“Xu… Liunian.” Qi Xia nodded slightly. “Very poetic.”
“Sounds nice, right?” Xu Liunian smiled faintly, still keeping her eyes on the road as she drove. “I thought this name would make me a big star, but in the end, I ended up driving a taxi. Ha.”
Qi Xia let out a weak chuckle, but the next second, his expression darkened.
“Xu Liunian, what kind of joke are you playing on me?”
“What do you mean?”
Qi Xia stretched out his pale hand and pointed at the taxi driver’s license in front of him.
“The photo on this… is really you.”
“Yeah, this is my car, so my license is hanging here. What’s the problem?” Xu Liunian wore a puzzled expression.
“Don’t play dumb with me…” Qi Xia coughed violently, then took a deep breath. “If your license is hanging here, it means this car really belongs to you… So who are you? Why would a car in this city belong to you?”
“I don’t understand.” Xu Liunian shook her head. “Sir, is this how you usually talk to people?”
“How could a ‘participant’ bring a car here with them?!” Qi Xia felt his entire worldview shattering.
Though it was almost laughable to talk about “worldviews” in this bizarre place, the woman before him truly defied his comprehension.
He had assumed that those zombie-like “locals” were former “participants” who had stayed here too long, losing their minds and their way.
But now, there was someone like Xu Liunian…
Her behavior was strange, yet her mind was clear.
She owned property in this city.
“I really don’t understand.” Xu Liunian shook her head again. “If you’re just looking for trouble, you should get out now.”
Qi Xia shook his head forcefully, trying to stay alert, hoping it would prove what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion.
“Xu Liunian…” he called.
“What now?” The woman’s earlier politeness was gone, replaced by impatience.
“How many passengers do you usually pick up in a day?” Qi Xia abruptly changed the subject, shifting to small talk.
“I…” The question seemed to catch her off guard, as if she’d never considered it before. After a long pause, she said, “You might be my first passenger today…”
“And how many do you get in a week?” Qi Xia pressed.
Xu Liunian felt as though a long-buried darkness in her mind was being slowly pried open by his relentless questions.
Before meeting this man, she had felt perfectly fine.
But now, just a few questions in, waves of painful memories were flooding her mind.
“I think… I haven’t had any passengers all week…” Her expression grew vacant, her eyes darting as if searching for something.
Realizing his questions were unsettling her, Qi Xia pressed further:
“What have you been eating and drinking this week? Where do you go after parking the car?”
“I… I…” Her face twisted in distress, teetering on the edge of breakdown. “I haven’t eaten in so long… When there are no passengers, I just stay parked by the roadside…”
“How long… have you been parked there?” Qi Xia kept his tone calm, though his hair stood on end, bracing for something horrifying.
A loud screech filled the air as Xu Liunian slammed on the brakes, stopping the car dead in the middle of the road.
Her lips trembled as she stared ahead, her eyes shifting—now filled with emotion, nothing like the lifeless husks walking the streets.
“I’ve been parked there for two years!!!” she screamed, then burst into violent sobs. “God… what’s wrong with me?!”
“Two…?” Qi Xia swallowed hard. “You haven’t eaten, drunk, or slept, just parked there for two years?”
She looked down at her hands, as if realizing something.
“It’s this car… When I saw it in the city, I felt like I was possessed…”
“What’s strange about this car?” Qi Xia asked.
“How could I even find this car here…? I don’t even…” Xu Liunian suddenly turned and noticed the bloodstains on Qi Xia’s clothes. “You’re hurt?”
“It’s nothing…” Qi Xia shook his head. “The wound isn’t serious… Are you lucid now?”
Her hands shook as she examined his injury—the flesh had been brutally cauterized, the burn severe but stopping the bleeding.
“With wounds like this… if you don’t find medicine soon…” She choked up. “I almost forgot… there’s no medicine here…”
“Right. This place doesn’t have what we need to survive.” Qi Xia stared blankly into the distance. “Xu Liunian, I don’t have long. Can you do one last thing for me?”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Keep driving.” Qi Xia said. “I want to escape. I want to see the edge of this city.”
Xu Liunian looked at him sorrowfully, knowing it was a miracle he was still conscious.
“Alright. I’ll take you to the edge. Hold on.”
She shifted gears, trembling as the car started moving again.
Qi Xia leaned his head against the window, watching the scenery blur past.
He coughed softly, feeling something pressing against his windpipe, making it hard to breathe.
As his life neared its end, what flashed before his eyes wasn’t his past—just the crumbling buildings speeding by.
He remembered that day, boarding a taxi and racing toward another city without hesitation.
He’d thought that once he returned home, he and Yu Nian’an could finally live happily.
But instead…
On the empty streets, Xu Liunian drove recklessly fast. Qi Xia bit his tongue hard to stay conscious.
Soon, his mouth filled with blood. He rolled down the window and spat it out.
“Are… are you okay?” Xu Liunian asked urgently.
“I’m fine.” Qi Xia wiped his mouth. “I feel good now—no more worries about ‘living.’ These past days, I’ve never felt so… free.”
They drove in silence for another half hour.
“Hey… are you still alive?” Xu Liunian slowed the car, shaking Qi Xia with her right hand. “We’re at the edge. How do you plan to escape?”
With his last ounce of strength, Qi Xia turned his head and forced his eyes open. His pupils dilated as he stared ahead.
Before them stood a highway toll booth, its sign rusted beyond recognition.
Beyond it stretched endless roads, branching in every direction.
Far, far away, the faint outlines of other skyscrapers loomed.
“So… there is no edge…” Qi Xia murmured, shattered once more.
The words of the “Sheep Man” echoed in his ears: *”We are grander than any religion. We have an entire world!”*
Yes. If this wasn’t a city, but a world—how could anyone escape?
“Where do we go next?”
Xu Liunian turned to Qi Xia, only to find him lifeless in his seat.
His eyes held confusion, resentment, and unwillingness—even in death, they refused to close.
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