Chapter 64

Liu Zhiyi: "Should I put on your coat, then?"

"It won't necessarily work." Shen Songyue sighed again. "That subway is rather special, poised between reality and dungeon, so a prop doesn't necessarily work every moment."

True enough — props didn't work at all in reality.

Shen Songyue: "Or — let's forget it. The risk on that subway is quite high."

Liu Zhiyi found her attitude very odd, and putting it together with what she'd seen on Weibo —

"…Is your view human extinction?"

Shen Songyue paused, then laughed.

"How could it be… did you search Love Heartbeat on Weibo?"

Liu Zhiyi: "Mm."

Shen Songyue was still smiling.

"There really are extremists in our organization, but not to that degree. Then again — we fight the false god's invasion to protect humanity; if humanity went extinct, what would the fight even be for?"

Hearing this, Liu Zhiyi felt a weight lift, but also a little guilt at her own wild speculation, and it firmed up her resolve to enter the dungeon.

"I still want to save the cat. In the state I'm in, I have to find something to do."

Shen Songyue: "All right. Then don't rush off to hang around the subway just yet — I'll get the coat ready for you here."

Shen Songyue was brisk in word and deed; she'd just said she'd lend the coat, and by that afternoon Liu Zhiyi received the delivery.

The box held not only the coat but some other props too — several packs of Tang Monk Meat and the like stuffed in…

Liu Zhiyi packed it all into her bag, and once she was ready, set off to hang around the subway.

Unlike last time, when she'd entered a dungeon the moment she reached the subway —

Liu Zhiyi waited on edge, and from morning to night the subway didn't change at all.

She waited right up to the last train, and could only board it to go home.

She'd thought the last train might bring some change, but she got all the way home with nothing happening.

Liu Zhiyi kept waiting for it to come to her for several days, her nerves drawn tight, until in the end she'd grown a little irritable — not even a dungeon's shadow to be seen.

But she still didn't drop her guard, wearing Shen Songyue's coat every day; only, the last few days of waiting from morning to night had worn her out, so today she decided to head home earlier, at five in the afternoon.

Liu Zhiyi was mulling over what takeout to order that night; five was the start of rush hour, and the carriage was fairly full, no seats free, but not so packed that people pressed against each other.

This was a time slot Liu Zhiyi had chosen on purpose; her instinct told her that with more people around, uncanny things were less likely to come for her, so a dungeon was less likely too.

But this hour also seemed to be when children got out of school; two kids ran around the carriage, weaving in and out through the gaps in the crowd, brushing past her legs.

She was already out of sorts, and hearing the kids shriek and roughhouse in the carriage set her head near to bursting; she bore it for a few stops and really couldn't bear any more.

Liu Zhiyi turned her gaze to the children, and was about to speak up and have their parents mind them, when the carriage light overhead suddenly flickered, and she saw the child stumble underfoot, as if he'd stepped into empty air and pitched forward.

There, Liu Zhiyi thought — running in the subway and taking a fall.

Irritated as she was, she couldn't just watch a child hit the floor, so she put out a hand to steady him, and once he was steady, looked up at once to open fire on the parents.

Liu Zhiyi: "Whose child is this? You can't go running in the subway."

—Crackle.

The light flickered again.

Her hand went heavy, as if she'd grabbed a cold, sinking lump of iron.

Liu Zhiyi froze.

The carriage suddenly went quiet, all the sounds of people talking and children playing receding.

And the people in the carriage all stopped moving.

That should have been impossible, because a moving subway always sways, and people sway slightly with it.

But right now everyone in the carriage was as if glued to the floor, not moving at all.

Shen Songyue's words suddenly rang in Liu Zhiyi's mind.

"Veteran players like us… usually get caught from being careless."

"You saw it."

Liu Zhiyi heard someone speak.

Then the standing "people" all turned their heads at once.

"You saw it."

—Crackle.

The carriage light went out.

Liu Zhiyi's heart pounded several hard beats.

But her mind blanked for only a second; she let go of the child at once — yet the child clung to her hand like a magnet.

"You saw it…"

"You saw it…"

"You saw it…"

Human voices came from all sides, swallowing her.

Liu Zhiyi forced her eyes wide; it was very dark all around, and she could see nothing.

Was the carriage this dark before?

Last time, riding the subway with Zhou Fuqing, even with the lights off she could faintly make out the outlines of things.

An air-sound mixed with a cold current burst behind her ear.

"I see you…"

A "person" was behind her, covering her eyes with a hand.

Once she realized this, Liu Zhiyi felt more "things."

First the hand — the one that had grabbed the child grew heavier and heavier.

At first Liu Zhiyi thought it was the ghost-child dragging her hand, but now she felt some other "thing" clasping her arm.

And her back.

Something seemed to be pressing on her back.

Heavy — very heavy.

Liu Zhiyi tried to struggle, but the moment she stepped a foot forward it was yanked down, and some "thing" wrapped around it.

Don't think, don't think.

Liu Zhiyi repeated it over and over inside.

But her mind kept thinking anyway.

Was a "person" clasping her hand, was a "person" on her back, was she crawling all over with… "people"?

Liu Zhiyi drew a deep breath.

She forced herself to think of a way.

Props… right, props!

These days she'd stuffed the props into her bag and kept them on her, but the trouble came too suddenly, and with the bag on her back, it wasn't easy to get at them.

Liu Zhiyi raised a hand.

She only had to turn side-on and reach back, but the moment her hand lifted a little, it drooped all the way down.

Liu Zhiyi hissed; she could feel the "thing" clasping her arm was very strong.

What to do next?

Liu Zhiyi began to panic, and with the panic her heartbeat sped up.

Only when the electric sting came through her wrist did Liu Zhiyi realize her heart rate had gone too fast.

And as the shocks quickened —

Liu Zhiyi felt her body grow heavier and heavier, colder and colder.

As if she were drowning.

Liu Zhiyi opened her mouth and found she couldn't draw breath, because a "person" had wound around her neck.

She began to lose the sounds, her mind going hazy.

Am I going to die?

Liu Zhiyi thought.

After clearing so many dungeons, was she going to die this pathetically in the end?

It wasn't fair.

Even meeting a high-difficulty dungeon and losing to the boss would be better — how had she capsized in a ditch?

Not fair, truly not fair.

Liu Zhiyi felt wronged, and resentful.

And this hurt and resentment even spilled, unbidden, onto Zhou Fuqing.

She thought — if not for… if not for saving him…

—Twang.

Liu Zhiyi startled, and then her hand lifted.

Like reeling in a fish, she was yanked upward again.

Maybe from the sheer speed, the "thing" covering her face was pulled open a crack.

Through the crack, Liu Zhiyi saw a taut red thread.

—Twang.

Liu Zhiyi flew up.

Or rather, she was pulled flying by that red thread.

—Crackle.

The carriage-ceiling light flickered.

In the flashing light, Liu Zhiyi saw black "figures" fly up beside her, reaching out their hands, as if to grab her.

But the red thread's force was too strong.

Liu Zhiyi was pulled flying forward.

The voice in the earbud sounded again.

Liu Zhiyi hadn't even opened Love Heartbeat, yet the game ran on its own.

A man's voice sounded, in time with hurried piano.

"You shouldn't have come. It's too dangerous."

Black shapes swarmed in the carriage; indistinct "figures" kept surging out of the dark and lunging at her.

With each "I see you," they were flicked away by the red thread.

Zhou Fuqing: "Rationally I know this is wrong, but I'm so happy."

—Thump, thump.

—Crackle.

Her heart beat hard, and the current from the watch on her wrist struck hard too.

So was this fear… or love?

The subway began to slow.

Pulled by the thread, Liu Zhiyi spun a circle in the air, stepped a foot onto a "figure," and then, turning circles without meaning to, flew toward the carriage door treading on "figures."

—Ding-dong.

The door opened.

Liu Zhiyi looked out.

The Ferris wheel behind the psychiatric hospital glowed with pink neon, its cat-paw pattern blinking on and off — in time, as it happened, with her heartbeat.

—Thump, thump.

—Thump, thump.

Zhou Fuqing: "I didn't expect that after all the going around, you'd come here after all."

The red thread looped around her fingers, as if cradling her hand, tugging her gently out through the door.

Zhou Fuqing gave a laugh.

"Does this count as… a single red thread tying two fated hearts across a thousand miles?"

—Thump, thump.

Liu Zhiyi heard her own heartbeat.

Once her heart started, it wouldn't stop.

She was afraid, her palms shaking beyond control, yet her face flushed hot, gone a little shy at Zhou Fuqing's laughter in the earbud.

Strange as it was to have all these feelings mixed together, at least she'd gotten out of the subway.

Liu Zhiyi let out a long breath, pressed a hand to her chest, and steadied her heartbeat.

Once her heart rate eased, Liu Zhiyi turned around.

Behind her was a small platform, and the subway stood at its edge.

Unlike what she'd imagined, this subway was new and clean, not frightening at all.

By the station's light, Liu Zhiyi looked into the car.

Behind the open door it was empty.

Not a soul in the carriage.

—Ding-dong.

The carriage doors closed, light reflecting off the windows into a bright band.

The light and shadow on the windows were sharply divided.

It looked like clump after clump of black shapes…

No.

They were human figures — the windows were full of human figures.

The car was full of "people."

"Those are the passengers with no direction." Zhou Fuqing's tone was easy; hearing his voice, her feelings settled without meaning to.

Zhou Fuqing: "Because they have no direction, they have no platform to get off at, so they grow envious, and forcibly drag people into staying on the train."

Liu Zhiyi drew her gaze back from the departing subway and turned her head.

The red thread spread out from the edge of her palm, drawn into a long line, running all the way to the psychiatric hospital not far off.

Zhou Fuqing: "The next train will take a while to come."

The man's voice in the earbud paused, then dropped a good deal softer, as if a little embarrassed.

Zhou Fuqing: "…Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

She could still choose? This really did seem like a date.

Liu Zhiyi grew curious about this dungeon of Zhou Fuqing's.

It was just…

Liu Zhiyi tugged the red thread; last time she'd entered the subway she could still see the severed hand and umbrella, but this time only the red thread was left.