Chapter 90: Refusing to Close His Eyes
"Xu... Liunian." Qi Xia nodded slightly. "Very poetic."
"Nice, right?" Xu Liunian smiled faintly, still keeping her eyes on the road as she drove. "I thought this name would make me a big star, but in the end, I became a taxi driver, haha."
Qi Xia let out a few weak, listless chuckles with her, but in the next second, his expression turned cold.
"Xu Liunian, what kind of joke are you playing on me?"
"What's wrong?"
Qi Xia extended a bloodless hand, pointing at the taxi driver qualification card in front of him.
"The photo on this... it's really you."
"Yeah, this is my car, so my qualification card is hanging here. What's the problem?" Xu Liunian wore a puzzled expression.
"Don't play dumb with me..." Qi Xia coughed violently a few times, then took a deep breath and said, "Your qualification card is hanging here, which means this car really belongs to you... So who are you? Why does a car belong to you in this city?"
"I don't understand." Xu Liunian shook her head. "Mister, do you always talk to people like this?"
"How could a 'participant' get caught here with a car?!" Qi Xia felt like his entire worldview was about to shatter.
It might be ridiculous to talk about one's 'worldview' in this bizarre place, but the existence of the woman before him truly exceeded Qi Xia's understanding.
He had thought that those zombie-like 'natives' were all former participants who had been here too long, becoming insane and lost.
But now, there was actually a person like Xu Liunian...
Her behavior was strange, yet her mind was completely clear.
She had property of her own in this city.
"I really don't understand." Xu Liunian shook her head. "Mister, if you're deliberately looking for trouble, you might as well get out of the car now."
Qi Xia shook his head forcefully, trying to stay as clear-headed as possible, hoping this method would ensure that what he was seeing wasn't an illusion.
"Xu Liunian..." he called out.
"What is it now?" The woman before him had lost her earlier politeness, her tone now full of impatience.
"You drive a taxi. How many passengers can you pick up in a day?" Qi Xia suddenly changed the subject, making small talk.
"I..." Upon hearing this, Xu Liunian was visibly stunned, as if she had never considered this question before. She pondered for a long time before finally speaking. "You seem to be my first passenger today..."
"Then how many passengers do you pick up in a week?" Qi Xia asked again.
Xu Liunian felt as if a dark corner in her mind, hidden for a long time, was being slowly torn open by this man's questions.
Before meeting this man, she felt everything was fine.
But after meeting him and hearing just a few questions, the painful memories in her mind came pouring out like a tidal wave.
"I haven't picked up any passengers... all week..." Her expression began to waver, her eyes darting around as if searching for something.
Qi Xia realized his questions were shaking her, so he pressed on:
"What have you been eating and drinking this week? Where do you go after you park the car?"
"I... I..." Xu Liunian's expression gradually grew panicked, as if she was on the verge of collapse. "I haven't eaten anything in a long time... When there are no passengers, I just park by the roadside..."
"How long have you been parked by the roadside?" Though Qi Xia's tone was calm, his hair stood on end, afraid of hearing some horrifying answer.
A loud screech echoed as Xu Liunian slammed the brakes, stopping the car right in the middle of the road.
Her lips trembled as she stared ahead, her eyes taking on a different look.
There was emotion in those eyes, completely unlike the walking corpses on the streets.
"I've been parked by the roadside for two years!!!" she screamed out hoarsely, then burst into loud sobs. "Oh my god... What's wrong with me?!"
"Two..." Qi Xia's throat moved slightly as he swallowed. "You haven't eaten, drunk, or slept, and you've been parked by the roadside for two years?"
She held out her own hands and looked at them, finally understanding.
"It's this car... When I saw this car in the city, I felt like I was possessed..."
"Is there something strange about this car?" Qi Xia asked.
"This is the tool I relied on to make a living in the real world! How could I see this car here..." Xu Liunian turned around abruptly, only then noticing Qi Xia's blood-stained clothes. "You're injured?"
"It's nothing..." Qi Xia shook his head. "This injury isn't serious... Are you clear-headed now?"
Xu Liunian's hands trembled as she examined Qi Xia's wounds. She found that the surface of the wound had been crudely treated—the entire area of flesh and blood had been burned shut with high heat, which had stopped the bleeding, but the burn marks were severe.
"You're hurt this badly... If we don't find medicine soon..." She choked up for a moment. "I almost forgot—there's no medicine here at all..."
"That's right. There's nothing here to sustain our survival." Qi Xia stared into the distance with a dejected look. "Xu Liunian, I don't have much time left. Can you help me with one last thing?"
"Go ahead."
"Keep driving forward." Qi Xia said. "I want to escape from here. I want to see the edge of this city."
Xu Liunian looked at Qi Xia with a hint of sorrow, knowing it was almost a miracle that he could still stay conscious.
"Alright, I'll take you to the edge of the city. Just hold on."
She shifted gears again and, trembling, restarted the car.
Qi Xia leaned his head against the window, watching the scenery recede outside.
He coughed lightly, feeling something pressing against his windpipe in his throat, making it extremely difficult to breathe.
As his life entered its final countdown, Qi Xia didn't see his life flashing before his eyes—instead, he saw the dilapidated high-rises rapidly retreating.
He remembered that day, when he had also gotten into a taxi, rushing headlong toward another city.
He had thought that when he finally returned to his hometown, he and Yu Nian'an would be able to live a good life.
But he never expected...
On the empty streets, Xu Liunian drove the car at full speed. Qi Xia bit his tongue hard to keep himself conscious.
Before long, his mouth was filled with blood. He opened the window and spat a large mouthful of bloody saliva.
"A-are you okay?" Xu Liunian asked anxiously.
"I'm fine." Qi Xia wiped his mouth and said softly, "I feel great right now. I don't have to worry about 'surviving.' I haven't felt this relaxed in days."
The two sped forward in silence, the car driving for nearly another half hour.
"Hey... Are you still alive?" Xu Liunian slowed down, reaching out her right hand to shake Qi Xia constantly. "We've reached the edge of the city. How are you going to escape?"
Qi Xia used all his remaining strength to turn his head and open his eyes, struggling to look ahead. A few seconds later, his pupils gradually dilated.
Before them was a highway tollbooth. The signs above it were rusted beyond recognition.
Looking past the tollbooth, wide roads stretched forward.
The roads branched out in all directions, endless and unbroken.
In the far, far distance, other high-rises loomed faintly.
"So there is no edge here after all..." Qi Xia's lips quivered slightly, once again crushed by what he saw.
The words of the 'human sheep' echoed faintly in Qi Xia's ears: "We are far more magnificent than 'religion.' We possess a world!"
Yes—if this wasn't just a city, but a world, how could they ever escape?
"Where do we go next?"
Xu Liunian turned back to look at Qi Xia, only to find him lying lifelessly in his seat.
His eyes held a trace of incomprehension, a trace of resentment, a trace of unwillingness.
Even in death, he refused to close his eyes.