Corpse Collector, Go to Fish Mouth Pier

I had many questions in my heart, but I could never get any answers, nor did I know where to look for them.

Zhang Qiang had no rationality every time he came.

Last night, he had eaten five Yin Dishes offered as tribute and had finally shed eighty or ninety percent of his resentment.

Just when he was about to regain his senses and could be sent away, Pavilion Ghost ruined everything.

Now I also knew that, apart from Zhang Qiang, Dissection Teacher Chen Guofu was dead too.

It was very likely that, just like Zhang Qiang, he had set his sights on me.

Otherwise, whenever that drowned ghost Zhang Qiang came looking for me,

he would not always keep saying, "Teacher is urging me."

The past few days had been far too turbulent, leaving me exhausted and drained.

Zhang Qiang had also become fiercer by the day.

At first, he had still retained his reason and only sucked away my yang energy.

By the second night, his mind had gone numb. By the third, he had become a walking corpse.

I had no idea what he would turn into tonight.

Uncle Yu was seriously injured and hospitalized.

If he came again tonight, I truly did not know how I would handle it.

I took a deep breath and steadied my emotions.

I had to take care of Uncle Yu first. We could talk after he woke up!

After buying what I needed, I returned upstairs and found that Uncle Yu had already awakened.

Seeing me return, he laboriously sat up.

"Uncle Yu, have something to drink."

Uncle Yu took a small sip of milk and gestured for me to draw the curtains around the hospital bed.

I did as he asked, then heard Uncle Yu speak.

"Xiao Jiang! When all is said and done, Uncle Yu is only a cook.

My abilities are limited.

That thing haunting you is getting fiercer and fiercer.

It has already gone beyond what I can handle."

Hearing this, I frowned slightly.

I knew Uncle Yu had done his best. He had even nearly lost his life for me.

I forced myself to remain calm and nodded.

"It's okay, Uncle Yu. I'll remember your kindness.

If I really can't avoid it, then I won't."

I put on a smile, but it looked terribly awkward.

Seeing me like this, Uncle Yu waved his hand.

"You've got a good temperament, kid.

Uncle Yu will point you toward a path.

As long as you go, you'll definitely get through this."

My eyes lit up at his words, and hope flared in my heart once more.

"R-Really?"

I could not hide my excitement.

Uncle Yu gave a grunt.

"Of course it's true."

"Then... what path?"

I pressed on.

Uncle Yu caught his breath and continued.

"Here, I know someone with great ability.

Not only can he drive out demons and suppress evil, he can also collect corpses and catch ghosts.

As long as he steps in, he'll definitely settle your problem..."

Excited, I did not interrupt and listened carefully.

Uncle Yu paused briefly before continuing.

"Go to Jiangbei. There's a Fish Mouth Pier over there.

Find someone named Song Decai. He's the Corpse Collector who specializes in collecting bodies around here."

Corpse Collector. Song Decai.

I memorized the name.

Then I casually asked,

"Uncle Yu, what does he look like? How will I find him once I get to the pier?"

Uncle Yu continued.

"He's a little older than me, with even less hair than I have. He likes fishing, has a sharp, monkey-like face, and wears a goatee. That's him."

I froze for a moment.

Seeing my hesitation, Uncle Yu spoke again.

"That guy is my senior fellow disciple, but we don't get along very well.

He has a strange temper and picks fights with people at the drop of a hat.

When you find him, there's a good chance he'll turn you away.

Just tell him I sent you.

If he refuses to help, tell him I'll expose his secrets.

If he helps, I'll make him three months' worth of Yin Dish fish bait."

So Uncle Yu had something on him!

Other than feeling grateful toward Uncle Yu, there was nothing else I could do right now.

I could only nod at him.

"Alright, Uncle Yu. I've remembered it all."

"Good. Go now! I'll be fine here."

Uncle Yu continued.

I was deeply grateful to Uncle Yu, but for now, I could only settle my own affairs before repaying him.

After thanking Uncle Yu again and again, I left the hospital.

Outside, I went to a nearby phone shop.

Using Huabei, I bought an eighty-yuan secondhand phone. It lagged a little, but it would do for now.

As I hurried toward Jiangbei, I logged into my WeChat account.

I had been too busy these past few days, with no time to check my phone.

After looking through the chat records in several class group chats, I finally got a rough idea of what had happened at school over the past few days.

Just as Teacher Li had said,

my roommate Zhang Qiang had drowned in the school lake on the day of our dissection class.

They had tried to resuscitate him on Little White Bridge. There was even a short video of the chaotic scene, with many students beside him calling Zhang Qiang's name.

But they had failed to save him in the end.

Then, that very night, Dissection Teacher Chen Guofu had drowned in the Corpse Storage Pool, though there were no photos.

People were only saying that Teacher Chen had died in the exact spot where Xiao Yu had previously been soaked.

Several small student chat groups were discussing it.

Some students even speculated that the female corpse we had dissected that day might have been cursed.

They said it had scared me away first, then caused the deaths of Zhang Qiang and Teacher Chen one after another.

Some had even tagged me.

But over the past few days, I had been troubled by the ghosts haunting me. How could I have been in the mood to read the group chats?

After reading the messages for a while, my phone became frighteningly hot.

I could only turn it off and lean back against the bus seat.

Even though I had not slept all night, anxiety left me without the slightest bit of drowsiness.

Seeing that there were not many people on this bus, I sat in the seat closest to the driver's cabin.

Then I asked the driver,

"Sir, do you know about the 330 Bus Line?"

That bus was the only reason I had managed to get Uncle Yu to the hospital on time.

So I wanted to ask about it.

But the moment I finished speaking, I saw the driver's expression change slightly in the rearview mirror.

He even raised his eyes and looked at me through it.

"You know the 330 Bus Line?"

"I heard someone mention it. They said one of the buses had the license plate JK7231.

They made it sound pretty mysterious. Do you know anything about it?"

I did not say it outright, only probed indirectly.

But I figured that, since he was a bus driver,

he should know something about this kind of supernatural incident.

When the driver heard me mention it, especially when I brought up the license plate number, his mood visibly changed.

As he gripped the steering wheel, he answered in a low voice.

"That route was from more than ten years ago. Not many people still know about it, or that license plate."

"Sir, did something really happen on that route?"

I continued questioning him, hoping to learn more.

The driver was a middle-aged man.

When he heard my question, a trace of melancholy appeared on his face again.

He hesitated briefly before speaking.

"More than ten years ago, the JK7231 bus on the 330 Bus Line plunged straight into Datianwan Reservoir.

The twelve passengers on board, including my wife and my newborn child, never came back up."

My heart jolted violently at that.

I suddenly recalled seeing a woman in the front row breastfeeding a child when I had boarded that bus.

Could that have been the driver's wife and child?

I was shocked, wondering if it was too much of a coincidence.

And my words seemed to have completely stirred up the driver's memories.

Grief filled his face. His eyes reddened and glistened with tears.

As he drove, he continued in what he thought was the most casual voice possible.

"These past years, there have been all sorts of strange rumors about that bus.

They say people have seen it on the road.

Others say they even boarded it.

But I've worked here for seven or eight years. Whenever I have time, I go to the 330 Bus Line.

Yet I've never seen it, not once.

I suppose it's all made up!

But if it were real, I'd really want to board it and take a look.

Maybe I could see the two of them again..."