林凡 chapters creaked as he woke up, the familiar scent of damp earth and something vaguely like old sweat clinging to the air. He blinked, groggy and disoriented, until his gaze landed on the straw roof above him. And then he noticed the rough-hewn wooden walls, the tiny window letting in slivers of grey morning light.

"Shit." The word slurred slightly, his throat dry as sandpaper. He pushed himself up, the coarse fabric of his clothes scratching against his skin. Headache throbbed behind his eyes, a dull drumbeat against his skull.

Where the hell was he?

He was definitely not in his cramped apartment over a deep-fried squid stall anymore. No overwhelming smell of cheap batter and chemical fire, no incessant buzz of takeaway delivery drones, no distant wail of a garbage truck at six in the morning.

Instead, there was silence. Broken only by the creak of the wooden floorboards under his feet and the distant, muffled chirping of something that might be a bird. Or maybe a frog. Hard to tell; his ears were ringing.