Moon Lane

July 5.

Before the morning mist had fully dispersed, Jiang Xueming dialed that mysterious confidential number.

He did not know whether this was the right time to call. There were only two days left until the boarding date. Would it already be too late for his sister's illness?

But day after day passed, and Jiang Bailu's condition showed no improvement. He had to do something—he had to abandon all his past survival instincts and ingrained habits, even throw away the basic logic of "going to the hospital for treatment," and seek help from the people behind this mysterious number.

He could not bear Bailu's weeping and long wails in the hospital room.

Those sounds were like rusty knives, scraping and slicing at his soul over and over. Nightmares plagued him as well. He had not slept for two days, and quite a few white hairs had appeared at the back of his head. During his years of laboring, he had strictly planned his sleeping hours. Even heavy work had never forced him to stay up all night, but things were different now.

If he looked in a mirror now, he would surely be terrified by his own corpse-like complexion.

His eye sockets were deeply sunken, and it seemed as though black energy seeped from his cheeks and between his brows.

A cold, anxiety-inducing tone came from the phone. It rang five or six times in a row, yet no one answered.

Until a greeting came through the speaker.

"Is this Mr. Jiang Xueming?"

The voice seemed specially processed, like electronic synthesized speech. It was impossible to tell whether it belonged to a man, woman, young person, or elder.

Jiang Xueming immediately replied, "It's me. You were looking for me, right? Where is Nine Realms? I want to board."

The voice on the phone spoke unhurriedly. "Don't worry, Mr. Jiang Xueming. We have been waiting for your call, and we will arrange a driver to pick you up."

"When? Can the miracle drug you promised be delivered right away? What do you need me to do? Where am I going?"

"I'm terribly sorry, but I cannot answer so many questions at once. How about we find a teahouse or café at the station and have a proper talk?"

"What do I need to bring? Do I need to prepare anything? Do I need to bring the tickets you mailed me?"

"You needn't trouble yourself. Just bring your two tickets."

"I..." Jiang Xueming wanted to ask a few more questions, but the call had already ended.

Almost at the same moment, he heard a piercing car horn outside the health center.

They're here. They've come to pick me up.

Xueming immediately returned to the hospital room and sat beside Bailu.

Even while asleep, Bailu still struggled amid the suffering of nightmares and illness. Hearing it made him shudder; touching her made him tremble with fear.

He wanted to gently stroke his sister's forehead, but he did not dare reach out, as if Bailu was not the one afflicted by some strange and terrible disease—he was.

He spoke briefly with the attending doctor, then signed the letter acknowledging conservative treatment, preparing for the worst. Before this, the siblings had both been very optimistic. Aside from matters as grave as life and death, nothing else in life truly mattered—but life and death were about to come for them in the blink of an eye.

He took out the two tickets and hurried downstairs, walking toward the sharp, grating sound of the horn.

The midsummer sky was not blazing as it usually was. The damp, scorching wind was like a horse driver, lashing the cypress leaves in the courtyard toward a farther place.

He took a khaki overcoat from the Wardrobe Room, draped it over himself, and dragged his body, exhausted from two sleepless days, unsteadily outside.

He had not slept for forty-eight hours. That piercing horn was like a vicious needle; every time it sounded, even his heart twisted with pain.

Stepping out from the porch, he saw a black sedan parked on the narrow path beyond the quiet, remote woods.

It was a Volga, a very old car. Xueming had only seen it in books. It was first unveiled at the Brussels International Industrial Exhibition in 1958.

Its two round headlights resembled the eyes of a beast, glaring straight at him.

The rows of vertical air grilles had none of metal's sheen. Instead, they looked like a forest of long fangs.

The windshield had been treated to prevent peeking, so Xueming could not see inside. He walked over and knocked on the window.

—The rear door immediately opened.

He bent down, only to find that there was no one in the back seat.

—Then who had opened the rear door just now?

"Pretty high-tech." He ducked into the car with a forced smile, saying something flattering in an attempt to conceal the tension in his heart.

Looking forward from the back seat, he saw that the driver had a well-proportioned figure, tightly enclosed by the driver's seat.

Xueming could see only the shoulder and sleeve of a navy-blue suit, as well as white gloves resting on the steering wheel.

Driven by curiosity, he wanted to lean forward and take a closer look at the driver's face.

A cool female voice calmed him down.

"Mr. Jiang Xueming, please sit properly. We will take you to Nine Realms Station immediately."

He could only put away his curiosity and sit obediently in his seat.

The female driver asked, "Would you like to listen to music?"

Xueming said, "No."

The female driver asked, "Would you like to open the window?"

Xueming said, "No."

"Very well, we are departing now. Destination: Nine Realms. The total distance is approximately..." The female driver started the car, then paused. "I don't know how many kilometers. I only started this job recently. The trip will take forty minutes. Would you like to reserve food at the station?"

Xueming said, "No."

The female driver continued, "BOSS has booked afternoon tea for you at the station."

Xueming said, "BOSS?"

The car drove toward the highway.

The female driver said, "Yes, the one who called you just now. The boss! The Big B—didn't you have lots of questions to ask?"

Jiang Xueming immediately pressed her. "Can you tell me about it in detail? It looks like you know a lot."

The female driver wagged a finger without turning around. "Don't chat with me while I'm driving. I just got my license."

Jiang Xueming could only give up. He quietly watched the scenery outside the window.

At least for now, he knew these mysterious people did not seem hostile toward him. They wanted to entrust him with something—perhaps the kind of job where one sold one's life for money.

Through the rearview mirror, he secretly observed the female driver's face. For only an instant, those pitch-black, clever eyes in the mirror gave him a meaningful look.

The eye contact in the mirror lasted only a brief moment, and Xueming immediately looked away.

"Sorry, I was curious." He looked out the window and did not sneak any more glances.

At that moment, he could clearly hear the female driver's mischievous laugh, its voice carrying a faint echo.

The scenery outside gradually became unfamiliar, and both sky and earth darkened. The low pressure of midsummer bore down upon the land together with the clouds, as though a thunderstorm might strike at any moment. The sun had hidden itself as well.

The car began to grow hot. Xueming finally could not help wanting to ask.

"Turning on the air conditioning, right?" As if she could predict the future, the female driver switched on the air conditioning first.

The air immediately became much cooler, followed by a long wait.

While waiting, Xueming kept his eyes fixed tightly on the world outside the window. Unease began to rise within him. He had lived in this city for four years, yet the streets and the buildings flashing past outside all felt so unfamiliar. Since settling in Hung Hom, this might have been the farthest he had ever traveled.

This feeling of unease was somewhat different from simply traveling far from home.

He saw it in the very, very distance, beyond the commercial buildings, in the farther sky.

Pitch-black clouds covered most of the heavens, slowly rolling in from ahead like ocean waves.

Within layer upon layer of clouds swirled patches of black, gray, and white. Their outlines and shadows reflected one another, still touched by the last glimmer of sunlight.

Azure lightning occasionally flashed through the clouds, accompanied by deep, muffled rumbles like the growls of a beast.

It was as though some enormous unknown creature hid within them, its body still retaining the light of lightning and stars.

That sense of unfamiliarity and estrangement gave rise to an inexplicable serenity in Xueming's heart, leaving him dazzled and entranced.

He had wanted to remember the buildings along this highway, even just a few road signs—anything to give an ordinary man like him some sense of security. At least if someone harvested his kidneys, he could point the police in the right direction when reporting it.

But he could not. Every few kilometers, another sign flashed past.

On this highway of dazzling colors and ominous darkness, he could barely make out any writing outside the window.

A raw, grassy scent also drifted from the car's air conditioning, and it all made him drowsy.

He began rubbing his eyes, yawning, and trying to shift his legs, tightening his calf muscles so that blood would pump faster into his heart and flow to his brain, keeping him awake.

"Mr. Jiang Xueming?" The female driver noticed the movement.

That single question was like a spell.

The instant his brain tried to think of how to respond, it overloaded. Like a phone whose battery had run out, it shut down completely.

When he woke up—

—The Volga was parked beside an old, ancient alley. The red bricks of the archways on both sides of the alley entrance had aged, covered in ivy and moss.

Low three- and four-story buildings lined both sides.

There were few pedestrians on the road, and the food shops were deserted.

Night had completely fallen. Only bright stars and dim streetlights kept the car company.

A sign beside the sidewalk bore its name: Moon Lane.