Bu Tian Gang

Chapter 1: How to meet an autograph fanatic

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A train bound for spring.

Even the destination was fitting: Changchun*.

*The name of the city means “long spring”.

Sitting by the aisle, Dong Zhi felt that he must’ve been braindead1 for choosing a hard seat2 on the train for a trip that lasted 32 hours.
As it was almost midnight, it was dark outside with no scenery to see.
He didn’t know when he fell asleep, but he suddenly woke up feeling the urge to pee.
He was about to go to the restroom when a man with a slightly hunched back and gray hair walked past him.
The person entered the restroom, immediately locking the door.

1The phrase use here is head caught by the door.
It refers to a person having a broken brain, stupid, idiotic, ect.
2Type of seat installed on passenger trains in China’s railway lines.
They have the lowest comfort but cheapest fare.
This is what they look like.

Being lazy, Dong Zhi didn’t bother walking any further towards the restroom.
He sat still, waiting for the other party to come out, while he played on his phone, bored.

Before he left, he expected that the internet on the train would be overused, overloading the system, so he specifically bought an 8G data package.
As he entered the game, someone on the world chat called out wanting to form a team.
He immediately joined and when he finished the match, half an hour had already passed.

The restroom door was still closed.

During the gap between playing his game, he didn’t forget to look up a few times.
The person who entered before him haven’t left since he went in.
Dong Zhi wasn’t sure what that person was doing inside so he had stayed to watch for half an hour.

He decided to knock on the door.
Not only did he wanted to use the toilet, he was also afraid that something might’ve happened to the old man inside.
Despite knocking a few times, no one answered.

‘Did he faint in there?’ Dong Zhi thought as he had a bad premonition.

It just so happened a train attendant who was on night patrol passed by.
He quickly stopped the other party and explained the situation.
The attendant frowned and started knocking on the door calling to the person.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Dong Zhi trotted all the way to the restroom on the other end of the train carriage.
By the time he got back, the attendant was still knocking on the door.
He realized that something was wrong.

Judging from the situation, if the person inside wasn’t unconscious or deaf, he should be able to hear the ruckus.
The attendant also had similar thoughts and immediately used her walkie-talkie to call another attendant over who brought the key to open the door.

There weren’t many people in the carriage this late at night.
Most were either asleep on their seats, while some played cards in groups of twos and threes.
Some, who were extremely bored, came over to watch the commotion.

When the door finally opened, the onlookers were all stunned.
There was no one there!

The attendant’s first thought was that Dong Zhi was lying, but she couldn’t help feeling that something was off.
If no one had really entered, why was the door locked? The train was running at high speed, and it was unlikely that anyone would jump from it.
Even if someone did, it was impossible as the restroom window was locked!

Dong Zhi affirmed: “I saw that man go in with my own eyes!”

The attendant wondered: “Could it be that he came out and you didn’t catch it?”

But that still didn’t explain how the door was locked.

Everyone shared confused looks as the attendant muttered, trying to find a reasonable answer: “Maybe the lock was broken!”

Dong Zhi subconsciously looked behind his seat.
There weren’t many people in this train section and the lights were dim.
Some were sleeping, some were playing cards, and some were watching movies with headphones on, but none of them looked like the old man he had seen.

Was it because the light was too dark that he couldn’t see clearly? Or perhaps the other person had gone to a different train section? This event was too strange.

Dong Zhi returned to his seat and kept looking in the direction of the restroom from time to time.
As time passed, several passengers had come and in out of it as usual.

There was no one on his neighboring seat and the passenger on the opposite side had gotten off at the previous stop.
There were a few scattered young people who wanted to play fight the landlord.
They happened to see that his area had many empty seats, so they came over and asked if they could use them and invited him to play with them.

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Dong Zhi was usually a lively person, but after witnessing the scene just now, he had a strange feeling in his heart.
He wanted to contemplate by himself, so he politely declined.
He picked up the school bag that was laying in the seat next to him and put it on the ground, generously vacating the space.

The group of young people came over bringing cards and snacks.
They all quickly became acquainted.
Dong Zhi learned that they were students who gathered together on pleasure trip as they were nearing their graduation.

“I thought you were younger than us!” A tall and handsome boy showed a look of surprise when he heard that Dong Zhi was already in the work force for several years.

The contours of Dong Zhi’s face were soft, and his hair was supple.
This kind of appearance was very versatile.
He’ll look small when he’s young and remain that way even when he gets older.
The highlight was his skin, that was even fairer than that of a girl’s.

Dong Zhi was used to this so he had long become numb to it.
He simply smiled and didn’t refute any words.
The scene of the old man walking past him subconsciously appeared in his mind.

How can someone just disappear out of thin air? Was there some kind of alternative-dimensional passage in the toilet that no one could see?

He kept thinking about it, little by little, until his head started nodding off unconsciously.
The girl playing cards beside him saw this and hurriedly shush, causing everyone’s laughter to suddenly become quieter.

The sleeper tilted his head, leaning it against the train’s window.
His eyelashes casted shallow shadows on his eyes and his eyebrows curled even when his eyes were closed, as if he was laughing.

Unfortunately, this tranquility did not last long.
The train passed an uneven track, and the slightly loud vibration caused the back of his head to hit the edge of the window.
With a groaned, he rubbed his head and woke up, still half-asleep, giving off a dazed and innocent look.

The girl who was sitting to the opposite side of him saw this and thought it was cute and funny.
She couldn’t help but laughed.
The cards in her hand fell to the ground and one slipped under Dong Zhi’s foot.

He bent over to pick it up and when he flipped the card over, he saw it was the “joker”.

Suddenly, struck by inspiration, he returned the card and took out a pen and paper from his backpack and started to walk around with them in hand.

“What are you sketching?” The boy sitting near him asked when he looked at the paper.

“Water ghost*.” He didn’t raise his head as he answered, the tip of his pen flying quickly.

*Clarity: the card that Dong Zhi picked up is the joker but is also referred to as “ghost” so that’s why he suddenly got the inspiration.

A monster on all fours with a hideous face slowly appeared on the paper.
He wasn’t just showing off his skills on a whim.
Before he embarked on this journey, his job was a game artist.
This job was even more difficult than a game programmer.
After working for three years, the colleagues in his department slowly left, one by one, and eventually even the main artist deserted, resulting in the ambitious Dong Zhi being promoted to his position to replace him.

However, this promotion wasn’t because of luck or skills.
It was all due to the project manager of their department being a particularly difficult person.
They were working on a mobile game related to ancient Chinese mythology and he wanted them to add cute elements to it.
When the art prints came out, the project manager instantly disliked it saying it wasn’t classical enough.

After multiple iteration, the artists who had to worked overtime for several months in a row wanted to pull out their hair.
They were almost driven crazy by him that they switched jobs.
Now, even Dong Zhi couldn’t stand it anymore.
When the other party asked them to change the manuscript for the nth time, he threw the pen at the fat manager’s face and promptly resigned.

Despite after resigning, he still had a few drafts that needed to be handed over.
One was a “water ghost” that was a copy of the mini boss of the beginning of the game.

Recalling this, Dong Zhi mood improved, and he hummed a little song.
The boy nearby became interested and asked: “Is this called a water ghost?”

“The official name is Water Monkey1.” Dong Zhi explained: “It’s specially designed to pull people into the water while they are swimming and take their place.
It is a bit like the kappa2 in Japanese legend.”

1(水猴子) Legendary creature that lives in a water and looks like an ape.
They’re commonly known as water ghosts/water lion ghost/water corpses in folklore.
See the lore in my Kinky Thoughts.
2An amphibious demon (yokai) found in Japanese folklore.
They are depicted as green, human-like beings with webbed hands and feet and have a turtle like carapace on their back.

He used his pen to carefully outline the eyes of the water monkey.
With these gloomy eyes added, the overall appearance of the monster immediately appeared. The train shuttled quickly, and the changes in light and shadow brought from outside the window were reflected on his drawing that added an extra eeriness to the drawing.

“This doesn’t seem right.” The boy said suddenly.

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Dong Zhi doubted: ‘What could be wrong with it?’

The boy stretched out his hand, pointed to the monkey’s head and said: “The top part of the head should be dug out.
It should still be empty.”

Dong Zhi was perplexed.
He asked casually: “Why is it empty?”

“Because it hasn’t sucked a brain yet.
Only by sucking someone’s brain can he take on a more human-like look.
Otherwise, how can he be a substitute for the human?”

Hearing the boy’s explanation gave Dong Zhi goosebumps.
He turned his head to look up at the boy.
The boy was grinning at him, showing off a row of pearly white teeth that gave him an indescribable weirdness.

“Don’t you think so?” Seeing that Dong Zhi didn’t answer, the boy leaned over and asked again.

Somehow, Dong Zhi suddenly noticed that there was a thin red line on the boy’s forehead that extended from one side to