Late autumn, without wind or noise of leaves, a middle-aged woman walked on the playground holding a strange stone. At this time, all the athletes' training had ended, and soon a garbage truck would come to clean up the playground. The woman threw the stone into the trash can.

The wind shook, and the fallen leaves circled on the ground, making a piercing and lonely sound. It is neither a line nor a chaos, and time is like a fallen leaf in a circle. New life or death is not the endpoint or starting point of a circle, just as you stand on an oval playground, any point on the track can be the starting or ending point. Aging, while welcoming death, also summons new life.

 

24 seconds, sometimes not even enough for me to finish reading a page of a novel, but for athletes, it's completely enough to change everything. Even in the first second, I observed her tilting her shoulders and racket at an angle of about 45 degrees. With just one more second of reaction time, my muscles could resonate with the ping pong ball and make the best coping strategy. But I seem unable to fully control this sudden superpower, I freely pause time but cannot freely activate it. For the remaining 23 seconds, I even felt a bit bored because I could only keep my posture as unchanged as possible to avoid others noticing that I was teleporting, which was like cheating, I thought.

"Goal! Freya! "Without a doubt, I won the game.

My opponent is a hardworking genius, defeating her means I can become a proud child like her, even better than her. Although I think I worked harder than all the contestants, you easily solved all my moves, that's the strength of a champion, "she said with a smile.

I tried to find some disappointment in her, but I failed. During the subsequent dinner, she kept expressing her appreciation for me, which made me feel very embarrassed. Her honesty made me feel selfish and despicable. However， We are not familiar friends after all, maybe she can only express her emotions freely after leaving my gaze.

Slowly, the time I can pause becomes longer and longer, and my life becomes smooth sailing. Even if I missed science and other courses due to athlete training, I can easily achieve good results. 24 minutes is enough time for me to enter the teacher's office and obtain the exam questions in advance. I have become a celebrity and gained the favor of others. Even top students who used to feel like they were not in the same world as me would come to talk to me. Just like now, a tall and thin boy sits across from me eating. He is the champion of a youth physics competition. I think he may earn a lot of money in the future, and he will always earn more than me. We are completely different, he achieved everything through his talent, which makes me admire him. Of course, I will try my best to avoid discussing topics outside of life with him, as that is not my area of expertise.

"The spaghetti is sold out today, maybe I should have come earlier. The person in front of me seems to have bought the last one, "I expressed my dissatisfaction to him. He casually stirred his spoon without immediately responding to me. We are always in this state, he calmly watches my cheerful monologue, he appreciates my excellent conditions and achievements but does not actively seek topics with me.

After a while, he said, "Maybe you've already eaten spaghetti..."

"I clearly didn't buy spaghetti!"

He didn't pay attention to me interrupting him, but continued to explain to me: "There is a theory in physics called chaos theory, which I think you have also understood. Although you haven't eaten spaghetti, at the intersection of time, there may be countless Freya and me, and there will always be one or even more Freya who have eaten spaghetti. Although I don't really like Western cuisine, there may one that I will eat spaghetti with you for some reason

He stopped stirring his spoon. I guess this is a topic he likes, maybe it's also a topic I like. She reminds me of some movies I've watched before, such as "Arrival" or "Coherence". I probably remember the plot, but I can't understand the principle. I understand that continuing to chat may expose me as just an ignorant second rate person, so it's rare. I didn't respond to him either. I'm a bit disappointed. If it weren't for his obsession with boring principles, we might have been able to talk about love hate relationships in movies. Time pause is like this, I can gain knowledge during the pause, but I cannot gain love during the pause.

The pause time has been getting longer and longer, from 24 seconds to 24 minutes, and now it even takes 24 years, but I increasingly cannot do without the privilege of time pause, whether it is for running for a job or for the depression brought by a failed relationship. At the same time, the "side effects" of time suspension are becoming longer and longer. In the past, I didn't think it was a bad thing, but now I am troubled by it. I can accept my laziness, selfishness, greed, and even ignorance, but I am increasingly afraid of loneliness. During the pause, all sounds often disappear, and quietness often makes people who don't like reading feel bored. I even encountered people with beautiful faces on the street during the pause. These people who used to attract my attention turned into paused dolls, with clear pores and enlarged facial features. Perhaps due to the uncanny-valley effect, I began to fear paused people. During the long pause, I only wanted to stay in my own bedroom.

"A wormhole connects two places in the universe by bending space, and if it really exists, it may conform to our law of universal gravitation."         

I saw this sentence while reviewing the improvement plan. Actually, I don't know what it means or how it affects me, but I feel that my abilities seem to be related to time, and time can be influenced. So I started various attempts, such as chasing time during pauses where I didn't know how to surpass the speed of light, or where I could easily do it during pauses.

I started to frequently activate my abilities in different ways, and before each sleep, I would tear up the past day's calendar. Finally, on the evening of the 24th of a certain month, the torn 24th appeared on my calendar. On this day, I casually changed the positions of several fitness equipment at home. The next day, another 24 days, the positions of the equipment had already changed. I decided to make a bigger attempt and become someone who masters wormholes. In every different world connected through wormholes, I should have different life experiences. I started to miss myself without superpowers. Although I rarely became a champion, I always worked hard and was full of vitality like spring.

So, I arrived at the familiar playground...

 

Perhaps just being scolded by the boss, the person in charge of the garbage truck did not check if the carriage was locked properly. There is no kitchen waste in the school playground garbage bin, so even if it is not locked properly, there is no need to worry about foul smelling garbage falling. Passing by the road where students are returning home, a girl heard the sound of "crackling", like some kind of stone falling to the ground. The girl picked up the peculiar stone that had fallen and turned around to observe if anyone was there. However, perhaps thinking that she had important things to prepare for these days, she chose to take the stone home first.