Today, I Have Yet to Become a Doll

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Bai Youwei took a deep breath and continued, “Did you consider the consequences of forcibly taking me away? …As a lady and a cripple, how do you expect me to survive when we reach Yangzhou?  Don’t you know that I need assistance just to eat or go to the toilet? I even need to wear diapers during a long trip! You don’t…”

She breathed in.
“You don’t understand at all! I’m not going with you!”

By the end of her dialogue, her voice was hoarse with a forlorn sobbing tone.

Shen Mo looked at her and remained silent for a moment.
He then lowered his voice, “Indeed, I don’t understand but there’s one thing I’m certain of—staying here will only lead to a faster demise, if you leave, perhaps there’s still hope.”

Hope?

Bai Youwei’s heart was cold.

Her biological parents did not even want to meet her, her life was no different from death.
Even if the world remained as it normally was, she did not intend to continue living.

She’s a hopeless cripple!

Shen Mo walked up to Bai Youwei, his dark eyes looked at her with oppression.
His tone was gentle and firm, “Rest assured, I will safely send you to Yangzhou.”

Bai Youwei bit her lips.

She had no choice.

Shen Mo pushed Bai Youwei out of the villa to the SUV2 by the road.

He carried Bai Youwei from her wheelchair, feeling that she was extremely light.
Although she was emaciated, it did not hurt when he carried her.
The girl in his arms was soft.

Her face rested on his chest, and a faint fragrance lingered.
The scent of rose milk shampoo and the smell of medicine mixed together, forming a strange fragrance.
It was indescribable.

Looking at the taut little face, he felt softhearted and comforted her again, “I’ll drive faster, that way it won’t take us more than an hour and a half.
There will be people over there to take care of you, don’t worry.”

Bai Youwei obviously hated his assertive actions as she ignored him, maintaining a straight face.

Shen Mo smiled.
He closed the rear door, sat in the driver’s seat and turned the key.

Before long, he realized that he had miscalculated.

The situation was more serious than expected as there were dolls on almost every road.
Although the reason why people became dolls was not clear, it was known to all that places that were abundant in dolls, were high-risk areas.
Hence, people would try to avoid such a road when they travel.

Shen Mo began to make a detour.
After more than an hour, they finally arrived at the highway.

The highway was not peaceful either.

It was full of cars ahead, about 60 or 70 of them, randomly parked in the middle of the road.
Some cars had collided into a group, the state of the people in those cars were unknown.

At the end of the motorcade, there were lots of people who had just arrived at the highway.
Those people stood outside their cars, looking around, wondering if they should proceed forward.

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

Bai Youwei leaned by the window, listening to their discussion.

“What should we do? Are we still going?”

“Go? It’s full of dolls ahead.
How can we get through?”

“Then are we supposed to wait for death here? In the nearest cities, only Yangzhou and Taizhou have no one turning into dolls!”

“What about other roads? Do other roads have dolls too?”

“If this continues, we will die trapped here…”

“Hubby, what should we do?” A long-haired lady sobbed.
“It must be the end of the world…We’ll all die…”

Her husband seemed to have no idea too.
He irritatedly smoked a cigarette, unable to utter a single word of comfort.

Bai Youwei listened for a while and felt that it was meaningless.
Therefore, she closed the window to have a quiet moment of her own.

When Shen Mo returned to the car, Bai Youwei asked him, “Will we turn into a doll if we go from here?”

Shen Mo thought about it and replied, “Let’s check out the situation first.
If this isn’t safe, we’ll find another path.”

Bai Youwei did not really trust him and mumbled, “There are dolls on other roads too.”

At that moment, there was movement up ahead.

Everyone was surprised.
Glancing in front, a blue pickup truck was slowly driving forward, probing if it was alright.
Another few cars saw it and followed behind them, keeping a safe distance. 

It seemed like someone could not wait any longer.

After all, there was no safe place in the city and there were dolls on almost every road.
To leave the city, one must take risks.

The driver of the blue pickup truck was a strong bald man.
Holding the steering wheel, he carefully drove past several cars with dolls in them.
As nothing unusual happened, he subconsciously accelerated his speed.

When he got to a safe open space, he leaned out of the car and waved to the people behind him.
“This road is passable!”

The atmosphere was lightened by this sentence, and the cars in the back consecutively followed.

Someone smiled and exchanged greetings with the bald man in front, “Bro, it’s thanks to you this time!”

Others also showed a relaxed smile.

“Looks like it’s fine.” Shen Mo started the car and kept up with the fleet.

Bai Youwei reacted indifferently with an “Oh”.

…

On the highway, cars were driven at a slow speed.
Everyone was extremely cautious.

Bai Youwei quietly laid by the window.

As the car moved forward, she saw one human doll after another.
They were like the mannequins in the boutiques, with empty eyes and rigid postures…

Turning around, there were two dolls sitting in the red car opposite them.
The driver was a man whereas a woman was sitting in the passenger seat.
The woman’s stomach was greatly bulged, she was obviously pregnant.

Bai Youwei could not help but think, Did the baby in her stomach turn into a little doll? Did he or she too has plastic skin, glass-like eyes, synthetic fiber hair? What happens when they transform into dolls? Is it possible that their body was immobile but their consciousness is awake?

This thought made her shudder.

She withdrew her gaze and stopped looking.

“Ding! Welcome to The Dolls’ Game! The theme of this game is “The Tortoise And The Hare, and the rules are as follows:

If you refuse the game, you will become a doll!If you lose the game, you will become a doll!If you clear the game, you will be rewarded! …”

A strange voice sounded in her ears.
The sound quality was pleasant but Bai Youwei was dumbfounded by it.

“Hey, did you hear…” She was just about to ask Shen Mo in front of her, but a layer of misty light appeared in her vision.
The next moment, it became blue skies, white clouds, and an endless green meadow!

What’s going on?!

Bai Youwei was astounded by the sight.

Just a moment ago, she was still sitting in Shen Mo’s car, now she was sitting on the green meadows instead!

The same goes for the others who were traveling along with them by car! Dumbstruck, everyone stared at the track outside the meadow.
There was a huge screen banner prominently hanging there with five extremely big words—

The Tortoise And The Hare!

Here some TMI (you can skip it if you want):

In case you’re wondering why isn’t the setting futuristic when it’s 2119, the original year was 2019.
The author changed it to 2119 to prevent deleted chapters.
China wants to achieve the Chinese dream, so there shouldn’t be any apocalypse during this period.
In China, the chapters will get deleted if it’s too vulgar, erotic or violent.
(Which is why some novels have missing chapters).
I think they cannot write about politics too.
And no immoral stuff allowed.
Another original setting was that the ML’s father and the MC’s mother married and that makes them siblings.
This way the setting is technically incest so the author changed it due to the above reasons.

(I only know parts of it.
There’s a lot of don’ts when it comes to writing webnovels—there’s a whole freaking list of it)

Footnotes

Bai = fair, You Neng = delicate, Wei Rou = feeble.
Thus, Bai Youwei’s name is formed heheSport Utility Vehicle