Chapter 60

And in the last card, this man had been smashed to pieces, leaving only a hand.

The man's voice: "In a time when I felt empty, you appeared before me."

The card's gold light faded, and blood spread up from the bottom of the card.

The man's voice: "I had no aim, nothing I wanted to do, but you caught all my attention, left me thinking of you day and night."

A voice really is a strange thing; though it was across a screen, only a paper cutout from a world that didn't exist, Liu Zhiyi felt her heart tremble.

The man's voice: "I want to create a meeting with you once more."

—Roar.

That was the rush of air as the subway sped past a station.

Liu Zhiyi saw the carriage lights go out one by one, from far to near, until only the one before her was left.

She didn't lower the phone, only looked ahead through the gaps in her fingers, out of the corner of her eye.

She saw a pool of blood.

And in her ears the earbuds went on playing the man's voice.

"We've met once again — perhaps this is fate."

The watch on her wrist buzzed; a new task updated.

[An Unbreakable Bond]

—Crackle.

Static came through the earbuds.

Liu Zhiyi took out the earbud in her left ear.

—Drip.

She heard the sound of water dropping onto an umbrella.

How could there be such a sound in the subway?

—Drip.

Liquid dripped onto the fingers gripping the phone, rolling from her fingers to the web of her thumb, lit by the phone screen.

That drop of liquid was a red bead of blood; it rolled down from the web of her thumb, joined the lines of her palm, left a red bloodline, and finally merged into the red thread in her palm.

Liu Zhiyi followed the red thread ahead and lowered the phone from before her face.

In the whole carriage only the one light before her was left, like a spotlight thrown in front of her.

And under the spotlight stood a person.

Liu Zhiyi didn't know how to describe this "person."

He… or should it be called it?

It wore a raincoat, blood dripping steadily from the raincoat's hem — the large pool of blood she'd seen before had probably come from here.

Yet even in a raincoat, it held an umbrella.

She glanced at the phone.

The screen still rested on the game's gacha-pull interface.

And the man on the card face was lit from behind — the reflected glow of the subway lights.

His whole face was wet; he tilted his head toward the screen, and reached out a hand as he smiled.

Liu Zhiyi moved her gaze from the phone to look ahead.

Honestly, in another setting, an image like this would be quite lovely.

The soft patter of rain, the white points of light diffusing in the halo, and the hand reaching out from under the umbrella.

And the rose held in that hand.

The red thread in Liu Zhiyi's palm had an end now — joined to this very hand holding the rose.

But it, too, was only a hand.

So this was the "where" of the otome game and the dungeon meeting.

Liu Zhiyi gazed at the empty, drifting raincoat, and the umbrella and hand floating beside it.

Though the image wasn't as frightening as the dungeons she'd been through — funny, even —

she still took a step back.

—Drip, drip.

The blood-rain fell harder.

The raincoat drifted over too.

The umbrella tilted her way, sheltering over her head, and the rose fell into Liu Zhiyi's hand.

She hadn't actually wanted to take the rose, but the red thread, unresponsive all this while, suddenly drew taut, tugging her hand up.

It looked like the opening of some ball — she raised her hand, took the rose, and turned a floating circle in place.

Then the raincoat drew near, and settled slowly to the floor, shoulder to shoulder with her.

Liu Zhiyi: "…"

She threw a quick glance at the watch.

Sure enough, the task screen still rested on An Unbreakable Bond.

This entry into a dungeon had been sudden too; she hadn't had time to gather any news on Love Heartbeat — the otome game had been out a while, and there should be plenty of walkthroughs online.

Liu Zhiyi hadn't played many otome games before, and had little concept of this kind of game.

So — the game was for falling in love?

Shen Songyue had mentioned love several times too.

But how was she to fall in love? Liu Zhiyi glanced at the empty raincoat with its one hand — it didn't even have a mouth.

While she was thinking, Liu Zhiyi saw the hand reach out before her again.

The hand wasn't ugly — knuckles distinct, yet the skin smooth, white with a flush of red, lovely as a piece of jade, not like a severed hand.

Liu Zhiyi didn't move; the hand hung in the air a while, and seeing no response, the fingers drooped — even without features, a downcast feeling came through the gaps of the fingers.

But the downcast feeling didn't last long; the hand opened again and, as if doing a magic trick, produced a sheet of paper, drifting toward her with the paper pinched between two fingers.

Liu Zhiyi kept backing away.

She thought to herself that this hand was just like the male characters in those otome games — very forward.

Before she'd retreated far, out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of red light; the red thread lifted and tugged her a step forward.

And so the sheet of paper pressed itself to her face.

—Drip.

—Drip.

The blood-rain still fell, the small splashed beads gathering into a hazy blood-mist all around.

The white light overhead shone straight down, wrapping even this blood-mist in a layer of white glow.

She looked across, at the empty raincoat with its outstretched severed hand.

It looked like a scene out of some idol drama.

The mist, the white light, the male and female leads face to face.

Liu Zhiyi smelled a scent of osmanthus — it came from the paper.

And in her ears the earbud brought a stretch of music at just the right moment — the otome game's background music, no doubt.

Though Love Heartbeat's main storyline was rather ghastly, its background music followed the usual otome style — a gentle piano melody flowing from the earbud like water, along with the drip, drip of falling rain all around.

Liu Zhiyi watched the severed hand open the paper — its surface printed with a pattern of osmanthus flowers.

It pressed the paper to her face.

Liu Zhiyi pulled her neck in and gripped the phone tight.

But the next second the paper only brushed lightly over her cheek, wiping away a patch of blood.

The man's voice sounded again from the earbud, running over her scalp like a current.

"…Your face is dirty."

Liu Zhiyi startled, wondering how a voice could suddenly come out of the earbud.

But she didn't dare move, her whole attention fixed on this hand.

The severed hand brushed lightly at her face, then, as if startled, suddenly drew back — the umbrella above her drawing back a little with it, though even so, the umbrella slanted to cover her whole body.

At the same time the man's voice sounded again from the earbud.

"…Sorry, I overstepped just now… you're soaked. Do you want a tissue?"

Liu Zhiyi looked up and saw the severed hand cradling a pack of tissues, holding it out before her.

The man's voice: "Wipe yourself off."

It really was just like the plot of some otome game…

Liu Zhiyi hesitated a few seconds, then took the tissues.

But had the Bluetooth earbuds she wore turned into a prop too?

Liu Zhiyi touched the earbud in her right ear, then stole a glance at the watch — there was no new prompt on it.

She thought a moment and picked up the phone.

The screen still rested on the game interface, only her grab just now seemed to have touched the screen.

This interactive kind of otome game usually pushed the plot forward by tapping the screen.

And with that pinch just now, the game's plot had moved a few steps on.

Liu Zhiyi glanced at the severed hand and found it still floating obediently; seeing her look over, the fingers even curled in a little.

Liu Zhiyi tapped the story-review in the top-right of the phone.

She found the An Unbreakable Bond card story also happened in a subway.

Coincidence or not, the game's plot was her — or the female lead? Liu Zhiyi didn't know what to call the female-lead viewpoint standing in for the player in an otome game.

She'd call her the female lead for now.

The female lead's plot also stopped at the point where, after boarding the subway, the surroundings suddenly fell dark, blood-rain began, and she met the male character.

Right — the male character smashed to pieces was called…

Liu Zhiyi lowered her head and looked closely at the name label on the game's dialogue box.

Zhou Fuqing.

Only, compared to the dungeon where just a hand was left —

the Zhou Fuqing in the game had a whole body, but the light and shadow of the whole scene were a little strange: in the dim subway, Zhou Fuqing's body carried banded black shadows.

It looked as if the body had split open.

And the Zhou Fuqing in the phone raised a hand too, holding out a pack of tissues past the screen.

So the dungeon and the game plots were synchronized, Liu Zhiyi thought.

She tapped the phone screen.

The dialogue box vanished, and an option popped up.

Just like those normal otome games, where you had to choose at certain plot points.

[Ask Zhou Fuqing what's going on.]

[Take Zhou Fuqing's hand.]

Liu Zhiyi ignored the second option outright and tapped the first.

The man's voice sounded again.

"You really shouldn't have appeared here."

In the game the rain was falling softly too.

At this moment the piano piece began to change key.

The man's voice: "I'm sorry… it might be my fault. I wanted so badly to see you that it brought you here."

Very candid, Liu Zhiyi thought.

Listening to the game's voice, she stared at the severed hand.

The man's voice: "I saw you a long time ago, in the subway too. It was only an accidental meeting of eyes, but you smiled at me."

Words like these, heard in reality from a real, unfamiliar man, would be not just cloying but maybe a little frightening.

But across the earbud and screen, paired with that low, pleasant voice and the drip, drip of the rain —

a strange feeling slowly rose in Liu Zhiyi's heart.

The man's voice: "I don't know why either — maybe my mood was bad then, or maybe I wanted to see someone smile at me… I found my heart beating faster."

The changed piano notes suddenly became one beat after another, like falling raindrops, like a pounding heartbeat.

The man's voice: "A pity I couldn't seize the chance that time… and then, there was no more chance."

Liu Zhiyi thought of the last card's cutscene, Zhou Fuqing's body smashed to pieces by the truck.

For a moment, along with the mournful little piano melody and the hoarse, trembling voice, she felt a touch of sorrow.

Was this the charm of an otome game?

Liu Zhiyi was surprised at her own swing of feeling.

The man's voice: "I'm sorry… I wanted to see you, I wanted to meet you again, but I never thought this obsession would bring you here."

—Clatter.

The floor of the carriage beneath her feet seemed to start moving.

Liu Zhiyi lowered her head.

The voice in the dungeon and the voice in the earbud overlapped.

The subway in the game and the one under her feet began to move.

The man's voice: "I've regretted it all along — why didn't I work up the courage to speak to you the first time we met, and find some idle thing or other to chat about, even just a foolish smile with nothing to say."

—Clatter.

—Clatter.

The carriage began to pick up speed; in the pitch-black carriage, unseen things whispered together.

The man's voice: "I'm sorry… I'll send you out."