She got up in a flurry, felt a warmth at the tip of her nose, quickly covered her face, and then discovered she was having a nosebleed. "I, I'm going to the restroom."
It was almost like fleeing.
Without looking back, she dashed towards the end of the corridor.
Huai Shi, left behind, was completely baffled.
Her heart was racing.
Zhenxi gasped for air violently, lifted her hand, and splashed cold water onto her face, hoping to calm herself down a bit.
But every time she closed her eyes, that flawless and stunning face appeared before her—so indifferent, yet it made her heart race uncontrollably.
Calm down, calm down, Zhenxi! You're a daughter of the Wu Family; you can't act so utterly infatuated... But even telling myself that, how could I possibly calm down!
She closed her eyes in despair.
After staying in the restroom for almost half an hour, she finally calmed down a bit, or rather, mustered up the courage to go back.
Steeling herself, she pushed the door open.
She stood rooted to the spot.
She didn't know when it had started, but the world had fallen into an eerie silence; even the distant sound of the train on the tracks had vanished.
The hum of the air conditioning, the announcements on the broadcast system, and even the voices from outside.
All had disappeared without a trace.
She felt a bit cold.
A puff of white breath escaped her lips, her fingers chilling.
Has the air conditioning broken?
As she walked through the aisle, she discovered that all the passengers who had been around her were now gone without a trace.
"Um... is anyone there?" she raised her voice and asked timidly.
No response.
Just a cold and indifferent dead silence.
When she finally returned to her seat, she found that she was still there—her other self. Indeed, that other Zhenxi was sitting in the chair... having never left.
But her appearance was completely unrecognizable.
As if eons had passed in an instant, her once-intact clothes were now tattered and yellowed, and all that remained there was a pale and broken Skeleton.
Now, in her line of sight, the Zhenxi that was already dead—that Skeleton—propped up its skull. From its hollow eye sockets, putrid black blood silently flowed out, like tears.
She was paralyzed on the spot, unable to move.
Instinctively wanting to scream, she found she couldn't make a sound; she nearly suffocated in the freezing cold, collapsing to the ground.
Using all her strength, she shuffled backward, using her hands and feet, intending to run, to flee, her speed increasing more and more, faster than she had ever run even in the track and field club.
But the bone-chilling cold, like maggots feasting on decaying bones, relentlessly pursued her from behind.
And even appeared before her eyes.
When she strenuously pushed open the door to the next carriage, she saw that Skeleton, standing right before her. With black tears flowing, the Skeleton moved forward and looked down at her. With her own voice, it rasped a question.
"Where... do you think you're going?"
Zhenxi could no longer speak, unable to move.
In the otherwise eternal dead silence, a terrified sob broke through.
Outside the window, at some unknown point, the world had changed. The desolate earth was devoid of vegetation, and in the sky, a blood moon hung high, casting light on a ghastly outline.
It was a vast shadow covering both the sky and the earth.
A ferocious Spider danced within its web, its multiple compound eyes looking down as it coldly and fiercely tightened the strands—tormenting the Souls caught in the web.
In that instant, Huai Shi sighed and looked up.
Looks like I can't just leave it alone after all.
He rose abruptly, took off his sunglasses, and walked straight towards the restroom.
At the entrance to the restroom, he saw a burly man coming towards him. The man, covered in tattoos, was as enormous as a Giant Bear.
The Hell Kitchen Demon.
"Oh? It looks like you're ready to make a move?"
He paid no mind to the smoke alarm flashing endlessly above him, smoking a thick cigar, smirking as he looked at Huai Shi. Next to him, the train attendant was frantically trying to persuade him to put out his cigar.
He brushed the attendant aside nonchalantly.
Suddenly, he stepped back, a gesture of yielding.
"Then, I'll stay out of this..." the man said. "Please, be my guest. Show me the skills of the Chef Demon from Yingzhou."
He was far more sensitive than others—no, to be precise, as a Chef Demon, he inherently possessed a sensitivity thousands of times greater than that of a normal person.
Especially towards the presence of his own kind.
The moment he encountered Huai Shi, he had an instinctive recognition of each other's identities.
Huai Shi didn't bother to correct the mistakes in his words, raised his hand, and pressed it against the restroom door.
A faint SNAP.
The door opened.
With the instantaneous activation of Drummer's Strength, the lock's internal mechanism was reduced to uniform dust. The train attendant, who had just managed to get up, was also stunned in place. "Wait, what are you doing…"
"Hey, don't get in the way."
The burly Tattooed Chef Demon pressed a hand on the attendant's shoulder, holding him in place, preventing him from interfering.