Today, I Have Yet to Become a Doll

May, 2119 AD. Humans started turning into dolls.

People walking on the streets, dining in restaurants, even those who were halfway through trying on clothes in malls, all those poor souls froze in their tracks, their smiles stuck on their faces, before transforming into motionless human-shaped dolls.

There was no warning, no explanation.

People were confused, terrified, driven mad with fear and despair.

They took to the streets, waving red banners in protest, blaming it on terrorist attacks by secret organizations. Some spread rumors online about an alien invasion, while others packed up their families and fled to the countryside... They did everything they could, but the people around them continued to turn into dolls, one after another.

Gradually, people became numb.

Students went to school, workers went to work, life went on as usual.

However, there was a new segment on the daily television news.

After reading the news, the announcer would say in a standard broadcast voice, "If you find someone around you who has turned into a doll, please call the emergency number 123. The relevant department will handle it for you in a timely manner..."

"Handling" meant packing the dolls and sending them to research institutions.

If scientists could figure out what was going on, that would be great. If not, the families would be left to claim the dolls and decide whether to bury them or keep them as decorations at home.

Bai Youwei watched the news for a while. Seeing that it was almost time, she picked up the remote control, turned off the TV, then pressed a button on her wheelchair and headed towards the dining room.

She had been disabled since childhood, her parents divorced, each starting their own new families. Perhaps feeling guilty towards their daughter, they spared no expense on her, letting her live in the most luxurious villa, hiring the most expensive nanny, but they could never spare the time to be with her.

However, Bai Youwei didn't care.

She was used to being alone.

The clock in the dining room ticked away, the minute hand pointing to 12:10. Bai Youwei always had lunch at 12 o'clock sharp, never late, but now there was not a single dish on the table.

The house was silent, the ticking of the clock making the luxurious villa even more serene.

Bai Youwei waited for a while, smelling something burning from the kitchen.

She adjusted her direction and wheeled herself over. The nanny stood with her back to her, frozen beside the gas stove. Her hand was in the position of stir-frying, but there was no movement.

The nanny had become a doll, just now.

The face was the same, but the material was completely different. Living flesh and blood had become plastic skin, glass bead eyes, and synthetic hair...

The previous nanny had gone back to her hometown to escape the chaos. This nanny had only been here for two days, and Bai Youwei hadn't even memorized her name yet. Now she was like this.

She stared blankly for a while, then wheeled herself over, turned off the stove, and called the emergency number 123, as the news had instructed.

The line was busy.

Bai Youwei thought for a moment and called her mother. Her mother had hired the nanny, so she should be able to contact her family.

The call connected, and a cacophony of voices, laughter, and music came through the phone... highlighting her own loneliness.

It was jarring.

She briefly explained the situation and hung up the phone.

The house was quiet, and so was the outside. The scorching sun baked the earth, the garden pond reflected shimmering light, a hibiscus drooped its purple petals under the scorching sun. Everything seemed normal, but Bai Youwei knew that the world had already become abnormal.

...

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of a car engine came from outside the villa.

Bai Youwei looked out the window and saw a tall man ringing the doorbell.

She thought for a moment, went to the kitchen, took a folding fruit knife, and wheeled herself out.

Through the iron gate, she saw the man's tall and straight figure. He had a cold and stern appearance, with a pair of deep and quiet eyes under his thick, black eyebrows.

He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.

"Are you Weiwei?" His voice paused slightly, carrying the unfamiliarity of a first meeting. "I'm Shen Mo. Your mother knows something happened here and asked me to pick you up."

Bai Youwei was stunned.

Shen Mo... No wonder she felt familiar with him. He was Uncle Shen's son. He looked a bit like his father.

She forgot to mention that Uncle Shen was her mother's good friend and business partner. Actually, Bai Youwei thought the term "backup" was more appropriate.

Bai Youwei silently put the fruit knife in her pocket and opened the courtyard gate.

Shen Mo looked at the girl in front of him.

She had pale skin and long, soft hair. A light blue shirt dress covered her from neck to toe. Her name suited her well. Just looking at her, one couldn't help but think of words like "soft," "delicate," and "fragile."

She looked very well-behaved, not difficult to get along with as Aunt Wang had said.

"Pack your things. I'll take you to Yangzhou." Shen Mo said concisely.

Bai Youwei shook her head. "I'm not going."

Shen Mo was a little surprised. He raised his eyebrows and said, "It's not safe in the city now. Everyone who can leave has already evacuated. You'll be on your own if you stay here. It's a dead end."

Bai Youwei looked down at the delicate pattern on her dress. "I'm not going. In my condition, anywhere I go is a dead end."

Shen Mo didn't expect her to be so stubborn.

He was not good at persuading people, let alone coaxing children. He walked straight into the house. "Which room do you live in?"

Bai Youwei stared at him suspiciously, her eyes flickering. "What do you want to do?"

Shen Mo ignored her. He walked around the house after entering, accurately finding her bedroom, and began to pack her clothes and daily necessities.

The girl followed him in, her expression a little aggrieved.

Shen Mo finished packing the clothes and looked around the room. "Where's your medicine?"

Bai Youwei had been living in a wheelchair for years, and medicine was a necessity.

She didn't say anything.

He simply stopped asking.

The room quickly became messy.

Bai Youwei sat in her wheelchair, watching him rummage through boxes and cabinets, her hands clenched tightly, her voice very low. "Do... Do you feel very noble and great now, saving a lonely and helpless girl?... But do you know that you're actually harming me?"

Shen Mo stopped, his expression calm and unreadable.

Bai Youwei took a deep breath and continued, "Have you considered the consequences of taking me away by force?... When we get to Yangzhou, how am I supposed to live, a woman, a cripple? Do you know that I need help even to eat and go to the bathroom, that I have to wear diapers when I travel far? You simply..."

She inhaled. "You simply don't understand anything! I'm not leaving with you!"

Her voice was hoarse at the end, with a hint of suppressed sobbing.

Shen Mo looked at her, silent for a moment, then lowered his voice. "I really don't understand, but I understand at least one thing—you will die faster if you stay here. If you leave, there might still be hope."

Hope?

Bai Youwei's heart turned cold.

Even her own parents didn't want to see her. Her life was like that of a walking corpse. Even if the world was still the same, she didn't plan to live anymore.

She was a hopeless cripple!

Shen Mo walked up to Bai Youwei, his dark eyes carrying a sense of urgency, his tone calm but firm. "Don't worry, I'll get you to Yangzhou safe and sound."

Bai Youwei bit her lip.

She had no choice.

Shen Mo pushed Bai Youwei out of the villa and to the SUV parked by the road.

He carried Bai Youwei out of the wheelchair. She was incredibly light, and although thin, she wasn't bony. The girl in his arms was soft.

Her face rested against his chest, and a faint fragrance lingered around him. The scent of milk and rose shampoo mixed with the smell of medicine, forming a strange fragrance, an indescribable feeling.

Looking at her tense little face, his heart softened a little. He comforted her again, "I'll drive faster. We'll be there in an hour and a half. There will be people to take care of you there. Don't worry."

Bai Youwei was obviously still angry at him for forcing her. She kept a straight face and ignored him.

Shen Mo smiled, closed the back door, got into the driver's seat, and turned the key.

It didn't take long for him to realize he had miscalculated.

The situation was worse than he had imagined. Dolls appeared on almost every road. Although the reason why people turned into dolls was still unknown, it was well known that places where dolls gathered were high-risk areas. People would avoid such roads as much as possible when traveling.

Shen Mo began to take detours. After driving for more than an hour, he finally reached the highway entrance.

The highway wasn't peaceful either.

As far as the eye could see, there were cars, about sixty or seventy of them, parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. Some cars had collided with each other, and the fate of the people inside was unknown.

At the end of the line of cars, there were many people like them who had just arrived at the highway. They stood outside their cars, craning their necks to look ahead, hesitating whether to move forward.

Shen Mo got out of the car to inquire about the situation.

Bai Youwei lay by the car window, listening to the people's discussions:

"What should we do? Should we go or not?"

"Go? There are dolls all over the place. How are we supposed to get past them?"

"If we don't go, are we going to wait here to die? The nearest cities with no reports of people turning into dolls are Yangzhou and Taizhou!"

"What about other roads? Are there dolls on other roads too?"

"At this rate, we're all going to be trapped here..."

"Honey, what should we do?" A woman with long hair sobbed. "It must be the end of the world... We're all going to die..."

Her husband seemed to have no idea either. He smoked irritably, unable to utter a word of comfort.

Bai Youwei listened for a while, then lost interest and closed the car window, withdrawing into herself.

Shen Mo returned to the car. Bai Youwei asked him, "Will we turn into dolls if we go from here?"

Shen Mo thought for a moment. "Let's see how it goes. We'll find another way if we can't."

Bai Youwei didn't trust him very much. She muttered in a low voice, "There are dolls on other roads too."

At that moment, there was movement ahead.

Everyone was surprised and looked up to see a blue pickup truck slowly driving forward, tentatively. Seeing this, several other cars followed slowly behind, keeping a not-too-close, not-too-far distance.

It seemed that someone couldn't wait any longer.

After all, there was no safe place in the city, and there were dolls on almost every road. If they wanted to get out of the city, they had to take risks.

The driver of the blue pickup truck was a bald, burly man. He held the steering wheel and carefully drove past a few cars with dolls in them. Finding nothing unusual, he subconsciously sped up.

When he reached a safe, open space, he poked his head out of the car and waved to the people behind him. "This road is clear!"

The atmosphere lifted at his words, and the cars behind followed one after another.

Someone laughed and chatted with the bald man in front. "Brother, thank you so much this time!"

Others also showed relaxed smiles.

"Looks like it's fine." Shen Mo started the car and followed the line of vehicles.

Bai Youwei gave a noncommittal "Oh."

...

On the highway, cars drove past at a snail's pace, everyone extremely cautious.

Bai Youwei lay quietly by the car window.

As the car moved forward, she saw one human-shaped doll after another. They were like mannequins in a clothing store, their eyes vacant, their postures stiff...

Turning her head, she saw two dolls sitting in a red car across from them. The driver was a man, and the passenger was a woman. The woman's belly was bulging, clearly pregnant.

Bai Youwei couldn't help but think: Had the baby in her belly also become a tiny doll? Was it also made of plastic skin, glass bead eyes, and synthetic hair? What had happened to them at the moment they turned into dolls? Was it possible that their bodies were immobile, but their consciousness was still awake?

The thought sent chills down her spine.

She looked away, unable to bear the sight any longer.

"Ding! Welcome to the Doll Game! The theme of this game is 'The Tortoise and the Hare.' The rules are as follows:

1. Refuse to play and become a doll!

2. Fail the game and become a doll!

3. Pass the game and be rewarded with a doll!..."

A strange voice rang in her ears, its tone as beautiful as a songbird's. Bai Youwei was stunned.

"Hey, did you hear that...?" She was about to ask Shen Mo, who was in front of her, when a layer of mist filled her vision. The next moment, she was surrounded by blue sky, white clouds, and an endless expanse of green grass!

What was going on?!

Bai Youwei stared at the scene in front of her in astonishment.

One second she was in Shen Mo's car, and the next she was sitting on a lush green lawn!

And the same went for the other people in the cars! Everyone stared in disbelief at the racetrack that surrounded the lawn. A huge banner hung prominently there, bearing four incredibly exaggerated characters:

Tortoise and Hare Race!

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