The hour hand steadily crept to seven o’clock.
Cold dazzling lights illuminated the beds, unfailingly shining upon every face deep in sleep.
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
An utterly emotionless voice suddenly resounded through the air, mechanically repeating the same instruction thrice.
A person who fell on the lower bunk abruptly startled awake. They frantically clambered up, almost falling off the bed.
Another person who had just awoken from a light sleep had horror slapped all over his face, completely dumbfounded. “You… did you hear that voice?”
A few people exchanged looks, simultaneously detecting the undisguised shock in each other’s eyes.
It wasn’t strange that these people were showing such expressions.
Because ever since a day and a night ago, they had tossed this cramped dormitory upside down.
The dormitory was simple and crude. It was windowless, with four walls painted deathly white, four double-decker iron-framed beds placed within, and a damp, mildewy smell rolled off the beddings.
There was only one mirror set in the washroom. The sink was filthy and yellowed, and a lone roll of paper napkins hung from the wall. There weren’t even any squat toilets, and the cracks in the wall were caked with moss. An outdated, dim and gloomy electric lightbulb was suspended from the ceiling. The space was terribly cramped and only enough for one person.
There was no broadcast or communications equipment within the dormitory. And yet, the mechanical voice still blasted by everyone’s ears.
In the silence, someone faltered, asking, “…What the hell is going on here?”
Before that mechanical voice appeared, a full day and night had passed.
During that one day, nothing of consequence happened. It was peaceful and calm.
No one knew why they had appeared here.
They had come from all over the world, all corners of the land, all walks of life. They were each similar to the next. Most among them were generic and nameless in a crowd, but there were also many top talents and professionals in various fields. There were people as ordinary as the sanitary workers who swept the streets every day, homeless tramps who begged by the road every day; there were also actors and actresses with high public recognition who would only be seen on the silver screen, and even billionaires listed on the Forbes list.
But now, all these people were forced to gather in the dormitories for the variety show called ‘Thriller Trainee’.
A second ago, they could have been on a showbiz set, on a place preparing to descend, preparing their statements in court, using medical equipment in an operating theatre, speaking from a podium—
Without exception, the next second and they were all here. Just like a spatial shift in film, apparating in a Harry Potter film, they were all whisked to this wholly unfamiliar environment.
This eluded everyone’s sensibilities.
No one could reasonably explain this uncanny phenomenon. The people who were brought here were also unable to open the door of the dormitory, so they could only sit around.
“I want to sue this programme for false imprisonment!”
A young man with outstandingly good looks hit the bed hard.
He was the lead singer of a male group that had recently risen to fame in the entertainment industry. He had many fans; his everyday posts and name were often listed among the top hot searches on Weibo. Although the others in the dormitory weren’t people who chased celebrities, they still more or less had an impression of him.
Xia Chuan was burning with impatience.
As a popular idol, his schedule was always jam-packed and he had to record all sorts of promotional activities from morning till night.
If he was absent for a day without cause, he was possibly able to excuse himself by saying that he was ill. But now, he was stuck here, unable to get away. If this went on, the amount of money he would have to pay for the breach of contract would be hefty and the company wasn’t likely to cover it for him.
But now—
“Xia-ge, don’t worry, didn’t that voice just say we’d be gathering downstairs soon? Maybe someone will come to open the door for us in a while.” Another person reassured him, “You are a popular star. If you suddenly disappear, not only do you have so many fans, your company will also definitely help you call the police. Don’t worry yet.”
Xia Chuan was about to speak when he heard a rustling sound come from the top bunk.
Long trails of white hair spilled from the edge of the bed, as if someone had breezily looked down from the top bunk, and very quickly withdrew his gaze.
Immediately afterwards, an ankle as fair as the frosty moon slid down from the top bunk, treading on the iron ladder, and leaping lightly to the ground.
The young man’s skin was fair. Because he was so slender, the large clothes appeared hollow as if a cool breeze could easily blow through them. His long white hair was scattered behind him, the ends hanging down to his waist, glowing white like floating ice even under the warm lighting of the room. But perhaps there wasn’t any need for such a trick of the light; even if he stood casually, he could easily become the focus of attention in a crowd.
He didn’t say a word after getting off the bed. He simply yawned and headed heedlessly towards the unused washroom, drawing the curtain.
The other seven people looked at each other in disbelief.
None of them had slept well last night after such a turn of events. Conversely, whilst everyone else was panicking, this young white-haired man had twiddled his fingers and slept peacefully through the night, appearing lofty and completely unconcerned by the situation around him.
Someone muttered in a low voice, “Pretty, pretentious brat.”
This wasn’t wrong. He really was very pretty.
Perhaps pretty was a word that would be out of place on a man, but if anyone saw that face, that out of place feeling would become non-existent.
It was a beauty that transcended gender.
In the silence, Xia Chuan was the first to snort. “What’s there good to look at about such an effeminate looking man.”
Vaguely having acknowledged him as the leader, the others parroted after him.
“That’s right. Big stars like Xia-ge who have masculine charm look better. If I hadn’t looked closely at that white face of his, I would’ve thought that he was a girl!”
They didn’t have the slightest intention to hide their voices. From behind a flimsy plastic curtain, those jeers easily reached Zong Jiu’s ears.
Zong Jiu lifted his eyes disinterestedly, his long fingers flipping and tying the extremely troublesome long hair to the back of his head with a black hair tie.
His fingers moved strangely. Not only were his joints stiff, but his fingertips also unconsciously trembled in a peculiar way in the air.
The man in the mirror had a beautiful face and long, slender eyes. However, due to the indolence exuded when his eyelashes flicked up, his gaze was breathtaking.
Compared to the false optimism of the sleep-deprived and tense people outside, he looked significantly more put together.
At first, the author used a lot of flowery rhetoric to pile up this character’s androgynous beauty, boasting that it was unparalleled by anything in the universe, lovelier than the Helen of Troy; there were countless people in the world, but his beauty would mesmerise them all regardless.
When Zong Jiu had read the book, he thought that this description was really greasy and exaggerated. It was only after he had transmigrated into this character that he realised how accurate the author’s description was; this beauty was truly beyond any praise that words could bestow.
That’s right. He had transmigrated. And he had even transmigrated into an infinite flow book with horror and supernatural elements.
Yesterday morning, Zong Jiu had just read the first instance in this book ‘Thriller Trainee’. He had just put the book aside after reading about the gruesome death of the supporting cast whom he unfortunately shared the exact same name with, from the first name to the last name.
But what he never could have expected was that in the blink of an eye, not only had he transmigrated into the book, he had also transmigrated into it with precision, replacing this cannon fodder who shared the same name as him.
Zong Jiu’s circumstance was very special. It wasn’t his soul that had transmigrated, but his body.
This body before the mirror was the same body Zong Jiu had before he transmigrated into the book.
The changes were no more than the body turning younger than before, and his attractiveness improving dramatically out of thin air. Even his hair and eye colour had changed to what was originally described in the book, and the calluses on his hands from the many years of practising magic since young had vanished.
As for why Zong Jiu could be sure that this was his body, that was because…
His hands still did not show any signs of recovery or improvement.
The young white-haired man bowed his head, using some effort to cup some cold water with his hands onto his face. He massaged his temples.
Through the curtain, he could hear that the discussion about him outside had died down. Instead, the most pressing issue at hand was being discussed.
These people were united in their stance; that was, they were all adamant that the Triller Trainee programme was a scam.
“Could it be some kind of hidden variety show that needs to be carried out under conditions where the artists are unaware of it?”
“This style doesn’t fit quite right to me, it’s more likely to be a work of a terrorist.”
“We haven’t had any mobile reception ever since we got here, and we didn’t find any signal blockers in the room. They had definitely come prepared. There’s no way to even call the police; it’s been this long, we’re not going to just die stuck in this place, are we?”
Listening to the voices outside, Zong Jiu shook his head in exasperation.
In the twenty or so hours since they had arrived, they had not felt any physiological needs to eat or drink.
These people also didn’t think about why the voice of the voice could appear so precisely right by each person’s ear; why they were able to come here from thousands of miles away in a hairs-breath of time; why they had thought of checking the time and that their phones weren’t connected to the internet, yet had not realised that it had been no more than a minute before and after they were spirited away.
Or perhaps, they had noticed. They just didn’t dare think about it.
People were always like that. They ignored what the facts and evidence told them; they could remain forever hidden in their stubborn fantasies, clawing at reasons to convince themselves.
Zong Jiu tore off a paper napkin and wiped the water droplets from his face.
It didn’t matter if it was a regular book he transmigrated into. But it just had to be a horror infinite flow book.
‘Thriller Trainee’ was an infinite flow written in multiple point-of-view style. Because there wasn’t a fixed viewpoint, there wasn’t a fixed protagonist. So, the author could place the ‘protagonist viewpoint’ on this person and have the character die the next second.
What was even more terrifying was that he had only finished reading half of the first instance—he only saw the death of the ‘protagonist’ and knew nothing about the nearly million words of plot behind it.
If it were anyone else, they probably would probably go hysterical on the spot from not being able to accept that they didn’t know the subsequent plot whilst knowing they were on the cusp of their imminent death.
But Zong Jiu wasn’t afraid.
Not only was he not afraid, but he was even excited about the uncertainty of this future.
Ever since young, Zong Jiu had always been a person with very little emotion. His spectrum of emotions was vastly different from that of normal people, so shallow that they were practically non-existent. The feelings of empathy or sympathy that onlookers could easily experience were unimaginably difficult for him.
He had started learning magic from the age of three and had become one of the world’s leading card magicians in his early twenties, only to announce his farewell from the grand stage at the age of twenty-five and never appear in public eyes again.
All of this was because of a sudden car accident.
After the car accident, Zong Jiu recovered his life, but his hands were crushed and broken.
For a leading card magician who relied entirely on the dexterity of his fingers to perform, this was undoubtedly a shocking and grievous news.
Perhaps he still could have made his trade with mentalism, coin tricks, or other situational tricks using props, but his favourite was still card tricks.
The world’s leading orthopaedic surgeons had held seminars for him, but they all shook their heads, sighing.
Now, Zong Jiu had crossed over into this boundless world brimming with treachery and miracles.
What did this mean?
It meant that he might be able to use this place to find a successful cure for his hands, and pick up his cards anew.
And this interesting world would transform into the most astonishing, delightful, incredible grand stage in history!
He could barely wait.
The corners of Zong Jiu’s mouth curled up. He hummed a song out of tune as he flicked open the curtain.
The washroom was right next by the entrance of the dormitory, so after he came out, he directly put his hand on the rusty iron door.
The people who were chattering with each other happened to see this scene. “What do you think you’re doing! We tried all day yesterday. Someone had locked the door from the outside, you won’t be able to pull it open. Rather than waste your effort, why not just obediently wait for someone to open…”
Before the man could finish his sentence, he stared with his mouth agape as the door slowly opened.
The door, which the seven of them had worked together yesterday and used every method of knocking, kicking and banging, had not budged at all, but was now gently pushed open with a groaning creak by the young white-haired man’s long, ivory-like hands.
Hearing the sound, Xia Chuan turned around impatiently. Joy emerged on his face. “The door’s open!”
But this joy only lasted for a few seconds, for soon his tone was filled with suspicion. “We spent so long trying to open it yesterday to no avail, why did it open as soon as you pulled it?”
The rest of the dormitory immediately echoed this. They were tightly seated together around Xia Chuan, it was obvious at first glance where the division of the teams was drawn.
However, Zong Jiu couldn’t be bothered to elaborate. He merely dropped a sentence.
“If you don’t want to die, then you’d better follow the voice’s instructions.”
The few people in the dormitory were all taken aback, and for a moment no one gave a reply.
It wasn’t that they didn’t dare, but they couldn’t.
Somehow, at the sight of those light pink eyes that seemed to be devoid of emotion, they felt their gooseflesh prickling and a chill run down their spine.
Right as Zong Jiu turned to leave, that cold mechanical voice actually resounded again.
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
A few people finally snapped back to their senses and were shocked to find their backs drenched in cold sweat.
“Pah, what hocus pocus is this. Who do they think they’re trying to fool!”
One of them hurrumped. “From my perspective, this must have an inextricable connection to the pretty boy. He knows something for sure, otherwise he wouldn’t have had no reaction when we were hurriedly trying to make sense of it all.”
“That’s right, even making it sound like a matter of life or death. There are so many of us here, murder is illegal, give me a break, they’re just trying to scare us!”
Xia Chuan even rolled his eyes. “What a jinx. Forget it, the door’s open, let’s go first.”
The group of people filed out of the dormitory. They all tacitly agreed not to mention the cold remark that Zong Jiu had made earlier.
It was a long corridor outside, with iron doors of the same size on both sides, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see.
Like them, many people had already noticed the unlocking of the iron doors.
The people who had been trapped all day and night came out in droves, pushing and shoving, curses and swears falling noisily out of each their mouths.
“Why are there so many people?”
“Where’s this where’s this, what’s going on?”
“Who the hell is playing this prank?”
Countless people stared at each other.
After having been locked up for so long, there was enough fear to perfuse through the crowd. Everyone’s face was filled with anxiety.
“Come quickly, there are stairs over here.”
Xia Chuan caught a glimpse of the stairs in the middle of the corridor. Looking relieved of a heavy load, he turned his head back to call, “Let’s hurry up and head out.”
“Yeah alright, Xia-ge!”
The stairwell was chilly and monotonous. There was a sign hanging on the bare well next to it. A group of people huddled in front to read it:
7th Floor: S-Grade Trainee Dormitory
6th Floor: A-Grade Trainee Dormitory
5th Floor: B-Grade Trainee Dormitory
4rd Floor: C-Grade Trainee Dormitory
3rd Floor: Broadcast Studio
2nd Floor: Dining Hall
1st Floor: Main Hall
Basement 1: D-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Basement 2: E-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Basement 3: F-Grade Trainee Dormitory
…
Current Floor: E-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Someone asked, bewildered, “What does this sign mean? Trainee dormitory?”
“Fuck! What the hell is going on here!”
Upon seeing the sign, a burly man cursed, “We’re actually underground and still have to walk up the stairs?”
In unison, everyone remembered the mechanical voice that had appeared by their ears out of nowhere.
Everything was so bewildering.
Xia Chuan sneered. He suddenly changed his mind, folded his arms, and straightforwardly sat down on the steps. “This load of hocus pocus, I’m calling their bluff. Has law disappeared in this world?”
After seeing that there were these many people outside, he began to feel at ease.
At first, he had suspected that it was a sasaeng fan or a hostage kidnapping; but the sight of these many people now allowed him to sigh in relief.
If this could be considered an incident on the societal level, then that would be enough to explain his unprompted absence from promotional activities.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s all sit down and wait calmly.”
“But, but Xia-ge. That broadcast…” the person following behind him asked uneasily.
“Broad what cast, they already let you out the door and you’re still afraid? If you really want to be stuck here then go ahead and wait there,” Xia Chuan impatiently cut into his words. “We have so many of us here, what can that person who got us here do to us?”
There were also quite a few people in the crowd who recognised Xia Chuan. Perhaps infected by this emotion, they chimed in, “That’s right!”
After all, Xia Chuan was the national darling and a cash cow for the company. The agent who followed him around would definitely be the first to call the police.
“There are even celebrities here! Don’t worry, who knows, the police might arrive the next second.”
“True… With so many people, why not just sit together and wait for help.”
“Everyone, don’t panic. There are so many of us here, we’ll be fine!”
For a moment, people who had wanted to follow the mechanical voice’s instructions to go upstairs stopped in their tracks, hesitance showing on their faces.
The stairwell was completely blocked as more and more people confidently joined in. They spontaneously began to form a human wall holding up the entry of the stairs, advising everyone not to go up.
After they had stalled for a long time, the mechanical voice spoke once more.
This time, the voice didn’t repeat itself thrice.
[5 minutes to assembly time.]
A boy who had been following them in silence suddenly recalled the words, “If you don’t want to die, then you’d better follow the voice’s instructions.”
He gritted his teeth, whispered a word of apology to Xia Chuan, and suddenly took a lightning-quick step forward, breaking through the wall of people. He darted towards the stairs.
Xia Chuan couldn’t dodge and was knocked aside.
He rubbed his shoulder, laughing coldly, “Someone actually believed that little pretty boy’s bullshit.”
“He’s just a high school kid, how could he fathom what Xia-ge is capable of,” a lackey fawned and gave him a shoulder massage. “Xia-ge, sit. Don’t get upset because of a minor, it’s not worth it.”
Zong Jiu who had already walked to the third floor lowered his eyes, mildly glancing down through the gap between the stairs.
He had already given them the appropriate warning, he could consider this charity as having done his part. As for what they chose, that was their own business.
Now… he had more pressing matters.
The young white-haired man raised his head, bending and twisting from under his sleeves the hands so stiff that they had lost most sensitivity. He walked unhurriedly into the studio along with the people who continued to gather from all sides, stepping on the soft red carpet on the floor, slowly entering the broadcast studio.
t/n. for anyone unfamiliar, meaning of infinite flow – link
Still undecided if I should take this project on, seeing as I personally am unable to appreciate some of the themes and it is a pretty long work. Nevertheless, I adore two of the later instances, so am putting this out there in hopes to get more eyes on it and see a translation done up of it one day.
Here’s my favourite quote from a later chapter to whet your appetite, also because it describes really well their relationship:
they were clearly destined to be enemies, yet they locked onto each other like two spaceships wandering in a sea of stars—after many years of solitude in radio-silence, they became each other’s only answer.
Thriller Trainee – Trainee Dormitories
Translated by luckykoi
Please don’t repost or re-translate.
The hour hand steadily crept to seven o’clock.
Cold dazzling lights illuminated the beds, unfailingly shining upon every face deep in sleep.
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
[Thriller trainees, please finish washing up within 30 minutes and assemble at the broadcast studio on the third floor.]
An utterly emotionless voice suddenly resounded through the air, mechanically repeating the same instruction thrice.
A person who fell on the lower bunk abruptly startled awake. They frantically clambered up, almost falling off the bed.
Another person who had just awoken from a light sleep had horror slapped all over his face, completely dumbfounded. “You… did you hear that voice?”
A few people exchanged looks, simultaneously detecting the undisguised shock in each other’s eyes.
It wasn’t strange that these people were showing such expressions.
Because ever since a day and a night ago, they had tossed this cramped dormitory upside down.
The dormitory was simple and crude. It was windowless, with four walls painted deathly white, four double-decker iron-framed beds placed within, and a damp, mildewy smell rolled off the beddings.
There was only one mirror set in the washroom. The sink was filthy and yellowed, and a lone roll of paper napkins hung from the wall. There weren’t even any squat toilets, and the cracks in the wall were caked with moss. An outdated, dim and gloomy electric lightbulb was suspended from the ceiling. The space was terribly cramped and only enough for one person.
There was no broadcast or communications equipment within the dormitory. And yet, the mechanical voice still blasted by everyone’s ears.
In the silence, someone faltered, asking, “…What the hell is going on here?”
Before that mechanical voice appeared, a full day and night had passed.
During that one day, nothing of consequence happened. It was peaceful and calm.
No one knew why they had appeared here.
They had come from all over the world, all corners of the land, all walks of life. They were each similar to the next. Most among them were generic and nameless in a crowd, but there were also many top talents and professionals in various fields. There were people as ordinary as the sanitary workers who swept the streets every day, homeless tramps who begged by the road every day; there were also actors and actresses with high public recognition who would only be seen on the silver screen, and even billionaires listed on the Forbes list.
But now, all these people were forced to gather in the dormitories for the variety show called ‘Thriller Trainee’.
A second ago, they could have been on a showbiz set, on a place preparing to descend, preparing their statements in court, using medical equipment in an operating theatre, speaking from a podium—
Without exception, the next second and they were all here. Just like a spatial shift in film, apparating in a Harry Potter film, they were all whisked to this wholly unfamiliar environment.
This eluded everyone’s sensibilities.
No one could reasonably explain this uncanny phenomenon. The people who were brought here were also unable to open the door of the dormitory, so they could only sit around.
“I want to sue this programme for false imprisonment!”
A young man with outstandingly good looks hit the bed hard.
He was the lead singer of a male group that had recently risen to fame in the entertainment industry. He had many fans; his everyday posts and name were often listed among the top hot searches on Weibo. Although the others in the dormitory weren’t people who chased celebrities, they still more or less had an impression of him.
Xia Chuan was burning with impatience.
As a popular idol, his schedule was always jam-packed and he had to record all sorts of promotional activities from morning till night.
If he was absent for a day without cause, he was possibly able to excuse himself by saying that he was ill. But now, he was stuck here, unable to get away. If this went on, the amount of money he would have to pay for the breach of contract would be hefty and the company wasn’t likely to cover it for him.
But now—
“Xia-ge, don’t worry, didn’t that voice just say we’d be gathering downstairs soon? Maybe someone will come to open the door for us in a while.” Another person reassured him, “You are a popular star. If you suddenly disappear, not only do you have so many fans, your company will also definitely help you call the police. Don’t worry yet.”
Xia Chuan was about to speak when he heard a rustling sound come from the top bunk.
Long trails of white hair spilled from the edge of the bed, as if someone had breezily looked down from the top bunk, and very quickly withdrew his gaze.
Immediately afterwards, an ankle as fair as the frosty moon slid down from the top bunk, treading on the iron ladder, and leaping lightly to the ground.
The young man’s skin was fair. Because he was so slender, the large clothes appeared hollow as if a cool breeze could easily blow through them. His long white hair was scattered behind him, the ends hanging down to his waist, glowing white like floating ice even under the warm lighting of the room. But perhaps there wasn’t any need for such a trick of the light; even if he stood casually, he could easily become the focus of attention in a crowd.
He didn’t say a word after getting off the bed. He simply yawned and headed heedlessly towards the unused washroom, drawing the curtain.
The other seven people looked at each other in disbelief.
None of them had slept well last night after such a turn of events. Conversely, whilst everyone else was panicking, this young white-haired man had twiddled his fingers and slept peacefully through the night, appearing lofty and completely unconcerned by the situation around him.
Someone muttered in a low voice, “Pretty, pretentious brat.”
This wasn’t wrong. He really was very pretty.
Perhaps pretty was a word that would be out of place on a man, but if anyone saw that face, that out of place feeling would become non-existent.
It was a beauty that transcended gender.
In the silence, Xia Chuan was the first to snort. “What’s there good to look at about such an effeminate looking man.”
Vaguely having acknowledged him as the leader, the others parroted after him.
“That’s right. Big stars like Xia-ge who have masculine charm look better. If I hadn’t looked closely at that white face of his, I would’ve thought that he was a girl!”
They didn’t have the slightest intention to hide their voices. From behind a flimsy plastic curtain, those jeers easily reached Zong Jiu’s ears.
Zong Jiu lifted his eyes disinterestedly, his long fingers flipping and tying the extremely troublesome long hair to the back of his head with a black hair tie.
His fingers moved strangely. Not only were his joints stiff, but his fingertips also unconsciously trembled in a peculiar way in the air.
The man in the mirror had a beautiful face and long, slender eyes. However, due to the indolence exuded when his eyelashes flicked up, his gaze was breathtaking.
Compared to the false optimism of the sleep-deprived and tense people outside, he looked significantly more put together.
At first, the author used a lot of flowery rhetoric to pile up this character’s androgynous beauty, boasting that it was unparalleled by anything in the universe, lovelier than the Helen of Troy; there were countless people in the world, but his beauty would mesmerise them all regardless.
When Zong Jiu had read the book, he thought that this description was really greasy and exaggerated. It was only after he had transmigrated into this character that he realised how accurate the author’s description was; this beauty was truly beyond any praise that words could bestow.
That’s right. He had transmigrated. And he had even transmigrated into an infinite flow book with horror and supernatural elements.
Yesterday morning, Zong Jiu had just read the first instance in this book ‘Thriller Trainee’. He had just put the book aside after reading about the gruesome death of the supporting cast whom he unfortunately shared the exact same name with, from the first name to the last name.
But what he never could have expected was that in the blink of an eye, not only had he transmigrated into the book, he had also transmigrated into it with precision, replacing this cannon fodder who shared the same name as him.
Zong Jiu’s circumstance was very special. It wasn’t his soul that had transmigrated, but his body.
This body before the mirror was the same body Zong Jiu had before he transmigrated into the book.
The changes were no more than the body turning younger than before, and his attractiveness improving dramatically out of thin air. Even his hair and eye colour had changed to what was originally described in the book, and the calluses on his hands from the many years of practising magic since young had vanished.
As for why Zong Jiu could be sure that this was his body, that was because…
His hands still did not show any signs of recovery or improvement.
The young white-haired man bowed his head, using some effort to cup some cold water with his hands onto his face. He massaged his temples.
Through the curtain, he could hear that the discussion about him outside had died down. Instead, the most pressing issue at hand was being discussed.
These people were united in their stance; that was, they were all adamant that the Triller Trainee programme was a scam.
“Could it be some kind of hidden variety show that needs to be carried out under conditions where the artists are unaware of it?”
“This style doesn’t fit quite right to me, it’s more likely to be a work of a terrorist.”
“We haven’t had any mobile reception ever since we got here, and we didn’t find any signal blockers in the room. They had definitely come prepared. There’s no way to even call the police; it’s been this long, we’re not going to just die stuck in this place, are we?”
Listening to the voices outside, Zong Jiu shook his head in exasperation.
In the twenty or so hours since they had arrived, they had not felt any physiological needs to eat or drink.
These people also didn’t think about why the voice of the voice could appear so precisely right by each person’s ear; why they were able to come here from thousands of miles away in a hairs-breath of time; why they had thought of checking the time and that their phones weren’t connected to the internet, yet had not realised that it had been no more than a minute before and after they were spirited away.
Or perhaps, they had noticed. They just didn’t dare think about it.
People were always like that. They ignored what the facts and evidence told them; they could remain forever hidden in their stubborn fantasies, clawing at reasons to convince themselves.
Zong Jiu tore off a paper napkin and wiped the water droplets from his face.
It didn’t matter if it was a regular book he transmigrated into. But it just had to be a horror infinite flow book.
‘Thriller Trainee’ was an infinite flow written in multiple point-of-view style. Because there wasn’t a fixed viewpoint, there wasn’t a fixed protagonist. So, the author could place the ‘protagonist viewpoint’ on this person and have the character die the next second.
What was even more terrifying was that he had only finished reading half of the first instance—he only saw the death of the ‘protagonist’ and knew nothing about the nearly million words of plot behind it.
If it were anyone else, they probably would probably go hysterical on the spot from not being able to accept that they didn’t know the subsequent plot whilst knowing they were on the cusp of their imminent death.
But Zong Jiu wasn’t afraid.
Not only was he not afraid, but he was even excited about the uncertainty of this future.
Ever since young, Zong Jiu had always been a person with very little emotion. His spectrum of emotions was vastly different from that of normal people, so shallow that they were practically non-existent. The feelings of empathy or sympathy that onlookers could easily experience were unimaginably difficult for him.
He had started learning magic from the age of three and had become one of the world’s leading card magicians in his early twenties, only to announce his farewell from the grand stage at the age of twenty-five and never appear in public eyes again.
All of this was because of a sudden car accident.
After the car accident, Zong Jiu recovered his life, but his hands were crushed and broken.
For a leading card magician who relied entirely on the dexterity of his fingers to perform, this was undoubtedly a shocking and grievous news.
Perhaps he still could have made his trade with mentalism, coin tricks, or other situational tricks using props, but his favourite was still card tricks.
The world’s leading orthopaedic surgeons had held seminars for him, but they all shook their heads, sighing.
Now, Zong Jiu had crossed over into this boundless world brimming with treachery and miracles.
What did this mean?
It meant that he might be able to use this place to find a successful cure for his hands, and pick up his cards anew.
And this interesting world would transform into the most astonishing, delightful, incredible grand stage in history!
He could barely wait.
The corners of Zong Jiu’s mouth curled up. He hummed a song out of tune as he flicked open the curtain.
The washroom was right next by the entrance of the dormitory, so after he came out, he directly put his hand on the rusty iron door.
The people who were chattering with each other happened to see this scene. “What do you think you’re doing! We tried all day yesterday. Someone had locked the door from the outside, you won’t be able to pull it open. Rather than waste your effort, why not just obediently wait for someone to open…”
Before the man could finish his sentence, he stared with his mouth agape as the door slowly opened.
The door, which the seven of them had worked together yesterday and used every method of knocking, kicking and banging, had not budged at all, but was now gently pushed open with a groaning creak by the young white-haired man’s long, ivory-like hands.
Hearing the sound, Xia Chuan turned around impatiently. Joy emerged on his face. “The door’s open!”
But this joy only lasted for a few seconds, for soon his tone was filled with suspicion. “We spent so long trying to open it yesterday to no avail, why did it open as soon as you pulled it?”
The rest of the dormitory immediately echoed this. They were tightly seated together around Xia Chuan, it was obvious at first glance where the division of the teams was drawn.
However, Zong Jiu couldn’t be bothered to elaborate. He merely dropped a sentence.
“If you don’t want to die, then you’d better follow the voice’s instructions.”
The few people in the dormitory were all taken aback, and for a moment no one gave a reply.
It wasn’t that they didn’t dare, but they couldn’t.
Somehow, at the sight of those light pink eyes that seemed to be devoid of emotion, they felt their gooseflesh prickling and a chill run down their spine.
Right as Zong Jiu turned to leave, that cold mechanical voice actually resounded again.
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
[10 minutes to assembly time. If you do not arrive at the designated place before the specified time, you will bear the consequences.]
A few people finally snapped back to their senses and were shocked to find their backs drenched in cold sweat.
“Pah, what hocus pocus is this. Who do they think they’re trying to fool!”
One of them hurrumped. “From my perspective, this must have an inextricable connection to the pretty boy. He knows something for sure, otherwise he wouldn’t have had no reaction when we were hurriedly trying to make sense of it all.”
“That’s right, even making it sound like a matter of life or death. There are so many of us here, murder is illegal, give me a break, they’re just trying to scare us!”
Xia Chuan even rolled his eyes. “What a jinx. Forget it, the door’s open, let’s go first.”
The group of people filed out of the dormitory. They all tacitly agreed not to mention the cold remark that Zong Jiu had made earlier.
It was a long corridor outside, with iron doors of the same size on both sides, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see.
Like them, many people had already noticed the unlocking of the iron doors.
The people who had been trapped all day and night came out in droves, pushing and shoving, curses and swears falling noisily out of each their mouths.
“Why are there so many people?”
“Where’s this where’s this, what’s going on?”
“Who the hell is playing this prank?”
Countless people stared at each other.
After having been locked up for so long, there was enough fear to perfuse through the crowd. Everyone’s face was filled with anxiety.
“Come quickly, there are stairs over here.”
Xia Chuan caught a glimpse of the stairs in the middle of the corridor. Looking relieved of a heavy load, he turned his head back to call, “Let’s hurry up and head out.”
“Yeah alright, Xia-ge!”
The stairwell was chilly and monotonous. There was a sign hanging on the bare well next to it. A group of people huddled in front to read it:
7th Floor: S-Grade Trainee Dormitory
6th Floor: A-Grade Trainee Dormitory
5th Floor: B-Grade Trainee Dormitory
4rd Floor: C-Grade Trainee Dormitory
3rd Floor: Broadcast Studio
2nd Floor: Dining Hall
1st Floor: Main Hall
Basement 1: D-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Basement 2: E-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Basement 3: F-Grade Trainee Dormitory
…
Current Floor: E-Grade Trainee Dormitory
Someone asked, bewildered, “What does this sign mean? Trainee dormitory?”
“Fuck! What the hell is going on here!”
Upon seeing the sign, a burly man cursed, “We’re actually underground and still have to walk up the stairs?”
In unison, everyone remembered the mechanical voice that had appeared by their ears out of nowhere.
Everything was so bewildering.
Xia Chuan sneered. He suddenly changed his mind, folded his arms, and straightforwardly sat down on the steps. “This load of hocus pocus, I’m calling their bluff. Has law disappeared in this world?”
After seeing that there were these many people outside, he began to feel at ease.
At first, he had suspected that it was a sasaeng fan or a hostage kidnapping; but the sight of these many people now allowed him to sigh in relief.
If this could be considered an incident on the societal level, then that would be enough to explain his unprompted absence from promotional activities.
“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s all sit down and wait calmly.”
“But, but Xia-ge. That broadcast…” the person following behind him asked uneasily.
“Broad what cast, they already let you out the door and you’re still afraid? If you really want to be stuck here then go ahead and wait there,” Xia Chuan impatiently cut into his words. “We have so many of us here, what can that person who got us here do to us?”
There were also quite a few people in the crowd who recognised Xia Chuan. Perhaps infected by this emotion, they chimed in, “That’s right!”
After all, Xia Chuan was the national darling and a cash cow for the company. The agent who followed him around would definitely be the first to call the police.
“There are even celebrities here! Don’t worry, who knows, the police might arrive the next second.”
“True… With so many people, why not just sit together and wait for help.”
“Everyone, don’t panic. There are so many of us here, we’ll be fine!”
For a moment, people who had wanted to follow the mechanical voice’s instructions to go upstairs stopped in their tracks, hesitance showing on their faces.
The stairwell was completely blocked as more and more people confidently joined in. They spontaneously began to form a human wall holding up the entry of the stairs, advising everyone not to go up.
After they had stalled for a long time, the mechanical voice spoke once more.
This time, the voice didn’t repeat itself thrice.
[5 minutes to assembly time.]
A boy who had been following them in silence suddenly recalled the words, “If you don’t want to die, then you’d better follow the voice’s instructions.”
He gritted his teeth, whispered a word of apology to Xia Chuan, and suddenly took a lightning-quick step forward, breaking through the wall of people. He darted towards the stairs.
Xia Chuan couldn’t dodge and was knocked aside.
He rubbed his shoulder, laughing coldly, “Someone actually believed that little pretty boy’s bullshit.”
“He’s just a high school kid, how could he fathom what Xia-ge is capable of,” a lackey fawned and gave him a shoulder massage. “Xia-ge, sit. Don’t get upset because of a minor, it’s not worth it.”
Zong Jiu who had already walked to the third floor lowered his eyes, mildly glancing down through the gap between the stairs.
He had already given them the appropriate warning, he could consider this charity as having done his part. As for what they chose, that was their own business.
Now… he had more pressing matters.
The young white-haired man raised his head, bending and twisting from under his sleeves the hands so stiff that they had lost most sensitivity. He walked unhurriedly into the studio along with the people who continued to gather from all sides, stepping on the soft red carpet on the floor, slowly entering the broadcast studio.
t/n. for anyone unfamiliar, meaning of infinite flow – link
Still undecided if I should take this project on, seeing as I personally am unable to appreciate some of the themes and it is a pretty long work. Nevertheless, I adore two of the later instances, so am putting this out there in hopes to get more eyes on it and see a translation done up of it one day.
Here’s my favourite quote from a later chapter to whet your appetite, also because it describes really well their relationship:
they were clearly destined to be enemies, yet they locked onto each other like two spaceships wandering in a sea of stars—after many years of solitude in radio-silence, they became each other’s only answer.
Thriller Trainee – Trainee Dormitories
Translated by luckykoi
Please don’t repost or re-translate.
