Chapter 55: Small Shop In The Dream
If you were to ask Zhang Xiaoxiao where the air is the freshest and sweetest, Zhang Xiaoxiao would tell everyone without hesitation that it is at the entrance of the Law Enforcement Security Bureau.
If you were to ask her when the air is the freshest, it would probably be at night at the entrance of the Law Enforcement Security Bureau.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, insects and frogs chirped endlessly in the street-side flowerbeds and grass, the streets were as bustling as ever, Cuizhu City’s night was peaceful, Zhang Xiaoxiao walked on the road back to the university dormitory, feeling an indescribable sense of relief in her heart.
The series of complicated and bizarre and strange events she encountered last night plus the entire day today, each one taken alone was not particularly terrifying, but what made her shiver with fear was that each one surprisingly coincided and connected together.
And the key factor that tied them together was precisely the answer that the law enforcement officers dared not agree with and firmly resisted—the urban legend of the “train lost item” mentioned by that strange youth.
A seasoned female killer who killed without batting an eye, after continuously slashing people in a carriage for an unknown reason, jumped onto the tracks and committed suicide the next morning… No matter how you think about it, it is impossible.
Moreover, the expression of that female killer when she jumped onto the tracks and committed suicide, Zhang Xiaoxiao still dared not recall it carefully even for a second; in the footage captured by the surveillance camera before the suicide, the female killer went to her death with a ferocious smile on her face, as if she had seen something that excited her, excited enough to make her abandon her own life without hesitation.
If she really had a sudden attack of conscience and her kind heart was not yet extinguished, going to her death for her past sins, it would be impossible for her to show such an expression before suicide.
This was also why Zhang Xiaoxiao was more inclined to believe that in this series of events, there was an anomalous unknown factor secretly influencing or even dominating.
Zhang Xiaoxiao actually had a method to prove whether that eerie urban legend was true, but during the interrogation process, she did not enlighten or guide the law enforcement officers and that group of men in black to verify it.
The method was also very simple: go verify it personally, take that diamond necklace whose owner could not be found, and then see with your own eyes if the terror of the urban legend could manifest on you.
But Zhang Xiaoxiao did not dare and did not want to; she was afraid that someone would really die because of it.
That female killer deserved punishment, but the law enforcement officers should not.
Just when Zhang Xiaoxiao felt she could not withstand the pressure, fortunately those men in black appeared in time and believed her almost without any hesitation.
Zhang Xiaoxiao originally thought she was destined not to pass this hurdle today, because according to those law enforcement officers’ meticulous approach to handling cases, the strange things that happened to her, she had no way to explain, or even if she explained, they might not necessarily be willing to believe, and the law enforcement officers would definitely get to the bottom of it until they found the answer.
Therefore, when Zhang Xiaoxiao came out of the Law Enforcement Security Bureau, she felt a sense of relief.
She stood on the street, checked the time on her mobile phone, then looked at the sky, hesitated slightly, gritted her teeth, and chose to pay dozens of yuan out of her own pocket to take a ride-hailing car back to school.
After all, at least for a long time to come, she was full of psychological trauma towards subway trains and such vehicles.
Another person who had psychological trauma towards subways and such vehicles was the unemployed vagrant Xin Junmao.
Even if Xin Junmao did not say it, his parents had heard about the daytime incident through their own channels, and when they saw their son return home early today in a dazed state, they immediately understood everything.
Their son, who usually hid even his anxiety about unemployment and the dejection of failed job hunts from them, would not show such a dejected expression unless he had encountered some major blow.
“You’ve been running around looking for work lately, if you’re tired, just rest at home for a while first.” Xin Junmao’s father said at dinner, after downing a glass of baijiu and pondering for a moment.
Xin Junmao’s mother chimed in, smiling, “Yes, your dad and I are healthy and don’t need much money, the home doesn’t lack your share for now.”
Xin Junmao remained silent; he knew his parents were comforting and caring for him, but precisely because they said this, it made him feel even more anxious.
He silently finished dinner and returned to his room without a word.
Locking himself in the room, doing nothing, lying on the bed with his eyes closed to rest, the images in his mind jumped back and forth between his fantasies of a destitute unemployed future and the scene of the female killer jumping onto the tracks and committing suicide this morning.
Somehow, or perhaps he had dozed off for a short while in his wild thoughts, in just that short time, the two jumping images in his mind actually overlapped.
This damn life… ah, why wasn’t it me who jumped onto the tracks this morning?
Thinking this way, he fantasized about the scene of himself jumping onto the tracks; in that spacetime scene, his parents and friends behind him, as well as the female university student Zhang Xiaoxiao he met this morning, were all calling out to him in terror and despair not to die, while he, in a dazed state, saw the dazzling light coming from the side, that white, high-speed subway tram like a ruthless metal beast charging towards him.
His vision went black, he did not even feel the near-death experience described in novels, not even getting the chance to take one last look at the world, he just vanished in an instant, just like his lifeless life over the past twenty-three years that had not even a ripple… even death was so meaningless.
Xin Junmao felt a pang of regret, and at the same time, a piercing chill that stabbed at his soul erupted from the depths of his heart.
Suddenly, Xin Junmao startled awake in his home at midnight; he touched his forehead full of cold sweat, gasping for air heavily while slowly regaining his calm.
This nightmare left him parched; Xin Junmao got up from the bed, planning to go to the living room to pour a glass of water.
But when he pushed open the room door, Xin Junmao froze at the doorway.
Dressed in pajamas and flip-flops, he looked around in bewilderment; at this moment, what was in front of him was not the corridor at home, and looking ahead, he could not see the living room of his home; he was now in a small shop with a strange environment.
The shelves in the small shop were filled with various bizarre objects of unknown nature, most of which he had only seen similar ones in horror movies, but the difference was that seeing those “dazzling array” of goods, he only felt an inexplicable panic in his heart, as if his sixth sense for survival was warning him not to touch those things, let alone curiously try to understand them.
“Welcome to the Magical Wonderful House, is there anything I can help you with?” At this time, a robust red-clothed shop assistant appeared behind him at some point, smiling as he spoke to him.
Xin Junmao was startled and retreated a few steps, looking at the red-clothed shop assistant who had a kind face but sickly complexion with full defense, until after they had confronted each other for a full minute with the other patiently waiting for his reply, he swallowed and asked: “Where is this place?”
“As I said earlier, this is the Magical Wonderful House, only those who are fated with the small shop have the chance to come to this small shop.” Wei Jiang smiled and introduced himself, “My name is Wei Jiang, I am the shop assistant here.”
Hearing this unserious shop name, and seeing all the overly underworld goods and decorations around the small shop, Xin Junmao could not calm down, because he was now basically certain that he had truly stepped into an unknown anomaly domain.
