They... Came Back!

San Gou had his own bedroom at his aunt's house, but he shamelessly insisted on clinging to his second older brother and sharing a bed.

Jiang Yue didn't mind.

"Second Brother, I didn't tell Aunt about the bus," San Gou said, sounding as if he expected a reward.

"At least you showed a little sense."

"Why only a little? Second Brother, you're underestimating me. In all of Panshi Ridge, going back five hundred years or forward five hundred years, how many people as clever as me could you find?"

"Then tell me, why couldn't you talk about the bus?"

San Gou looked pleased with himself. "Do you even have to ask? If I told her, Aunt definitely wouldn't let me go play in the city with you."

"..."

Jiang Yue was instantly speechless. What a powerful argument. He had no answer.

Well, that was a very San Gou answer.

If San Gou had said he kept quiet because they couldn't cause a panic or risk getting themselves into trouble, that wouldn't have sounded like him at all.

"Second Brother, now you have to admit you underestimated me, right?"

"Mm, great. You're so clever. Just remember, if you let this slip, don't expect me to take you to the city again."

Since San Gou loved showing off his "cleverness," Jiang Yue would let him use that clever mode to keep today's events buried deep inside.

"Second Brother, tell me, if we hadn't stopped that bus today, and it hadn't paused there, would they have avoided getting buried?"

"No," Jiang Yue answered decisively.

"Right. That bus was being haunted by Unclean Things. It definitely wouldn't have made it to Star City."

Jiang Yue let out a quiet sigh and made no comment.

He hadn't seen whether the Unclean Things were powerful enough to cause that kind of damage, and he wasn't sure.

He put more faith in the idea of Fate and Luck.

Fate meant the will of heaven, and it also included a person's lot in life.

The days of rain that caused the mountainside to collapse—that was the will of heaven.

The people on the bus just happened to be aboard, and just happened to be there—that was their personal lot in life.

They were fated to face a calamity, but that didn't necessarily mean they were doomed to suffer it.

Most people's fates, generally speaking, could still be changed. But those on the bus clearly had no such luck; they hadn't found a way to avert the disaster.

People who didn't believe in fate could say that if the bus hadn't stopped along the way, if it hadn't lost those thirty seconds, it could have traveled hundreds of meters farther and surely wouldn't have met with disaster.

Those who believed in fate would say that perhaps the landslide had been building toward a critical point and simply needed a trigger.

The weight and presence of the bus and its passengers had happened to set it off, burying them beneath the earth. Whether the bus had arrived thirty seconds earlier or half a minute later, the outcome would have been the same.

If it had been one or two people riding electric scooters, perhaps they wouldn't have triggered it just then.

"What about me and San Gou not getting on that bus and escaping disaster? What does that mean?" Jiang Yue had been turning that question over in his mind.

San Gou had suffered all day, and he hadn't slept well the night before. On top of that, Jiang Yue wasn't much in the mood to talk, so San Gou soon dozed off.

Jiang Yue had too much on his mind to feel sleepy. Just as his aunt had said, the town would probably have a rough time in the days ahead.

There had been dozens of people on the bus, which meant dozens of families were affected.

Every so often, crying and wailing reached his ears. The sounds were heart-rending, especially in the middle of the night.

Jiang Yue knew all too well the pain of losing loved ones.

Ten years ago...

When they learned that his mother's archaeological team had driven off a cliff, the whole family had been plunged into grief and despair. Jiang Yue had spent a full ten years trying to recover from it, but he still hadn't completely moved on.

Over the past ten years, Jiang Yue had dreamed of his mother countless times, seeing her young and beautiful. Again and again, he had screamed himself hoarse, calling out, "Mom!" but had never received a reply.

But over the past month, the dreams had changed completely. His mother no longer appeared young, and it seemed as though she was hinting at some kind of clue.

Jiang Yue quietly pulled the family photo from beneath the bed, held it against his chest, and murmured to himself.

"Mom, what are you trying to tell me?"

Jiang Yue didn't even dare close his eyes. He was afraid the moment he did, the dream would come.

The sight of his mother looking so desperate and anguished broke his heart. He couldn't bear it for another second.

But at the same time, he couldn't help hoping!

Maybe... if the dream went on, his mother might be able to reveal more clues?

Even after ten years, deep down, Jiang Yue still held on to a tiny bit of hope.

The archaeological team's vehicle had plunged off the cliff. Its path, the tire marks at the scene, and the damaged flowers and shrubs along the roadside all proved beyond a doubt that it had been a traffic accident.

The baffling thing was that the vehicle's wreckage couldn't be found anywhere at the foot of the cliff.

It was as if the archaeological team and their vehicle had vanished from the world the instant they fell.

The cliff was deep, and fog shrouded it all year round, but the authorities had still sent people down several times to investigate by various means. They had even used a range of high-tech equipment to search.

They found nothing.

In the end, the case was closed as a traffic accident, and his mother's fate remained a mystery.

After a long while, Jiang Yue's thoughts settled. He took a deep breath, put the photograph back beneath his pillow, and prepared to sleep.

Thump!

Suddenly, San Gou kicked hard against the bed frame with both feet and shot upright as if he'd come back from the dead.

He cried out urgently, "They're back! They're all back!"

Then he clawed at the air with both hands, his face full of terror as he shrank toward the corner of the bed.

"San Gou, what's gotten into you?" Thinking he was sleepwalking, Jiang Yue slapped him.

As it turned out, the slap worked.

San Gou shuddered all over and finally came fully awake.

"Second Brother, they're back. They're all back!" San Gou deliberately lowered his voice, but it trembled with sheer terror.

Jiang Yue had never seen San Gou like this before.

Even at the mass grave on Mount Dajin, when Tangtou asked for his head, San Gou hadn't been this scared.

"Who's back?"

"The people on the bus. All forty-four of them, including the driver. Look, look..." San Gou pointed out the window.

"The driver's left cheek and arm are gone. And that man—I know him. He's Qiu Laogen from the grain and oil shop next door. He's even worse off, only half of him is left... That one's Boss Feng from the barbershop by the bridge. He's crawling on the ground, his guts spilling out. He's covered in blood..."

Jiang Yue felt as though he'd fallen into an icy cellar. His whole body went cold, and he clamped a hand over San Gou's mouth.

Stop, San Gou. Shut up, right now!

Bzzzt...

The night-light flickered on and off.

Click, click, click...

Something outside the window—whether the wind or some other unknown force—seemed to be doing all it could to push it open.

Rustle, rustle, rustle...

On the street, it was impossible to tell whether the sound came from raindrops, windblown branches and leaves, or something dragging itself slowly along the ground.

Then there was the dogs' barking, which had been going on fiercely all night without stopping.

Suddenly, it was as if every dog in town had its throat squeezed shut and its mouth sealed. Their barking cut off all at once!

The temperature in the air seemed to drop by more than ten degrees in an instant.

A bone-chilling cold swept in from the window, from beneath the bed, from every corner of the empty space. It was almost unbearable, and their teeth chattered.

The crying went on all night, from midnight until dawn, growing ever more desolate.

Early in the morning, the brothers hurriedly ate a few bites of breakfast before asking to return to Star City.

Their aunt wanted them to stay, but given the town's current state, she wouldn't want to remain either if her business didn't keep her there.

As it happened, a delivery driver from Star City had spent the night stranded in town and planned to take a detour back that day. Their aunt heard about it, and they agreed to pay an extra hundred yuan for a ride.

"San Gou, once you get to the city, listen to your big sister and second brother. Otherwise, your aunt will smack you silly." His aunt raised a hand, putting on a fearsome look.

"I don't listen to other people, but I'll definitely listen to Second Brother." San Gou was in a good mood and didn't talk back to his aunt.

His aunt quickly pulled out a hundred yuan and tossed it through the window to the delivery driver. "Boss Zhou, take it slow on the road. Here's the fare. Don't go asking my nephew to pay a second time. And don't you dare bully him."

"Who'd dare bully anyone under your wing, Sister Jiang? Besides, I'm afraid that next time I come by, you'll pull the wheels off my truck!"

"Hmph! Good, you know it! Really, I'm only doing this for your own good. These two little beasts of mine aren't people you want to mess with. You might be the one who ends up suffering."

The vehicle was a double-cab pickup, and the brothers had plenty of room in the back seat.

The delivery driver, Boss Zhou, had been delayed in town overnight and was just as eager to get back. He called out to them, started the engine, and slowly pulled away.