Vita Imprint

After passing through the corridor, then walking another hundred meters toward the hall and past the red doors of eight grand Banquet Halls, Jiang Xueming arrived at the First Courtyard of the Welcome Hall.

He saw sprawling red pine woods in the courtyard, with sixteen large terraces around them. Behind the terraces lay the living quarters—dining halls, baths, recreation rooms, and gyms.

Following the main road through the First Courtyard, he entered the Welcome Hall's largest interior building. On the walls of the arched corridor, he saw signs bearing this place's name: [Council of Five Kings].

After walking another hundred meters through the broad arched corridor, he reached the Central Office. On either side stood resplendent relief walls and colorful hanging paintings, while five gold-framed oil portraits hung high above the hall, facing every guest.

People came and went through the hall, yet it was strangely quiet. Attendants led their passengers back and forth between the various counters, handling paperwork and getting documents stamped.

To Xueming, these passengers had no particularly obvious traits. Men and women, young and old, healthy and sick, able-bodied and disabled—there were all kinds. Their ages were just as random. He had wanted to linger for a few minutes to see if he could spot anything unusual, but Xiao Qi grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the elevator.

"Don't I need to handle those procedures?" He stood before the elevator doors, staring at the brass pipes, the pitch-black iron doors, and the patterns carved upon them.

Xiao Qi answered casually, "No need. You're in a hurry. You can make up the paperwork later."

"Oh." Xueming suddenly grew nervous. "Is it because of Bailu's condition?"

Xiao Qi nodded. "That's right. Your sister's illness is no ordinary one."

Xueming pressed on. "You know about it? Brother Qi, can you explain it to me?"

Before he could finish, the elevator doors opened. Hurried travelers filed out.

Most wore long, cold-weather coats and carried a strange scent of rust. Their expressions were despondent, as though they had just received terrible news.

As one traveler passed close by Xueming's side,

Jiang Xueming caught a clue with absolute clarity in that instant.

He saw it clearly. Through the gaps in the tall traveler's high-collared coat and hood, the neck and sides of the nose concealed in shadow were dotted with crimson red.

Xueming had seen that color before. It was the very illness tormenting his sister.

He murmured, "They..."

Before he could finish, Xiao Qi pulled Xueming into the elevator. "Shh. Don't ask. Bad luck."

Only Xueming and Xiao Qi were inside the elevator. Xiao Qi swiped the elevator card over the sensor, and the button for the fifty-first floor lit up.

With no one around, Xueming finally asked cautiously.

"Those passengers just now. I saw red blotches on one of their faces. They looked very similar to my sister's strange illness."

"Yes, they have the same disease." Xiao Qi folded her arms, her expression grave and utterly devoid of humor. "That's exactly why we arranged for you to meet the BOSS early."

Xueming was deeply worried. "Are there many people with this disease? Can it be cured?"

Xiao Qi said, "Of course it can be cured. But this is the first time we've discovered [Vita Imprint] in the ordinary human world."

Xueming asked, "Vita Imprint?"

"That's the name of this disease: Vita Imprint. I thought that when you understood the secret of those two tickets, you would have already prepared yourself mentally." Xiao Qi turned her head and looked into Jiang Xueming's eyes. "None of us are ordinary people. We can see abnormalities in the mundane world, things ordinary people cannot perceive. What looks like cash to them becomes tickets in our eyes. Our eyes and minds, our flesh and souls, were born with certain unique gifts. We possess Inspiration."

Xueming nodded—

—Xiao Qi continued.

"This station has an extremely ancient history. According to Grandfather, the platform administrator, the station had already been operating for a very, very long time when he was young."

Xueming asked again, "What are these travelers riding the train for?"

"The BOSS and us employees have been instructed not to casually ask about guests' private affairs. I imagine it must be something very important, just as you came to this station for your sister's illness—other passengers also have things they must do, reasons they must go, The only way they must take. That's why they board this train." Xiao Qi fell into thought. "One thing is certain: I've seen it with my own eyes. After most passengers come here, if enough time passes, Vita Imprint appears on their bodies."

Xueming swallowed, growing tense. "Will I get this disease too? Vita Imprint?"

Xiao Qi reassured him, "Only passengers who travel repeatedly, venture too far into the underground world, and remain elsewhere for far too long—suffering mental trauma and physical damage—will develop these red blotches."

Xueming asked urgently, "Does it have any other symptoms? If it's cured, will there be any aftereffects? What does the name mean?"

"At first, its symptoms are very similar to lupus erythematosus." Xiao Qi recalled the notes in the employee handbook. "Large patches of papules and lumps appear on the patient's skin. Later, they develop into fatty nodules, accompanied by angina and capillary embolisms in the lungs."

The elevator numbers slowly climbed.

Xueming's spirits slowly sank.

"This process is extremely slow. It lasts a full ten months, like a pregnancy, and comes with immense pain." Xiao Qi's tone grew colder and colder. "Once the patient's skin has turned completely red, other pathogenic microorganisms swarm in when the immune system collapses. Various cytomegaloviruses, for example, as well as common hepatitis viruses. At that point, the patient begins having nightmares."

"In the later stages, the patient's lungs and kidneys are the first to fail, accompanied by widespread organ inflammation. At that point, the patient begins to suffer delirium."

"Then deep-red butterfly-shaped marks appear on the skin. Heart failure follows, and the mind collapses along with it. The patient falls completely into madness."

"When they reach the Gate of Hell, nearly every patient's digestive tract stops functioning. Fluid from the chest, lungs, and diaphragm shifts into the already dead lower half of the body, like a pregnant woman waiting to give birth."

Just hearing those descriptions, then thinking of his sister's miserable state in her hospital bed, left Xueming restless and distressed.

Xiao Qi tried hard to remember, wanting to explain every detail from the employee handbook.

"At the very end, the umbilical cord tied at our birth—at the navel, the high pressure caused by accumulated fatty fluid ruptures the skin and muscle, splitting the patient's abdomen open. Necrotic 'contents' pour out, along with clusters of parasites living symbiotically with the human body. The patient's body becomes a nutrient-rich culture dish. Over those ten months, it incubates these lives. Two types of worms are particularly common."

"One type is called the White Lady. It is a larva, no larger than a grain of rice, shaped like a gourd."

"The other is the adult form of the White Lady. We call it the Madness Butterfly. Its eye patterns resemble those of a morpho butterfly, but morpho butterflies are blue—this Red Flash Butterfly is born from Vita Imprint and enters this world alongside the virus."

"After leaving the patient's body, the White Lady dies in mere seconds, in the blink of an eye. But the Madness Butterfly flies farther away. It seems the deeper parts of the underground world are its true destination. The powder on its scales, as well as the butterfly itself, spreads Vita Imprint. As for the name of the disease..."

Xiao Qi stroked her chin and considered it for a long while.

"Vita. Vita, yes—it comes from Latin and means life. Translated directly, it should be called the Mark of Life."

"You told me before that there was a special medicine for this disease." Xueming continued, "As long as I board the train as agreed and return to the station, you'll give me the medicine? Is that true?"

"That's right, employer. Don't worry." Xiao Qi showed a sweet and pleasant smile. "Many passengers have already used this special medicine and recovered from their Vita Imprint without any aftereffects. However..."

That sweet, pleasant smile turned into a chilling sneer.

"I don't know whether you can accept it, but I still have to remind you, sir. The medicine's main extract comes from Madness Butterfly larvae. We make medicine using White Ladies. Its effects are miraculous; it can cure almost any disease within your understanding—as long as the creature is an amniote in nature, whether human or beast, this Universal Elixir will work on them."

If the special medicine was made from Vita Imprint larvae, then the culture dish that raised those larvae...

"I know what you're worried about." Like a witch who could read minds, Xiao Qi grinned. "All staff at Nine Realms Station, including the pharmaceutical department, cherish the lives of every natural-born human in this world. Most of the Universal Elixir you receive is manufactured in pharmaceutical workshops by other means."

The elevator doors opened. The two of them walked out.

"What do I need to do?" Jiang Xueming steadied himself. Only one thing remained in his mind—get the medicine.

"We understand that your family's circumstances are rather special." Xiao Qi led the way ahead. "So we directly arranged another train for you. It can depart at any time."

Beyond the windows of the corridor outside the elevator were railway tracks and platforms suspended over two hundred meters in the air.

"After you board, the BOSS will come to see you personally and tell you what you need to do on this journey." When they reached the platform tower, Xiao Qi spoke as she took a full set of new winter clothes from a storage locker's rack and helped her employer change.

Xueming put on the clothes. They fit perfectly, as if tailored specifically for him. He then asked, "What does the BOSS look like?"

"Look up, between the Second Platform and Third Platform. At the tallest tower." Xiao Qi pointed.

Following Brother Qi's hand, Xueming saw a portrait beneath the clock face of the tallest tower, standing at the center of the four platforms behind a cluster of towering buildings shrouded in red mist.

The portrait depicted a young woman in a wine-red suit. She sat in a study with old venetian blinds behind her. The desk at her side was piled high with documents. It seemed she had served as a temporary model for the painter while working, in a great hurry, and her short black hair had not even been tidied.

She wore no accessories—no necklace, ring, or earrings. She was plainly dressed, with an utterly ordinary appearance and no makeup. There was little color in her face, and beneath the moonlight and large kerosene lamps, she looked lifeless.

Worth mentioning was the black cat in her arms. Like a spoiled, wild little rascal, it rolled over to bare its claws at its owner, baring its teeth at the painter as though it were grinning viciously.

Xueming asked, "That's the owner of this station?"

Xiao Qi had repeatedly complained that the BOSS here was terribly pretentious. Even the long string of welcome arrangements reeked of cumbersome complexity and the maddening absurdity of being saddled with thankless work.

"Yes." Xiao Qi took out a thick notebook no larger than her palm and stuffed it into Xueming's pocket. "Mr. Xueming, it's time for you to board. This is your travel log."

They stood beside the boarding entrance, listening to railway workers hammering at the rails and inspecting the pipes and wheel hubs.

Grandfather the administrator's sharp whistle sounded from afar. To Xueming, it all felt like a dream—

—from an utterly ordinary person to a traveler of the underground world, about to embark on an unknown journey.

He had only taken one step onto the iron-mesh stairs at the boarding entrance when Xiao Qi yanked him back down.

"Wait! Wait, wait!" Xiao Qi shouted.

Xueming looked at Xiao Qi in confusion. "What is it? Is there something else you need to tell me?"

"Yes." Xiao Qi seemed somewhat flustered for reasons unknown, a handkerchief in her hand. "Come over here. There are some things I can't conveniently say in front of these staff members."

Xueming leaned closer and brought his ear to Brother Qi's mouth.

"Employer, you're very important to me. Every passenger is unique to their attendant." Xiao Qi spoke softly. "Madness Butterflies can kill people, while Universal Elixir can save lives. Everything has a price."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. The BOSS never makes a losing deal. When the journey ends, passengers will receive treasures, and all of it is an equal exchange."

"Be careful and stay safe along the way. As I told you from the beginning, ours is an equal employment relationship. I don't want my first customer to be someone I only meet once."

"I hope you return safely."

The scene moved Xueming somewhat. To be honest, Brother Qi seemed like a good person. Setting aside the difference between men and women, she was the first person he had met after leaving his hometown who cared about him so much.

But after he boarded, he heard Brother Qi shrieking and laughing wildly in the distance. He saw her cheering, jumping, and running like mad toward the guest services corridor.

All the way there, she pumped her little fists in celebration as though she had won a fighting championship. She balled up Xueming's old clothes and sank a three-point shot into the dirty laundry basket.

The sight gave Jiang Xueming a strange expression. The little boat of friendship that had just formed in his heart had not drifted far across life's vast sea of suffering before plunging headlong into a bizarre whirlpool.