Dawn Project

Lin Xian pinned the girl tightly to the ground, not letting her escape so easily.

"Since you're awake, why were you pretending to be asleep? What exactly are you after?!"

The girl was stubborn and struggled fiercely. "I... I..."

Lin Xian's gaze turned cold as he held his blade before her eyes. "Do you think I'll go easy on you just because you're a girl?"

Seeing the cold glint of the steel blade, the girl's eyes widened. She hurriedly begged, "I was wrong! Don't kill me! Let me go—I can barely breathe!"

Pinned beneath him, her face had turned somewhat red.

Lin Xian frowned. Didn't this girl blow his door off its hinges before? Why was she completely helpless now?

Just as he was thinking about it, the girl suddenly began to cry.

"Waaah... Don't kill me. As long as you don't kill me, I'll agree to anything."

The moment she finished speaking, the girl suddenly turned and bit down hard on Lin Xian's ankle.

Hiss!

A piercing pain shot through him. Lin Xian frowned. Damn it, this woman really was cunning—she had actually ambushed him when his guard was down!

In pain, Lin Xian swung his blade sideways and smacked her directly on the forehead.

Bang!

With a crisp sound, the girl cried out, "Ow!" before promptly passing out.

"Still pretending?!"

Lin Xian's face darkened. He had no thought of going easy on her now. He found a bundle of nylon zip ties in the toolbox of Carriage 3 and securely bound her hands and feet, only then feeling slightly relieved.

He leaned against the side of the carriage and looked at his ankle. The bite mark was rather horrifying.

"Damn it, I'm not going to turn into a zombie, am I?"

To his surprise, the girl suddenly lowered her head and muttered a curse.

"You're the zombie. Your whole family are zombies."

Lin Xian's gaze turned cold. "What, not pretending to be unconscious anymore?"

"Talk. What's your name, what are you after? Or you can say nothing at all, and I'll throw you off the train right now."

Lin Xian drew his short blade, his voice icy enough that no one would doubt he could do it.

Clatter, clatter.

The train rolled steadily onward. The radio remained silent; Teacher Chen had sent no message, meaning the road ahead was clear.

"My name is Kiki."

The girl's tone changed, shifting from that innocent, sweetly affected voice into something distinctly cool.

Sure enough, she had been faking it.

"How did you find me? What do you want? Why did you pretend to be asleep the whole way? Don't make me keep asking questions. You should be well aware of your situation."

Kiki kept her head lowered, then suddenly let out a breath. With her hands and feet bound, she struggled upright from the ground and glared resentfully at Lin Xian. Though her little face was streaked with tears and her eyes were still red, there was not the slightest hint of grievance in her expression. Her ability to turn the tears on and off was astonishing.

"What else could it be? Weren't you the one waving a flag from the rooftop that day?"

"Waving a flag?" Lin Xian frowned. "Are you saying you were on that helicopter?"

"Of course." Kiki gave him a blank look.

"Go on."

"Didn't you see that the helicopter crashed?"

"So?"

"I had nowhere to go."

"And then?"

"You peeked at my underwear."

"..."

"What do you mean?" Lin Xian frowned.

Kiki clenched her teeth and said softly, "Yes, I really did wake up the next day. But I didn't know who you were or where I was. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw you..."

Lin Xian's expression changed.

"So?"

"So I naturally took you for a..."

"Pervert?" Lin Xian blurted out.

"So you pretended to be unconscious just to steal my food and ambush me?"

"It's not that. I just wanted to run away, but I never had the chance," said the girl named Kiki, looking aggrieved.

Lin Xian's expression shifted uncertainly. Then he blurted out, "Fine. You think I'm some pervert keeping you prisoner, right? Then leave."

Lin Xian glanced at the setting sun outside and said bluntly, "Since you're so smart, I'm sure you have a way to survive out there. Your family seems pretty well-off too, so just let your dad come save you."

Lin Xian's gaze was cold, his words carrying a hint of probing.

"My dad is dead."

Her tone was flat, seemingly devoid of even the slightest grief.

The carriage fell silent for a moment.

"That has nothing to do with me." Lin Xian stood up directly.

"Don't. I did want to run away at first, but now I realize I misunderstood you. Please don't throw me off the train, okay?" Kiki hurriedly said.

Lin Xian sneered.

"You didn't realize you misunderstood me. You realized you wouldn't survive if you got off."

The girl was very clever, but Lin Xian still looked at her calmly. "Sorry, you have no value to me."

Kiki immediately panicked at his words and quickly said, "Wait, you... take me to Brocade Sea. My dad was the chairman of Linglong Group, a Tier Two investor in the Dawn Project. He had the qualification for saturated rescue under the Dawn Project. After he died, that qualification was automatically inherited by me. As long as you get me to Brocade Sea, someone will come pick me up. When that happens, I can give you any supplies you want, or arrange a third-class citizen identity under the Dawn Project for you, so you can move into an underground city."

Inside Carriage 3, the orange afterglow of the setting sun streamed through the gridded armor and kept retreating across the two of them. After hearing her out, Lin Xian could not help frowning.

He had indeed heard of the Dawn Project. During the early stages of Apocalypse Day, all kinds of versions of the project had appeared online. Some said it was an official underground-city project meant to shelter people from the end of the world. Others claimed it was a roaming starship project intended to preserve the spark of human civilization.

Opinions varied wildly, accompanied by all sorts of conspiracy theories, making it impossible to tell what was real.

"Sorry." To Kiki's surprise, her words did not receive the reaction she had expected. On the contrary, Lin Xian's face remained calm as still water as he directly refused. "I'm not interested."

"You don't believe me?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't be interested."

Lin Xian spoke in a low voice, staring at her sharply.

"Not only am I uninterested, I find it boring. Why don't you jump off yourself and save me the trouble of doing it?"

Whether Kiki was telling the truth or not, he truly had no interest in it. Compared to some supposed third-class underground-city citizenship, Lin Xian trusted his own ability more. As long as he made good use of it, his chances of survival were very high—surely better than being buried underground. Besides, in a place like that, he might lose his autonomy altogether.

Seeing the indifference in Lin Xian's eyes, a trace of panic finally flashed through Kiki's gaze. But she quickly concealed it and said to him disdainfully, "Why aren't you interested in the Dawn Project? Do you really plan to rely on this train?"

"Forgive me for being blunt, but your plan is far too naive. Have you considered that the outside world has already collapsed into the apocalypse? Without maintenance engineers regularly servicing the Circumstellar Railway, what happens if the tracks break? One-fifth of its 320,000-kilometer route runs over the ocean. What if the train is damaged? What if supplies run out? What if you encounter storms, tsunamis, or earthquakes?"

Please keep reading the new book!

P.S. The plot of this chapter has been slightly adjusted. Please forgive me.