Chapter One | The Day the Delivery Van Disappeared
Lin Yuanxi had always felt that, in reality, there hadn't been anything special about that day.
At least, until she walked up to that delivery van, everything had still been just as usual.
It was a little after five in the afternoon. The summer sky in Taiwan was still painfully bright, and the tropical almond trees along the roadside rustled in the wind. Broad patches of leaf-shadow dappled the asphalt. Every so often, a scooter roared past her, leaving behind a brief burst of engine noise. From the convenience store in the distance came the chime of its automatic doors opening, while someone on a bicycle passed by the corner. Everything was so ordinary that it gave her no reason to be on guard.
Lin Yuanxi glanced down at her phone.
5:12 p.m.
She slipped her phone into her pocket and looked up at the white delivery van ahead.
It was parked beside a banyan tree. The van was a little old, its white paint dulled by years of wind and sun, with several fine scratches along the side. A faded sticker was stuck to the back. Its design was impossible to make out now; only a faint blue ring remained.
A friend had suddenly messaged her that afternoon, saying she'd forgotten a paper bag in the van and asking Lin Yuanxi to pick it up on her way back.
“It should be on the back seat.”
Muttering to herself, Lin Yuanxi walked over to the van.
She reached out and pulled the door handle.
It didn't open.
“That's weird.”
She pulled it again.
Still nothing.
She took out her phone and was just about to message her friend to ask if she'd remembered the wrong van when she suddenly heard a very soft sound from inside.
Click.
It sounded as if a lock had released itself. Lin Yuanxi's hand stopped in midair. She looked up at the door. The door that had been tightly shut a moment ago was slowly popping open, leaving a narrow gap.
She froze for two seconds, then reached out and pulled the door open.
“Hello?”
There was no answer.
The inside of the van was very dark. The sunlight outside was still intense, yet it was as if not a single ray could enter the cabin. The darkness looked deeply unnatural. Lin Yuanxi stood in the doorway and watched for several seconds before finally bending down to look inside. The paper bag was indeed beside a folding chair in the back.
She reached for it.
The instant her fingertips touched the paper bag, a horn suddenly blared behind her.
Honk—
Lin Yuanxi jumped and whipped around.
There was nothing on the road.
She frowned and stood there for several seconds. Only after confirming that no vehicles were passing nearby did she turn back.
But the moment she turned around, the van door suddenly slammed shut.
Lin Yuanxi went completely rigid.
The next second, the van started.
Vroom—
A deep engine growl suddenly rang out.
Before she could even react, the delivery van had already begun moving slowly forward.
“Wait!”
Lin Yuanxi instinctively chased after it and grabbed the door handle, but the van was accelerating, and her fingers nearly slipped free.
“Hey! Pull over!”
There was no driver.
That was the first thing she clearly realized.
The driver's seat was right in front of her, but there was no one inside it at all.
The steering wheel turned on its own.
The delivery van rounded the corner.
Lin Yuanxi stood frozen in place, as if someone had nailed her to the ground.
It took her brain several seconds to finally understand what she had just seen.
An empty vehicle had driven away by itself.
“...No way.”
She whispered the words.
Then the delivery van drove a little farther ahead.
“Hey!”
Lin Yuanxi finally came to her senses and took off after it.
She didn't know why she was chasing it.
Maybe it was because of the paper bag.
Maybe because she wanted to know whether someone was playing a prank.
Or maybe it was because the van was going in completely the wrong direction.
It didn't head toward the main road.
Instead, it turned onto a hidden path she'd never seen before.
When Lin Yuanxi ran past the intersection, her steps suddenly slowed.
She stared at the road ahead, confusion gradually spreading across her face.
“Since when has there been a road here...?”
She lived nearby.
She'd walked through this area countless times.
But she'd never seen this road before.
There were no shops or homes on either side, only rows of towering trees. Their canopies nearly covered the entire sky, while sunlight filtered through the gaps and scattered broken patches of light across the ground.
The delivery van had already gone far ahead.
Lin Yuanxi gritted her teeth and chased after it anyway.
The moment she stepped onto the path, the city sounds behind her seemed to switch off.
The scooters disappeared.
The cars disappeared.
Even the wind seemed very far away.
She stopped and glanced back.
The street behind her was still there.
But it looked abnormally far away.
As if it were separated from her by a layer of transparent glass.
She instinctively pulled out her phone.
5:16 p.m.
“Only four minutes have passed?”
Lin Yuanxi raised her head.
But the sky was already growing dark.
This wasn't an ordinary sunset.
It was growing dark far too quickly.
The bright blue sky was visibly turning grayish purple. Clouds gathered in the distance as swiftly as a rising tide, until the entire sky became a deep blue-black.
Lin Yuanxi stood where she was, suddenly overcome by an indescribable fear.
She looked at her phone again.
5:16 p.m.
The time hadn't changed.
She waited for more than ten seconds.
It was still 5:16 p.m.
“Is my phone broken?”
She tapped the screen several times.
The time remained frozen at 5:16 p.m.
Just then, a splash echoed from somewhere in the distance.
Splash.
Lin Yuanxi looked up.
At some point, a lake had appeared ahead.
The water was eerily still beneath the night sky. Willow trees lined the shore, their slender branches trailing into the water. Several white lotus flowers floated on the surface, alongside a few tiny water lanterns swaying gently with the ripples.
And the delivery van was parked beside the lake.
Lin Yuanxi slowly walked toward it.
She didn't dare go any closer. She stopped several yards away and watched.
The engine was off.
The surrounding silence was terrifying.
She suddenly remembered the driverless vehicle from earlier.
A chill slowly rose up her spine.
“Who was driving it...?”
Her voice was barely audible.
No one answered.
Lin Yuanxi lowered her head and looked at the lake.
The moon had just emerged from behind the clouds.
A huge moon hung in the night sky, its light spilling into the lake and dyeing the surface silver-white.
Lin Yuanxi had only glanced down casually.
But the next second, her entire body went rigid.
The reflection in the lake...
No.
That wasn't the delivery van.
She slowly crouched down.
The lake clearly reflected a massive building.
It was a tower so tall she couldn't see its top.
Countless windows lined its walls, some glowing with light and others completely black. Stranger still, the tower was moving.
Lin Yuanxi's pupils contracted.
She jerked her head up.
The white delivery van was still parked beside the lake.
She looked down again.
The tower was still there.
She looked up.
The delivery van.
Down.
The tower.
Lin Yuanxi's breathing grew rapid.
She didn't know whether she was going insane.
She reached out and touched the lake.
Cold.
It was real.
Ripples spread across the surface beneath her fingers.
But the tower's reflection didn't disappear.
Instead, it became even clearer amid the ripples.
She saw the bottom of the tower.
There were no wheels.
Instead, it stood on a pair of enormous structures shaped like legs.
They pressed into the earth.
One step.
Then another.
Slowly moving forward.
Lin Yuanxi's face instantly went white.
That wasn't a delivery van at all.
It was a walking tower.
And the thing she'd chased all the way here...
was merely the form it took in this world.
“No... way...”
She took a step back.
The sole of her shoe crushed a dried lotus leaf.
Crack.
The sound rang out with startling clarity beside the silent lake.
Just then, an unfamiliar girl's voice came from behind her.
“Why are you still here?”
Lin Yuanxi spun around.
A girl was standing beneath the willow tree. Lin Yuanxi had no idea when she'd appeared.
The girl looked about the same age as her. She wore a pale green dress, its hem dotted with tiny beads of water, and held a large bundle of freshly picked willow branches in her arms.
She looked at Lin Yuanxi without any fear in her expression. If anything, she seemed anxious.
“Don't you know what time it is?”
“What?”
The girl glanced up at the moon.
“The full moon.”
Lin Yuanxi stared at her.
“The full moon?”
“Yeah.”
The girl's voice grew more urgent.
“Hurry back to the Floating City. It's almost too late.”
“The Floating City?”
“You know, that.”
The girl pointed toward the delivery van by the lake.
Lin Yuanxi followed her finger.
The tower's reflection was still moving slowly across the surface of the lake.
The girl seemed completely unable to see anything frightening about it. She only urged Lin Yuanxi on. “All the girls have to clean the Floating City tonight. After that, it's time for Fish Selection. If you wait any longer, you won't get to choose anything.”
Lin Yuanxi's mind was in chaos.
“Wait.”
“Hmm?”
“What do you mean, Fish Selection?”
The girl blinked.
“You don't know?”
“Am I supposed to?”
The girl studied her for a long time.
At last, she gave Lin Yuanxi a look of faint pity.
“So this is your first time here.”
Before Lin Yuanxi could understand what she meant, the girl stuffed the willow branches into her arms.
“Hold these.”
“Why?”
“For cleaning.”
“Why do I have to clean?”
“Because you can only choose your own fish after you clean the Floating City.”
Lin Yuanxi stared at the willow branches in her arms.
“...My own fish?”
The girl nodded.
“Every young woman gets a chance to choose her own fish.”
“You can choose fish?”
“Of course.”
“What are you supposed to do with the fish?”
The girl only smiled.
“You'll know once you've chosen one.”
With that, she turned and ran.
Lin Yuanxi stood where she was, holding a bundle of willow branches and having no idea which part of the situation she should object to first.
Then, the next second—
A multitude of footsteps suddenly came from the distance.
One girl.
Then two.
A dozen.
Dozens.
They appeared from every direction, carrying brooms, buckets, and rags. Some even held huge basins of lotus flowers. All of them hurried toward the delivery van.
“Hurry! Moon Pool is almost here!”
“This year, I'm definitely choosing a good fish!”
“I heard there's a golden-tailed fish in the lotus pond to the south!”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously! Someone chose one last year, and it was gorgeous after shapeshifting!”
“I don't care. I'm choosing the best one!”
“Move faster! The Floating City is about to start moving!”
Lin Yuanxi stood there, watching the girls bustle around like people who had long since grown used to this kind of life.
Not one of them thought any of this was strange.
No one asked where they were.
No one asked why the delivery van had turned into a tower.
And no one asked...
why fish could turn into humans.
“Shapeshifting...?”
Lin Yuanxi murmured the word.
A terrible feeling suddenly took root in her chest.
The next second—
Vroom—
The ground shook.
The water lanterns on the lake rocked violently.
The delivery van parked by the lake began to move slowly forward.
The girls burst into cheers.
“The Floating City is moving!”
“Get on!”
Lin Yuanxi was still standing where she was.
A girl ran over and grabbed her hand.
“What are you waiting for?!”
“I...”
“Come on!”
She dragged Lin Yuanxi onto the van.
The instant her foot entered the cabin, Lin Yuanxi looked back.
On the lake,
the enormous tower's reflection was moving slowly.
And just as it passed the center of the lake,
a faint golden light suddenly glowed deep beneath the water.
It appeared for only an instant.
Lin Yuanxi didn't see it.
No one did.
Only a fish that had been sleeping for many years at the bottom of the lake slowly opened its eyes.
It swam past a patch of dense aquatic weeds.
Past a lotus flower that had yet to fully bloom.
At last, it stopped beneath the surface.
Those golden eyes gazed through the deep, shadowy water at the Floating City as it moved away.
As if it had been waiting for a very long time.
A very, very long time.
Inside the Floating City, Lin Yuanxi still had no idea where she had come.
She knew only one thing.
The world outside the window had completely changed.
One pond after another slowly emerged from the darkness.
There were lotus flowers.
Willow trees.
Bamboo groves.
Stone bridges.
And moonlit water lanterns floating across the surface.
The girls had already begun reaching out eagerly.
They said—
Tonight was the day of Fish Selection.
Lin Yuanxi lowered her head and looked at her hand.
For some reason,
she suddenly felt a little warmth in her palm.
Just like a very long time ago.
When a tiny life
had once stirred,
just once,
in the palm of her hand.