Chapter 55: 53. The Little Shop in a Dream

53. The Little Shop in a Dream

If one were to ask Zhang Xiaoxiao where the air is freshest and sweetest, Zhang Xiaoxiao would tell everyone without hesitation: it is at the entrance of the Enforcer Security Bureau.

If one were to ask her when the air is freshest, it would likely be at night, right at the entrance of the Enforcer Security Bureau.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse; in the flower beds and bushes by the street, the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs were incessant. The streets were bustling as usual, and the night in Cuizhu City was peaceful. As Zhang Xiaoxiao walked back to her university dormitory, she felt an indescribable sense of relief and release.

The series of complex, bizarre, and strange events she had encountered since last night and throughout the entire day were not particularly terrifying if taken individually, but what made one shudder was that they could all coincidentally be linked together.

And the key factor that could string them all together was precisely the answer that the Enforcers dared not agree with and firmly resisted—the urban legend of the "Lost Train Items" mentioned by that strange young man.

A veteran female assassin who killed without blinking, having slashed a carriage full of people for unknown reasons, then jumping onto the tracks to commit suicide the next morning... no matter how one thought about it, it was impossible.

Moreover, Zhang Xiaoxiao still dared not recall the expression on the female assassin's face when she jumped onto the tracks for even a second. In the footage captured by the surveillance camera before the suicide, the way the female assassin smiled hideously as she went to her death was as if she had seen something that excited her—excited her enough to abandon her own life without hesitation.

If she had truly experienced a change of heart, if her conscience had not been entirely extinguished, and she was dying for her past sins, she could never have worn such an expression before committing suicide.

This was also the reason why Zhang Xiaoxiao was more inclined to believe that there was an unknown, abnormal factor secretly influencing or even dominating this series of events.

Zhang Xiaoxiao actually had a way to prove whether that eerie "urban legend" was correct, but during the interrogation, she did not prompt or guide the Enforcers and that group of men in black to verify it.

The method was simple: verify it personally, take that Diamond Necklace whose owner could not be found, and then see with her own eyes whether the horror of the urban legend could be fulfilled upon herself.

But Zhang Xiaoxiao dared not, and did not want to; she was afraid that someone might truly die because of it.

The female assassin deserved her fate, but the Enforcers should not suffer such a thing.

Just when Zhang Xiaoxiao felt she could no longer bear the pressure, fortunately, those men in black appeared in time and believed her without almost any hesitation.

Zhang Xiaoxiao had originally thought she was destined not to get past this hurdle today, because according to the meticulous investigative spirit of those Enforcers, she could not explain the strange things that had happened to her, or rather, even if she explained, they might not necessarily be willing to believe her. The Enforcers would surely get to the bottom of it until they found an answer.

Therefore, when Zhang Xiaoxiao walked out of the Enforcer Security Bureau, she felt a sense of relief.

She stood on the street corner, glanced at the time on her phone, then looked at the sky. After a moment of hesitation, she gritted her teeth and chose to pay for a ride-hailing car out of her own pocket to return to school.

After all, for at least a long time to come, she would have psychological trauma regarding transportation like subway trains.

Another person who had psychological trauma regarding transportation like subway trains was the unemployed drifter Xin Junmao.

Even if Xin Junmao did not say anything, his parents had heard about the incident during the day through their own channels. When they saw their son return early today, looking like a Lost Soul, they immediately understood everything.

Their son, who usually hid his anxiety about being unemployed and the desolation of job-hunting failures in front of them—if he hadn't encountered some major blow, how could he show such a dejected expression?

"If you're tired from running around looking for work lately, just take a rest at home for a while," Xin Junmao's father said after a moment of contemplation, downing a cup of white liquor during dinner.

Xin Junmao's mother also took the opportunity to chime in, smiling: "That's right. Your father and I aren't sick or in pain, and we don't need much money. The family doesn't need that money of yours for the time being."

Xin Junmao remained silent. He knew his parents were comforting and caring for him, but it was precisely because they said this that he felt his anxiety double.

He finished his dinner in silence and returned to his room without a word.

He shut himself in his room, doing nothing, lying on the bed with his eyes closed to rest. The images in his mind jumped back and forth between his own bleak fantasies of an unemployed future and the scene of the female assassin jumping onto the tracks that morning.

Somehow, it seemed he had fallen asleep for a short while in his wild thoughts, and in that very short while, the two jumping images in his mind actually overlapped.

This goddamn life... ah, why wasn't it me who jumped onto the tracks this morning?

Thinking this, he imagined the scene of himself jumping onto the tracks. In that space-time scenario, his parents, friends, and the female university student Zhang Xiaoxiao he had met that morning were all calling out to him in terror and despair not to die. Yet, he, in a daze, saw the dazzling light coming from his side. That white, high-speed subway train was like a heartless metal beast with an iron face, charging toward him.

His vision went black. He didn't even experience the near-death experience described in novels; he didn't even have the chance to take one last look at the world. He just vanished in an instant, just like his life, which had been without a ripple or vitality for these twenty-three years... even death was so meaningless.

Xin Junmao felt a wave of regret, and at the same time, a chill that pierced his soul erupted from the depths of his heart.

Suddenly, Xin Junmao woke up in his home at midnight. He touched his forehead, which was covered in cold sweat, and while gasping for air, he slowly regained his composure.

This nightmare left him parched. Xin Junmao got out of bed, intending to go to the living room to pour a glass of water.

But when he pushed open the bedroom door, Xin Junmao froze outside the door.

Wearing pajamas and flip-flops, he looked around in a daze. At this moment, what was before him was not the hallway of his home, and looking out, he could not see his family's living room. He was currently in a strange little shop.

The shelves of the little shop were filled with various bizarre objects of unknown properties. He had mostly only seen similar things in horror movies, but the difference was that when he saw those "dazzling" goods, he only felt an inexplicable panic in his heart. It seemed as if his sixth sense for survival was warning him not to touch those things, and even more so, not to try to satisfy his curiosity about them.

"Welcome to Shenqi Miaomiaowu. Is there anything I can help you with?" At this moment, a burly shop assistant in red clothes appeared behind him, smiling as he spoke to him.

Xin Junmao was startled. He turned around and took a few steps back, looking at the red-clad assistant—who had a kind face but a low-spirited aura—with a guarded expression. It was not until he had been in a standoff for a full minute with the other party, who was waiting patiently for his reply, that he swallowed his saliva and asked, "Where is this?"

"As I just said, this is Shenqi Miaomiaowu. Only those who have a predestined connection with the shop have the opportunity to come here," Wei Jiang said with a smile, introducing himself. "My name is Wei Jiang, and I am the shop assistant here."

Listening to this unprofessional shop name, and seeing all the overly eerie goods and decorations around the little shop, Xin Junmao could not calm down, because he could now basically confirm that he had truly stepped into an unknown Anomalous Domain.