003, has the phone gone haywire?

Fortunately, the screen lit up again, and the page returned to normal.

“Phew—what a scare.”

Lin Mi lay back down, nestled against her giant teddy bear, and deftly opened the “Note” video app—her usual pre-bedtime amusement.

A bit of mindless scrolling helped to ease away the fatigue of the day.

She went straight to the trending topics, wanting to see the day’s hottest events. In her line of work as a planner, it was essential to keep up with the latest developments.

[#Shocking! Popular starlet Lin Ying announces engagement and her willingness to leave the industry for love# Date: September 16]

[#Serious traffic accident at South City Interchange during this morning’s rush hour# Date: September 17]

[#Stock Market Update: Fenghua Technology (code XXXXX) expected to hit the upper limit tomorrow# Date: September 17]

[#From September 18, Rong City to experience three consecutive days of high temperatures#]

...

Lin Mi suddenly bolted upright, her face full of disbelief.

What! Lin Ying is getting married?

What an explosive piece of news—she’s at the peak of her career, why would she suddenly go public with this?

Wait a minute...

Something felt off.

September 16?

But today is only the 15th. Could the article have the date wrong?

Would a trending topic really make such a basic mistake?

Or was it a pre-scheduled headline accidentally released early?

Or maybe some rival’s prank?

Lin Mi immediately tapped into the trending topic, but what she saw in the comments section left her dumbfounded.

“What’s going on? Why are all the comments dated the 16th? Is the comment section glitched too?”

She frowned slightly. If it was just the trending topic’s timestamp that was wrong, that could be explained—but surely the timestamps on people’s comments should be accurate?

Yet every comment was marked with tomorrow morning’s time.

“This is really weird.”

Confused, Lin Mi exited the trending news. Unconvinced, she searched for related trending keywords—surely the entire internet couldn’t be wrong?

But—

With the exception of the news item on the trending list, she couldn’t find a single related report on the entire platform—not even in the fan forums.

Was this normal?

She returned once more to the trending page, studying the list carefully.

A rush hour accident on the 17th?

High temperatures starting the 18th for three days?

Stock market news for the 17th?

“What the heck? Has the Note system gone haywire?”

She shook her phone in disbelief, then force-quit the app and restarted it.

But the trending list was unchanged, those items with clear future dates stubbornly remaining, emitting a strange, uncanny glow through the bright screen.

Was her phone broken from the earlier drop?

Otherwise, how could it be displaying news from days ahead?

She opened several other apps—everything else was normal. So it was just the Note app acting up?

Lin Mi stared at the screen in confusion. Never mind—there was no point fretting over technical glitches.

Was it her phone, or was the Note system just having a meltdown tonight?

“Sigh—”

All in all, today had been truly terrible.

She might as well sleep early—maybe tomorrow everything would be back to normal.

With that, Lin Mi turned off her phone and set it to charge, then drifted off into sleep.

——

“Beep beep beep—”

The following morning, Lin Mi was roused from sleep by her seven o’clock alarm.

She instinctively silenced it and only then slowly pulled herself from bed.

“What a wonderful dream,” she mused as she changed clothes, fleeting fragments from her dream surfacing in her mind.

It seemed she’d won some huge prize and become rich overnight?

Then she’d gone on a shopping spree, living the high life—there even seemed to be a handsome, dashing man by her side, and life was simply perfect!

She couldn’t help but laugh. Such good fortune only happened in dreams.

In real life, there were no such things as overnight windfalls.

Quickly washing up and getting dressed, she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out.

She’d had a total falling out at the dinner meeting last night, but she still had to complete the resignation process—after all, she hadn’t collected part of her salary and bonus yet.

If she didn’t go through the formalities, she worried the company would delay things or find some excuse to withhold her pay.

Fortunately, whenever Director Huang’s group had evening engagements, they usually didn’t show up at the office until around ten the next day.

So she needed to get to HR and finish the procedures before Director Huang caught on.

**

During Rong City’s morning rush hour, the subway was as crowded as ever.

Squashed by the throng, Lin Mi gripped the handrail tightly, the air thick with the mingled scents of breakfast and sweat.

Bored, she pulled out her phone and habitually opened the “Note” app again.

[#Shocking! Popular starlet Lin Ying announces engagement and her willingness to leave the industry for love# Date: September 16]

[#Serious traffic accident at South City Interchange during this morning’s rush hour# Date: September 17]

[#Stock Market Update: Fenghua Technology (code XXXXX) expected to hit the upper limit tomorrow# Date: September 17]

[#From September 18, Rong City to experience three consecutive days of high temperatures#]

…

The screen lit up. The trending list flashed before her eyes.

The content and dates were exactly the same as last night—unchanged!

Lin Mi frowned, muttering to herself. Was this persistent bug still unfixed? Or had she really damaged her phone with that drop?

A whole night had passed—why was it still displaying these “future news” items as if they were overdue?

How stubborn could a bug be?

She’d have to contact Note’s customer service after finishing her resignation, or maybe just take the phone to a shop for a checkup.

Just as she was about to exit the app, she overheard two young women talking excitedly nearby, their voices low but brimming with enthusiasm.

“Wow, did you see the trending news? Lin Ying actually announced her engagement! Oh my god, so sudden!”

“I know, right? And she’s quitting the industry for love! She’s at the peak of her fame—what is she thinking? Who’s the guy, anyway? He must be something special.”

“No idea. The media’s digging, but I’m sure we’ll know soon… I just watched her new drama’s promo yesterday…”

Their conversation reached Lin Mi’s ears clearly, each word striking her heart like a tiny hammer.

Lin Ying… announcing her engagement… leaving the industry for love… Wasn’t that exactly what she’d seen on her phone yesterday—marked for “September 16”?

Today was… September 16!

Lin Mi whipped her head around to look at the two girls. They were both staring at their phones, which displayed the major news apps pushing Lin Ying’s engagement as headline news!

An absurd, almost unbelievable thought flashed through Lin Mi’s mind like a jolt of electricity.

Could it be… that the trending news she saw yesterday wasn’t a bug, but… real?

Her heart started pounding uncontrollably, her fingers trembling around her phone.

She desperately needed to verify this insane idea.