The Platform 7

Xiao Chun rarely ran into an opponent, but right now he truly had no other choice.

Yu Gu clearly knew a great deal about what was going on. Maybe that knowledge could help him get out of here alive. So far, Yu Gu had done nothing that harmed either of their interests. At least on the surface, their purpose and their objective were the same.

Xiao Chun wanted to analyze it rationally, but realized even sooner that his subconscious, his emotions, had already accepted Yu Gu. The way they worked together in perfect tacit coordination, without second-guessing each other, made him feel extraordinarily compatible with Yu Gu.

It was not something that could be explained by first impressions or anything else. For a successful businessman, hard data analysis mattered, and professional evaluation mattered, but even more important—and requiring even greater talent—was intuition.

Xiao Chun looked at Yu Gu in silence. The strips of cloth wrapped around Yu Gu's head did nothing to detract from his easy, unhurried air. He straightened back up, slid his hands into his pockets, and looked over at him with complete composure, broad bloodstains still splashed across his pajamas.

Xiao Chun was a little unwilling to accept it. It had put him at a disadvantage again in his dealings with Yu Gu. He didn't like that.

"...What can you tell me?" Xiao Chun looked at Yu Gu, trying to find a crack in his defenses. "How do you explain your skills? How do you explain the way you perceive life and death, pain? Your reactions aren't like a normal person's, Yu Gu."

"If I have to put it into words, I've suffered severe trauma." Yu Gu took another step forward, crossing the boundary of personal space. They looked at each other from very close range.

This time, Xiao Chun was sitting and Yu Gu was standing, the reverse of their earlier positions.

"Trauma?"

"Mental. Psychological." Yu Gu's tone was calm. "There's something a little wrong with me."

Xiao Chun wanted to say, I can see that, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come out. It was only a teasing remark, yet he found he couldn't bear to say it.

"...Have you seen anyone about it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Yu Gu shrugged, signaling that it was a question he couldn't answer. And it was indeed personal territory; it wasn't convenient for Xiao Chun to press further.

The questioning had reached an impasse.

Yu Gu couldn't talk about this, and couldn't mention that. Then what could he talk about?

"How did you get in here?" Xiao Chun asked. "Maybe we should learn a little more about each other. If we both ended up here, perhaps we have something in common? Finding that common point might help us understand this prison better. What do you think?"

This time, Yu Gu didn't refuse. "Makes sense."

"...I'll go first." Xiao Chun's stomach growled. He rubbed it, doing his best to redirect his attention. "Before I came here, I lived in Qingcheng. I graduated from Qingcheng University. After graduation, I worked at the family company. I have a sister three years older than me, and a brother six years younger. Hobbies... I don't have many. Does drinking tea count? I like making friends... no, I guess I don't really like it?"

It seemed as though only now was Xiao Chun beginning to consider his "real self."

"I'm used to trying my best to do everything well, so no one can find fault with me. Not for any other reason. I just don't like people being able to pick at me." Xiao Chun said, "It's hard, but I think I've done pretty well. If I really had to say it, I don't actually like making friends, or cleaning up other people's messes. I don't like smiling at people I despise, and I don't like forcing myself to do things."

The corners of Yu Gu's mouth lifted. He seemed pleased. "Mm."

"What are you smiling about?" Xiao Chun frowned, inexplicably self-conscious as he crossed one leg over the other. "Forget it. Why am I even talking about this... I just turned twenty-eight a couple of days ago. I'm currently single, I don't have pets, and something happened in my family before I came here. Something bad. It concerns me personally, but it's not convenient to go into specifics. I didn't know what to do about it. Other than that... there was nothing unusual in my life, and I hadn't met anyone suspicious."

Xiao Chun stopped and looked at Yu Gu. "Your turn."

Yu Gu kept it simple. "Like I said before, we're the same age. My birthday is at the end of July. I'm 189 centimeters tall—0.3 centimeters taller than you."

Xiao Chun immediately said, "Wait? How do you know that?"

"Want to compare?"

For some reason, Xiao Chun believed Yu Gu at once. He couldn't stand seeing him show off, and said irritably, "...No need."

"My hobbies are deduction games, movies, and research in my field. I don't particularly like eating." Yu Gu seemed as though he wanted to say something else, but paused, then added, "I'm an only child, and I don't have pets. After graduating from college, I went abroad for further study. I keep a fairly regular schedule, can be stubborn sometimes, and people often say I'm rigid. I'm not single."

As he said that, Yu Gu gave Xiao Chun a meaningful look. Xiao Chun: "???"

"Before I came here, I was catching up on sleep at home. Yesterday should have been the first day of my vacation." Yu Gu gestured at his pajamas. "For now, I'm settled abroad. Oh, right. I graduated from Qingcheng University too. My hometown is next to Qingcheng. Aside from normal work, I haven't encountered any suspicious people or events."

Xiao Chun: "???"

Xiao Chun nearly sprang to his feet, but the manners and habits ingrained in his bones kept him in check. On the surface, he remained seated primly on the edge of the bed, spine straight, chin slightly raised, radiating an air of unquestionable authority. "You went to the same university as me?"

"Mm."

"I've never seen you."

"I've seen you," Yu Gu said. "We were in the same class year, different majors. You were in the business school. You were in every annual campus heartthrob election."

Xiao Chun: "???"

"And I'm a member of the deduction club. I just didn't go very often. I know you were in the deduction club too."

Xiao Chun: "."

All of a sudden, Xiao Chun didn't know whether he ought to be surprised.

"So you recognized me from the beginning?"

"Yes."

"So that's why you saved me?"

"You can understand it that way."

For some reason, dissatisfaction and irritation welled up inside Xiao Chun. It was as if he alone had fancifully decided that he and Yu Gu had flawless chemistry, some kind of fated connection. But once the answer was revealed, it was all perfectly simple and clear—and that left him terribly disappointed and annoyed.

But what was there to be disappointed about, anyway?

Oh, right. This man wasn't single, either. Of course. With a face like that, how could he possibly be single?

Xiao Chun clenched the sheets, suppressing that faint, elusive feeling. "Why didn't you tell me at the start?"

"You didn't ask."

"..."

Yu Gu explained, "There was too much information about this place, and too much I had to explain to you. I was afraid it would confuse you."

Xiao Chun narrowed his eyes in displeasure. "Am I that useless? I can't process even this much information?"

"This place is full of things outside your understanding. A lot of people go insane as soon as they arrive," Yu Gu reminded him.

Xiao Chun remembered the wails and crazed laughter echoing through the entire vertical prison the night before. Those sounds had kept him tossing and turning all night.

"Besides, we'd just met. If I'd laid out the whole schoolmate thing from the beginning, what if it made you suspicious of me instead? When too many things are coincidences, they stop being coincidences."

Yu Gu's concern wasn't entirely unwarranted. Rationally speaking, his caution was actually the more responsible approach for both of them.

But Xiao Chun was still annoyed.

"...Then our common ground is that we're schoolmates?" Xiao Chun suppressed his displeasure. "Surely everyone who comes here can't be from our university. What is this, a big school reunion?"

Yu Gu wore an expression that said he had no idea.

"Since you know me, you know what my family does, right?" Xiao Chun asked. "Did you leave as soon as you graduated? Did you ever intern at our group? What I mean is, aside from school, did we have any other connection?"

"No," Yu Gu said. "I'd only heard of you. We had no connection at all, and no other friends who knew both of us."

Xiao Chun lowered his eyes, absently picking at the sheets. "Mm."

"Before I went on vacation, I also just dealt with something very troublesome. It concerned me personally," Yu Gu said. "Does that count as common ground?"

Xiao Chun looked up. "What was it?"

Yu Gu shook his head, signaling that it was personal and not convenient to discuss.

"Possibly." Xiao Chun perked up. "But to confirm it, we'll have to ask a few more people... And we have to deal with that flesh mass. We can't fight it while starving. Winning once doesn't mean we can win a second or third time. We can't afford to lose."

Yu Gu nodded in agreement.

Xiao Chun said bluntly, "If it can't be beaten to death, there are other ways. Burn it with fire, or..." He looked at the opening behind Yu Gu. "If we throw it into the hole, can it come back?"

Yu Gu only said, "We can try."

"One more question." Xiao Chun recalled something else. "You said the rule is that you can only eat food that belongs to you. But how do you know which food belongs to you?"

"Whatever you chose the first time you took something—that's yours."

Xiao Chun took a moment to process that, then stared in shock. "You can't change it? You're bound to it?"

"Yes."

Xiao Chun looked incredulous. "If I took fruit the first time without knowing? For example..." Xiao Chun thought about it. There seemed to have been strawberries on the platform. "If I took strawberries?"

"Then you could only eat strawberries."

Xiao Chun: "...What if I switched to something else?"

"The enforcers would hunt you down."

Xiao Chun: "..."

Xiao Chun suddenly realized that without Yu Gu, he might have tripped every taboo not long after arriving here. This place was nothing but traps. A normal person could hardly survive.

So what exactly was this place? And what was the purpose of the person who had set it up?

Yu Gu seemed to know what he was thinking. Softly, he said, "Xiao Chun, don't overthink it. We can survive."

......

Xiao Chun had been a sensible child since he was young.

He was the middle child, and middle children were never easily noticed. His sister was capable and clever; every award he won and every achievement he earned had already been earned by her, and he could offer his family no new surprise. His younger brother was adorable, careless, and heedless. Since the family had no need to place high expectations on him, he had less pressure; all he had to do was act spoiled and willful with them. By then, their parents were older and more tolerant of their children, and instead experienced a familial warmth they had never felt while raising his sister and Xiao Chun.

Only he was caught in the middle. Take one step forward and he was too "conceited"; take one step back and he was too "slack."

So he learned to read the situation and people's expressions, to balance his place in different settings and strive to satisfy everyone. But everyone else was satisfied, while he was not. He was dissatisfied with himself.

He had grown accustomed to it for twenty-eight years, but then that life had collapsed overnight, and all his efforts had gone up in smoke.

Then what had all those years of forbearance, resentment, and self-consolation amounted to?

But Yu Gu couldn't possibly know any of that.

Then why did he always tell him not to overthink things?

Xiao Chun had a feeling that Yu Gu was more than merely a schoolmate.

Was he hiding even that because "Xiao Chun couldn't accept it"?

Night came again. The red light could only illuminate a tiny area. Yu Gu's bed had had its boards removed, and the sheets and duvet cover had been "requisitioned" as makeshift medical bandages or washcloths. No one could sleep on that bed anymore.

Xiao Chun offered, "Come sleep with me."

Yu Gu sat at the foot of his bed. "It's fine. I can rest against the wall."

"The bed's small, but we can squeeze in." Xiao Chun shifted closer to the wall. "Come on."

Yu Gu still wanted to refuse, so Xiao Chun said as if casually, "How are we supposed to deal with that thing if you don't rest properly? I can't do it alone."

Yu Gu hesitated, then stood and sat down on the edge of Xiao Chun's bed.

He turned his head to look at Xiao Chun lying down. Xiao Chun's clothes were still hanging out to dry; beneath the blanket was his naked, warm body.

Yu Gu's throat bobbed as he began taking off his clothes.

He didn't want to dirty Xiao Chun's sheets. He knew Xiao Chun cared a great deal about cleanliness.

"If you don't want to take them off, don't. You don't have to force yourself." Xiao Chun had already closed his eyes. Only after lying down did he realize every muscle in his body was aching, especially his waist and back; the pain was unbearable. "I'm not that particular."

Yet something about those words seemed to remind Yu Gu of something amusing. In the darkness, the corners of his mouth curved up and he chuckled.

Xiao Chun's eyes flew open. "What are you laughing about now?"

Yu Gu turned serious in an instant.

The blanket lifted and fell. Xiao Chun felt Yu Gu's body press close. He wasn't particularly repulsed or resistant; he even reached out to pinch Yu Gu's arm, then worked his way down and gave the man's abs a squeeze.

Yu Gu's lower abdomen went taut as iron. "..."

Xiao Chun assessed him. "Feels about the same as mine."

Yu Gu: "..."

Xiao Chun was curious. "Then why are you so strong?"

"You're not bad yourself," Yu Gu said helplessly.

"I... that was all instinct at the time, but it isn't normal." At the thought, Xiao Chun knitted his brows. "I can't make sense of it. I've never been in a fight."

"If you can't make sense of it, don't." Yu Gu made it sound perfectly natural. "Trying to figure out everything in this place will only drive you insane. You have this ability, so just let things take their course. Take it one step at a time."

Xiao Chun had no other option anyway, but coming from Yu Gu, the words still annoyed him. "Easy for you to say."

"A lot of things simply have no answers," Yu Gu said quietly. "For your own good, whatever happens, just accept it."

"Accept death too?"

"Accept it." Yu Gu nodded and looked at the ceiling in the darkness. "It will all come to an end eventually."

Xiao Chun heard something in that. He propped himself on one side and looked at Yu Gu. In the strange red light, Yu Gu's face was shrouded in shadow and glow, impossible to make out clearly, impossible to tell what was real and what was false. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." With that, Yu Gu closed his eyes, once more adopting that attitude that he could not explain further. "Sleep."

"..."

In the middle of the night, Xiao Chun's stomach let out an enormous growl.