Chapter 44: A Dead End

Ming Fei...

Lu Mingfei carefully mulled over what Liu Miaomiao had just said, making sure he hadn’t heard the character “Lu” before.

“What did you just call me?” Lu Mingfei asked, seeking confirmation.

“I called you by your name! What else could I call you?” Liu Miaomiao pouted, her eyes still swollen.

“No, what name did you call me?”

“Don’t you know your own name?” Liu Miaomiao resolutely avoided the topic.

Lu Mingfei scratched his head, wondering why this little girl had suddenly become so coy.

As if to change the subject, Liu Miaomiao glanced around the platform.

“Lu Mingfei, look, this platform seems different from the others we’ve seen before.”

Lu Mingfei’s gaze swept over the platform.

The green tiles, the cement floor, the peeling plaster, and cobwebs in every corner all spoke of great age—no telling how many years this building had stood.

The walls were covered with graffiti from subway technical school students, signatures everywhere reading “XX Major, Class 19XX, XXX was here.” A rusty sign at the platform entrance warned, “This station is non-operational; unauthorized personnel prohibited.”

A single incandescent bulb hung from the ceiling, casting brighter light than the other platforms. The name “Fushouling Station” was painted boldly in glaring red on the wall.

“Fushouling Station?”

Liu Miaomiao suddenly pulled a small booklet from her shorts pocket. It was a tourist guide of the imperial capital, complete with maps and subway lines.

“That’s odd. There’s definitely no such station on Line 1...” she muttered.

They had entered this subway from Wangfujing Street and had passed through the transfer station Fuxingmen, which connected Lines 1 and 2. By all logic, they should still be on Line 1.

But she couldn’t find this station on the Line 1 map.

It was like those urban legends about school staircases: only twelve steps by day, but suddenly thirteen at midnight.

Yet she quickly realized that nothing in this subway could be judged by ordinary logic.

They had already seen too many strange things—those ghostlike figures in black chasing them, the monstrous birds with huge claws like rats.

Compared to those, a mysterious station suddenly appearing on Line 1 seemed almost believable.

Besides...

She glanced sideways at Lu Mingfei. Just having him nearby seemed to dissolve the anxiety and terror swirling in her heart.

Of course, Lu Mingfei was unaware of Liu Miaomiao’s “girlish sentiment.” The moment he saw the four characters “Fushouling Station,” he knew they had reached the terminus.

“You can’t find this station on the map,” Lu Mingfei said, placing his hand over the booklet in Liu Miaomiao’s hands.

“This was the original terminus designed for Line 1, a station completed back in 1969 but never opened to the public.”

“I see,” Liu Miaomiao nodded obediently, tucking the booklet away without questioning how Lu Mingfei knew so much.

Today, Lu Mingfei had already surprised her enough, so her instinct was to accept that he would know such things.

“Let’s go find the subway attendant.”

“The subway attendant is here?”

“Should be.”

Lu Mingfei patted his pants leg, just about to stand up, when he suddenly remembered Liu Miaomiao’s ankle might be twisted.

He turned his gaze down her long, slender legs to her snow-white, delicate feet. Her ankle was slightly red and swollen, stark against her pale skin.

“Is your foot okay? Can you still walk?”

“I think so.”

Lu Mingfei took her hand and helped her to stand. But after just one step, Liu Miaomiao let out a low groan of pain and leaned against him.

“No, it looks like a bad sprain,” Lu Mingfei frowned, staring at the swollen ankle. If she couldn’t even walk, this was serious.

If it were a simple sprain, it wouldn’t be so bad, but he worried it might be a partial dislocation of the ankle joint.

If that were true, it would be troublesome.

Either way, immediate first aid was necessary.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Lu Mingfei asked, looking up at her.

Liu Miaomiao hesitated briefly, then nodded gently. With Lu Mingfei’s support, she sat down, raising the injured foot and placing it slowly into his lap.

Lu Mingfei reached out, touching the heel of her foot. As his fingers hooked under the sandal strap, Liu Miaomiao suddenly shivered and quickly covered her mouth with the back of her hand, letting out a few coquettish little sounds, though the corners of her eyes were already crinkling with laughter.

“Um, can you please try not to touch the sole of my foot?” Liu Miaomiao’s misty eyes looked timidly at Lu Mingfei. “I’m a bit ticklish.”

Lu Mingfei, seeing her shy expression as if she wanted to say more but held back, suddenly recalled a scene from the Water Margin novel where Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian were dining.

Wang Po had advised Ximen Qing to deliberately drop his chopsticks and use the chance to touch Pan Jinlian’s feet. If she didn’t wildly pull away, it meant she had accepted his advances.

Because the feet were considered a private and intimate part, Pan Jinlian’s lack of resistance showed consent to Ximen Qing’s flirtation.

Was this moment... just like that scene?

So strikingly similar?

“I-I-I’ll try not to touch,” Lu Mingfei stammered.

One hand supported the heel of Liu Miaomiao’s foot; the other nervously held her ankle.

Her foot was softer and lighter than he had imagined, like a fallen leaf resting in the palm but still warm with a girl’s gentle heat.

Lu Mingfei carefully massaged it, feeling no joint displacement—thankfully, it wasn’t a partial ankle dislocation.

He breathed a silent sigh of relief and tore a strip from his clothing to immobilize and stabilize her ankle. When his fingers brushed the slightly sunken, tender sole, Liu Miaomiao twitched like an electric shock, making Lu Mingfei’s heart tingle as well.

“I checked it out; it doesn’t seem too bad, but you shouldn’t put weight on it for a while.”

Lu Mingfei helped her slip on her sandals again and averted his gaze from her feet.

“I’ve done some simple first aid. I’ll carry you from now on.”

Liu Miaomiao merely responded with a soft “Mm.”

Lu Mingfei helped her stand, then crouched in front of her.

Feeling her body gently press against his back and her arms wrap around him, he lifted her leg and stood up.

“Where’s the subway attendant?” Liu Miaomiao rested her head lightly on his shoulder, whispering in his ear.

“Should be nearby,” Lu Mingfei replied.

In his memory, the croupier wrapped in dark brown coarse cloth should have been sitting under the incandescent bulb on the platform of Fushouling Station, with a simple table and chair before him.

But now, under the bulb, there was nothing—empty and desolate.

“Let’s walk forward a bit and see.”

“Mm.”

If Lu Mingfei’s memory served him right, Fushouling Station was indeed the terminus of Imperial Capital’s Line 1. Beyond that was the lair of the little clumsy dragon, Fenrie.

If the croupier really wasn’t here, how was he going to help Liu Miaomiao get out?

They quickly circled the narrow platform but found no sign of the croupier.

Could it be that at this time, the croupier simply wasn’t here?

The thought crossed Lu Mingfei’s mind but was quickly dismissed.

Since Lu Mingze had deliberately given him the “show hand” cheat code, it meant it would definitely come in handy.

Something must have gone wrong for the croupier not to be where he was supposed to be.

“Let’s go further in along the tunnel.”

“Mm.” No matter what Lu Mingfei said, Liu Miaomiao obediently nodded.

They jumped down into the tunnel again, feeling their way forward over the railway sleepers.

Further inside, the rock walls no longer had spotlights for illumination. Lu Mingfei had to rely on his burning golden eyes to faintly discern shapes in the darkness.

The last time he traversed this tunnel, he was breathless with exhaustion. This time, even carrying Liu Miaomiao, he moved with ease.

The man-made rock walls were marked with the grooves left by the shield machine, and the “tap-tap-tap” of their footsteps echoed through the empty tunnel.

Just ahead, there was an elongated concrete platform marking the true end of the tunnel, where the train tracks merged and the subway would reverse direction.

Looks like they really had to find that little clumsy dragon, Lu Mingfei thought.

As they moved forward, perhaps because the tunnel’s end was drawing near, the footsteps suddenly grew denser.

What had been a steady “tap, tap, tap” rhythm shifted to “tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap,” light then heavy.

It seemed like the footsteps were bouncing off the rock walls, creating an echo.

Lu Mingfei abruptly stopped.

The footsteps continued, changing from “tap-tap” to “tap, tap.”

It wasn’t an echo at all!

There was someone else in the tunnel!

Because that person’s pace matched Lu Mingfei’s steps exactly, he had mistaken the repeated sound for a double echo.

Up ahead, a vague human figure took shape, small in stature, the face unseen, and Lu Mingfei wasn’t even sure if it was truly human.

He tensed every muscle, eyes fixed warily forward.

The figure stopped about ten meters from him, still indistinct, only the high ponytail swaying behind their head visible.

A light, melodic voice floated over: “You’ve come to the wrong place, senior brother, senior sister.”

It was a girl’s voice, sweet as a bell, both strange and familiar—like a dusty photograph suddenly found tucked away in a forgotten corner of memory.

Before Lu Mingfei could wipe away the dust from that photograph, the voice lowered softly again:

“This road is blocked. Please turn back the way you came.”