Jiang Younian, who was burning the midnight oil to cram for his finals, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.
Everything went black, and he drifted into a deep sleep.
Until a distant, ethereal voice echoed in his ears:
"Welcome to the Yellow Springs Transfer Station."
Struggling to open his eyes, Jiang Younian found everything around him unfamiliar. The void was filled with thick, oppressive mist, a chaotic expanse of nothingness. He tightened his jacket, feeling a sudden, inexplicable chill.
"Is anyone there?"
Jiang Younian asked tentatively, but received no response. A whistling wind rushed past his ears, and suddenly, his body began to sway uncontrollably. The biting wind stung his face. Gradually, the wind died down, and just as Jiang Younian grew puzzled, he felt a sudden weightlessness as he plummeted downward.
Eventually, a cacophony of noise broke out around him.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Jiang Younian struggled to open his eyes, finding himself surrounded by a circle of concerned faces, all of them strangers. There were men, women, the old, and the young—he didn't recognize a single one.
Terrified, Jiang Younian sat up. Who were they? Where was he? Wasn't he just in his dorm room studying?
"He's awake, he's fine now. Everyone, disperse."
An elderly man with graying hair ushered the onlookers away. Jiang Younian’s mind was in a haze; he had no idea what day it was or where he was. It wasn't until he looked out the window at the scenery flashing by and took in his surroundings that he realized he was on a high-speed train.
What was going on? Why was he on a train?
Jiang Younian scrambled to his feet, instinctively reaching for his phone. It wasn't there. How could a college student be without their phone?
Across the aisle, a young teenager was looking at him with curiosity. After staring for a long moment, the boy turned his head and said to the person beside him, "Brother Xiaoxie, he doesn't look like he’s doing too well."
"No phone, no luggage, no bag, not even any ID. How did I get on this train? I couldn't have crawled onto it, could I?" Jiang Younian’s thoughts were a jumbled mess, until a mischievous, childlike laugh drifted over from the right side of the aisle.
"What are you looking for? Do you want me to call the conductor to help you buy a ticket?"
Jiang Younian followed the voice and saw a fair-skinned, red-lipped boy tilting his head at him. He looked to be about eight or nine, quite cute. But why did his words sound more like mockery than a genuine offer of help?
"Xiaoyou, be quiet."
A hand with well-defined knuckles reached over from behind the child, effectively muting him. Then, a refined young man in a Zhongshan suit leaned his head over to look at Jiang Younian.
"My apologies," he said politely, "my younger brother is too mischievous."
The voice... it was so familiar. Jiang Younian felt as though he had heard it somewhere before. His gaze flickered over the bamboo sprig pinned to the man’s chest, which inexplicably filled him with a sense of warmth.
"This dream is so strange, with so many people."
Jiang Younian leaned back against his seat and drifted back into a daze.
The young man on the other side of the aisle shifted his gaze. He smiled at the child beside him. "Have you ever seen a newcomer so calm? Do you still think he isn't doing well?"
"Hmph!" The child pouted, rolled his eyes at Jiang Younian, who was sleeping soundly against the seat, and turned away.
Jiang Younian fell into a dream.
"You've arrived?"
A gentle voice rang out beside him. Jiang Younian looked up in response. The young man in the Zhongshan suit was sitting next to him, holding a newspaper. When did he get over there? Wasn't he sitting across the aisle?
"The theme of this Resentment Realm is 'Lake Lady.' The clues are all on the train; we must search for them before we disembark."
The young man continued reading his paper, ignoring Jiang Younian’s confusion. Jiang Younian’s mind was still blank. He looked around and found the carriage empty. All those people who had been there before were gone.
"What?"
What Resentment Realm? What Lake Lady?
The young man handed the newspaper to Jiang Younian. "For instance, this newspaper. Some of the information recorded here might relate to the experiences of the master of this Resentment Realm."
Master of the Resentment Realm?
Still muddled, Jiang Younian took the paper and began to flip through it. It was a local financial newspaper. He searched through it back and forth but found nothing special—just some economic policies released by the government.
"Why don't you look at the column in the middle of the paper?"
The middle?
To be honest, Jiang Younian hadn't seen a real newspaper in over a decade. The last time was in middle school, when his English teacher had insisted everyone subscribe to an English paper. It had tiny print and endless exercises—enough to make anyone’s head spin.
And what was below that middle column?
The newspaper was old, and the printing quality wasn't very good. Jiang Younian brought it close to his eyes, struggling to make out the text.
"Search..."
"SCREECH—! BRAKE!!"
A harsh, shrill sound of grinding metal tore through the air. The luggage rack above their heads collapsed, sending bags tumbling down. Jiang Younian was hunched over the newspaper, about to hit the metal latch on the seat back, when a hand quickly pulled him back and shielded him.
Jiang Younian saw only a flash of gold. The train seemed to be stuck in mid-air like a pirate ship, swaying uncontrollably. A piercing electrical buzz sounded: "Zzz-zzzt—!"
A series of incantations seemed to ring in his ears, accompanied by a seductive female voice that sounded both far away and close by.
"The train is here, I should go home... I want to go home..."
Jiang Younian felt a wave of dizziness. When his vision finally refocused, he discovered that the carriage in front of him had transformed into a forest shrouded in thick fog!
Wasn't he just in the train carriage? Where was this?!
Before Jiang Younian could make sense of it, he saw something moving in the mist. Looking closely, it was a blurred figure, swaying unsteadily. Jiang Younian hurried after it, realizing it was a girl.
"Hey..."
Jiang Younian started to call out to her, but the words died in his throat once he saw her condition. The girl was wearing a filthy black cotton-padded jacket, caked in mud.
"Isn't it autumn? Why is she wearing a padded jacket?"
Jiang Younian shook his aching head in frustration, watching the girl continue to walk forward. Her gait was strange; her legs twisted and turned as if they were about to fall apart. Her hair was wet, plastered to her scalp, and appeared to still be dripping.
And she wasn't wearing shoes?
She stepped heavily onto the gravel-embedded mud path, leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind her. Jiang Younian stared at the horrifying bloodstains on the ground. His furrowed brows gradually relaxed, replaced by a growing sense of dread.
Was this a person? Or a ghost?
He had a bad feeling. He wanted to run, but he couldn't help but watch as the strange girl walked toward the lake ahead. He couldn't just stand by and watch. Even if this was just a dream.
Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair and groaned, "Why is it always me!"
Jiang Younian was a person of integrity, but he was also timid and socially anxious. Yet, since childhood, he had constantly stumbled into these kinds of situations. A blind old woman would happen to grab his hand just as she was crossing the street. A stranger’s fruit bag would always break right as she passed him, leaving him no choice but to stop and help her chase down the rolling fruit.
The mild ones thanked him on the spot; the extreme ones would track him down to his school to present him with a banner. Every school assembly seemed to feature endless commendations and speeches he had to give about his "heroic deeds."
It was truly socially mortifying.
Exhaling a breath of frustration, he didn't hesitate any longer. Jiang Younian sprinted toward her and caught the girl just before she could step into the water.
Trembling, he grabbed the girl's sleeve, gasping for air. "Miss... the... the lake is just ahead. You're going the wrong way."
The figure before him didn't move. The only sound was the rhythmic *drip-drip* of water. The icy touch caused Jiang Younian to look down at his hands. The black cotton jacket he was clutching had become deformed under his desperate grip.
But the jacket was soaked—so wet that his squeeze had actually forced water out of it. One drop, two drops, a stream of water began to drip from between his fingers.
Seeing those constant drips, Jiang Younian stared blankly. Why? Why so much water? He had caught her before she entered the lake, hadn't he?
Something flashed through his mind, but it was too fast—he couldn't grasp it.
The girl, who had been facing away from him, turned her head with a trembling motion. At the sight of her, Jiang Younian was so terrified that he let go in a panic. The black figure tumbled into the lake the moment he released her.
"Splash!" With that sound, water sprayed everywhere.