Editor: Kitty
“In the last odd-numbered carriage, the man died.” Crow spoke vaguely, but he believed that Wolf could understand who he was talking about. Crow silently smiled, and his tone was very subtle: “When I squatted beside him, I saw that his collar was slightly left open, and under his clavicle, he had a blue tattoo. Although blood and clothes blocked the majority of it, I could still see the general shape of it.”
Crow’s words made Wolf stare at Crow in hesitation for a very long time. Wolf looked as if he had seen a ghost. After a long time, he said in an uncertain tone: “You’re saying this intentionally, right?”
The look in Crow’s eyes was slightly cold, and he softly said, “No, it was unintentional.”
The bizarre conversation between Crow and Wolf ended because Black cat returned after turning off the light and sat beside Crow. Afterwards, Black cat lit the candle in front of him, and the light in the carriage grew stronger, though the flame trembled with the slight shaking of the train.
“We can start.” Crow held out a finger and put it on the dish that was placed in the middle of the yin yang eight trigrams. He explained: “This game seems to require everyone to put a finger on this dish, and after that, one person needs to invite the deity here. After that, we can pose questions to the ‘deity’ that we invited so that the deity can answer us.”
“Such a foolish game.” Wolf expressed his dissatisfaction, but he still placed his finger on the small white dish.
Then Black cat also very cooperatively extended his finger. All three of them had placed their fingers on that small, upside-down dish. Crow glanced at the two people beside him and saw that neither of them were going to speak. So Crow thought about it and asked, “What should I say? Should I say please show yourself to us, whichever deity you are?”
Wolf’s face had impatience written all over it: “Just say please show yourself, god of death! Didn’t the damn door say that we have to invite the god of death to judge us?”
It was not known if Wolf had actually guessed it accurately, but as soon as Wolf finished saying this, the three people felt the little white dish under their fingers tremble at almost the same time. The shaking was very subtle, but to the three of them who were in contact with the dish, the tremors felt obvious. They were silent for a moment. Wolf raised his head to look at Crow and asked, “Did any of you move this dish?”
“I didn’t exert any strength.” Crow raised the corners of his mouth slightly. A faint smile hung on his lips.
“I didn’t either.” Black cat had a rigid expression.
“Alright, it seems that Lord God of Death has arrived,” Wolf said, staring at Crow: “Then let me ask the first question…… Let me think. Who killed Owl?!”
The dish under the fingers of the trio began to shake more violently. Then, something mystifying happened. It was not known if someone had intentionally lied or pushed the dish by secretly exerting some strength, but the dish did move. It first circled the yin yang eight trigrams on the cloth, and thereafter, it stopped at the first character—
“Cannot be foretold…?” With the movement of the dish, Wolf combined the characters it had stayed on one by one, and it finally formed a simple sentence. Wolf laughed sarcastically: “It seems that even the god of death cannot foretell who the murderer is?”
“The three of us can each ask a question, but I haven’t figured out what to ask yet, Black cat…… Can you go first?” Crow felt the little white dish and returned it to the middle of the yin yang trigrams, so he said that to Black cat.
Black cat nodded in agreement. After thinking for a while, he lowered his voice and asked, “Where is the key to this carriage?”
After the last syllable of what Black cat had intended to say sounded out, the dish under their fingers began to act by itself, and unexpectedly, it simply and directly answered Black cat’s question&#k2014;”It’s on one of your bodies.
The answer surprised the trio.
“On whom?” Black cat asked again.
The dish replied— ‘Cannot be foretold.’
“Well, let’s ask the question in a different manner.” As if his interest had been garnered and as if carrying malicious intentions, Crow posed a horrifying question: “Among the three of us, who is the next person to die?”
The dish replied—‘Cannot be foretold’.
Crow was silent for a moment, and shortly after, he asked, “How can we get out from this carriage?”
The dish wandered around the eight trigrams for a while and replied—’Kill the person who holds the key.’
“Which part of the person’s body is the key on?”
The dish answered—‘The direction of his heart.’
Crow’s face became a little ghastly, and he asked another complicated question: “Are you really the god of death?”
This time, the dish wandered around again for a long time before giving the answer—’Yes.’
After answering these questions, the dish would not move any more. No matter what questions the three people asked, the dish remained motionless in the middle of the yin yang eight trigrams. The candles on the table began to flicker as if the god of death had left.
“Even if it told us this, it’s the same as him not telling us anything.” Wolf pushed the dish and leaned back against the sofa. He felt the air was a little hot and stuffy and scratched his hair impatiently.
The train car was still dark, and the only light source came from the flickering candlelight. Not knowing whether it was due to the intensity of the flame, Crow also felt a little hot. He stood up and said, “I’ll go to the toilet and turn on the light.”
So Crow left. This time, Wolf and Black cat were the only ones left.
Black cat was too silent. Generally, he would seldom open his mouth to speak. Wolf did not have much against him, either. He merely rubbed his chest anxiously with his hands, but that made the suffocating feeling more intense.
Soon the light turned on and Crow came back, but he had a few bottles of mineral water in his hands.
“I got this from the crew’s lounge. They’re sealed. Would you like to try it?” Crow had a compassionate look on his face. Indeed, in his hands, he held bottles of mineral water that had sealed bottle caps. Black cat calmly took one and drank it straight away, but Wolf did not trust Crow.
Wolf looked at Crow with a deadly look in his eyes, and his tone was somewhat sharp: “Your ability to disguise really makes me bristle with anger.”
Crow’s hand that was holding the bottle of water seemed to shake. He gazed at Wolf: “I know you are guarded against me.”
“Of course! Who are you acting for?” Wolf suddenly began to use an odious tone against him as if all his accumulated anger had burst out. He grabbed the cloth on the table and threw it to the ground along with the small dish on the cloth. The dish smashed on the ground, and the sound of something fragile breaking sounded.
“……I am not acting.” Crow’s voice seemed to be a little erratic, and he had a gloomy aura.
Crow continued, “Sometimes I just…… don’t know what I’m doing…… That’s all.”
“So you have admitted it?” Wolf suddenly ignorantly spoke. He looked at Crow, and the look in his eyes was ferocious: “Yes, you are the murderer! You’re the f*ckin’ murderer! You want to kill everyone here!”
Crow sucked in deep breath. Wolf’s words made his fingertips tremble. Crow forced himself to calm down and said, “Mr. Wolf, you are too agitated. I’m not the murderer. I didn’t want to kill everyone!”
Wolf had obviously lost all sense of sanity. His words even seemed a little like gibberish. Or perhaps the enclosed environment had almost driven him crazy, so he roared at Crow: “Don’t pretend to be naive there! Don’t you see what you look like now? You really think that your act is flawless—”
But before Wolf had finished speaking, his voice stopped abruptly.
From the corner of Wolf’s mouth, blood spurted out before he was aware of it. The pain descended upon him slowly. He looked at Crow in front of him in astonishment. He lowered his head and saw that there was a blade inserted in his chest. The blade actually looked very familiar; it was the one they used to let blood previously.
Once again, Crow thrust the blade into Wolf’s chest, letting it plunge deeper into his heart. Crow looked pale and abominable. He approached Wolf and almost placed his entire hand into the wound.
Wolf suddenly felt the disturbing suffocating feeling in his chest disappear.
As if his chest had a hole and air was subsequently pouring into it, it made the suffocating feeling, the stuffiness and pain he felt around his chest area all dissipate. And he felt an unspeakable sense of relief.
But there was something else he did not remember.
Crow finally drew the knife back. This time, his hands were covered with blood, and he gasped slightly. Then Crow stepped aside and made way for Wolf to allow him to fall to the ground.
The crow, this species of bird, was symbolic of the god of death in some countries.
“I said…” Crow murmured, still holding the blade in his hand. He shook his head slightly: “I don’t know what I’m doing…”
I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. Sometimes I’m conscious, but my body is out of control.
Malicious and negative thoughts occupied almost his entire brain.
And from the moment he woke up in this train, he felt that his body and his will were divided into two by force. The one imprisoned in his heart was good, firm, friendly, and just. All his good values were locked there while the rest were left unrestrained, akin to a released beast.
But what did the beast do?
Crow did not know. He did not know anything.
Crow lowered his head to look at Wolf, who was lying on the ground. Wolf still had a breath of life left in him. Maybe what was written on the note was true, and everyone would recover their memories before they died. However, what they felt when recovering their memories was quite magical. Like a flash of light, everything that he did not understand at first returned to his brain.
But he was dying.
Wolf coughed a few times and spat out a mouthful of bloody foam. He raised his head and looked at Crow and Black cat standing beside him. Black cat was probably scared or did not know how to deal with this situation. He was doomed to not act against Crow. At this moment, he could only stand still.
“Captain…… Ah, don’t be led by the nose…… If this goes on, our whole team will be destroyed.” Before he died, Wolf said something surprising. He spat out such a sentence, and he obviously said it to Black cat.
Crow did not have much of an expression on his face. Seeing that Wolf was still talking, he squatted down and raised the knife in his hand. It seemed that he was going to give him another stab.
Wolf reluctantly showed a bitter smile. He reached out and grasped his own arm. It seemed that he was trying to tell someone something. He murmured: “I’m sorry…… I’m sorry, Ah Lan—I’m really such a terrible person.”
T/N: QAQ!!!!! Did y’all expect Crow to be the murderer?