Death Timeline

Chapter 18

As darkness fell, it was rush hour, and the streets were bustling with pedestrians and vehicles.

Zhang Lili lacked confidence in her driving skills and suggested that she eat something and rest outside first, and then go home after the rush hour.

While having dinner at a nearby snack shop, the two chattered excitedly, constantly exchanging their driving experiences. They laughed so hard at the funny parts that the other customers in the shop stared at them.

The two stopped talking, embarrassed. But after less than five seconds, they started whispering again:

"How long have you been practicing?" Li Hui asked.

"I've only been here three times."

"Mr. Yang accompanied you the last two times, right?"

"I'm smart; I can learn it as soon as he explains it. Actually, driving isn't difficult at all; the key is to practice diligently and repeatedly. Practice makes perfect."

"How long have you been practicing?"

"Hmm... all added up, it's only about ten hours, right? One night, we practiced here until after midnight after dinner. Practicing driving at night is more focused and quieter, so it's more effective than during the day."

"Well... let's practice a little longer tonight before going back."

"Aren't you tired?"

Li Hui was actually very tired, but she really wanted to take this opportunity to make the most of the car, so she felt she could keep going. "It's alright, it's not easy to come here, and I might not have time again!"

"Well... I guess I'll have to play along!" Zhang Lili looked at her helplessly, and the two drove back to the "driving practice area".

It was pitch black all around, so Li Hui turned on the car headlights as instructed, illuminating the area ahead in bright white light. The car kept turning around and around in the square, and Zhang Lili waved her hand from time to time in the beam of her headlights, signaling her to turn right and then left, until Li Hui was a little dizzy.

She stopped her car and gave it to Zhang Lili, saying she wanted to sit down and rest for a while.

The car quickly disappeared behind the dark building and over the hill, with only the faint sound of its engine lingering in the distance.

Li Hui's sweaty clothes felt chilly in the night breeze, and she felt like shivering. Suddenly, she realized how crazy she had been tonight—how could she dare to come to such a place and practice driving in the dark!

She recalled the horrifying sight of the abandoned building she had seen during the day, and felt as if a pair of terrifying eyes were staring at her with ill intent from the darkness.

She wanted to call Zhang Lili back quickly, but there wasn't a car in sight. She felt an urge to scream, but dared not, and could only hug her shoulders and spin in circles. She wished she had 120 eyes all over her body so she could spot any potential dangers around her!

Just as she was anxious and distraught, the bright headlights of a car flashed down from a hilltop. Li Hui quickly ran in the direction the car had come from, and just as she reached the building, the car pulled up.

As she ran, she waved to Zhang Lili, signaling her to stop. The car stopped at the corner of that terrifying building. Li Hui flung open the car door and jumped inside.

"Drive quickly! I'm scared..."

"What's there to be afraid of? There's not a single ghost here at night! I've been here before, don't you know that?" Zhang Lili was still excited and energetic, her eyes showing obvious disdain as she looked at Li Hui.

"Sit tight, let's go for a drive up the mountain!" With that, she suddenly turned the car around and drove it up the hill in the darkness.

The car wound its way up the mountain road, one bend after another, with Zhang Lili explaining as she drove:

"I'm practicing shifting gears mid-journey. You see, we're going uphill now, so we need to shift to first gear, or at most second gear. The lower the gear, the more power the car has, making it easier to go uphill. Going downhill, we need to shift to third or fourth gear. The higher the gear, the less power; you don't need much horsepower going downhill, so use a higher gear. Understand?"

Watching the car obediently follow Zhang Lili's lead like a well-behaved little colt, going uphill, downhill, turning left, and turning right, with the trees and flowers on both sides of the road obediently receding behind, Li Hui's hands started itching unbearably again.

"Let me try." She finally couldn't hold back and made the request after holding it in for a long time.

Li Hui took over the driver's seat from Zhang Lili in a mountain valley. She didn't pay attention to Zhang Lili's expression, but simply operated the vehicle very carefully according to her instructions: shift gears, accelerate, shift gears again, accelerate again!

"How are you?" Zhang Lili asked her, then went downstairs to "find a place to relieve herself."

Li Hui sat alone in the car when she heard Zhang Lili say from the roadside bushes, "Go for a drive around, just keep going straight along this road, and you'll come back to where you started. I'll be waiting for you here."

Sitting in the car, Li Hui could only hear the sounds but couldn't see anyone, assuming Zhang Lili might need a little more time to resolve the issue. The joy and excitement of just "going solo" made Li Hui momentarily forget everything; she moved her hands and feet together, and the car slowly slid down a gentle slope towards the valley.

Driving alone at night, she felt a mix of nervousness and excitement. She was a little scared, but then she thought that she was sitting in the car and no one could hurt her. As long as she didn't stop, who would dare to stop her?

The car's headlights shone brightly on the road ahead, undulating with the terrain, sometimes rising, sometimes falling, sometimes turning left and sometimes right. This narrow road seemed to have been built specifically for driving practice; its width was just right, yet it was full of ups and downs. Li Hui silently recited the techniques Zhang Lili had taught her: uphill: shift to a lower gear; downhill: shift to a higher gear…

Zhang Lili is right. You need to use a low gear to get power going uphill, but when going downhill, switch to a high gear and the car will easily go downhill on its own without needing to accelerate.

Suddenly, a sharp downhill turn appeared ahead. Li Hui hurriedly tried to shift gears, but couldn't get it in after a long time. The car rolled straight downhill in neutral.

The wheels bounced on the stones of all sizes. Her right hand was still busy trying to shift gears again, but the steering wheel, which she was holding with only her left hand, was suddenly jolted off her and slid to the side. Before Li Hui could even utter a sound, she and the car plunged down the hillside...

Trapped in "Thatched Hut Village"

When Li Hui woke up, she found herself lying on a dirty bed in a strange little hospital.

Li Hui felt as if her body had fallen apart and she couldn't move.

She tried to move, but a sudden, excruciating pain shot through her right ribs, causing her to groan uncontrollably. One of her hands was strapped to the edge of the bed, with an IV tube attached to the back of her hand.

Thinking back to last night, all she remembered was the bright white road in front of the car headlights, which suddenly turned into dark grass and trees rushing towards her. Then she felt as if she had fallen into a dark abyss and knew nothing more.

"Where...am I?" she gasped, trying to calm the pain in her ribs. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but the small nurse who was standing in front of the small cabinet in the corner, busy preparing cotton balls, couldn't hear her weak voice at all.

The nurse was busy with her work when she seemed to hear something, but she couldn't be sure. She glanced back at Li Hui and saw that she had opened her eyes. She simply said, "Oh, you're awake," and then lowered her head to continue with her work.

"Where is this place?" she asked, raising her voice again.

This time, the nurse overheard and casually mentioned an unfamiliar place name. Li Hui vaguely felt as if she had been abandoned in a remote, desolate inn in a poor, rural area.

What about Zhang Lili?

"You're alright, just a minor rib injury. You'll be fine after some rest," the nurse reassured her.

Li Hui saw that there were dried bloodstains on the front of her clothes. She felt a terrible headache. She raised her hand to touch it and found that her forehead was already wrapped in gauze. This time, she was probably really disfigured!

"Oh, you've cut your forehead." The nurse, like a commentator, kept explaining as Li Hui moved.

She raised her hand and realized that her right hand was also wrapped up like a white steamed bun.

"One of your finger joints was dislocated, but it's back in place now, so you're fine."

Who brought me here?

"Your friend went to sleep; she said she'd pick you up in the morning."

Li Hui lay in bed, recalling the "death timetable." Had that "unexpected disaster" finally struck again?

She sensed the power of this mastermind, as if it were controlling all her actions from the shadows!

She repeatedly defied it, and as a result, she was repeatedly knocked to the ground by it.

This time, misfortune seemed to have taken advantage of Zhang Lili's enthusiasm, Mr. Yang's car, and even her momentary lapse in judgment.

Yesterday was the first day, and just as the email said: "Your time is running out!"

She remembered that Zhang Lili was relieving herself in the bushes not far away, and she was driving alone down a winding slope...

Yes, that downhill slope was a bit strange, it was winding and there were a lot of small stones on the road, and the steering wheel was so bumpy that she couldn't hold it at all! And when she got nervous, she just couldn't shift gears.

What if you can't shift gears in an emergency? Zhang Lili hadn't had time to teach her yet, so of course, trouble ensued.

Strangely enough, Zhang Lili hadn't mentioned the terrible downhill slope to her beforehand!

Perhaps Zhang Lili simply didn't take the downhill slope seriously; her driving skills were so refined that she didn't consider a slightly bumpy, winding downhill slope a problem. She never imagined that Li Hui, who had only learned the basics of driving an hour earlier, would be flustered and helpless in such a place! Otherwise, why would she have let her drive there alone? Besides, Zhang Lili urgently needed to relieve herself and was only concerned with taking care of her "urgent problem."

Now, Li Hui lies in this small, dilapidated house, completely unaware of her surroundings. A deep, overwhelming fear grips her heart.

Today marks the 10th day. Back on the 10th day, she had been warned in an email that she would encounter "unexpected disasters" every day for the next ten days.

Does this count?

If this was indeed orchestrated in secret, then it means the perpetrator has indeed accelerated the process of persecuting her, and from today onwards, her days may be filled with terror and evil.

This small, foul-smelling village clinic might just become her... final resting place?

Thinking of this, Li Hui suddenly tensed up and became as stiff as a stone. She suddenly sat up, but failed. Her ribs ached so much that she screamed, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, mingling with her sweat.

"You can't move, your leg is injured too," the nurse said again.

Li Hui was stunned.

She stared at the nurse's lips as they moved, feeling as if she were possessed by a demon, constantly cursing every part of her body. If she said there was a problem, then there was a problem; if she said she should die, then she had to die.

"You don't believe me? Your leg might be broken too. We can't take X-rays here, so we can't make a diagnosis." Li Hui's strange expression must have startled the nurse, so she added another sentence.

Her hairs slowly stood on end, and she had to rub her eyes with her hands, which were wrapped in white steamed buns, before she could see the woman in front of her clearly. In fact, she was not young at all, and she had a set of tetracycline-stained teeth, which made her face look somewhat dirty in some way.

"What does 'also fractured' mean? What other fractures do I have?"

"It's probably a rib... but we can't confirm it yet."

"Tell me, what is the name of your hospital?"

"Maowu Township Health Clinic."

"Where?"

"Thatched Hut Village!"

The woman seemed to be deliberately playing a tongue twister; she just wouldn't give a straight answer about the location of this damned "Thatched Hut Village." And this Thatched Hut Village was a place she'd never heard of before. Of course, she was completely unfamiliar with the surrounding suburbs.

Li Hui suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

Now she lay in bed, helpless. She couldn't hear anything around her, and had no idea what kind of place she was. How come she hadn't noticed this "Thatched Hut Village" near their driving practice area yesterday?

There were probably no hospitals nearby, so Zhang Lili had no choice but to take her to the nearest village clinic in order to save her life.

The thought of Zhang Lili immediately calmed Li Hui down. That's right, there's still Zhang Lili. Don't be afraid, she'll come to save you!

"You just said my friend went to sleep? Where is he?"

"have no idea."

"When did she leave?"

"They've only been walking for a short while, just before dawn, right?"

It seems Zhang Lili hadn't slept all night; she must have been terrified when she fell off the hill. She had to grope her way up the rolling hills in the dark to the accident site, then find the half-dead woman in the dense bushes and get her to the hospital. Good heavens, poor Zhang Lili! She came here to practice driving, but ended up causing such a huge mess. The car is definitely totaled. How is Zhang Lili going to explain this to Mr. Yang?

She was filled with remorse and guilt, not knowing what to do, and lay in bed feeling like she was on pins and needles.

The sun was shining brightly outside. Through the gaps in the Venetian blinds, Li Hui could feel that the atmosphere here was not like that of the city, where there were tall buildings or trees blocking the shadows and making it gloomy all day long.

She asked the nurse to open the blinds on the window so she could see outside. But the nurse hesitated for a moment and said, "These blinds are broken; they can't be opened."

"Then open the door, this room is too stuffy!"

"There are all sorts of people in the corridor, it's not good." The nurse looked a little flustered when she said this, and Li Hui knew she was lying.

She knew there was no corridor in the house at all, because she had just been lying in bed and could hear pedestrians and small animals passing by on the gravel road in front of the door. The cats and dogs made very light footsteps and occasionally made a "humming" sound, but the chicks sang their own leisurely tunes as they passed by.

This is the most typical sound in a rural courtyard. Li Hui once spent a summer at the hometown of a college classmate in rural Jiangsu, and she is very familiar with this harmonious sound.