第五章 Chapter Five

“The house was originally two meters tall and one meter wide. But now it’s three meters tall and 1.5 meters wide. It grew proportionally.” Xiao Jinyu calmly looked at his phone’s time. “It has been exactly one hour since we last measured it’s size.”

The man in glasses: “There is no reason for it to grow, we didn’t even do anything at all. Is there any meaning to it getting bigger?”
 

Was there any meaning behind it?

Xiao Jinyu pursed his lips, not responding. Instead he turned on his phone’s flashlight and walked towards the left side of the white house. He walked slowly, as if he was counting something. When he got to the invincible wall, Xiao Jinyu raised his hand and gently rested it on the wall. Then he clenched his hand, the thin knuckles turning pale with force. 

It’s still ten meters!

“The house has gotten bigger, but the area has stayed the same.”

Hearing this, from behind Xiao Jinyu, the man in glasses was stunned, then he understood, “So, your meaning is that, the space has not grown, but the house has? Then… is it trying to squeeze us out? No, this can’t be true! How could it be like this?”

The man in glasses started panicking.

In one hour, the house expanded 1.5 times. Did this happen on purpose or was it accidental? If it happened on purpose, then at most thirty-nine hours later, the entire space will be overtaken by the white house.

With his heart beating rapidly in his chest, Xiao Jinyu took a deep breath.

Calm down.

Must calm down.

He cannot panic.

Right, he cannot panic. Everything is still unclear. They still haven’t determined whether or not this house will continue to grow. They must wait. Time will tell them the correct answer.

It definitely will.

……

Time passed extremely slowly and in the endless darkness, every second was extremely painful. 

Although their phones did not have a signal, they could still check the time. Xiao Jinyu told the man in glasses to power off his phone in order to not waste any power, so the two used one phone.

They didn’t even need to wait the whole hour. Xiao Jinyu and the man in glasses had stood in front of this house for the entire time, staring at this creepy and gloomy white, paper house.

A deep black surrounded the pure white house that stood silently in the center. There was not a single sound nor movement from the house and the naked eye could not see a single change. A full ten minutes passed and the house stood there without changing.

Maybe it really was accidental and the house would not grow at a constant rate?

“Rumble—”

The train began to enter the station.

“It got bigger, it got bigger!”

Zhao Zhixin suddenly screamed in horror.

Xiao Jinyu stared blankly at the white house that grew bigger in size, seemingly mocking them and their useless staring. The moment the train pulled into the station, the corners and the roof of the house expanded by tens of centimeters. The house got taller, the walls got longer, and the windows, stairs… the entire white house, in a blink of an eye, grew bigger proportionally.

“Does it have something to do with the train pulling in?” Xiao Jinyu turned and looked at the train that stopped at the platform. 

“Boom!”

The train doors opened and its inside emitted a blinding white light. The two small humans stood by the white house and stared at the train together.

The train also stared back at them.

In dead silence.

Xiao Jinyu's dark pupils gradually sank, without a trace of light.

***

Three hours later.

Xiao Jinyu: “The current situation is pretty obvious. This white house is constantly getting bigger. As long as the train keeps entering the station, every twelve stops, which is two hours, the house will double in proportion. As long as the train can enter the station, at most thirty-six hours later, we will be crushed to death.” 

After finding out that the white house was growing at a constant speed, the man in glasses was so anxious that his entire forehead was covered in sweat. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, “Xiao Jinyu, do you remember, that as long as we stay on the train, the train won’t leave?”

Xiao Jinyu turned and looked at him, “You mean…”

The man in glasses said in joy, “We don’t have to leave the train at all! Yes, we won’t have to walk into this weird dark space, we just have to stay on the train!” As if finding the way to survive, the man in glasses spoke quickly, “If we don’t get off the train, the train won’t leave the station and the white house won’t grow. Then we won’t be crushed to death!”

After a moment of silence, Xiao Jinyu: “Do you feel hungry?”

“Ah?”

“I said,” Xiao Jinyu calmly repeated himself, “Do you feel hungry?”

The man in glasses’ expression suddenly turned bad—

He’s hungry.

Xiao Jinyu let out a long sigh.

Zhao Zhixin’s idea, he had already thought of long ago. But they were people, not ghosts. They will get hungry, get thirsty. While hiding in the train will prevent them from getting crushed, they could still die from hunger or thirst. It’s clear that this ghost does not want them to stay in the train, otherwise there would not be a rule of ‘as long as there are passengers on the train, the train will not start’. 

“Although the white house is made of paper, we had already tried many ways to break it. We couldn’t even break open a little hole, let alone enter it. It’s very hard. But...” after a pause, Xiao Jinyu continued: “But there’s actually another way. In this space, there’s another area we haven’t measured.”

“Where?”

Xiao Jinyu tilted his head up and looked into the air, “There.” 

Hearing that, the man in glasses didn’t react for a moment. After a few seconds, when he finally understood Xiao Jinyu’s meaning, his eyes lit up, unable to contain his excitement.

In this dark space, there are six sides in total; the ground was made of stone, unable to be broken through, and the other four were blocked by invisible walls. The last side, that was the ceiling, had never been checked by them.

It wasn’t that Xiao Jinyu missed this, but they didn’t have the tools nor had the ability to fly in order to check the top. Now that the white house was getting bigger, they could climb the house, using it as a ladder to check the top. 

The man in glasses: “This white house has a lot of windows and raised surfaces on its sides, so we could definitely climb up.”

“I just hope it’s not the worst case scenario.”

“What worse case scenario?”

Shaking his head gently, Xiao Jinyu said: “It’s nothing, let’s go up.”

……

If today was April Fool’s, Xiao Jinyu would definitely grab the prankster by the collar, throw them on the floor, and tell them that there has never been such a disgusting joke in the world. 

Eight hours later.

“Let’s go down.”

On the towering white house’s roof, Zhao Zhixin, who was stretching his arms out, trying to touch the ceiling, heard this, turned around and stared blankly: “Ah?”

“This house has already shot up to ten meters, yet it still only has two floors. While there are some raised areas on the walls for climbing, but, Mr. Zhao,”  he looked at the man in glasses, “Are you a professional rock climber?”

“Of course not.”

“Coincidentally, I’m not either. According to my own calculations, ten meters is the most I can climb. Also, until now, we haven’t been able to touch this space’s ceiling. However tall this space is, whether or not we can find the exit through the top, we currently don’t know. But I know, if we don’t get down now, we will always be stuck on this roof, unable to climb down.”

The man’s expression changed; “If we go down we will be crushed to death,”

Xiao Jinyu looked at him deeply, “If we stay here, we will die of hunger or thirst.”

Not waiting for an answer, Xiao Jinyu leaned down, carefully stuck to the wall of the white house, both hands tightly holding the house’s windows and railings, and climbed down. 

The man in glasses gritted his teeth before following.

Ten minutes later, they returned to the ground.

After steadying his body, Xiao Jinyu walked to the train tracks and stared quietly.

The man in glasses had just climbed down, seeing Xiao Jinyu standing by the tracks, he asked, “What are you doing?”

“Do you want to go back?”

A cold and calm voice sounded in the dark space and the man in glasses stilled for a second.

The man in glasses: “...Yes. Of course.”

Xiao Jinyu gazed at the floating lights on the side of the platform and the train just so happened, at this moment, pulled into the station. And like moths rushing into a flame, the lights unhesitantly rushed towards the train, crushed into a million pieces under it’s wheels.

The train’s movement caused wind to ruffle his messy hair, revealing a pair of calm and firm eyes.

Xiao Jinyu slowly said, word by word, “I also want to go back. I really, really do.”

***

Morning rush hour’s subway entrance.

The subway staff in their uniforms put up the yellow cordon. After confirming that all passengers had gotten off the train, an unremarkable short-haired woman and a boy in a baseball cap snuck into the side entrance.

The two quickly entered the subway station. 

“Phew, we finally got in.” The short-haired woman sighed in relief, then her eyes lit up, “It’s been approved, White Garden’s information will be sent to us soon.”

As soon as she finished her sentence, both of their phones rang. They immediately took out their phones and opened the APP.

[User ID: White Garden]

[Real Name: Yu Siwei (deceased)]

[Sex: Male]

[Logic Number: A97]

[Logic Level: Level Three]

[Logic Skill: the body produces a subspace, ‘White Garden’, which is a space that actually exists. When one enters it’s range and holds a rose, performing an action with one leg, they can enter the ‘White Garden’ space. ‘White Garden’ has * buildings, eight rooms, * stairs… and at most the space can exist for forty hours. The time flow rate is * times the outside. In 2044, the First Research Institute of Zhongdu found that ‘White Garden’ has at least eight exits, in which the first exit is set in the hotpot restaurant on number *, * street, Zhongdu. The second exit is set in the number * apartment, eighth building, * community, Zhongdu…] 

The short-haired woman and the boy in the baseball cap: “......”

“Wait, the person’s dead, and the security level is still this high?”

“It might not be that the security level is high, but instead, ‘White Garden’ hasn’t actively released a lot of information.” Quickly looking down, the short-haired woman said, “No one wants to expose every single thing about their logic skills, this is even more complete than mine. But this ‘White Garden’ is a bit weird. Pulling people into the subspace and then as long as they follow his exact movements, they can leave the subspace, exiting through some certain exit. Well, the way to enter and exit the Logic Skill is written down, but the way to exit is not written as clearly. It doesn’t say what this White Garden does, nor does it say how we should follow his movements. Should I also copy his expression and tone, or is just following his movements enough?” 

The boy in the baseball cap nodded his head, “Also, even if we learn his movements, just how closely should we mirror it?” He scratched his head, “So annoying, my head hurts.”

The short-haired woman flipped to the last page of information, “There’s only this much. But did the First Research Institute not find a problem with this?”

“What is it?”

“White Garden is dead.”

“Yes?”

The short-haired woman said speechlessly, “He’s already dead, so if we enter his ‘White Garden’ space, how are we supposed to leave? He’s dead and he wants us to follow him, so…” lifting her head, she said, “does he want us to follow him to death? Furthermore, this logic skill has already been set loose, so the information in here might not be completely up to date.”

“We can only hope that the fact that the user has already died didn’t affect the logic skill so much.” The boy in the baseball cap said helplessly, “Just now, the monitoring showed two passengers entering the train, but didn’t get off, mysteriously disappearing.”

“There’s actually two unlucky people?”

“Super unlucky. Let’s hope that the method to enter the White Garden hasn’t changed.”

***

In the endless darkness that was like a cage, their last source of light went out.

The man in glasses’ phone ran out of battery an hour ago. Now, it has been a full thirty-eight hours since they first arrived at White Garden station.

There was a huge sense of thirst, every cell in their body was screaming for a drop of water. Their senses were blown up and this was the first time in Xiao Jinyu’s life that he could hear the blood in his body flowing. It was dull and slow, every drop of blood flowing through their delicate and fragile veins, their ears full of the devil’s bewitching words.

‘Water…’

‘The sound of water…’

Blood, of course, isn’t water.

It’s not.

Drinking blood will only cause them to die faster.

The black-haired young man sat weakly on the edge of the platform. Xiao Jinyu buried his head in his legs, not making a single movement as if he was dead. Behind him, the white house was less than half a meter away. The man in glasses lay against the white house, lifeless eyes staring at the air, lips white and purple, cracked from the dryness. 

After a long time. 

“Xiao Jinyu, I’m going to the back of the house.” The hoarse voice sounded out with difficulty.

Lifting his head, Xiao Jinyu looked at the man next to him. 

Zhao Zhixin stuck against the walls of the white house, dragging his heavy body step by step towards the back of the house. 

The back of the house has about a meter more space than the side facing the rails, which means he can live for another hour.

In fact, he can stay on the train. As long as he doesn’t get off, the train will not leave and the white house will not grow. But for some reason, compared to dying in the train from thirst, he would rather die in this boundless darkness.

Die in this darkness that mocked how weak he was.

It’s ridiculous.

When he left this morning, he never would have thought that he would die on this train that he took to and from work every day. Why him, what did he do wrong? 

Eyes wet, Zhao Zhixin choked up.

“Since we’re going to die anyways, do you want to take a gamble?”

The staggering footsteps suddenly stopped and Zhao Zhixin turned around.

On the dark platform, Xiao Jinyu stood up.

A rumbling noise came from a distance away and a faint light came down the tunnel. A train was about to pull into the station, bringing a little light into this dark world. 

His white face had long lost its color from a lack of water and his lips were chapped with several groove-like openings. But Xiao Jinyu still curled his lips and slowly laughed. His lips cracked even more, bleeding. Long foreseeing this, he licked his lips. With his lips still raised, he used his tongue that was stained with blood to lick his right side’s tiger tooth. 

“I want to jump down.”

Zhao Zhixin widened his eyes, “Have you lost your mind?”

There is another reason as to why Zhao Zhixin is unwilling. He feels that dying of thirst is too slow and that being crushed to death will be less tormenting. But to die by jumping on the rails… while there is no difference from being crushed to death, at least he can live for an hour more!

Also, how can there be someone who deliberately chooses death?

“Did I lose my mind?” Xiao Jinyu laughed, “then I lost my mind. I long lost my mind. This ghost died by jumping on the rails, he won’t kill us, instead trapping us here. Does he want us to taste the pain of how he died?”

In the darkness, the handsome young man smiled strangely, “Since he regrets it, knows it’s painful, why did he still choose to commit suicide. Trash.”

“So…”

“Zhao Zhixin, do you want to bet? I feel like we should jump down.”

The words fell and the train got closer and closer, blowing its whistle to tell them it was about to arrive at the platform.

The white house moved ten more centimeters closer to them. 

Zhao Zhixin stared speechlessly at the crazy and terrifying young man in front of him. His throat was dry and he couldn’t say a single word.

He didn’t see that, under that crazy appearance, Xiao Jinyu was staring at the light spots next to him. He saw that at the moment the train was about to pull into the station, these lights decisively rushed towards the tracks.

In the next second, Xiao Jinyu spread out his arms, closed his eyes, smiled, and fell backward.

“Boom—”

The train pulled into the station and the torrent instantly covered everything.

The author has something to say:

Little Goldfish has died.

-End of Book-

The gong that hasn’t even appeared: ???

一

This stuffy nose is too painful, it tormented me all morning.

Going to get dinner, muah =3=