Chapter 5: This is a Road of No Return
Jiang Xiaoyuan seemed to have stepped into a bizarre nightmare as if she had stepped into a void.
Everything she saw, heard, and experienced exceeded beyond her common sense and acceptance. She was extremely confused, but she didn’t dare to lose her mind yet—because she might inexplicably end up dead.
When Jiang Xiaoyuan opened her eyes again, she found herself standing on a desolate roadside, with no village ahead and no store behind. Behind her was a cliff. There were various terrifying traces under her feet—ruts, footprints, shallow grooves left by dragging heavy objects, bloodstains… even a small piece of clothing.
Jiang Xiaoyuan took five seconds to calm down where she stood, then she looked down at the cliff behind her—deep and bottomless. Anyone who fell from here would be impossible to find. Although she couldn’t discern anything from the messy traces, the indifferent words of Ming Guang, “She’s already dead,” sparked endless associations in her mind.
So did she, who originally lived in this world, die here?
Did she accidentally slip and fall off? No, this was a long winding mountain road, with sparse vehicles and even fewer pedestrians.
So was she harmed by someone?
Jiang Xiaoyuan squinted and looked around the two sides of the mountain road, but there was no one in sight. If that were the case, no one would know that someone had died here. No one would report a case on her behalf. Perhaps her family would look for her, but if she was neither alive nor dead, they would likely treat her as a missing person case.
Another shameless visitor from another world took over her identity.
Jiang Xiaoyuan suddenly felt a sense of guilt. From this guilt came sorrow. She squatted down, picked up a thin and flat stone, left a mark on a tree by the roadside, and then deeply embedded the stone into the muddy ground by the roadside, as if erecting a tombstone.
“When I leave, I’ll report it to the police for you.” Jiang Xiaoyuan reached out and patted the big tree, thinking, “I’m really sorry, thank you.”
After doing all this, she finally had time to examine herself and found that her image had undergone an unacceptable revolution.
Jiang Xiaoyuan’s once bright appearance had disappeared with the change of time and space. Now, she was wearing a drab half-sleeved shirt. Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t want to praise it by calling it “clothing”. She felt like it was just a rag with holes.
The rag was neither long nor short, just reaching the edge of her thighs. It didn’t look like a skirt, nor did it look like a top. It was paired with a pair of terrible three-quarter black leggings, with no socks on her feet, just a pair of synthetic leather sandals. She also tied a limp ponytail behind her head.
In addition, she slung a cloth satchel over her shoulder, which seemed like it had never been washed. Now, it had lost its original color, but one could vaguely make out that it was worth no more than fifteen yuan. In the middle, there was even embroidered a crooked and sinister cat head, which showed a twisted and ferocious smile to Jiang Xiaoyuan.
Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”
Her heart full of sympathy and indignation was extinguished by the affectionate gaze of the cat. In this outfit, she felt itchy all over, wishing that Ming Guang would just build the passage he mentioned so she could go back and wash off a layer of skin.
Jiang Xiaoyuan searched her whole body and finally found a plastic wallet from her bag, which contained an ID card, five hundred and twenty yuan and fifty cents in cash, and a mobile phone.
The ID card was familiar yet unfamiliar. The name was Jiang Xiaoyuan, of Han ethnicity, and the girl in the photo looked just like her, but the other information was completely different—her registered address was a town in another province that she had never heard of, her date of birth was half a year different from hers, and even the ID number was completely wrong.
There were only two one-hundred-yuan bills in the cash, and the rest were crumpled changed , looking like it had been earned from begging.
As for the phone, it was even more terrifying—it looked like a remote control for an air conditioner! The screen was only the size of a fingernail, and it was black and white. Every time a button was pressed, the device made a “beep” sound, followed by a faint grass-green light emitting from the black-and-white screen. It took Jiang Xiaoyuan five minutes to figure out how to use this weird thing.
Where was the browser? Social media apps? Taxi app? Dianping1大众点评 (dàzhòng diǎnpíng) – a popular Chinese website and app for reviews of restaurants, businesses, and other services.? Weight loss assistant? Makeup and shopping recommendation apps? Games? Meitu Xiuxiu2美图秀秀 (Meitu Xiu Xiu) – a popular Chinese photo editing app that allows users to edit and enhance their photos.?
Jiang Xiaoyuan was so filled with grief and resentment that she almost threw the “remote control” away.
Ming Guang had warned her not to get attatched, but Jiang Xiaoyuan felt he was overly concerned—who would get attatched to such a role? She wasn’t a masochist!
The top priority now was to leave this place. Jiang Xiaoyuan’s first reaction was to call the police, but she needed to carefully consider her words. While she was contemplating, a text message popped up.
Jiang Xiaoyuan clumsily opened the message and almost accidentally deleted it. Upon reading it, she found it said: “Countdown to the successful construction of the passage: fifty days. Reminder: you should not to indulge in another timeline—Ming Guang.”
Seeing this countdown, Jiang Xiaoyuan finally felt a bit relieved.
But before she could relax, several consecutive messages suddenly flooded her phone on after another. Due to their length, they were automatically split into several pages.
What’s going on? Is Ming Guang a chatterbox?
Jiang Xiaoyuan glanced at the first one: “Do not reply upon receiving. The most important rule of parallel space is that intersections cannot be created. When you jump from space one to space two, if you return to space one, you will become an illegal intersection between the two spaces, which we call a ‘nail.'”
Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t fully understand at first glance, but several key words made her shiver with fear.
The second one: “Nails cannot exist. The law will automatically correct you, that is, erase you. The moment you pass through the so-called ‘safe passage’ and return to your original space, you will be torn apart by the two time-spaces.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan read it three times, feeling colder and colder, her hands trembling so much she could barely hold the phone. She was about to reply when another long message came in.
The third message: “People killed by the law are different from other deaths. Time and space will no longer recognize your existence. As a result, your original space will have a permanent vacancy, and someone in the lighthouse can occupy this identity. They will try their best to survive from the car accident, become you, and replace you.”
The fourth message: “Don’t become an illegal nail. Don’t respond to Ming Guang.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan finally managed to reply to a message: “Who are you?”
There was no response from the other side. After a moment, the final message flashed on her phone: “Don’t respond to Ming Guang! Don’t come back! This is a road of no return!”
This message flashed only once, and the battery, which had been almost full just now, suddenly drained to zero and the phone shut down.
Jiang Xiaoyuan stood frozen in place, feeling as if she had fallen into an icy pond in the middle of a freezing winter, chilling to the bone.
She had escaped from a car that was about to flatten her and ended up in a strange lighthouse, signed a contract she didn’t even understand, and now, in a world she didn’t recognize, she was at a loss with a strange identity, with only five hundred yuan in her possession.
It’s a torrent of mountains and rivers… there’s no road at all!
Suddenly, the fashion and jewelry, the constantly evolving and improving ways of flaunting wealth, seemed like a bizarre daydream to her.
Why her? Why didn’t she just stay in the office and play games on the computer instead of going to humiliate Feng Ruixue? Why couldn’t she just wash Huo Boyu’s face with coffee quietly, instead of going out herself? Why was it only on this day that she didn’t fasten her seatbelt?
Just when she was alone, a shabby pickup truck drove past from the opposite road. It had already passed Jiang Xiaoyuan but slowed down and turned back. A man in his forties stuck his head out of the window and shouted to her, “Sister3姐姐 (jiějie) can be used as a term of endearment for an older female friend or acquaintance, not just a biological sister., where are you going alone?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan looked at him blankly, not realizing that tears were streaming down her face.
“Hey,” the man murmured something with a thick accent, and Jiang Xiaoyuan couldn’t understand him. He raised his voice and shouted to her again, “Get in the car, I’ll give you a ride.”
Jiang Xiaoyuan looked at the dirty face of the man, his greasy overalls, and the drafty truck, and instinctively shook her head, clutching her bag tightly.
The man made an ‘ugh’ sound, then launched into a long speech, speaking so fast that Jiang Xiaoyuan’s head buzzed, not understanding a word.
Finally, he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to leave?”
Jiang Xiaoyuan hesitated for a moment, looked ahead and then back, remembering the terrible rumors about single girls hitchhiking on the roadside, and after weighing her options, she decisively shook her head without hesitation, watching the pickup truck clattering away from her.
The sun had already tilted westward, and the wind began to carry the chill of the night. Jiang Xiaoyuan wandered aimlessly for a moment, finally realizing that if she didn’t leave now, she would have to spend the night on the mountain road. She had no choice but to stand up, clutching her only possessions, and stagger along the mountain road, walking forward on foot.
Her silhouette on the ground became longer and longer, the mountain road undulating, seemingly flat. There was no traffic, but walking with two legs was very difficult. She was thirsty and hungry, feeling a bit dehydrated, and even dared not cry anymore.
Moreover, who would see her crying in this deserted place?
When she was too tired to walk, she stopped and stood by the edge of the cliff, thinking, “I might as well jump off.”
Unfortunately, although she thought about it, she didn’t dare in the end. If she weren’t afraid of death, she probably wouldn’t be here right now.
“This is a road of no return.” these terrifying words quietly lay in her phone, which was already out of power. Jiang Xiaoyuan bit her lip fiercely, tasting the rusty and bloody taste, having nowhere to go, so she had to continue trudging along the way.
When it was completely dark, Jiang Xiaoyuan was lucky enough to encounter a large truck hauling goods.
By then, she was blowing out the lamp and pulling out the wax4吹灯拔蜡 (chuī dēng bá là) means “blowing out the lamp and pulling out the wax.” It figuratively means being extremely exhausted or nearing the point of collapse due to fatigue or exhaustion. , swaying back and forth to stay awake. She stumbled into the middle of the road, and the truck was forced to stop. The driver leaned out the window, looking at the swaying Jiang Xiaoyuan in front of him with a mixture of fear and confusion. He couldn’t tell whether this figure he had encountered in the dead of night was a human or a ghost.
The driver instinctively reached out and grabbed the exorcism pestle hanging on the rearview mirror, staring with wide eyes, carefully determining Jiang Xiaoyuan’s species.
Jiang Xiaoyuan turned her head back under the truck’s headlights and just happened to meet the driver’s gaze.
The driver was a middle-aged woman, black and thin, as if she had just finished transporting bananas from the farm. Her appearance was strange, with large eye bags like a wrinkled and a flat mouth. Both of them startled each other.
Jiang Xiaoyuan almost exerted all her strength to turn around and face the driver, extending a hand: “Help…”
She only managed to say one word before collapsing on the spot, no one knew what was going on.
When Jiang Xiaoyuan woke up from a brief shock, she found herself on the truck, and there was a not-so-fresh smell in the air. The driver was pouring water into her mouth.
After Jiang Xiaoyuan swallowed hard several times and coughed, she opened her eyes, intending to thank the driver. However, when she opened her mouth, she almost choked.
“Take it slow, speak slowly” the female driver patted her back and broke off a small piece of bread, offering it to Jiang Xiaoyuan’s mouth.
The driver had been on the road for many years, often driving for ten hours or more, so she couldn’t be too particular about personal hygiene. Her hands were dark and thin like chicken feet, with dirt and grime under her nails, rich in content. Although the smell of food made Jiang Xiaoyuan’s head buzz, seeing such “utensils”, she still struggled to overcome her low-level appetite with great spirit, politely refusing the woman’s food.
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