23:44.
The empty light rail station, Gu Shen ran while glancing at his watch.
Can he catch the last train... he was worried, but a low rumble immediately sounded in the distance.
"Boom——"
In the dark tunnel, countless dazzling arcs of light burst out in an instant. The last light rail train slowly decelerated and stopped in front of Gu Shen.
Seeing the train, Gu Shen breathed a sigh of relief, but then furrowed his brows and held his breath.
The door opened, and a smell of rust rushed towards him.
He took two steps back and looked at the train. The carriage was old and rusty, with three neat numbers written in white paint next to the window:
001.
"If I remember correctly, Da Teng City... hasn't this kind of train been phased out long ago?"
"Beep beep beep——"
Without thinking too much, just as the carriage door was about to close, Gu Shen crouched down and shot into the carriage, narrowly avoiding being left behind.
He grabbed the handrail and breathed a sigh of relief.
In the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse.
"Oh..."
Gu Shen's heartbeat skipped a beat.
Usually, this light rail train goes to the remote suburbs, and there are often no other passengers on the last train, only himself. But today...
There was another girl in the carriage.
Gu Shen felt his heart melt. This girl was sitting opposite him, less than thirty centimeters away. She had almond-shaped eyes, rosy cheeks, and long hair scattered. She was wearing a thin, almost transparent, pure white lace dress, revealing her fair shoulders and snowy skin.
The dress was very white.
But the girl was even whiter, almost blindingly so.
The girl was not wearing shoes, lightly tiptoeing on the floor of the carriage... There was a thick book half-opened on her knees, and she was quietly reading it.
This girl was too perfect, with a unique and indescribable aura. She didn't seem like a real person in the real world. Looking at her, Gu Shen felt like he had seen a beam of light.
Quiet, gentle, holy, ethereal.
In between turning the pages, the girl looked up.
Their eyes met, and Gu Shen quickly looked away, rubbing his hands and exhaling, hastily concealing his embarrassment.
He suspected that he was dreaming.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
How could there be such a beautiful girl in this world?
And... she was dressed so lightly, didn't she feel cold?
He really wanted to lend her his coat to wear.
...
...
【The second person... has boarded.】
The girl looked up, her eyes filled with surprise, and then closed the book, carefully observing the boy who had just boarded.
Although the boy was now huddled in the corner of the train, rubbing his hands and exhaling, foolishly smiling to himself, unaware of what "boarding" meant.
But she knew very well that this couldn't be a coincidence.
"Ooh——"
The light rail slowly started, and arcs of electricity splashed back and forth, washing the walls of the tunnel.
Although this train was old, it ran very smoothly.
The sound of the electric arcs outside the window, after penetrating the glass, became a muffled sound like raindrops.
Neither of them spoke, maintaining this silence. If no one spoke, this light rail would pass through the long tunnel and silently travel for about twenty minutes to reach the final destination.
But this calmness didn't last long and was soon broken by the girl's clear voice.
"A very important question: Does the real π exist between 3 and 4?"
Gu Shen thought he was hearing things.
Was she talking to him?
He turned his head in surprise, looked around the empty carriage, and met the girl's serious gaze. Gu Shen pointed at himself, and the girl nodded earnestly.
He awkwardly smiled, realizing that she was indeed talking to him.
"Does the real π exist between 3 and 4?"
What kind of question was this?
The answer was, of course, it exists.
But at this moment, Gu Shen hesitated and didn't answer directly.
The reason was simple.
Because in the clear pupils of the girl who was looking directly at him, there reflected a serious glimmer of light, a gaze that made Gu Shen believe... that this seemingly simple question was not so simple.
The girl extended a hand and pointed behind Gu Shen.
Gu Shen turned around.
Inside this old carriage, at some unknown time, someone had carved a mottled mural... Vaguely visible was an old ruler, with long scales that extended endlessly, and at this moment, the bolded numbers 3 and 4 were clearly visible.
"If you touch this ruler..."
The girl reached out her hand and touched the ruler in the air. Her voice became lighter, like a gust of wind sweeping through the carriage, carrying a faint sadness.
"Can you touch π?"
Gu Shen was stunned.
He suddenly understood the true meaning of this question, an infinitely non-repeating number, a number that only existed in theory.The precision of this number is infinite.
Yet the precision of a ruler is finite.
Even if this ruler is magnified by billions of times, there will never be a point that belongs to the infinitely precise "π".
"Gu Shen... what is your answer?"
Gu Shen was somewhat bewildered. Did she know his name?
The hand that the girl stretched out slowly opened, with silver cross lines flowing in her palm, emitting a glow.
The moment he saw the cross glow, Gu Shen felt familiar and warm, as if he had returned to an old dream. He couldn't help but make the same gesture, reaching out his hand, wanting to interlock his fingers with the girl's.
"Pfft."
Seeing this gesture, the girl smiled.
There was no touch as he had imagined.
The girl in the pure white dress withdrew her hand and stepped back, bit by bit, until she reached the end of Gu Shen's sight. Her smile faded bit by bit, leaving only solemnity and seriousness.
"Gu Shen..."
"...Survive."
The wind in the carriage suddenly dispersed.
"Rumble!"
The light rail drove out of the tunnel—
The light source above Gu Shen's head shattered instantly.
If there really were daydreams in this world, then what Gu Shen had just experienced was the most wonderful daydream of his eighteen years of life, even though this daydream occurred at night.
But as the light rail drove out of the tunnel, the beautiful dream shattered.
He suddenly realized... everything had changed. The mottled train seemed to be washed and cleansed by an invisible force the moment it drove out of the tunnel.
The light rail began to tremble, the entire carriage was in violent shaking, like a bending steel snake body, bumping up and down, the electric arcs splashing outside the window were all extinguished at this moment.
The collision between the wheel hub and the rail, the bone-piercing friction sound shattered this beautiful dream.
Gu Shen watched the scene in front of him with his hair standing on end.
The light in the entire carriage dimmed, still empty.
But the seat where the girl had been was now occupied by a tall woman in a black dress.
She wore a hat large enough to cover her entire face, holding a stack of yellowed old newspapers in her hands, reading in the fragmented light. Even sitting, she was almost as tall as Gu Shen.
If she stood up... would she be over two meters tall?
23:59.
Glancing at the time, Gu Shen looked a bit pale.
He might have encountered some peculiar event that conventional cognition couldn't explain... Although the light in this carriage was dim, it was still faintly visible. The seats and armrests were all brand new, the mottled and rusted spots he had seen everywhere before had all disappeared.
Had he actually been in such a train for 15 minutes?
Every word that girl said was burned into his mind, especially the last three words.
Survive.
Gu Shen felt a chill on his scalp. He carefully observed the tall lady immersed in reading the newspaper, feeling a strong sense of danger in his heart.
Just as his gaze swept over.
As if "hearts have a spiritual connection"—
The woman in the black dress, who gave a great sense of oppression, slowly raised her head. Under the dark brim of her hat, Gu Shen saw two deep and dark red glows.
"Sir."
The woman in the black dress folded up the newspaper, raised her head, and asked politely in a low voice: "I have a very important question... I would like to ask."
"You... please speak."
Gu Shen clenched his fingers, took a deep breath, and tried his best to stay calm.
His reply seemed unimportant.
Because after this lady finished speaking, she took out a boning knife and slowly wiped it on the newspaper on her lap. There were spots of blood on the newspaper.
Then... she opened her dress, and a silver ruler was hanging inside the dress. Two white fingers, painted with red nail polish, were rubbing back and forth between the 3 and 4 scales on the ruler.
"Just now."
The tall woman sitting upright with the boning knife in her hand, tilted her head, and asked in confusion: "Did I... touch π?"