Chapter 1
Chapter 1
August 17, 2019.
An overnight flight carried its passengers from home to Xiangji Island in Country T, a famous tourist destination.
Shortly after four in the morning, the Boeing 747 landed at Xiangji Island International Airport. Once the plane had come to a stop, Chen Nuo collected his carry-on luggage with the other passengers, filed out of the cabin, and took a shuttle bus to the terminal.
After completing the visa-on-arrival and other entry procedures at the airport counter, Chen Nuo took out his phone and checked the message their tour guide had posted in the group chat:
I’ll be waiting outside the KFC by Exit 2 See you there, kisses
He had never seen a photo of their guide, but judging by the way she wrote, she was probably a cute girl.
Dragging his suitcase behind him, he made his way to Exit 2 and spotted the KFC at once. More than a dozen people had already gathered there. If he had guessed right, they were all members of the same tour group.
Chen Nuo walked over without greeting anyone. He stood off to one side, looking at his phone and stealing the occasional glance at the others.
There was a family of three whose son looked like a high school student; two young women who were probably best friends; three young men traveling together, likely college classmates; a young couple; and a pair of twin sisters. They were all speaking Chinese. Yes, these had to be the other members of his group. He had seen several of them on the plane and the airport shuttle, so it appeared they had all arrived on the same flight.
But where was the guide? Hadn’t she said she would be waiting for them here?
As Chen Nuo was wondering, a girl dressed like an anime maid suddenly sprang out of the KFC. She wore cat ears on her head, held up both hands in V signs, and tilted her head with a sugary smile.
“Sawasdee ka Hello, everyone! I’m your tour guide, Tina!”
For a moment, the tourists could only stare at the sweet, adorable girl. The three college students were transfixed. One of them, a round-faced young man, asked in disbelief, “You’re… going to be our guide for the whole trip?”
“That’s right. Here’s my guide license.” Tina stepped closer to the three of them, thrust out her chest, and displayed the license hanging around her neck. Judging by how excited the young men looked, Chen Nuo was certain the guide license was not what they were staring at so intently.
“Yes! This is awesome!” Two of the college students cheered. The third, a tall, thin young man, was more composed. He merely smiled, far less exuberant than his friends. The one with naturally curly hair said, “I kept worrying we’d get some middle-aged lady or a bearded old guy as our guide. I can’t believe we got someone this cute!”
The mother of the high school student frowned. “What have middle-aged women ever done to you? Do you think that’s a polite thing to say?”
“Sorry, sorry… I didn’t mean it like that.” The curly-haired young man stuck out his tongue and hurried to apologize.
Tina counted the group. “Okay, there are twenty-two people on this tour, and it looks like everyone’s here. I’ll take attendance now. When I call your name, please say ‘Here’ and raise your hand!”
Reading from the tour list on her phone, Tina called out each name in turn. The round-faced and curly-haired students eagerly thrust their hands into the air and shouted, “Here!” Several of the other young people were just as enthusiastic.
When Tina called Chen Nuo’s name, he merely answered, “Present,” in a flat voice.
“Okay, that’s everyone accounted for. Let’s leave the airport and head to the hotel!”
Tina motioned for the group to follow her. Outside Door 2, a luxury Mercedes coach was waiting. The tourists loaded their larger suitcases into the luggage compartment between the front and rear wheels, then boarded one after another.
The driver was a middle-aged man wearing a cap. He looked local and greeted each boarding passenger with a smiling nod.
Once everyone was seated, the coach pulled away. Tina said, “Our hotel is by the ocean, quite a distance from the airport. It’ll take about an hour to get there. You must all be tired after flying through the night, so feel free to take a nap. I’ll stop bothering you and ask our driver to turn off the cabin lights. You can get some rest. How does that sound?”
“Fine, fine,” said a man in his sixties, the oldest member of the tour group. An overnight flight was exhausting, and Tina’s suggestion was exactly what he wanted. Naturally, no one else objected.
The driver switched off the overhead lights, plunging the coach into darkness. It sped along an island road at five in the morning.
The cabin was silent. Even the three energetic college students had stopped talking so they would not disturb the others.
Tina sat in the passenger seat beside the driver. Five minutes later, she and the man exchanged a glance.
They nodded to each other in perfect understanding. The look in their eyes said it was time.
Moving slowly enough not to attract attention, each reached beneath their seat, took something out, and pulled it over their head: a gas mask.
Then the driver reached under the dashboard and pressed a concealed button.
A colorless, odorless gas drifted from the vents with the cool air, silently invading the coach like a ghost.
In the darkened cabin, not a single tourist sensed that anything was wrong.
Chen Nuo was no exception.
He was gazing out at the star-speckled night sky and the faint outlines of buildings, imagining how beautiful the tropical island would look after sunrise.
Beaches of fine white sand, crystal-clear water, a brilliant blue sky dotted with white clouds… and a pretty guide who looked as if she had stepped out of a comic book.
The next seven days should be wonderful.
But how would he die when those seven days were over?
The thought sent a slight tremor through his body.
He had not forgotten the other reason he had joined this tour. On the last day of the trip, he would find some way to kill himself on the island.
Chen Nuo sighed softly. His sorrowful face stared back at him in the dark window.
He wanted to change his mood. At the very least, before he died, he wanted to cast everything aside and spend the happiest seven days of his life.
Then drowsiness swept over him. He had no idea it was the result of the sedative gas he had inhaled. Before he could give it any thought, he fell into a deep sleep along with the other twenty-one passengers.