Ten Day Ultimatum

Qi Xia could hardly have anticipated that he would spend the entire day walking along the road, and even as the sun sank beneath the horizon, he still hadn’t glimpsed the city’s edge.
A normal person walks at a speed of five kilometers per hour, but given his current state, Qi Xia estimated he was barely managing three. After more than seven hours on foot, he had covered approximately twenty kilometers.

Now, he felt dizzy, his legs trembling with every step. He was moving forward almost entirely on inertia.
"All I can do is hope I don’t die just yet..."
After another ten minutes, continuing forward became nearly impossible. He entered a dilapidated building as night fell, hoping to avoid the strange insects outside. Though he didn’t yet know the danger they posed, he preferred to steer clear of unnecessary trouble.

Using Officer Li’s lighter, he ignited a small fire and pulled out the map of Passage to Heaven, flipping it to the back. Dipping his finger in his own blood, he roughly marked the route he had taken.
This city was far larger than he had anticipated. He had assumed that following the road would lead to a more rural area, but instead, the buildings around him grew taller—as if he were moving from the outskirts toward the city center.
The diameter of an ordinary city rarely exceeds fifty kilometers... Qi Xia mused, sketching on the map with his blood. In theory, I should reach the edge by tomorrow afternoon. Then everything will become clear.

With that thought, Qi Xia moved closer to the fire and found a somewhat comfortable position to lie down. The bloodstains on his body had dried, emitting a foul, rusty odor.
Last night, Lin Qin had treated his wounds using a torch. Though the bleeding had stopped, the burned areas were painful and itchy, making sleep impossible.
When dawn broke, Qi Xia dragged his exhausted body upright. A night of rest had done little to restore his strength; he felt completely depleted. With no water, food, or medicine, he couldn't help but envy Han Yimo’s ability to slip away from life so easily.

He rummaged through the room and found a few relatively clean scraps of paper, tearing them into shreds and swallowing them. He feared that if his stomach remained entirely empty, he might not live to see the city’s edge.
Facing the rising sun, Qi Xia set off once more.
He had strayed far from the original plaza—the sound of the bell was no longer audible, and sightings of the Earthly Branches had become rare.

However, as he ventured deeper, the number of indigenous inhabitants began to increase. This place resembled a genuine city, yet most of the people wandering the streets appeared like mere shells of their former selves. They showed no expression, no aggression, and no interaction—just aimless drifting.
For a fleeting moment, Qi Xia felt as though he had become one of them. Their movements, expressions, and even their walking pace were indistinguishable from his own. It was almost ironic—had these people also been stabbed and were now marching resolutely toward the city's edge?
As the sun climbed higher, Qi Xia sensed something wrong with his condition. He touched his forehead and neck—he was running a fever.

Apparently, cauterizing the wound had been too risky. While it had stopped the bleeding, it hadn’t prevented infection.
Qi Xia felt his eyelids growing heavier with each step and sensed that he might collapse at any moment. If he fell now, he feared he might never rise again.
After nearly half an hour, he came to a slow stop at the roadside. He could no longer move, leaning on an old, worn taxi while gasping for breath. What a pity... he thought, gazing down the road. There was still a long way to go, yet it seemed he would fall here, never learning the city's ultimate secrets.

Just as he was about to sit down, frustrated and ready to surrender, he suddenly noticed someone inside the vehicle. It wasn’t a corpse. It was a woman—blinking at him.
An indigenous person? Qi Xia looked at the hard pavement, then at the soft seat in the car, a bitter smile curling on his lips. If he were to die, he might as well do so somewhere comfortable.
With that thought, he opened the car door and settled into the passenger seat. The interior carried a pleasant scent—just as he’d imagined a woman’s car might smell. If there was any silver lining, it was escaping the ever-present stench of the city.
"I never thought car seats could be so comfortable..." he murmured to himself, a resigned peace washing over him. "I can die in peace now."

“Where to, sir?” the woman beside him asked in a calm voice.
“Where to?” Qi Xia echoed with a wry smile, shaking his head. “Where can I go now?”
He patted his thigh and slowly recited the lyrics: “Drive, drive toward the edge of the city; roll down all the car windows, in hope of obtaining a temp high from speeding[1]...”

“The edge of the city?” the woman repeated, pausing to consider. “I’m not sure where that is. Could you guide me?”
She pressed the fare meter and turned the key. As expected, the car emitted a wheezing, creaky noise and failed to start.
Undeterred, she twisted the key again and again, and finally, on the fifth try, the car began to tremble.

Qi ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Xia turned to look at her, surprised. She didn’t look like an indigenous person—her complexion was healthy, her figure well-proportioned. Could she be a common person?
A common person with her own car...
"I'm about to start driving, so please fasten your seatbelt," she said, shifting into first gear and smoothly releasing the clutch while pressing the accelerator.
Qi Xia fumbled for the seatbelt, only to find a frayed strap beside him—the pillar loop had rusted through. He let it go and instead attempted conversation. “Are you… a taxi driver?”

“You’re quite the jokester, aren’t you, sir?” she replied, shaking her head as she shifted into third gear. “If I’m not a driver, what am I—an auto thief?”
Her smooth speech and casual humor left Qi Xia even more perplexed. A woman in such good mental condition surely wasn’t an indigenous person—she had to be a participant. But why would a participant be driving a taxi?
“Don’t you notice… how strange this place is?” Qi Xia gestured toward the passing scenery, trying to understand this woman, who otherwise looked so ordinary.

“Is it?” she glanced outside and replied nonchalantly, “It’s just a bit overcast.”
Qi Xia sighed inwardly. It seemed she was an indigenous person, just recently transformed—her thoughts still relatively intact.
“What’s your name?” Qi Xia asked.

The woman didn’t reply directly. Instead, she pointed to the front of the car, where her Certificate of Professional Qualification was displayed. It featured a photograph of her face, along with her name.
She had a lovely name: Xu Liunian.