Volume 11: The Days of Traveling on a Train
No One
The Third Day, Daytime
The moment the words “Paradise Island” were spoken, the three tour guides felt like they couldn’t clear their names even if they jumped into the Yellow River1.
This train’s final destination was actually the capital of Russia. The real Paradise Island was in the Maldives, a place a train couldn’t possibly go. So, as soon as everyone heard the broadcast, the first thing they thought of was this “Paradise Island Tour Group.”
The train moved slowly, showing no intention of letting them leave. Seeing the gazes of the people around them turn dangerous, Zhan Zhi hurriedly said, “We don’t know what’s going on either! We were kept in the dark, too!”
A tourist shot back, “What the hell is your company trying to pull? Who’d believe that? I think you’re all in on this together!”
The female tour guide retorted, “If we wanted to screw you over, we would’ve run off long ago. Why would we stay here to be ridiculed by you? Please, get a grip. We’re all just grasshoppers on the same rope2 now!”
Another male tour guide was still trying to contact the company, but the line wouldn’t connect.
Shen Maomao whispered into Auntie Ning’s ear, “The game has officially begun.”
Auntie Ning stared straight ahead, a trace of confusion on her face, as if wondering—didn’t the game already start?
After a slow acceleration, the train’s speed gradually increased, and it quickly left the city, its rattling annoying everyone inside.
After a brief argument, everyone sat in their respective seats, their expressions more or less holding the same confusion as Auntie Ning’s. These people, however, were wondering just where the train was taking them.
Shen Maomao had drunk too many beverages and needed the restroom, but—the dining car was locked.
This game wouldn’t make all sixty-plus of us eat, drink, and relieve ourselves in here, would it? That’s too disgusting. It’d ruin a person’s appetite.
She stood up and tried to walk toward the door.
Everyone looked at her. Zhan Zhi called out, “Xiao Shen? What are you doing?”
Shen Maomao answered truthfully, “I really have to use the restroom… I want to see if the door can be opened…”
The man who had smashed the glass earlier said, “No one’s come to open it. It’s pointless to try.”
This guy has clearly never played a horror game. In horror games, whether a door opens often doesn’t depend on a key, but on how far the plot has progressed.
Shen Maomao placed her hand on the doorknob and pressed down gently. With a kacha3, the main door slowly swung open.
She looked back at the shocked crowd, put on a timely expression of surprise, and said, “Then I’ll do the honors.” With that, she slipped into the bathroom.
When she came out, the others were still frozen in their previous positions, not having left.
Shen Maomao wasn’t too surprised. Although the door was open, they had nowhere to go at the moment. Compared to the blood-soaked sleeper car, it was better to stay here.
Other than opening the door, she didn’t stand out at all. She just sat there with the others, not getting involved in anything.
The train continued forward. The buildings and fields on both sides of the tracks grew scarcer, eventually giving way to a boundless prairie. There wasn’t a soul in sight on the verdant grassland, nor were there any buildings that could serve as landmarks. It felt like they were moving forward, yet it also felt like they were treading in place. Staring at the same scenery for too long was bound to make one feel uneasy.
Everyone sat idly through the noon hour. The three tour guides were ostracized by the tourists and could only stand by the door, dialing the same unreachable phone number over and over again.
Later, someone thought of calling the police. They took out their phones and tried dialing 110 and 1194, but unfortunately, no calls could get through.
Gradually, some people grew restless and stood up, preparing to check the other cars.
Shen Maomao thought for a moment and stood up as well. She asked Auntie Ning, “I want to go look around, too. Are you coming with me or waiting here by yourself?”
Auntie Ning naturally had to follow her power-leveler5. “Let’s go together.”
As they reached the door, Zhan Zhi asked her what she was planning to do.
Shen Maomao briefly explained her idea. “I want to find a crew member and ask what’s going on.”
Zhan Zhi asked, “Can I come with you?”
Shen Maomao had been meaning to test him anyway, so she agreed. “Sure. Which way first?”
“I remember there’s a conductor’s seat in the hard-seat section,” Zhan Zhi said. “Should we go check it out?”
Shen Maomao naturally had no objections.
The three of them walked in a line toward the hard-seat car. As they reached the entrance, Zhan Zhi, who was in the lead, let out a cry of alarm and froze on the spot.
Shen Maomao frowned and said urgently, “What is it? What happened?”
Zhan Zhi pushed the door open. “The people… they’re all gone.”
The hard-seat car was still the same hard-seat car, only now it was completely empty. Not a single person was inside. But the luggage was still there. The snacks and bottled water on the tables were neatly arranged, and some tables even had cell phones on them. It was as if the people were still there, just invisible to them.
The three entered in single file. Shen Maomao even went over and touched a seat to confirm that no one was actually sitting there.
Zhan Zhi was completely bewildered. “What the hell is going on? How did everyone disappear? Is this some kind of prank show?”
Shen Maomao said, “What kind of show would be this elaborate? Hire a whole train for a prank?”
Zhan Zhi scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. “You’re right, I wasn’t thinking it through. So, what do you think is happening?”
Shen Maomao’s lips curled into a smirk. She put on a confident expression and beckoned mysteriously to Zhan Zhi and Auntie Ning with her index finger. As expected, they took the bait and leaned in close.
“I guess we’ve entered a different dimension world6,” Shen Maomao said. “We can only go home if we find the right path.”
Zhan Zhi looked speechless but played along. “Then where do you think the right path is?”
“If I knew, I would’ve left already,” she replied. “Why would I still be wasting time here?”
Zhan Zhi paused. “…Aren’t you scared?”
Shen Maomao grinned at him, baring her teeth. “I’m brave during the day, but I get really scared at night.”
“Well, if you get scared, you can come find me,” Zhan Zhi offered. “I’ll protect you.”
Shen Maomao gave him a meaningful look. “That might be a little inconvenient…”
Zhan Zhi blushed. “That’s not what I… Ugh, forget it. Just remember to find me if you get too scared.”
Shen Maomao glanced at him and decided she couldn’t just string the poor kid along. “Zhan Zhi,” she said directly, “am I just engaging in wishful thinking7, or do you have a thing for me?”
Zhan Zhi’s eyes widened, his face turning so red it looked like it might catch fire. “Ah… you… you could tell?”
To be honest, Shen Maomao had altered her face when she entered. To avoid standing out too much, she’d deliberately picked a face that was neither pretty nor ugly. Zhan Zhi, on the other hand, was quite handsome and tall, so she really couldn’t understand why he’d fallen for her at first sight. It wasn’t that unattractive people didn’t deserve to be liked, but so-called love at first sight was nothing more than seeing beauty and getting ideas8. She really didn’t have the qualifications to inspire that right now. Could it be that in their one day together, he’d discovered the interesting soul beneath her exterior? That was even less plausible than the Ailan Flower9 juice being the reason. Besides, Shen Maomao wasn’t the type to lead people on. The moment she sensed someone had feelings for her, she would make things clear immediately and wouldn’t even continue being friends with them.
So she said to Zhan Zhi, “Sorry, you’re a great guy, but…”
Zhan Zhi’s expression soured a little. “Are you giving me the good person card10?”
Shen Maomao became a bit wary of him. “You could let me finish. What I mean is, I like women, not men.”
Zhan Zhi’s expression went blank for a moment.
Shen Maomao moved her hands behind her back, ready to show no mercy if he made any sudden moves. But Zhan Zhi didn’t move. Instead, he asked, “How do you know you like women? You’ve never tried being with a man, so how do you know you don’t like men?”
Shen Maomao’s brows furrowed so tightly you could kill a fly between them. “I really don’t like what you just said. Please choose your words carefully.”
Zhan Zhi quickly apologized. “Sorry, I was just curious… I’m sorry… My apologies for bothering you…” With that, he turned and ran, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Auntie Ning sidled up, her face full of gossip11. “You like girls? My daughter…”
Shen Maomao cut her off. “Stop! Don’t try any forced matchmaking12. I already have a girlfriend.”
“Oh, I see.” Auntie Ning wasn’t too disappointed. Instead, she pointed at Zhan Zhi’s retreating back and said, “That young man, why did it look like his face was glowing when he turned around?”
Shen Maomao had seen it too. She was closer, so she saw it more clearly. After Zhan Zhi said those three words, “bothering you,” a familiar pattern had appeared on his face. The pattern glowed with a white light, quickly dissipated into the air, and vanished in an instant.
“It’s the Ailan Flower,” she said.
Zhan Zhi’s abnormal behavior was indeed because of the flower juice.
But when did he get dosed? He didn’t seem to be acting strangely when I asked him to switch beds. Was it because I gave him food? But Auntie Ning ate his dried tofu later and didn’t show any signs of falling for anyone… Also, how did he break the flower juice’s magical effect? Was it because Zhan Zhi felt it was impossible to pursue me and gave up in his heart? And the most important point: if the Ailan Flower’s magical effect is never broken, what happens in the end? It definitely won’t be anything good.
Shen Maomao rubbed her temples, which were starting to ache.
This is enough to make my head go bald13.
…
Zhan Zhi had run off, but their investigation had to continue.
Shen Maomao and Auntie Ning kept walking, and just as expected, they didn’t see a single passenger or crew member along the way.
As they were about to reach the end of the train, two women ran toward them frantically from the rear. Their eyes lit up when they saw them. “Are you passengers from the hard-seat car?!”
Shen Maomao had a vague impression of them; they were two of the people she suspected were players. She replied, “No, we’re from the tour group, too.”
The two women’s faces immediately fell with disappointment.
One of them said, “No one… there’s no one here but us. I checked the crew room, the broadcast room, the generator room, all of them. Not a single person…” As she spoke, her voice started to break. “What do we do? Why is no one here? Where did they all go?”
Shen Maomao comforted her, “Calm down first. Don’t be scared; being scared won’t help.”
The other woman sighed. “Everything was fine before. How did it suddenly become like this?”
Shen Maomao said, “Actually, I’m curious about one thing.”
The two women, plus Auntie Ning, all looked at her.
Shen Maomao didn’t keep them in suspense. “I was just wondering, is anyone even driving this train right now?”
All three women’s faces went blank for a second. Then, the one who had sighed abruptly turned and ran back the way they came. The other girl hesitated for a moment before following her.
Auntie Ning said, “My old legs can’t keep up with them…”
“It’s fine,” Shen Maomao said. “It’s enough that they’re going to check. We can walk back slowly. No rush.”
The two of them walked back at a leisurely pace. Along the way, they encountered several more groups of people who were also exploring. She patiently told each of them that there was no one up ahead, but some were still skeptical and had to see for themselves to be sure. Shen Maomao didn’t stop them, letting them go as they pleased.
When they returned to the dining car, they were met by a group of dumbfounded tourists. Zhan Zhi and the two female players from before were among them, as were the two people from compartments three and four who had been taken away by the crew. They had all returned. These two had slept like logs last night and didn’t wake up until nearly ten this morning. Naturally, there was no one around them either, so they got up to look for people and had only just now regrouped with the main party.
Zhan Zhi looked away awkwardly when he saw Shen Maomao again, but thankfully, he didn’t blush this time, which put her at ease.
She scanned the room and asked curiously, “What’s wrong? Why does everyone look so listless?”
A man said, “There’s no one… not a single person…”
Shen Maomao replied, “Aren’t we people?”
“That’s different… it’s different!” the man exclaimed. “There’s no one in the cockpit either!!”
Shen Maomao: “Holy shit! Does anyone here know how to drive a train?”
The man shot back, “Who the fuck knows how to drive this thing? We can’t even get online to look it up. Who would dare touch the buttons randomly? If it derails, we’re all finished.”
You wouldn’t find the answer online anyway… Shen Maomao thought.
Another person said, “If it comes down to it, should we just try randomly? If we keep going like this, we’re bound to crash into another train.”
“We’d better not do that unless it’s the absolute last resort,” the first man argued. “It’s too dangerous.”
Everyone looked at each other, at a complete loss.
Gululu…14
Someone’s stomach rumbled first, followed by a chain reaction of similar sounds.
Most people hadn’t eaten a single bite since morning. Their hunger had been overshadowed by fear and anxiety, but now, even though they couldn’t relax, their stomachs couldn’t help but protest. But there was another very important problem right in front of them—there was no one in the dining car, but there were leftover box lunches from the morning. The number of these box lunches was limited. They didn’t know how long the train would be running, so they couldn’t tell if there was enough food to go around. Moreover, the weather was hot, and the box lunches couldn’t be stored for long. So what they might face next was a situation with no food or drinking water.
The atmosphere in the car instantly grew tense. Shen Maomao hugged her bag of snacks tightly, suddenly feeling like she was in a bit of danger.
Fortunately, at that moment, someone else said, “I saw the vendor’s cart in car number one earlier. It has a lot of instant noodles and bottled water. It should be enough for us.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and stopped eyeing the food so menacingly. Only then did Shen Maomao put her snacks back on the table.
The female tour guide stood by the box lunches and said, “As you can all see, what’s happening now is beyond the scope of science and has nothing to do with us. Now that we’re all trapped here, we should be united and work together to find a way off this train. And you need a leader, otherwise you’ll just be running around like headless flies15…”
Someone cut her off. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten on this train in the first place!”
The female tour guide refuted him with clear logic. “Now is not the time to assign blame. If we manage to get off, you can find a lawyer or call the police, do whatever you want. If we can’t get off this train, then there’s no point in dwelling on it.”
Her logic was impeccable, leaving the nitpicker speechless and making the others tacitly agree to follow her lead.
The female tour guide counted the remaining box lunches and, after some consideration, decided to distribute one to each person for now. Because these were leftovers from last night, they already looked a bit off and probably wouldn’t even last until evening.
Although Shen Maomao had a big bag of snacks, the female tour guide didn’t play favorites and gave her a box as well.
The box lunch was indeed a bit old. The green vegetables were wilted and had a faint sour smell. Many people showed looks of disgust. Shen Maomao didn’t really want to eat it, but she felt it was a shame to waste food, especially since this was the last of it on the entire train.
As if sensing her dilemma, Auntie Ning asked, “Don’t want to eat it? You can give it to me if you’re not eating.”
Shen Maomao said, “Won’t you get a stomachache from this…”
“Depends on the person, right?” Auntie Ning said. “Some people have weaker stomachs and can’t eat sour things. I’m the type with a pretty strong stomach. I can eat anything and be fine.”
Shen Maomao didn’t really want her to eat it. “Why don’t you just eat some snacks instead?”
Auntie Ning scoffed. “Snacks are even worse than the box lunch! They’re full of gutter oil16 and additives. They’ll give you cancer!”
Shen Maomao: “…” Forget it, I’m not gonna argue. The boss can eat whatever she wants; it’s none of my business.
Auntie Ning said she would eat two boxes, but in the end, she could only manage one and a half. She really couldn’t finish the last half and had to wrap it up and throw it in the trash.
It was an unwelcome lunch. After eating, everyone continued to huddle in the dining car, trying to come up with a plan. Although there’s strength in numbers, even with over sixty people gathered together, no one could figure out a way to leave. First, none of them knew how to drive a train, so they couldn’t force it to stop. Second, the train was moving very fast. If they jumped, they’d probably end up with a comminuted fracture, so no one was volunteering to die.
They gathered together, thinking and considering for a long time, and found that the only feasible option seemed to be waiting until the final station. But who knew if the final station was Paradise Island or just plain paradise?
The sun set bit by bit. The scenery outside the window remained unchanged, except for the overall color palette shifting with the setting sun. The great prairie was endless. Not a single tree or telephone pole could be seen. Every blade of grass seemed identical. There was only a set of seemingly endless tracks, stretching infinitely toward an unknown direction.
Around eight o’clock, the sun had completely set. It was pitch-black outside, so dark you couldn’t see your own five fingers17.
Fearing that something might suddenly appear at the windows, all the curtains in the dining car were drawn. Everyone sat together uneasily, not knowing how to get through the night.
Zila…18
Zila…
The sound of static came from the broadcast again, followed by the same female voice from the morning’s station announcement. “Good evening, dear passengers~ The lights will be turned off in half an hour. Please return to your seats. Passengers in the sleeper cars, please lie down in your beds and wait for the conductor’s ticket inspection. To facilitate the conductor’s management, please do not walk around after your ticket has been checked. We wish you all a sweet dream.”
As soon as she spoke, the color drained from everyone’s faces.
Her voice and tone were extremely bizarre. That last sentence sounded less like “Have a sweet dream” and more like “I’ll be damned if I don’t scare you to death.”
“I’d like to see who’s behind this, pretending to be gods and playing with ghosts19!” The hot-tempered man who had smashed the window that morning jumped up and stormed toward the broadcast room.
A young girl wailed, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Who wants to spend a night in that bloody car!”
Shen Maomao said ominously, “If we don’t follow its rules, will we get… kacha‘d?”
The female tour guide frowned. “Don’t say things like that to scare everyone.”
“Sorry,” Shen Maomao said. “I’m just a little scared…”
The female tour guide said, “There’s no need for everyone to listen to the broadcast. Since the cars are empty, we can sleep anywhere we want. If you’re really worried, we can all stay here together. Nothing will happen.”
Someone immediately stood up. “No… I’ve got a bad feeling. I want to go back. Is anyone coming with me?”
A few others stood up with him. “I want to go back, too…”
“Me too.”
“Let’s go together for company…”
The tour guide said, “Whatever. If you want to share a room with corpses, we won’t stop you.”
And so, hulala20, nearly half the people left, with Shen Maomao naturally among them.
She looked around and noticed that Zhan Zhi and the two girls she suspected were players were also in the group.
A crowd of people walked in a line toward car number five. Before they even got there, they could see streaks of blood that had been dragged along the floor.
The person at the very front didn’t dare to look at the door anymore. A man pushed past him. “I’ll do it.”
He stood as far from the door as possible, his body tense as he reached out and yanked the door open. The people behind couldn’t see what was happening, they only knew that his body suddenly froze.
Shen Maomao was standing near the front, so she stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck to look inside. “What’s going on in there?”
The floor, ceiling, and walls of the hard-sleeper car were covered in all sorts of scratches and bloodstains, looking exceptionally gruesome. This was especially true for the floor, which had a dark, black drag mark, as if someone had dragged a body all the way out from the corridor.
The man who opened the door strode to the end of the car. In front of compartments one and two, the floor was as clean as new; the bloodstains had indeed started from there. When he turned his head to look at the compartment where the four bodies had been placed, he found it completely empty.
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