Grandma Bridge held the boy in her arms, singing inside the spacecraft for a long time.
Outside the porthole, the Earth vanished completely. The Solar System, Orion, the Milky Way... the ship sailed toward the depths of the star-sea, into regions humanity had never named.
When the singing finally faded, the frozen, statue-like forms of the youth and the girl began to dissipate. Simultaneously, the ship shattered into ten thousand fragments, like a handful of stars casting themselves into the vastness of space.
Zhao Meiyou and Qian Duoduo watched the entire process. After a long silence, Zhao Meiyou spoke. "It looks like it’s over."
Qian Duoduo gave a low hum of affirmation.
Zhao Meiyou wanted a smoke. He felt around his trouser pockets. "Brother Qian, can you manifest a pack of Marlboros?"
Qian Duoduo snapped his fingers. A tray appeared before them, holding McDonald’s fried chicken, salted cola, and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. Zhao Meiyou pulled out a cigarette and tucked it between his lips. Just as he was about to light it, he suddenly turned to Qian Duoduo and leaned forward.
He pulled the other man into an embrace.
Qian Duoduo’s movements stiffened for a moment before his arms slowly climbed up Zhao Meiyou’s back, patting him gently.
"No rush," Qian Duoduo said. "We haven't finished exploring Site 000 yet, but you can have your smoke first."
Zhao Meiyou knew very well that everything they were seeing was merely quantum residue within the site—less interactive than even a holographic game in the real world.
The First Law of Sites: A site is not a dream.
Zhao Meiyou couldn't judge whether the reality shown in the site was a truth from the past. He had seen the so-called truth of the Orion War in Site S45, but just as he had once screamed about ketchup while sprinting through an infinite loop, in the three thousand worlds constructed by quanta, there was only a thin line between composure and madness. No—it was more accurate to say that composure and madness devoured each other, until even the self was lost in the abyss.
You couldn't think too much. Common sense was the greatest obstacle; rationality was the trigger for insanity. The Tree of Knowledge was not the Tree of Life. All appearances are illusory. To escape delirium, one could only rely on instinct.
Instinct.
Compared to Diao Chan or Tai Zhu, who were better at wielding rationality, Zhao Meiyou’s primary motivations undoubtedly stemmed entirely from instinct.
Love, hate, greed, anger, obsession—acting as his heart desired.
Humans spent their lives seeking to escape instinct and discipline the self, but in the face of the majestic unknown, instinct was the ultimate protection.
For instance, at this very moment, Zhao Meiyou realized his mental state was slightly off. He turned decisively toward Qian Duoduo, his eyes burning with intensity.
Qian Duoduo: "...What is it?"
"Brother Qian," Zhao Meiyou said with dead seriousness. "Can I kiss you?"
Qian Duoduo suddenly let out a short laugh. He plucked the cigarette from Zhao Meiyou’s hand, placed it in his own mouth, and lit it. He took a drag, then leaned in, pressing his lips firmly against Zhao Meiyou’s.
The flavor bead popped. Their lips and teeth clashed and ground together; amidst the thick scent of menthol, they exchanged a sharp breath of second-hand smoke.
The nicotine helped him settle down. Zhao Meiyou looked at their surroundings. The boy and girl had vanished completely. Most of the ship’s structure had disintegrated, leaving it in a state of extreme ruin, as if it had drifted through space for a century after running out of fuel.
He and Qian Duoduo were in the control room. Half of the outer wall had cracked open. Logically, they were in a vacuum, yet neither felt any difficulty breathing.
They sat by the edge of the ruptured wall, sharing the fried chicken and salted cola. After Zhao Meiyou finished the entire cigarette, he suddenly said, "Brother Qian, when I came out of the Madame Butterfly site, I had a dream."
Qian Duoduo hummed. "I remember."
"I heard singing in that dream," Zhao Meiyou said. "A melody I’d never heard before."
"It’s fine." Qian Duoduo handed him half the chicken and used Zhao Meiyou’s tie to wipe the grease from his hands. "Dreaming is a common side effect of site exploration. The sights in those dreams are usually unheard of. You’ll get used to it."
Zhao Meiyou paused for a moment. "At first, I thought the singing was just my imagination."
"Until that humanoid boy beside Grandma Bridge sang that song. The melody was exactly the same as the one in my dream."
Qian Duoduo’s movements halted. "Which one?"
Zhao Meiyou: "The one called 'Grandma Bridge.'"
In that underwater dream, he had walked into the deep mountains wearing unknown monk's robes. He had seen countless instruments in the lake, and petals had erupted from the pipes of an organ, playing a lost music.
Qian Duoduo seemed stunned for a second. Then he reached for Zhao Meiyou’s belt. Zhao Meiyou quickly raised his hands, crushing his cigarette out on the console. "Brother Qian, what are you doing?"
"I’m worried you might have a dissolution tendency," Qian Duoduo said. "Once an archaeologist’s consciousness merges with the quantum field threshold, the site will externalize and manifest scenes from their memory."
"Not necessarily." Zhao Meiyou checked his own mental state. He felt okay. No urge to run naked as ketchup, no impulse to call his brother 'mother.' He loved Qian Duoduo—yep, perfectly normal.
"To be safe, let’s deepen the link." Qian Duoduo sat on Zhao Meiyou’s lap and untied his hair ribbon. His long hair spilled down, enveloping them both like a shroud of silk. He pressed his forehead against Zhao Meiyou’s. "Feel me."
Ever since Site S86, Zhao Meiyou and Qian Duoduo had never done *this* in a normal time or place. They’d been hunted, dealt with a phantom pregnancy, and fled through infinite loops. The only time that was even remotely normal was in the bathtub of Tai Zhu’s safehouse—and even then, the goldfish Qian Duoduo bought had all died, the simulated sunlight looked like white mites, and they’d turned the place upside down in a solution connected by electrodes. Tai Zhu had stood outside kicking the door, and later, while cleaning up the scene, had looked at him with an indescribable expression, saying, *Zhao Mo-de, you’re really something.*
Zhao Meiyou also thought he was pretty something. Whether it was making love in the depths of space or managing to land Qian Duoduo. He hadn't met many archaeologists, but without exception, they all treated Qian Duoduo with either respect or dread, as if the man were some piece of untainted jade that didn't eat the food of mortals. Only Zhao Meiyou knew that Qian Duoduo was mad as a hatter and had a bit of a wicked streak when it came to this. Sometimes, halfway through, he would suddenly borrow Zhao Meiyou’s ability to transform into a female form, his tailored suit unable to contain the curves.
The virtue of composure and the flair of violence; a delicate divinity and a base wantonness.
Their bodies huddled together in a deep slumber of the senses. In this eroticism governed by absolute instinct, both rationality and madness ceased to exist. All that remained was pure warmth, like the sun itself.
An unknown amount of time passed. Qian Duoduo lit a cigarette, his voice still carrying a hint of breathlessness. "...You should be fine."
"I really am fine, Brother Qian." Zhao Meiyou took the cigarette from his lips. Suddenly, a realization dawned on him. Was Qian Duoduo’s claim about "physical linkage to communicate mental states" just an excuse?
It was a bit far-fetched, but given that his partner was the type who was either perfectly calm or a god of slaughter, it wasn't impossible.
Zhao Meiyou thought about it, but lacking the courage to match his curiosity, he decided to let that suspicion rot in his gut.
With his legs bare, Qian Duoduo walked around the remains of the disintegrated control room. He pondered for a moment. "This control room wouldn't be left behind for no reason. It’s likely a clue for us to explore the site further."
Since entering Site 000, aside from a bizarre museum and a tale of long-past sorrows and joys, they hadn't encountered any life-or-death moments. Although Zhao Meiyou had been briefly trapped in the ketchup loop, in Qian Duoduo’s eyes, that wasn't a big deal—at most, it was a bit funny. The danger level didn't even match some S-rank sites.
However, Site 000 was designated as the highest rank for a reason.
That meant the true danger had yet to arrive.
Qian Duoduo circled the room, his gaze locking onto the control console. The main body of the ship had decomposed; logically, the console should have failed, but a blue light was currently floating on the screen.
He walked over, studied the control panel for a moment, and pressed several keys.
Zhao Meiyou suddenly noticed that as Qian Duoduo pressed the buttons, the stars outside the ship began to move.
What was happening?
"Don't talk to me yet." Qian Duoduo had clearly noticed the anomaly as well. His concentration was at its peak, as if certain quantum signals were being funneled into his brainwaves, guiding his rapid operations on the panel. Outside, the stars began to shift and rotate like manipulated points of light, flickering on and off, gradually converging around the hull into a magnificent galaxy.
That flowing galaxy enveloped them. The ship was wrapped in it. From Zhao Meiyou’s perspective, it looked like four liquid outer walls extending from both ends, like an endless corridor of mercury—
The liquid suddenly solidified. The silver stopped flowing. What did it look like?
It looked like mirrors.
A long corridor of mirrors.
Zhao Meiyou suddenly felt the scene was incredibly familiar. Yes, the Mirror Corridor. Since he became an archaeologist, a Mirror Corridor had appeared in almost every site. In Site A173, he had reached the edge of the site through one. In Site S45, deep beneath the Ideal City, a running subway car had suddenly turned into a mirror gallery. In Site S86, they had also used a Mirror Corridor to reach a dressing room...
And then there was the Rum Tunnel.
Zhao Meiyou recalled that when the Rum Tunnel performed high-speed site transitions, it would enter a sort of wormhole-like space where light and shadow fluctuated like a corridor of mirrors.
How exactly was the Rum Tunnel constructed?
In the connection between countless sites, what did the "Mirror Corridor" signify?
As Zhao Meiyou’s thoughts raced, Qian Duoduo suddenly withdrew his hand. Zhao Meiyou was about to ask how he was when a thunderous boom echoed through the Mirror Corridor. Simultaneously, they heard a whistle.
The whistle of a train entering a station.
Zhao Meiyou didn't have time to think. He stepped forward, pulling Qian Duoduo behind him, only to be blasted in the face by the gale kicked up by the vehicle.
In this four-sided world of mercury, a train had actually pulled into the station.
The train slowed to a halt. The doors opened, and the steps lowered automatically, facing Zhao Meiyou like a black-hole invitation.
Zhao Meiyou turned to exchange a look with Qian Duoduo. Both saw uncertainty and shock in the other’s eyes.
A breeze blew past, fluttering the gauze curtains.
It was a very old-fashioned steam train. One could hear the whistle from the smokestack as it ran. Inside the carriage were rows of long benches upholstered in green silk velvet. Small tables protruded from the sides, with blooming red camellias set upon white tablecloths.
In both structure and decor, this train was identical to the one in the Rum Tunnel.
Zhao Meiyou’s lips moved, his eyes conveying a question: *Brother Qian, are we getting on?*
Qian Duoduo pulled out a cigarette and tossed it into the carriage. Aside from the faint sound of the cigarette hitting the floor, the train did not react.
Qian Duoduo pursed his lips and finally gave a nod. "Get on."
The two took their seats on a bench. The whistle blew again, and the train started moving.
They traveled at high speed through the Mirror Corridor, the scenes on either side turning into a blur of silver-white. Qian Duoduo was clearly deep in thought. After a while, he spoke. "I built the Rum Tunnel using the abilities of several archaeologists: 'Splicing,' 'Warping,' and 'Acceleration.' Splicing connects the various sites, Warping builds the tunnel, and Acceleration shortens the quantum time flow between sites."
Zhao Meiyou: "Brother Qian, how did you think of building this tunnel?"
"The method came from *The Shan Hai Records*," Qian Duoduo said. "I obtained a fragment of a chapter. It recorded the concept of a deceased archaeologist. The blueprints for the train were included in the final notes."
Before Zhao Meiyou could speak, he added, "...That fragment was delivered to me through Metropolis government channels."
In that case, there were far too many things that could have been manipulated.
It was even uncertain if this "deceased archaeologist" had ever truly existed.
Qian Duoduo clearly understood this as well. He let out a nearly imperceptible sigh.
His long hair was blown about by the wind. Zhao Meiyou watched him for a while, then reached out to tuck it back. "Brother Qian, don't push yourself too hard."
"I don't usually consider the consequences of my actions," Qian Duoduo said, looking up at him. "Not before I met you."
"Well, every cloud has a silver lining," Zhao Meiyou said with a laugh. "I doubt this train will keep running until we die of old age. Let’s just see where the final stop is."
"How do you know it won't just keep going?"
Zhao Meiyou, a man of little ambition who asked for little from life, had already been gifted a thousand times over by fate. Therefore, no matter what lay ahead—be it mountains of blades or seas of fire—there was likely nothing left to fear.
"If it runs until the end of time, that’s fine too," Zhao Meiyou said, wearing his usual reckless, 'let it be' expression. "At worst, we can call it a double suicide."
That would certainly be a poetic conclusion.
Whether it was a pity or a stroke of luck, Zhao Meiyou was actually right for once. After traveling through the long passage for a significant time, the train began to slow down and finally came to a halt.
The carriage door faced a platform that looked much like any other platform in the world. Neither felt any scent of danger. They stepped off the train and saw the exit of the passage not far away, shimmering with a white light.
"Let’s go, Brother Qian." Zhao Meiyou took Qian Duoduo’s hand, his leisurely demeanor making it seem as if they were going on a picnic.
They walked toward the exit. The white light finally enveloped them. Zhao Meiyou suddenly heard the sound of a bell—
An ancient bell, tolling long and deep.
And the clamor of human voices.
Outside the passage was a massive, open space. Many people were standing there, most of them in suits or the uniforms of archaeologists. Their eyes held varying degrees of bewilderment. Some whispered to each other, some looked around, some dozed off against their companions, while others had an air of calm acceptance, sitting on the ground and leisurely playing an accordion.
Zhao Meiyou looked into the distance. They seemed to be standing before a giant ancient city gate. Not far away was a bell tower. People were still streaming out of the passage; it seemed that every toll of the bell signified an unknown train arriving at the station. Zhao Meiyou’s gaze suddenly froze—he actually saw Tai Zhu.
"Zhao Mo-de?" Liu Qijue had clearly seen him as well. He strode forward and lowered his voice. "What’s going on? Weren't you two at Site 000?"
"We were." Zhao Meiyou gestured to Qian Duoduo beside him. "But halfway through, a train suddenly appeared. We got on and ended up here. What about you?"
"I was in A173, just wandering around," Tai Zhu said. "A train suddenly appeared for me, too."
Qian Duoduo closed his eyes. "I’ve heard others talking," he said suddenly. "Their experiences are very similar to ours. They all encountered a train while inside a site."
"Has this ever happened before?" Zhao Meiyou asked.
"How could it?" Tai Zhu was clearly experiencing this for the first time as well.
They soon encountered more acquaintances: the civil servant from the party, the twins, the youth with the oxygen tank, and the person in the wheelchair with the IV drip. Everyone was equally bewildered. "Why are archaeologists from all the different sites appearing in one place?"
This wasn't some pre-arranged gathering of archaeologists. Those with high vigilance had already put on their masks.
Qian Duoduo scanned the area. "Almost every archaeologist is here."
A flicker of unease rose in Zhao Meiyou. If that was the case, where was Diao Chan?
Before he could do anything, someone in the crowd shouted, "It’s Qian Duoduo!"
"And Young Master Liu!"
Unless they were like-minded allies, few archaeologists revealed their identities. Now, everyone’s gaze converged on Qian Duoduo and Liu Qijue. "Excellency Qian," someone stepped forward to ask, "do you know what the situation is?"
"Don't step forward," Qian Duoduo whispered to Zhao Meiyou. "Leave this to me."
The crowd was divided into distinct groups. Zhao Meiyou did a quick scan; there were nearly two hundred people present. This was likely the total number of archaeologists in the Metropolis. They were gathered in groups of various sizes, and except for the leaders, almost every archaeologist wore a mask.
Tai Zhu stood beside Zhao Meiyou, hands in his pockets, still wearing his arrogant, 'I-don't-give-a-damn' expression.
Qian Duoduo stepped forward to the center of the crowd and pulled out his cigarette case.
"We were all sent here by a train." He looked at the old man who had spoken. "This is the only information we have so far."
"I heard Excellency Qian was recently put on the government’s wanted list," the old man said, looking at him with suspicion. "May I ask if that is true?"
Tai Zhu raised his voice to reply, "So what if it is? Which one of you bastards wants to stick your neck out for the government?"
There were plenty of madmen among archaeologists, but not a single fool. No one knew which site they were currently in; clearly, no one was going to pick a fight with Qian Duoduo right now.
From Zhao Meiyou’s perspective, he saw the leaders of the various groups exchange words for a moment. The old man suddenly cupped his hands in a respectful salute to Qian Duoduo, and those around him followed suit.
Qian Duoduo began to hand out cigarettes.
"What’s happening?" Zhao Meiyou nudged Tai Zhu.
"Your lover is about to start showing off," Tai Zhu said, clearly having seen this before. "It’s an unwritten rule among archaeologists. In the face of the unknown, the one named Qian takes the lead. The price is that everyone must lend him their abilities."
He then quickly grabbed Zhao Meiyou. "Don't go charging in. Qian Duoduo’s ability is no joke. On him, it’s a power move; on you, it’s a death wish."
"Easy for you to say," Zhao Meiyou whispered. "He’s not *your* partner!"
"It’s precisely because he’s your partner," Tai Zhu said calmly, "that you should trust him most."
"..."
"You have to learn to adapt to this," Tai Zhu said, patting his shoulder. "Don't be like me. I didn't realize it until after the Master was gone."
After Qian Duoduo finished collecting the "cigarettes," he was about to walk forward when he paused. He turned back, making a gesture as if to give Tai Zhu some instructions, but discreetly handed him a cigarette.
"This is 'Grafting,'" Qian Duoduo whispered. "I’ve already taken a drag."
"Not bad, you’ve improved," Tai Zhu said, somewhat surprised as he took the cigarette. "You’ve actually learned to value your own life."
If Qian Duoduo were to be seriously injured, with this cigarette, everyone present could share a portion of the damage for him.
Zhao Meiyou immediately tried to take the cigarette, but Tai Zhu slapped his hand away. "What the hell are you rushing for? There are better ways to die than this."
If they were in the real world, Zhao Meiyou might have already rolled up his sleeves to fight. In reality, with his skills, he could at least leave someone barely breathing if not dead. But here in a site, he was a newcomer. Tai Zhu’s strength was leagues beyond his; he couldn't take it by force.
With the unknown looming, he couldn't risk friendly fire. Zhao Meiyou clicked his tongue and could only watch as Qian Duoduo walked toward the massive ancient city gate.
He clenched his fists.
Qian Duoduo reached out. Without appearing to use much strength, the massive gate opened with a long, heavy creak.
The bell tolled.
***
**Glossary**
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