Chapter 1 The First Passenger

23:44.

In the empty light rail station, Gu Shen glanced at his watch as he sprinted.

Could he still catch the last train? He was a little worried, but a low rumble sounded in the distance.

"Rumble—"

In the dim, dark tunnel, thousands of brilliant arcs of light burst forth in an instant. The last light rail train slowed down and came to a smooth stop in front of Gu Shen.

Seeing the train, Gu Shen breathed a sigh of relief, but then frowned and held his breath.

The carriage door opened, and a smell of rust rushed towards him.

He took two steps back, examining the train. The carriage was old, its exterior mottled and rusty, with three neat numbers painted in white next to the window:

001.

"If I remember correctly, Dateng City... didn't they phase out these trains long ago?"

"Beep beep beep—"

He didn't have time to think. Just as the carriage door was about to close, Gu Shen ducked and lunged, squeezing into the carriage without incident.

He grabbed the handrail and sighed in relief.

A casual glance caught something out of the corner of his eye.

"Whoa..."

Gu Shen's heart skipped a beat.

Usually, this light rail goes to remote suburbs, and the last train is often empty, with only himself on board, but today...

There was a girl in the carriage.

Gu Shen felt his heart melting. The girl was sitting across from him, less than thirty centimeters away, with almond eyes and peach cheeks, her long hair loose, wearing a thin, almost transparent pure white lace dress, exposing her fair shoulders and large expanses of snow-white skin.

That thin dress was very white.

But the girl was even whiter, so white it was dazzling.

The girl was not wearing shoes, lightly tiptoeing on the carriage floor... a thick book lay half-open on her lap, and she was quietly reading it.

This girl was too perfect, with an unspeakable, unique aura about her, not like a real person in the real world. Looking at her, Gu Shen felt like he was seeing a ray of light.

Quiet, gentle, holy, ethereal.

Between page turns, the girl looked up.

Their eyes met. Gu Shen quickly looked away, rubbing his hands and breathing into them, hastily covering up his gaffe.

He wondered if he was dreaming.

How could there be such a beautiful girl in this world?

And... wasn't she cold, wearing so little?

He really wanted to lend her his coat.

...

...

[The second person... has boarded the train.]

The girl looked up, a look of surprise flashing in her eyes, and then closed the book, seriously examining the boy who had boarded.

Although this boy was now huddled in the corner of the train, rubbing his hands, breathing into them, and smiling foolishly to himself, unaware of what "boarding" meant.

But she knew very well that this could not be a coincidence.

"Woo—"

The light rail slowly started, and electric arcs splashed back and forth, scouring the tunnel walls.

Although this train was old, it ran exceptionally smoothly.

The sound of electric arcs ejecting outside the window, after penetrating the glass, was only a muffled, rustling sound, like rain washing over something.

Neither of them spoke, maintaining the silence. If no one spoke, this light rail would pass through the long tunnel and travel silently for about twenty minutes, arriving at the terminal.

But this peace did not last long, and was soon broken by the girl's crisp voice.

"A very important question: does a real π exist between 3 and 4?"

Gu Shen thought he was hallucinating.

Was she talking to him?

He turned his head in surprise, looked around at the empty interior of the carriage, met the girl's serious gaze, and pointed at himself. The girl nodded earnestly.

He smiled awkwardly, she was really talking to him.

"Does a real π exist between 3 and 4?"

What kind of question was that?

The answer, of course, was yes.

But at this moment, Gu Shen hesitated and did not answer directly.

The reason was simple.

Because in the girl's clear pupils, which were staring straight at him, were reflected incredibly earnest waves of light. This look made Gu Shen believe... that this seemingly simple question was not so simple.

The girl held out a hand and pointed behind Gu Shen.

Gu Shen turned his head.

At some point, the interior of this old carriage had been engraved with mottled murals... vaguely visible was an old ruler, the scale of which was long, extending to an unknown end, but what could be clearly seen at the moment were the numbers 3 and 4, boldly marked on it.

"If you touch this ruler..."

The girl held out a hand and touched the ruler in the air. Her voice became light, like a gust of wind, sweeping through the carriage, with a hint of 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.

And the precision on the ruler is finite.

Even if this ruler was magnified billions of times, there would never be a point that belonged to the infinitely precise "π."

"Gu Shen... what is your answer?"

Gu Shen was a little dazed, did she know his name?

The girl's outstretched hand slowly opened, and silver cross-shaped lines flowed in her palm, emitting a glow.

Seeing the cross-shaped glow, Gu Shen felt familiar and warm, as if he had returned to an old dream. He couldn't help but make the same movement, the boy reached out his hand, wanting to interlock his fingers with the girl.

"Puchi."

Seeing this action, the girl smiled.

There was no contact as he had imagined.

The girl in the pure white纱 skirt retracted her hand and retreated, bit by bit, to the end of Gu Shen's line of sight, the girl's smile disappeared bit by bit, until only solemnity and seriousness remained.

"Gu Shen..."

"...Live on."

The wind in the carriage suddenly dissipated.

"Rumble rumble!"

The light rail drove out of the tunnel—

The light source above Gu Shen's head shattered instantly.

If there really were such a thing as a daydream in this world, then what Gu Shen had just experienced was the most wonderful daydream of his eighteen years of life, although this daydream happened 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, the moment it drove out of the tunnel, seemed to be washed away by an invisible force.

The light rail began to shake, and the entire carriage was plunged into violent turbulence, like a section of curved steel snake body, bumping up and down, and the electric arcs splashing outside the window were all extinguished at this moment.

The wheel hubs collided with the rails, and the piercing friction sound shattered this beautiful dream.

Gu Shen looked at the scene in front of him with horror.

The light in the entire carriage dimmed, and it was still empty.

But the seat of the girl from before had been replaced by a tall woman in a black礼服.

She was wearing a wide礼帽 that was large enough to cover her entire face, and was reading a stack of yellowed, old newspapers in the fragmented light. Even sitting down, she was almost as tall as Gu Shen.

If she stood up... she would probably be more than two meters tall?

23:59.

Gu Shen glanced down at the time, his face a little pale.

He might have encountered some kind of special event that could not be explained by conventional knowledge... Although the lights in this carriage were dim, it could be vaguely seen that the seat armrests were all brand new, and all the mottling and rust that he had seen earlier had disappeared.

So he had actually spent 15 minutes in such a carriage?

Every word that the girl had said was engraved in his mind, especially the last three words.

Live on.

Gu Shen's scalp was a little numb, he carefully looked at the tall lady who was immersed in reading the newspaper, and felt a strong sense of danger in his heart.

Just as his gaze swept over.

As if "telepathically"—

The black礼服 woman, who gave off a great sense of oppression, slowly raised her head, and Gu Shen saw two dark and deep real red glows emanating from under the dark 礼帽 brim.

"This gentleman."

The black礼服 woman folded the newspaper, raised her head, and politely asked in a low voice, "I have a very important question... that I would like to ask you."

"You... please speak."

Gu Shen clenched his fingers, took a deep breath, and tried his best to remain calm.

His reply didn't seem important.

Because this lady, after saying her words, took out a boning knife and slowly wiped it on the newspaper on her lap, and there were more and more spots of blood on the newspaper.

Then... she opened her 礼服, and a silver ruler hung inside the lining of her 礼服. Two snow-white fingers painted with red nail polish were stroking back and forth between the 3 and 4 marks on the ruler.

"Just now."

The tall woman, sitting upright, held the boning knife in her other hand, tilted her head, and asked in confusion, "Did I... touch π?"

...

...

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