Well, it seems this series (that started out as a teaser) will be taken on by Yukan from now on. We will try and go for weekly updates. The chapters are long, so, we’ll see how they go before adding more to the schedule.
Reminder: TLC is done as spot checking. Entire doc.u.ment is not TLC-ed.
The year 2016; the beginning of October. In an apartment, south of T city was a single person.
Wu Ma was an engineer for a particular chemical factory in the city. For the past few days, he hadn"t been sleeping well due to an endless stream of nightmares.
Tonight, he was lying on the bed, unable to sleep. After an unknown length of time, he finally managed to fall into a muddleheaded one, but it was a light sleep.
The room was humid and dark.
In the pitch-black corner between two walls, a caterpillar slowly crawled out from the darkness.
It was very bright and colourful; its whole body seemed to be covered in velvet thorns.
Its body wriggled, slowly crawling towards the bedside. Using the bed sheet that had fallen onto the floor, it crawled up onto the bed and reached Wu Ma"s ear.
Afterwards, it crawled in!
Wu Ma seemed to have felt something as he dreamt. His eyebrows wrinkled and his face twisted as if he was experiencing extreme pain.
Slowly, velvet thorns started to grow on his skin, his body began to bloat, and his head swelled. The man became a gigantic caterpillar!
"AH!"
Wu Ma suddenly sat up, his head full of cold sweat, panting harshly.
A nightmare, it was another nightmare. These days, Wu Ma had been tortured till exhaustion by these dreams.
He sat dazedly upon the bed inside a dimly lit bedroom.
Waking up in the middle of the night, and facing the surrounding pitch-black world alone, there will always be the feeling of disappointment at being abandoned by the world.
Wu Ma picked up his phone and checked the time. It had just reached five am. Dawn would arrive later in the north so, at the moment, the sky was still very dark outside the window.
Every day he would leave for work early in the morning, but at the same time he couldn"t sleep well. He might as well just not sleep.
He went to the toilet and turned on the light. In the mirror, his reflection was pale and haggard. Deep, black bags hung from his eyes.
Living alone in a foreign land, with no relatives or friends, and spending the majority of his time at work or travelling to and from his workplace, what followed him was only loneliness and solitude.
Wu Ma desolately stared at the mirror as he brushed his teeth with a dejected expression. His mind was dazed, a mix as if he was thinking of something but also as if his mind was empty.
Right at this time, he caught the vague silhouette of a person flashing by in the mirror.
This sudden, unexpected occurrence surprised him until he got gooseb.u.mps all over his body.
He quickly turned his head. The mirror was facing the dark living room outside the door. Other than the dim light, there was nothing.
"These past few days my sleep hasn’t been restful. Maybe I was just hallucinating."
After calming down and thinking about it, Wu Ma comforted himself with these words.
He faced the sink and spat out the toothpaste. However, he just saw red — completely red.
Were his gums bleeding?
Wu Ma opened his mouth and looked at the mirror and realised that a tooth was loose. He used a finger to test it, and at that, it fell out.
He held the fallen tooth in his palm and stared blankly at it, not understanding why this perfectly fine tooth would just fall out without any warning.
Blood was pouring from the wound; his throbbing mouth now filled with a b.l.o.o.d.y taste.
He held up a cup of water and poured some of it into his mouth, holding it there. He gargled and spat.
Only, when he looked down to at the sink, he drealised that the water he spat out was full of his teeth.
Wu Ma paled with fright and quickly looked in the mirror. All his teeth had actually fallen out!
At this time, he suddenly felt his chest and abdomen moving until it reached up to his throat. "Wah!" He vomited, but within the vomit, there was a caterpillar still wriggling around!
"Ah!"
Wu Ma shouted and jolted awake; he was on the train to work.
His mind immediately glazed over. His brain had crashed like a computer; it was like a vast and empty s.p.a.ce.
Was it another nightmare?
Wu Ma decided to concentrate. He took a few deep breaths and glanced around.
The train compartment was full to the brim. But compared to the crowd during the morning rush, it was already considered s.p.a.cious.
He leaned against the wall and let out a breath. So he had actually fallen asleep on the way to work. These past few days he hadn"t been getting enough sleep. It was exhausting.
He looked up at the light indicating the stations. Luckily he didn"t sleep for too long and miss his stop.
It was very quiet on the train. Almost everyone on it was on the phone, with the pa.s.senger’s faces creating a sea of indifference.
Regarding these people in the train, Wu Ma had long stopped caring. T City was a big city, and the people in big cities were usually frigid. It was as if they only cared about themselves and not the rest of the world, unwilling to interact with others.
When they were about to reach his stop, the young lady standing beside Wu Ma suddenly fell without warning. “Pu Tong!” The lady had fallen onto the side of Wu Ma"s leg.
Wu Ma was shocked and quickly went to check on her. He saw the young lady"s face was pale, her eyes screwed shut; and she seemed to be unconscious.
Wu Ma looked to the people nearby for help, but everyone ignored him. The surrounding people, like before, were minding their own business and playing on their phones. Their faces were indifferent as if they hadn"t seen anything.
"Forget it, let"s not count on these apathetic people. I can deal with this myself." Wu Ma thought resentfully.
He painstakingly helped the young lady up, preparing to get off the train at the next stop.
However, when the train was nearing the station, it didn"t slow down. Instead, it flew by without pause.
Wu Ma was dumbfounded for a moment before he pounded on the train doors, shouting, "Stop the train ah! Stop the train! Why is the train not stopping!"
But no matter how he shouted, nothing happened. The train continued to speed through a tunnel.
The people in the train kept their heads down and focused on their phones, ignoring their surroundings.
Wu Ma looked at those indifferent people and couldn"t take it anymore. He was angry as he said, "Did none of you see that the train didn"t stop? Stop playing with your phones!"
Following his outburst, the bodies of all the people in the train started to shake. Their phones fell from their numb fingers. The sound "Pi Pa" fell incessantly onto his ears.
The apathetic crowd one after the other slowly turned their heads. Their lifeless eyes were all concentrating on Wu Ma"s body.
At this time, even if Wu Ma were a bit slow on the uptake, he would still be able to tell that the situation was not right.
Instead, it made him feel shocked that this was not the end.
He realised that the faces of those around him were starting to turn blurry, and their features were becoming duller. In the end, their facial features had all vanished, leaving behind just the bare skin. Everything was gone!
The unforeseen event thoroughly scared Wu Ma witless.
His two hands held up the unconscious lady, and his two legs started to tremble uncontrollably.
At this moment, The faceless people in the train started to draw closer towards Wu Ma. Their stiff movements were just like those of a group of terrifying zombies.
"What do you want! Don"t come here!"
Wu Ma shouted in fright, but his voice was utterly unable to stop the faceless people from coming closer.
Since the train had initially been very crowded, the crowd had trapped Wu Ma in the centre of it with no escape.
An unbidden sense of fear and powerlessness suddenly rose, clutching tightly onto Wu Ma"s heart. At this very moment, his whole person had immediately sunk into despair.
It was just as Wu Ma was about to give up when suddenly, a young man suddenly appeared from the crowd. One hand, grabbing his hand as the young man said, "Quickly run, what are you still standing there foolishly for!"
Wu Ma frenetically lifted his head and sized the young man up. He noticed that the young man was in his early twenties, with fair skin but most importantly, he was different from the faceless people; he had bright, distinct facial features.
As if he was grabbing a life buoy, Wu Ma spared no effort to lift the unconscious lady and followed the young man to charge forwards.
The suddenly appearing young man"s strength was considerably high. He opened up a road as his hands punched and legs kicked. He seemed like a battleship chopping and beheading its way through waves, forcibly creating a pathway through the crowd of people.
Wu Ma didn"t dare to slow down and followed closely behind as he yelled, "The train isn"t stopping, and these creatures are everywhere. Where can we escape to?"
The young man didn"t stop nor did he turn his head as he replied, "We will head to the train operator"s room and shake them off. Then we"ll talk."
Luckily, they were already near the front of the train. Wu Ma and the youth charged straight forwards and managed to make it to the train operator"s room after much difficulty.
The youth in front of him quickly turned the doork.n.o.b, managing to open the door separating the train operator"s room and the rest of the train cars. He rushed in, shouting at Wu Ma, "Hurry up and come in!"
Wu Ma frantically rushed in with the unconscious woman. At the same time, the young man shut the door and locked the door in one swift movement.
Wu Ma was tired out so much that sweat had covered his whole head. It wasn"t easy to have a break in this situation, so he put the lady down and sat his b.u.t.t on the ground, breathing heavily.
Through the gla.s.s window of the door, they could see the faceless people congregating outside the door, their movements stiff and mechanical as they pounded on it.
Wu Ma still had some lingering fear. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to the youth, "Thank you for saving me."
The young man smiled calmly, "You don"t need to thank me, I didn"t actually deliberately save you. It"s just that you were on the way of my escape route, so I brought you along."
After meeting with such an unforeseen misfortune, Wu Ma was stunned. "What exactly is happening?"
The youth shrugged, appearing relaxed while Wu Ma was obviously frantic. He pointed at the control room and said, "I also don"t know what"s happening. We should go take a look first and figure out why the train is not stopping."
Wu Ma nodded and stood up, following the young man as the latter slowly walked through the narrow pa.s.sage. He leaned forward and entered the head of the train; the control room.
When Wu Ma saw precisely the person who was sitting at the control panel, he was immediately frightened and shouted, "Motherf-" and fell to the ground, his whole face filled with terror.
It turned out that the train captain was a gigantic caterpillar wearing the uniform of a train worker!
Wu Ma felt that he was about to break down. He was frightened to the point that he nearly peed his pants.
However, the youth beside him was unfazed. He lazily leaned against the doorway, laughing while he asked, "What? Are you scared of caterpillars? Or do you just hate them?"
Wu Ma was paralysed on the floor and cried out involuntarily, "Of course! Who"s not scared of caterpillars?! If you don"t hate it, can it be that you like it? But this isn"t the point. The important thing is that the driver is a monster, can"t you see that?! Hurry up and think of a solution!"
The youth held out a hand and laughed. "Regarding this matter, I have no power. Besides, you yourself should be able to solve this.Why do you need to ask for help?"
When Wu Ma heard this, he stared blankly and asked, dumbly, "Me? I can solve it myself?"
The youth smiled. "Of course, this is your dream."
Wu Ma was struck dumb.
My&h.e.l.lip; dream?
It can"t be, I"m dreaming? My nightmare is still ongoing?
The youth said to the currently dumbfounded Wu Ma, "Think about it. How did you get on board this train? Can you recall?"
Wu Ma followed the young man"s words and carefully thought about it. He realised that he really couldn"t remember how he got on board the train.
"Dreams are always like this," the youth said. "They will always suddenly teleport you to a place without any beginning or continuation. If you can"t remember how you got here, then you are definitely in a dream."
Wu Ma nodded. He felt that what the youth said made a lot of sense and he believed the younger man completely.
He used the wall to pull himself up. He wasn"t scared anymore.
If this is my dream, if I really am inside my own nightmare, then why should I be scared of a bug?!
Wu Ma took off the safety hammer hung on the wall and muttered to himself, "yes, this is definitely a dream. Everything in front of me isn"t real. Everything"s a dream."
He grasped the hammer tightly, mustered up his courage and shouted, "Monster, die!"
After saying this, he abruptly charged forwards, hefted the hammer and fiercely smashed it against the caterpillar at the control panel.
Wu Ma didn"t hold back and smashed again. Without any martial arts ability, the caterpillar-like monster had already fallen onto the floor. Sticky, dark green liquid had splashed all over his body.
He dazedly watched the extremely disgusting scene in front of him, actively repressing the rolling in his stomach, and turned around to ask the youth, "Since I killed it, I should wake up right?"
The youth shook his head and raised a finger to point at him. "No, this is not enough, see for yourself."
Wu Ma took two steps towards the direction the youth at pointed at and glanced around. Outside the door, the group of faceless people had each become one large caterpillar. They all congested together, which was both disgusting and horrifying.
Wu Ma"s eyes turned red, his face turning fierce and said, "After I kill all these monsters, will I be able to wake up?"
The youth shrugged, and drawled, "Who knows? This is your dream. Everything is as you will it."
Wu Ma was expressionless and fiercely forced out a few words between his gritted teeth, "These monsters should die, every one of them should die!"
Saying this, he crossed the pa.s.sageway, opened the door and, as if he went crazy, charged outside.
The young man watched Wu Ma, who had become like Asura, and sighed. Then, he lowered his head to glance at the unconscious lady on the ground and thought deeply.
Thick, dark green liquid was flying everywhere; and even Wu Ma himself couldn"t recall how many caterpillars he had killed. He could only just focus on turning and smashing. His brain was a sea of white, his body moving just like a machine, crazily revolving.
An unknown amount of time pa.s.sed, and all the caterpillars on the train had been killed by him. The train had also stopped in the middle of nowhere, but the doors remained shut.
Wu Ma"s staggered across the extremely disgusting train car and headed to the front of the train.
He stood outside the door to the captain"s room, asking the calm young man behind the door, "I"ve killed all the monsters, why am I not awake?"
The youth still lazily leaned against the doorway and pointed at the unconscious lady, saying, "No, there"s still one left."
Wu Ma"s gaze slid downwards. Just now, that lady who had been painstakingly saved by him, now had densely packed velvet thorns growing from her skin. Her body was becoming more and more bloated. At a speed where the naked eye could see, she was becoming a giant caterpillar.
"Kuang Da!" sounded. The hammer in Wu Ma"s hand dropped to the ground, his whole body had gone soft, and he fell to the floor.
The youth smilingly asked, "There"s still one left, do you want to kill it?"
Wu Ma shook his head and tears actually started to stream down his face.
At this moment, that lady who had become a caterpillar actually spat out a silken thread. She firmly wound the silk around herself, quickly becoming a ma.s.sive coc.o.o.n.
The youth"s eyebrows ticked up, as he involuntarily gave out a sound of surprise.
After that, the giant coc.o.o.n suddenly had a small crack. From within flew out a colourful, beautiful b.u.t.terfly.
That b.u.t.terfly flashed its wings, and flew to Wu Ma"s face, lightly falling beautifully and strangely.
"So that"s it. So it was like that." The youth murmured.
Following that, he used force to hit the train walls, looking up and shouting into the void, "Uncle Luo! I"m done, you can let me go back."
The youth"s shout had only just ended when, a "sou" sounded, and the man abruptly vanished into thin air.