Chapter 1893: Chapter 1075: Train Ticket
After leaving Shirahata Station, the group continued their journey by train, quickly reaching the Youjian Mountain Tunnel. The tunnel was deeper and darker than they expected, and through the windows, all they saw was a blur of darkness.
After some time, the train burst through the darkness and emerged from the tunnel.
Upon seeing the light again, Yang Xiao took out his phone to record the time. The train had been traveling in the tunnel for almost 6 minutes.
"Did you notice anything?" Yang Xiao looked at Takagi Reina.
"No, it was too dark to see anything, and there was no strange feeling," Takagi Reina said, turning to look out the window.
At this moment, Youjian Mountain had already been left behind. It was not a single mountain, but a series of peaks connected together.
There wasn’t much scenery along the way. Yang Xiao’s mind echoed Station Chief Takahashi’s words as he pondered all possibilities until the train gradually came to a stop at Old Valley Town Station.
"This journey is so long," Yamamoto Chunai casually complained.
Yang Xiao calculated the time roughly. From when they left Shirahata Station to the train stopping at Old Valley Town Station, nearly 17 minutes had passed, which was much longer than the travel time between most train stations.
They had transferred to the Renhe Line, and before that, they had taken trains on another line. From Yang Xiao’s memory, trains on that line stopped almost every few minutes.
If judging only by the feeling of time, Yang Xiao thought there should be another station between Shirahata Station and Old Valley Town Station.
They didn’t get off at Old Valley Town Station but continued on, observing along the way. The train passed Nishimatsubara, East Matsubara, and Shinkawa Lower Town, until finally stopping at Renyuan Shrine Station, where the four of them got off the train.
At each stop, Yang Xiao recorded the time. It took 7 minutes from Old Valley Town to Nishimatsubara, 4 minutes from Nishimatsubara to East Matsubara, 6 minutes from East Matsubara to Shinkawa Lower Town, and only 3 minutes from Shinkawa Lower Town to Renbawari Shrine Station. Compared to these stations, the 17-minute journey from Shirahata Station to Old Valley Town Station was incredibly long.
"Chu Jun, could it be related to the Mountain Tunnel? I mean the Youjian Mountain Tunnel," Xiao Lin Zhengyan whispered.
Yang Xiao had personally seen the station on the cover of the script box, and Watanabe Gou had also seen the ticket with "Youjian Mountain Station" written on it. So the station must exist, and their investigative direction was correct.
The urgent task was to find this station and uncover the secret behind its disappearance.
Renyuan Shrine Station was also a large station, even more extensive than Shirahata Station. Yang Xiao and the others investigated here too.
On the notice board, they also saw postings for missing persons. Sasaki Sakura’s face was displayed there, in a prominent position on the notice board, calmly watching every passerby.
The youthful face bore a faint smile. Whether due to the angle of the photograph or a printing error, the girl’s complexion appeared dull, and her pupils slightly unfocused. Looking at it for a long time, it seemed almost like a marionette, inexplicably bringing about an eerie feeling.
Here, Yang Xiao and the others met an old employee who had worked at the station for 30 years. Yang Xiao asked about Youjian Mountain Station, and the response was identical to that of Station Chief Takahashi’s—they had never heard of it.
"What about paper tickets?" Takagi Reina asked pointedly. "When did you last use paper tickets? About this size, with the names of the stations printed on them."
Takagi Reina took a credit card out of her pocket and gestured where the writing would be, as Watanabe Gou had described. She recounted it in full.
Hearing the mention of paper tickets, the old employee seemed to fall into a distant memory, and after a moment replied, "That was a very long time ago, at least... at least 20 years or more. I remember when I first started working here, we still used paper tickets, but soon after, they were replaced by the new IC cards."
"Do you still have such paper tickets in your possession?" Takagi Reina asked excitedly. As long as they could get an original ticket, she could have Watanabe Gou identify it.
"I don’t have any on hand, but... I know a place where they have some. Please follow me," the old employee said, turning and gesturing them to follow.
The group passed through a narrow corridor and arrived at a locked room. The old employee took out a bunch of keys from his waist, carefully selecting one from the set, and inserted a brass key into the lock.
A gentle twist of the wrist, and the clack of the lock tongue releasing was heard. Immediately, a rusty iron-clad door creaked open, releasing a musty odor from within.
The old employee went in first and turned on the light, causing a dim yellow light to fill the area, revealing a place resembling an exhibit gallery.
There were display cases covered by glass, and the walls also had glass partitions, but the area was small and roughly arranged, covering less than 50 square meters. From Yang Xiao’s viewpoint, two more doors could be seen inside.
The old employee who entered first walked all the way to the far end of the exhibit hall and stopped before a door, pushed it open, and walked right in, his figure disappearing from view.
"Come in, it’s here," the old employee’s voice resonated with a slight echo from the far door in the exhibit hall.
This scene couldn’t help but make Yang Xiao and Takagi Reina wary. They suspected this was a trap and that the old employee might be a Ghost.
Though their subconscious told them this was unlikely, the matter concerned life and death, so they couldn’t be too careful.
