Horror Short Story | The Alarm Clock

Chen Cheng found an old alarm clock in the drawer of his bedside table in his rented room. The hands were stuck at 3:07 AM, and the casing was a bit rusty, but it looked like it could still work. He replaced the battery, and the hands started moving. He set the time correctly, scheduling it to ring at 7 AM. The next morning, the alarm clock didn't ring. He overslept and was late. Thinking the clock was broken, he pressed the night-light button and discovered the time was stuck at 3:07 AM. He manually set the hands to the correct time and reset it. The next morning, it was stuck at 3:07 AM again. He found it strange, even after changing the battery, the result was the same. No matter how he adjusted it, the hands would always return to 3:07 AM the next day. He searched for the model online and found it was an old model discontinued over a decade ago. He searched for related discussions and came across an old forum post titled: 'Help, my alarm clock keeps stopping at 3:07 AM.' Clicking on it, the poster said they bought a second-hand alarm clock whose hands would stop at the same time every day. Feeling something was wrong, they investigated the previous owner and discovered that the previous owner had died at 3:07 AM. Below the post, someone replied: 'That's the time of the dead. The clock is warning you not to be awake at that hour.' Chen Cheng was stunned and closed the webpage. He decided to throw the alarm clock away. That night, he put the alarm clock in a trash bag and threw it into the large dumpster downstairs. After returning home, he fell into a deep sleep. In the middle of the night, he heard a ringing sound. It was very loud, right by his ear. He opened his eyes, and the alarm clock was sitting on his bedside table. The hands pointed to 3:07 AM, and the ringing continued. He reached out to turn it off, but found the button wouldn't press down. The back of the alarm clock