Song Shuhang was stunned at first, but the moment he recognized the man on the motorcycle, his face lit up. "Bozai? Why are you here? How did you end up here too?"
The handsome boy was Bozai, one of his three roommates. Bozai had a dirt-poor name that was completely at odds with his good looks. His surname was Lin, and his full name was Lin Tubo.
That name had tormented Bozai for over a decade. He felt it was unbearably rustic. He had fought with his father over it for years. Once, he had even taken the household register and ID card to the relevant department alone, intending to change his name. But his father found out, dragged him home, and gave him a fierce beating.
So Bozai asked everyone he met to call him A Bo, Xiao Bo, or Bozai.
Actually, in Shuhang's eyes, Tubo wasn't that bad a name. Compared to names like Wang Erdan and Liu Gousheng, it was goodness knew how much better. Don't think names like Dog Egg were only meant for laughs—there was someone in Shuhang's hometown who was called that. His surname was Wang, and his name was Wang Goudan.
Wang Goudan had always believed he wasn't his father's biological son. He even thought his father had a grudge against him. Otherwise, how could the man possibly have given him such a name?
But getting back to the point, Shuhang had never expected to run into Bozai here.
"My maternal grandfather lives in J City. My whole family came to visit him this week. What about you? How did you end up in J City too?" As Bozai spoke, he suddenly noticed the long-legged girl beside Shuhang. He immediately smacked his right fist into his left palm—he understood now. So this fellow Shuhang had brought a girl out to have fun!
"Tsk, tsk. Shuhang, I never would've guessed. You're actually such a shameless guy. You quietly picked up such a pretty girl without making a sound. You'll have to treat us tomorrow!" Bozai gave him a wicked grin.
Song Shuhang remained unruffled by Bozai's teasing. "Stop talking nonsense. If she were really my girlfriend, I'd be burning incense in gratitude. This is my older sister, Soft Feather. She wanted to come to J City to find a place called Ghost Lantern Temple, but she didn't know the way, so she asked me to accompany her."
"Really?" Tubo stared seriously at Shuhang.
Shuhang shrugged, while Soft Feather smiled sweetly from the side.
"Hey, fine. If you say she's your sister, then she's your sister." Tubo wasn't a gossip. "You said you were looking for some temple. Did you find it?"
Song Shuhang shook his head. "I searched online for a long time but couldn't find anything, so I came to the local area of Luoxin District to ask around and see if anyone knew about it. But no one at the hotel had heard of Ghost Lantern Temple. I don't know whether it was renamed or demolished, so I'm planning to ask some local elderly people. Maybe I'll get lucky."
"I see... How about coming over to my place? We can ask my grandfather. He's a genuine native of Luojie District in J City. Maybe he knows about your whatever-Ghost Temple. Tsk, what an awful name. With a name like that, it definitely didn't have many worshippers. It must've gone out of business!" Tubo clicked his tongue. He was deeply traumatized by names and the like.
Song Shuhang's heart leaped, but he asked first, "Won't this disturb your family's rest?"
"Don't worry. My grandfather's incredibly hospitable. As for my dad, he practically wishes I'd spend more time studying with my classmates instead of tinkering with all sorts of things every day. I'm already in university, but he still tells me to study, study, study all day long. He nearly drove me crazy." Tubo chuckled.
Although he sounded rather aggrieved, the relationship between father and son was actually pretty good. It was just that his father liked hitting people. His father firmly believed that good sons were raised under the rod. His favorite saying was, "Beat the kids on rainy days—might as well, since there's nothing else to do." This gave Tubo a bit of a headache.
In the end, Tubo asked again, "Shuhang, can you ride a motorcycle?"
"Yes, but I don't have a license," Shuhang replied.
"No problem. Out here in the middle of nowhere, who'd be bored enough to check motorcycle licenses?" Tubo laughed heartily. Then he turned his head and called out, "A Yong, lend me your bike for a bit. Ride with someone else for now!"
"Sure thing." A tall, burly man got off and parked the motorcycle in front of Song Shuhang.
"Thanks." Shuhang smiled.
A Tong waved casually and went to squeeze onto another motorcycle with his companions.
In the blink of an eye, a huge group roared away on their motorcycles.
Song Shuhang straddled the black motorcycle and tested its feel. He gently twisted the throttle, and the bike suddenly lunged forward with tremendous force.
"Good grief, was this modified?" Shuhang braked to a stop and asked with a smile.
"I personally modified every one of these guys' bikes. The power is fantastic." Tubo grinned.
He'd forgotten that this fellow was a technical otaku with deft hands and a clever mind. He couldn't build a Gundam with his bare hands, but he could often whip up all sorts of interesting mechanical gadgets.
"Soft Feather, get on." Shuhang turned and called to Soft Feather.
Fortunately, she had left her huge suitcase at the hotel. Otherwise, this little motorcycle really wouldn't have been able to carry her.
Soft Feather swung her long legs over and sat behind Shuhang. Her soft chest crashed without warning against Shuhang's back, making her legs feel somewhat weak.
Up ahead, Tubo laughed heartily. "Keep up!"
Amid the roar of the motorcycles, the two bikes sped into the distance one after the other...
......
Tubo's maternal grandfather was a very fashionable old man who also enjoyed tinkering with little mechanical gadgets. It seemed Tubo had inherited this hobby from him.
Because he was so fashionable, he found it easy to mingle with young people.
"Ghost Lantern Temple? Young people these days actually still know about that place?" Tubo's grandfather laughed boldly.
From his words, Shuhang knew there was hope!
Shuhang immediately asked, "Grandpa, do you know where Ghost Lantern Temple is?"
Grandpa was how people in the Jiangnan Region and several districts near J City addressed elderly men of grandfatherly age.
"Very few people still know about that place. That was over sixty years ago. Most of those who knew about it have already entered their coffins, so most youngsters like you have never heard of it." Tubo's grandfather led everyone to the entrance of the courtyard and pointed east. "Keep going east. After about seven hundred meters, you'll see a patch of woods. Go farther in, and there'll be a huge old grave. That's where Ghost Lantern Temple used to stand."
"An old grave? Ghost Lantern Temple is a grave?" Shuhang asked instinctively, blurting out a foolish question.
"Ghost Lantern Temple was demolished?" Soft Feather widened her eyes as she grasped the truth.
"Yes. More than sixty years ago, some fellow flattened it and built a huge grave for himself." Tubo's grandfather nodded.
So it had happened sixty years ago. Back then, even television hadn't become widespread, unlike now, when the internet was so advanced that even the tiniest triviality could become known to everyone.
That was why there was no information about Ghost Lantern Temple at all. Few local youngsters knew about it; only some elderly people knew what had happened back then.
"But as far as I know, Ghost Lantern Temple was private property, right? Someone paid to buy it many years ago?" Soft Feather asked doubtfully.
"Little girl, you know quite a lot." Tubo's grandfather recalled the past. "Actually... the land Ghost Lantern Temple stood on belonged to Yellow Skinner. He was the owner of the grave, Huang Dagen. More than sixty years ago, he sold Ghost Lantern Temple to an outsider. But before that sale, he had already planned to demolish the temple and build a grave there. Then an outsider happened to come along, wanting to buy Ghost Lantern Temple. Yellow Skinner simply went with the flow and sold it to him. A few years later, when he saw that the outsider never returned, he brazenly demolished the temple and built himself a huge grave."
"How shameless?" Song Shuhang exclaimed.
Tubo's grandfather sighed. "Yellow Skinner really was shameless. In those years, he swindled quite a few wealthy outsiders. But there was nothing to be done. Outsiders were all fools with plenty of money."
Song Shuhang stole a glance at Soft Feather. He guessed that the person who had bought Ghost Lantern Temple might very well have been one of Soft Feather's elders.
Yet there was no anger on Soft Feather's face. She merely sighed and asked, "Then most of the people from Yellow Skinner's family should be dead by now, right?"
Those words sent a chill through everyone.
Before you continue