In May 2119 AD, humans began transforming into dolls.

People walking on the street, eating in restaurants, trying on clothes in shopping malls with garments half-removed—these unfortunate souls had their movements frozen at the moment before the change, their smiles not even having time to fade before they became static humanoid dolls.

Without warning, and with no discernible cause.

People were puzzled, terrified, frenzied, and desperate.

They pulled up bright red banners for protest marches, questioning whether this was a terrorist attack by a mysterious organization, or wildly spreading rumors online about alien civilization invasions. Some even dragged their families to the countryside to take refuge… They did everything they could, but people around them still transformed into dolls one after another.

Gradually, people became numb.

Those who should attend school attended school, those who should go to work went to work. Life went on as it had before.

However, the daily television news added a new segment—

After reading the news script, the announcer would inform viewers in standard broadcast tone: “If you discover someone around you has become a doll, please dial the emergency number 123, and the relevant department will handle it promptly for you…”

The so-called handling meant packaging up the dolls and sending them to research institutions.

If scientists could figure something out, that would be good. If they couldn’t figure anything out, they would wait for family members to claim them. Whether to bury them or keep them at home as decorations was entirely up to the family’s discretion.

Bai Youwei watched the news for a while. Seeing it was about time, she picked up the remote control to turn off the TV, then pressed the button on her wheelchair and headed toward the dining room.

Her legs were disabled. Her parents had divorced when she was young and each had formed new families. Perhaps feeling guilty toward their daughter, the couple never held back on spending money on Bai Youwei, letting her live in the most luxurious villa and hiring the most expensive housekeeper, but they just couldn’t spare time to accompany their daughter.

However, Bai Youwei didn’t care about this.

She had long grown accustomed to being alone.

The dining room clock ticked away, the minute hand pointing to 12:10. Bai Youwei ate lunch at exactly 12:00 every day, never late, only early. Yet now there wasn’t a single dish on the dining table.

The surroundings were very quiet. The clock’s ticking made this magnificent villa seem even more tranquil.

Bai Youwei waited for a while and smelled a burning odor wafting from the kitchen.

She adjusted her direction and wheeled over. The housekeeper had her back to her, standing rigidly by the natural gas stove. Her hands maintained the posture of stir-frying, but there was no movement.

The housekeeper had become a doll, just moments ago.

Still the same face, but the material was completely different. Living flesh and blood had become plastic skin, glass bead eyes, and synthetic fiber hair…

The previous housekeeper had gone back to her hometown to take refuge. This housekeeper had only been here for two days. Bai Youwei hadn’t even memorized her name yet, and now this had happened.

She stared blankly for a while, then wheeled over, turned off the stove, and following what the news said, dialed the emergency number 123.

The line was constantly busy.

Bai Youwei thought for a moment and called her mother. The housekeeper was hired by her mother, so she should be able to contact the housekeeper’s family.

The call connected, and mixed sounds of talking, laughter, and music came through… highlighting her loneliness.

How grating.

She explained the matter in a few brief words, then hung up the phone.

The house was very quiet, and so was the outside. The scorching sun baked the earth. The garden pool reflected glimmering light. A hibiscus flower drooped its purple petals under the intense sun. Everything seemed ordinary and mundane, but Bai Youwei knew this world had long since become abnormal.

…

At 2:00 PM, the sound of a car engine came from outside the villa.

Through the window, Bai Youwei saw a tall man pressing the doorbell.

She pondered for a moment, went to the kitchen to get a folding fruit knife, and wheeled out.

Through the iron gate, the man had an upright posture and stern features, with thick black eyebrows over a pair of deep, calm eyes.

He seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she’d seen him.

“Are you Weiwei?” His voice paused slightly, carrying the awkwardness of a first meeting. “I’m Shen Mo. Your mother knows something happened here and asked me to pick you up.”

Bai Youwei was stunned.

Shen Mo… No wonder she found him familiar earlier. He was Uncle Shen’s son. He resembled Uncle Shen somewhat.

Forgot to mention, Uncle Shen was her mother’s good friend and also a business partner. Actually, Bai Youwei thought the title “backup option” would be more appropriate.

Bai Youwei silently put the fruit knife in her pocket and opened the courtyard gate—

Shen Mo examined the girl before him.

Pale skin, soft long hair, a light blue long shirt dress covering her from neck to feet. True to her name, just looking at her made one involuntarily think of words like white and soft, young and tender, faint and weak.

She looked very well-behaved, not at all like the difficult person Aunt Wang had described.

“Pack up your things. I’ll take you to Yangzhou.” Shen Mo was concise.

Bai Youwei shook her head: “I’m not going.”

Shen Mo was a bit surprised and raised an eyebrow: “The city isn’t safe now. Those who could leave have all evacuated. If you stay here with no one to take care of you, you’ll be on a dead-end road sooner or later.”

Bai Youwei lowered her head, looking at the delicate pattern on her dress. “I’m not going. In my condition, wherever I go is a dead-end road.”

Shen Mo hadn’t expected her to be so stubborn.

He wasn’t good at persuading people, much less at coaxing children. He simply strode directly into the house. “Which room is yours?”

Bai Youwei stared at him suspiciously, her eyes flickering. “What are you trying to do?”

Shen Mo ignored her. After entering the house and walking around, he accurately found her bedroom and began packing clothes and daily necessities.

The girl followed in, her expression somewhat aggrieved.

After packing the clothes, Shen Mo stood in the room, surveyed the area, and asked: “Where’s the medicine?”

Bai Youwei lived in a wheelchair year-round. Medication was a necessity.

She remained silent.

He simply stopped asking.

The room quickly became chaotic.

Sitting in her wheelchair, Bai Youwei watched him rummage through boxes and cabinets, her hands clenched tightly, her voice very low: “Do you… do you feel now that by saving a helpless, lonely girl, you’re very great, very noble?… But do you know, you’re actually harming me.”

Shen Mo stopped and looked at her with a calm, expressionless face.

Bai Youwei took a deep breath and continued: “Have you considered the consequences of forcibly taking me away?… When we get to Yangzhou, I’m a woman, and a cripple at that. How am I supposed to live? Do you know I need help even for eating and using the bathroom? For long trips I have to wear adult diapers. You simply…”

She inhaled. “You simply don’t understand anything! I’m not going with you!”

By the end of her words, her voice was hoarse, carrying a suppressed sobbing tone.

Shen Mo looked at her. After a moment of silence, he lowered his voice: “I truly don’t understand, but I at least comprehend one thing—if you stay, you’ll die faster. If you leave, perhaps there’s still hope.”

Hope?

Bai Youwei’s heart turned cold.

Even her biological parents didn’t want to see her. Her life was like a walking corpse. Even if this world remained as usual, she had no intention of continuing to live.

She was a hopeless废人!

Shen Mo walked in front of Bai Youwei. His dark eyes carried an oppressive weight, his tone calm yet firm: “Don’t worry, I’ll deliver you to Yangzhou safe and sound.”

Bai Youwei bit her lip.

She had no choice.

Shen Mo pushed Bai Youwei out of the villa and came to the SUV by the roadside.

He lifted Bai Youwei from the wheelchair and felt she was unbelievably light. Though thin and weak, she wasn’t uncomfortable to hold. The girl in his arms was soft.

Her face rested against his chest. A faint fragrance lingered—the scent of milk and rose shampoo mixed with medicine, forming a strange aroma with an indescribable feeling.

Looking at that tense little face, he felt somewhat softened and comforted her again: “I’ll drive faster. An hour and a half and we’ll be there. There will be people to take care of you there. Don’t worry.”

Bai Youwei clearly resented his high-handedness and kept a straight face, ignoring him.

Shen Mo smiled slightly, closed the back car door, sat in the driver’s seat, and turned the key—

Before long, he realized he had miscalculated.

The situation was more severe than imagined. Almost every road had dolls appearing. Although the reason why people turned into dolls remained unclear for now, it was well known that places where dolls appeared in clusters were high-risk areas. Everyone traveling would try to avoid such roads as much as possible.

Shen Mo began taking detours. After detouring for over an hour, he finally reached the highway entrance.

The highway wasn’t peaceful either.

Looking ahead, there were cars everywhere, estimated to be sixty or seventy vehicles, parked crookedly in the middle of the road. Some cars were crashed together in a heap, with the people inside in unknown condition, alive or dead.

At the tail end of the convoy were many people who, like them, had just arrived at the highway. Those people stood outside their cars, craning their necks to look, hesitating whether to continue forward.

Shen Mo got out of the car to inquire about the situation.

Bai Youwei leaned against the car window, listening to those people discuss:

“What should we do? Are we going or not?”

“Go? There are dolls everywhere ahead. How can we get through?”

“If we don’t go, are we supposed to wait here to die? The nearest cities—only Yangzhou and Taizhou don’t have people turning into dolls!”

“What about other roads? Do other roads also have dolls?”

“This way we’ll all be trapped to death…”

“Honey, what should we do?” A long-haired woman sobbed and cried. “It must be the end of the world… We’re all going to die…”

Her husband also seemed at a loss, irritably smoking, unable to utter a single word of comfort.

Bai Youwei listened for a while and found it uninteresting. She closed the car window for some peace and quiet.

Shen Mo returned to the car. Bai Youwei asked him: “Will we turn into dolls if we go through here?”

Shen Mo thought for a moment. “Let’s see the situation first. If not, we’ll find another route.”

Bai Youwei didn’t trust him much and mumbled quietly: “Other roads also have dolls.”

At this moment, there was movement ahead.

Everyone felt surprised and looked up to see a blue pickup truck slowly moving forward with a tentative air. Several other cars, seeing this, also slowly followed behind, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

It seemed some people couldn’t wait any longer.

After all, there were no safe places in the city. Almost every road had dolls. If they wanted to leave the city, they had to take risks.

The driver of the blue pickup was a bald, burly man. He gripped the steering wheel and carefully drove past several cars with dolls. Finding no abnormalities, he unconsciously sped up.

Reaching a safe, open area, he stuck his head out of the car and waved to those behind: “This road is passable!”

The atmosphere lifted because of this statement. The cars behind followed one after another.

Someone smiled and exchanged pleasantries with the bald man ahead: “Brother, we really owe you this time!”

Others also showed relaxed smiles.

“Looks like it’s fine.” Shen Mo started the car and followed the convoy.

Bai Youwei responded with an indifferent “Oh.”

…

On the highway, cars drove past at a crawling pace, everyone extremely cautious and careful.

Bai Youwei quietly leaned against the car window.

As the car moved forward, she saw one humanoid doll after another. They were like mannequins in fashion stores—empty gazes, rigid postures…

Turning her head, in a red car opposite sat two dolls: a man driving and a woman in the passenger seat. The woman’s belly was prominently raised, clearly a pregnant woman.

Bai Youwei couldn’t help wondering: had the child in her belly also become a tiny doll? Was it also plastic skin, glass bead eyes, and synthetic fiber hair? What did they experience at the moment they turned into dolls? Was it possible their bodies couldn’t move but their consciousness remained clear?

This thought made her shudder.

She withdrew her gaze and stopped looking.

“Ding! Welcome to the Doll Game! This game’s theme is ‘The Tortoise and the Hare.’ The rules are as follows:

One, refuse the game and become a doll!

Two, fail the game and become a doll!

Three, clear the game and be rewarded with a doll!…”

A strange voice rang in her ears, with a sound quality as beautiful as heavenly music. Bai Youwei froze.

“Hey, did you hear…” She was about to ask Shen Mo in front, but her vision blurred with a layer of light mist. The next instant—blue sky, white clouds, an endless green meadow!

What’s happening?!

Bai Youwei looked at the scene before her in astonishment.

A second ago she was still sitting in Shen Mo’s car, but in this moment she was sitting on a green lawn!

And the other travelers were the same! Everyone stared dumbfounded at the track surrounding the lawn, where an eye-catching giant banner was prominently displayed with four exaggerated characters—

The Tortoise and the Hare Race!

—