Chapter 1 – матрёшка 1

(Translator- I’ve written some notes about what to expect from this story at the very end, please read. It does contain some very minor spoilers but will give you a good idea if the story is for you.)

Friday, 10 p.m.

Xu RenDong, who had just finished working overtime to write his report, left his company building. It was late night during early summer and the stars were low. There was a refreshing fragrance of plants in the night air and Xu RenDong took large, greedy breaths in. Then slowly breathed out to expel the stuffy feelings inside his chest.

Huh.. I’m a little tired.

The parking lot was opposite him and the traffic lights were still red. He rubbed his eyes and stood patiently in front of the zebra crossing. The traffic lights soon jumped into the green. He took a step forward and that’s when the scenery suddenly shook, like a drop of water falling into a calm lake, and then his whole field of view blurred in an instant. He instinctively rubbed his eyes while hearing a sharp braking sound and screams erupting around him.

“Be careful!”

“Quickly, move away!”

There’s a car coming?!

The sense of crisis was like the crack of a whip, instantly stirring up his adrenaline. Xu RenDong opened his eyes wide and instinctively backed away two steps. Then he looked towards the source of the sound of the brakes. As soon as he looked though, his sense of fear was replaced by a feeling of shock. Instantly, goosebumps shot up on his skin.

An elevator??{Also known as a lift, the type that looks like a metallic box, not a stairwell.}

Yes, it was a rectangular shaped elevator that had come hurtling down at high speed and then breaked abruptly after landing on the ground.

The elevator was empty and the metallic sides reflected a cold silver glow. The elevator doors were closed and there was a metal button on the side. It looked like an ordinary, ubiquitous elevator.

But it’s not ordinary to almost be flattened by an elevator while crossing the road, okay?

Xu RenDong’s face changed because he realized this was not the only weird thing that had just happened!

Just now, two girls had screamed at him to be careful. They were still standing there, their faces full of panic and worry, mouth wide open. Their hands were pointing in the direction of the elevator. Yet their entire persons appeared to be frozen solid; they kept the exaggerated action and exuded a strange dead air.

Behind them, a bent over old man was walking his dog. His left foot was lifted and he hadn’t put it down yet. At the supermarket across the road, the clerk had just picked up the customer’s money and several coins slipped between their fingers and remained stationary in the air.

It’s like someone had pressed the stop button and everyone was frozen in time. The whole world had fallen silent. Xu RenDong had a horrifying momentary illusion that he had suddenly entered a wax museum and that the people in front of him were not flesh and blood living people at all, but instead cold wax figures.

In this sudden strange world, Xu RenDong’s heartbeat and breathing sped up suddenly. He forced himself to calm down and look around with caution. At the same time a question flashed through him:

Why can I still move?

He moved his fingers and didn’t feel anything unusual. He took two more steps to confirm what was going on around him but he didn’t expect to suddenly run into something invisible. His foot kicked something that he couldn’t see, making a banging noise.

Xu RenDong frowned again, tentatively reaching forward. He touched something hard and which felt like a wall. But there was really nothing in front of him.

He fumbled along the air wall, and finally realized two minutes later that he was surrounded by it.

No, to be more precise, he was trapped by three walls made of air and the elevator door.

A strange feeling crawled down his back like a snake, cold and creepy.

Fortunately, Xu RenDong had a calm and self-sufficient nature. Although he was scared, he didn’t panic. He pounded the air wall hard, only to hear a suffocating sound. Theair wall seemed to be motionless. Then he set his sights on the elevator that appeared out of thin air.

The time outside the air wall was still and inside there was only an elevator. Therefore there was only one choice left for him.

Xu RenDong didn’t hesitate to press the elevator button.

“Ding.”

The elevator door opened at once.

The insides of the elevator had the same texture of the silver-grey metal body. The blurred surface vaguely reflected Xu RenDong’s wide shoulders and narrow waist. He went in and felt a bit claustrophobic in the small elevator space.

In this situation, if he tore his throat screaming, nobody would come to save him. He could only rely on himself.

After he entered, the elevator door quickly closed and a low motor sounded.

That was unexplainable because from the outside the elevator was a bare metal box with no wiring or cables – so where could it go?

Where will it take him?

He could only take it one step at a time.

Four rectangular walls, each metal surface vaguely reflected his figure. Xu RenDong inexplicably felt his chest tighten. He loosened his tie and then unbuttoned his suit jacket button by button.

After taking off his jacket, he habitually checked his neckline. His shirt buttons were carefully buttoned up right to the top.

He tidied up his dark blue suit jacket slightly and held it in his arms. Soon, however, he put his suit jacket back on.

Because it was cold.

The temperature in the elevator was dropping rapidly, obviously no longer belonging to the temperature of early summer. At the same time, a line emerged in the the air: матрёшка.

Is this.. Russian?

Xu RenDong reached out to touch the line and found that it seemed to be just a projection and wasn’t solid.

Ding! Something rang again. He felt the elevator stop and then the door opened slowly.

In front of him was an endless white. The bitter cold wind poured into the elevator. Xu RenDong pulled tight his suit jacket and couldn’t help taking a deep breath. The air was full of the smell of ice and snow and it was very sobering.

Instead of rushing out, he looked quietly at the scene outside the elevator.

It was a forest and heavy snow bent the branches. From time to time snow dropped from the branches and fell with a snap to the ground. The ground is also thick with snow and not far from him was a row of footprints, sloping into the depths of the forest.

The sky was floating with goose-down-like snowflakes but the footprints were deep and clear. It seemed that whomever made this footprint had done so not long ago.

Xu RenDong took out his mobile phone to look. There was no signal. The screen showed the time standing frozen at 10:10 on Friday. It was 10:10 p.m but right now, outside the elevator, it was a gloomy evening. Although the snow was heavy, you could still see the sunset above the forest.

This wasn’t really Russia, right?

Even for Russia, the time difference was not right.

In any case, he couldn’t continue to sit back and wait.

Xu RenDong stepped out of the elevator. As soon as he left the elevator, he felt an emptiness from behind him. Looking back again, the elevator had disappeared. Just as it had appeared out of thin air, it suddenly disappeared again.

The snow didn’t even leave any trace of it, only showing the footprints that Xu RenDong made when he had walked out. This time, Xu RenDong was not too surprised but instead felt like it was ‘just as he expected’.

It’s freezing, snowy and very cold. Xu RenDong only wore a summer suit, and simply could not withstand the cold. But he did not shrink or shrivel into himself. He still wore that calm and self-sufficient expression, even in the cold wind he did not want to show a face of weakness.

His lips had just the right amount of thickness. If he smiled, he should have been quite good-looking but at this time his lips were thinned due to the cold and slightly raised, showing an abstinent expression.

He stopped wasting his time and walked quickly in the direction of the set of footprints.

Just as he was leaning over to check it, he suddenly heard a cry from the depths of the forest.

“Ahhhhhh, I was wrong, I’m wrong, here take it back, I shouldn’t have taken it, don’t chase me anymore ahhhhhhh..”

The cry was sharp and high, the lung capacity was amazing. Listening to it, it was full of the vitality of a young person. But the contents were very messy and Xu RenDong immediately understood one message from it: This person was in danger!

And the source of sound happened to come from the direction of the footsteps.

Xu RenDong immediately began running quickly with all the strength of his legs. The snow was so deep that every step of the way it got stuck in the soft snow. Xu RenDong followed the footprints, with the fastest speed forward possible, while trying to think about what the young man may have encountered.

A bear? A kidnapper? Or something more unnatural? .... Anyway, he had to hurry up and save him!

The footprints were getting clearer and clearer.

Xu RenDong heard his own rough gasping and thumping heartbeat. Cold air poured into his lungs and chilled his aching throat.

He soon stopped for lack of strength and gasped against a big tree. At the same time as his breathing slowed down, he heard a strange sound.

Pu. Pu. Pu.

It sounded slowly and heavy, like something hard striking on something soft.

That sound was coming from not far away.

Xu RenDong gasped. He clutched his chest where his heart was beating furiously and carefully made his way towards the source of the sound.

As the sky darkened, the snow reflected a dazzlingly faint sunlight but the dark trees mingled together and he couldn’t see too far away. Xu RenDong squinted slowly as he approached. He found that the source of the sound was a small open clearing in the forest.

There is a stone monument in the middle of the clearing. In front of the stone, a tall figure was kneeling and had his back to him. He was swinging something in his hand and hitting the ground over and over again, making that unpleasant noise.

Trying to propel himself forward, Xu RenDong suddenly stumbled and fell heavily into the snow. His fall was loud enough that the figure in the open space immediately stopped what it was doing and stood up.

He saw it clearly. It turned out it was a tall, burly and frightening looking man.

In this cold snow, the burly man was only wearing a thick vest. From the side, two stout and block-like arms were exposed, full of bulging muscles.

He also had a khaki sack over his head, which had two holes pierced in it to reveal a pair of blood-stained eyes.

The burly man stood about two meters high and was holding a huge sledgehammer in his hand. The hammer was dripping with blood. The bright red blood fell down into the snow and melted a sizzling hole of red, looking particularly striking.

This image was so violent that two words immediately emerged in Xu RenDong’s brain – a butcher.

Xu RenDong glanced quickly at the ground and saw what the butcher had been knocking at before.

That’s — a body!

A young man in a grey hoodie was lying alone in the open snow. The man’s whole upper body was soaked in blood. The place above his neck, where his skull should have been, was gone. Left behind was only a fuzzy piece of flesh and blood, mixed with brain and bone fragments, sticky on the ground.

A large area of snow under the man was dyed red and he looked like a gigantic red rose. From afar there was a perverted kind of beauty.

The air filled with a strong stench of blood. Xu RenDong fought the desire to vomit and his heart was filled with only one word!

Run!

He quickly clambered up from the snow, only to hear the butcher make a click, click, click noise from his throat.

Then, the butcher man strode towards him!

Xu RenDong’s heart beat suddenly accelerated. He instinctively turned around and ran. Fear turned into a bitter chill which flowed down his back. To reduce resistance, he attempted to step on his previous footprints every step of the way. But the butcher behind him kept following, his heavy body banging into the snow.

He was getting closer and closer!

He was going to catch up!

His heart almost bursting in his chest, Xu RenDong ran as quickly as possible, trying to resist the urge to turn around.

In his rush to escape, he quickly lost his sense of direction and when he could no longer find his own footprints, his feet began to sink into the snow, slowing down his pace more and more!

“Click, click, click..”

The sound that was squeezed out of the vocal cords was right behind Xu RenDong!

Don’t look back! Run! Run hard!

Adrenaline ran through him and the cells all over his body were clamoring to release all the energy. Xu RenDong refused to give up even the last glimmer of hope, gasping for breath, desperately running.

However – from the back of his head suddenly came the sharp sensation of pain!

A strong attack came from behind, hit him out of balance and he plunged headfirst into the snow!

Get up! Fast! Get up!

There was a burst of blackness in front of him and a loud banging in his ears. Xu RenDong tried to hold on, but felt something behind him. Immediately after he was hit hard again on the same part of the back of his head.

“Uh!” This time, he could no longer get up.

....Blood.

Itchy, warm liquid flowed down bis ears and cheeks? and reddened the snow in front of him.

After a whirlwind of blows, he was turned over. The strong butcher sat heavily on his stomach, almost squeezing out his intestines.

“Uh..” Xu RenDong’s throat moved slightly and he weakly attempted to push the butcher.

The butcher ignored his futile resistance and stared at him with blood-red eyes. Then slowly he raised the sledgehammer in his hands.

Bang!

The hammer smashed over the bridge of his nose!

Xu RenDong clearly heard the sound of his nose bone shattering, the sorrowful sound of bones breaking. His vision quickly twisted as the bones around his eyes were probably also broken and his eyes were twisted in strange directions by the flesh.

“.... Uh..” He was in so much pain that he almost collapsed. His hands desperately grasped the ground below him, only catching fistfulls of soft snow.

His remaining vision caught a hint of motion, followed by another bang and the sledgehammer fell again! This time it hit him on the left cheek and his left eye was immediately pulverized. As the sledgehammer lifted from his face, it pulled up a bright red sticky thing.

It hurts!

Xu’s heart almost broke in his chest. He had bitten his lips and his mouth was full of blood. There seemed to be something in his throat that wanted to rush out. He wanted to cry for help but his throat could only squeeze out a bubble of gas. “Er, uh..”

The groans seemed to make the butcher excited. The sticky big hands touched his blood-stained face, kneaded his swollen, broken lips, and even put his hand into his mouth, pinched his tongue, and pulled it out hard.

His tongue was about to be pulled out..

Xu RenDong pulled his arm in despair and tried to push him away.

The butcher pulled his tongue a few times and couldn’t pull it out, so he had to give up.

Then, he lifted the sledgehammer again!

Bang!

This time, the smashing sound became dull, probably because the meat was already destroyed. His skull was no longer able to protect the fragile brain.

He clearly felt his blood, consciousness and life flow away from him, little by little. The pain gradually faded but strangely, he could still see things in his right eye.

He saw a big, blood-stained hand, digging into his left forehead and then that hand picked up something, twisted it in his hand and crushed it.

Pa-da. The soft shapeless things fell onto his face, warm and soft.

In a moment, he suddenly understood what it was.

It was his brain.

***

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From the translator:

The author wrote some notes here but I’ll put them after mine just this once as I think her notes are a bit easy to misunderstand when translated and I want to make it clearer.

There are some minor spoilers below but I recommend reading to see if you want to read this novel: