She shook her phone and force-quit the app, reopening it.
But the hot search list remained exactly the same.
Those future-dated topics stayed stubbornly in place, glowing eerily on her screen.
Was her phone broken?
Why else would her phone display hot searches from the future?
She tried a few other apps—everything else worked fine.
Only the Note app seemed to have lost its sanity.
Staring at the screen in bafflement, she sighed.
Forget it.
Technical issues weren’t her specialty.
Whether her phone was damaged or the app was glitching, she couldn’t do much tonight.
“Sigh~”
Today really was the worst.
She might as well sleep early.
Maybe things would look normal in the morning.
She set the phone aside to charge and drifted into sleep.
“Ding ding ding~”
The next morning, the 7 a.m. alarm dragged her from her dreams.
She turned off the alarm and slowly sat up.
“What a dream, seriously…”
As she changed clothes, fragments of her dream floated back to her.
Something about winning a giant jackpot… becoming rich overnight… shopping freely… and a super handsome, stylish guy by her side.
Her life couldn’t get more perfect in that dream.
“Heh~”
She chuckled.
Those things were—of course—only dreams.
Real life didn’t hand out overnight fortunes.
After washing up and getting dressed, she grabbed her bag and headed out.
She had already torn things apart during last night’s banquet, but she still needed to follow the official resignation process.
Her remaining salary and performance bonus hadn’t been paid yet.
If she didn’t go through the formal process, she was afraid the company might stall or find some excuse to withhold her pay.
Thankfully, whenever Director Huang and his group had late-night social events, they usually didn’t show up before 10 a.m.
She had to reach HR before they realized anything.
**
Rong City’s morning rush hour meant the subway was a packed ocean of people.
Crushed among them, Lin Mi clung to the handrail.
The mixed smells of breakfast and sweat filled her nose.
Out of boredom, she took out her phone and reflexively opened the Note app again.
【#Shocking! Popular star Lin Ying announces her marriage and her decision to quit the industry for love# Time: September 16】
【#Serious car accident at the South City Overpass during this morning’s rush hour# Time: September 17】
【#Stock Market Flash: Fenghua Technology (code XXXXX) expected to hit its limit-up tomorrow# Time: September 17】
【#Starting September 18, Rong City will face three consecutive days of high temperatures#】
……
The screen lit up.
The hot search list was exactly the same as last night.
Not a single entry had changed.
Lin Mi frowned deeply.
This stupid bug wasn’t fixed yet?
Or had she really damaged her phone internally?
A whole night had passed, yet these outdated “future news” were still here.
What kind of stubborn bug was this?
She would need to complain to the Note customer service later—or take her phone to a repair shop.
Just as she was about to exit the app, she heard two young women nearby whispering excitedly:
“OMG! Did you see the hot search? Lin Ying actually announced her marriage! So sudden!”
“Right?! And she’s quitting the industry for love! She’s so popular right now—what’s going on? Who’s the guy? What kind of charm does he have?”
“No idea. The media is digging. We’ll know soon… I was literally watching her drama promo yesterday!”
Their voices hit Lin Mi like tiny hammers.
Lin Ying’s marriage announcement… quitting for love…
Wasn’t that exactly what she saw on her phone yesterday—with the timestamp September 16?
Today was… September 16.
Lin Mi whipped her head around to look at the girls.
They were staring at their phones—screens showing breaking headlines from various news apps.
A wild, impossible idea shot through her mind like electricity.
Could it be… what she saw yesterday…
Wasn’t a bug at all?
Her heart pounded violently.
Her fingers trembled around her phone.
She desperately needed to verify this insane thought.
Hello darling, your golden finger has been delivered! Please check your package!
(End of this chapter)