The Mystery of Seat E

Li Ming habitually took out his phone and scanned the QR code on his high-speed rail ticket. The ticket gate beeped and released him, and he dragged his suitcase into the waiting hall. The screen displayed train information, and he confirmed the train number and platform, and skillfully found his carriage.

After boarding, Li Ming checked his seat number on the ticket and found seat 04F in carriage 12. He put his luggage away and sat down. The window seat had a great view, he smiled contentedly, and took out his Kindle to start reading.

Suddenly, he felt that something was not right. He looked at the seat number again, confirming that he was correct. But, his eyes scanned the whole row of seats and noticed a strange phenomenon: A, B, C, D, and then it jumped directly to F, no seat E!

He thought he was seeing things, rubbed his eyes, and counted again. That’s right, the entire carriage, even the entire train had no seat E! He began to feel a little uneasy, this did not match his years of experience riding high-speed trains.

He got up and walked to the connection between carriages, and found that the seat numbers here followed the same pattern. A, B, C, D, and then directly F, skipping E. He asked a few passengers, and they all said it was normal, no one seemed to find anything wrong with it.

A sense of inexplicable panic surged in Li Ming's heart. He felt like he was in a huge, absurd joke. He took out his phone, wanting to search for information about high-speed rail seat numbers, but found that the network signal was extremely weak and couldn't connect at all.

He tried to ask the train attendant. A young female train attendant walked over with a smile, "Sir, how can I help you?"

"Why is there no seat E on the high-speed train?" Li Ming asked the question in his mind.

The female train attendant paused for a moment, and then showed an even more professional smile, "Sir, you are joking, high-speed trains have always been arranged like this, A, B, C, D, F, is there a problem?"

"But, according to the order of the alphabet, there should be an E in the middle!" Li Ming tried to explain.

The female train attendant tilted her head, seeming to find his question very confusing, "Sir, you might have remembered it wrong. Our high-speed rail seats have always been arranged in the order of A, B, C, D, F, please don't ask such meaningless questions."

Li Ming was stunned. He looked at the polite yet firm smile on the female train attendant's face, and felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart. The surrounding passengers were all looking at him with a strange gaze, as if he was the one who was abnormal. He felt isolated, as if the whole world had forgotten the existence of E.

He returned to his seat, took out his Kindle, and tried to calm himself down. But the words on the book became blurry, and his thoughts were completely occupied by the disappearance of seat E. He tried hard to recall, trying to find memories about seat E, but found that everything had become blurred, as if seat E had never existed.

The train broadcast began to play station announcement information, reminding passengers that the train was about to reach its destination. Li Ming looked up and watched the scenery flashing by outside the window, his heart filled with confusion. He felt that this journey was like a dream, a nightmare about seat E.

After getting off the high-speed train, Li Ming arrived at the platform, he looked around and found that everything was back to normal. The station’s signposts, billboards, and even the markings on the trash cans were all as he remembered them. However, the disappearance of seat E on the high-speed train still hovered over him like a lingering shadow.

He walked out of the station and saw a taxi, with the words "Welcome Aboard" displayed on the LED screen on its roof. He opened the car door, preparing to get in, but suddenly stopped. His eyes fell on the front row of seats.

The front row seats of the taxi were clearly labeled: A, B, C, D, F.