Master Cao, the Dead Spirits' Family

The driver's tone was tinged with melancholy.

I hadn't expected this driver to have such a connection to that haunted bus.

Since I'd ripped open an old wound of his, I didn't feel right asking any further questions.

So I apologized.

"I'm sorry, sir."

The driver smiled instead.

"What is there to apologize for? That's just how it was.

And more than ten years have passed.

I've always wanted to see JK7231, the bus everyone talks about with such fear.

Even if I die, it'd be worth it.

At least our family of three could be together again."

The driver was smiling, speaking as if it were nothing.

But his eyes were clearly filled with longing and hope for his wife and child.

Though I didn't know him at all.

I could feel his emotions, his pain, and how much he missed them.

I'd once read something online.

The ghost you feared might be the person someone else longed to see day and night.

I'd only asked casually, hoping to get some information about JK7231.

Who knew it would uncover all this?

I hadn't wanted to tell him about what happened in the early hours of the morning.

But after hesitating again and again, I still said to the driver,

"Sir, actually, I got on that bus.

I think... I think I saw your wife and child too..."

I thought giving someone hope was better than giving them despair.

The moment the driver heard that.

His face froze, and he looked up at the rearview mirror, at my reflection in it.

But while he was stunned.

The bus headed straight toward the roadside.

I hurriedly shouted,

"The bus!"

Hearing me, the driver suddenly snapped back to his senses.

He quickly looked ahead and jerked the steering wheel hard.

With a screech, the piercing sound of brakes rang out.

The vehicle swerved sideways, nearly throwing me from my seat.

The two passengers in the back were startled as well.

They immediately cursed at the driver.

"How the hell are you driving?"

"You scared the shit out of me! Can you watch the road?"

After steadying the bus, the driver repeatedly apologized to the two passengers.

Then he stared at me with wide eyes and asked nervously,

"L-little brother, did you really get on the 330 Bus Line? That JK7231 bus?"

I nodded.

"That's right. I got on at Taihang Road and got off at the back entrance of Third Hospital."

As soon as I finished speaking, the driver asked again,

"Then... did you see a woman holding a child? Which row were they sitting in? What color clothes was she wearing?"

I could feel the driver's excitement.

I thought back. The woman had been breastfeeding her child, and it had only happened in the early hours of that morning, so I remembered it clearly.

I continued,

"Second row, near the driver's cab. At the time, there was only one woman in the bus, holding a child and feeding it.

I remember that woman wearing a white dress.

The baby bottle in her hand was yellow."

The instant I said that, the driver could no longer hold back his emotions.

Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.

Just then, we arrived at a bus stop.

The bus came to a steady stop. The other two passengers got off, and no one else boarded.

Only the driver and I remained on the bus.

The driver slumped over the steering wheel, sobbing, "Wuwuwu," while repeatedly saying,

"It was them. It really was them. That day, I was the one who put my wife and daughter on that bus.

I bought that baby bottle for my daughter myself."

As he cried, the driver actually pulled a cardboard box from the storage compartment beside him.

He moved frantically, and I had no idea what he was going to do.

So I sat beside him and watched.

I'd never been a father or a husband.

But I could feel how deeply he missed his wife and child.

After a while, he hurriedly took a yellow baby bottle out of the cardboard box.

The bottle was already old and scratched.

Yet its style and appearance were almost identical to the one I'd seen on the haunted bus.

My eyes widened in surprise.

"That's it. That's the baby bottle."

Holding the bottle, the driver said to me,

"This was what I picked up from the reservoir after my wife and daughter died.

I've kept it with me all these years.

Hoping I could see them again.

That way, I could die without regrets.

But it's been more than ten years. I've only heard people say that bus had appeared.

Yet I've never seen it myself.

Little brother, I... I beg you to do me a favor."

The driver stared at me with wide eyes, becoming increasingly agitated.

"A favor?"

I was doubtful. I could barely save myself, so what could I possibly help him with?

But the driver nodded seriously.

"Yes. I heard that people who have boarded that bus.

Have a good chance of encountering it again soon afterward.

Little brother, take this baby bottle with you.

If one day you board that bus again.

Tell them.

I, Cao Meng, miss them so, so much..."

It was only a few words, yet the driver choked up several times.

I really didn't want to take it, but seeing how heartbroken he was.

And knowing this was the belief keeping him alive, the obsession and hope in his heart.

I nodded and agreed.

After all, I'd had terrible luck lately and kept running into ghosts whenever I went out.

If I encountered them again, perhaps I could help the driver fulfill his wish and earn myself some good karma.

Just then, a burst of honking came from behind us.

Another bus was preparing to pull into the stop.

Our bus had been parked there for quite a while. Seeing this, the driver hurriedly started up and pulled away from the stop.

As he drove, he began asking me questions.

He asked where I was going, then said that since I'd boarded the 330 Bus Line.

My luck had probably been rather bad these past few days.

He told me to be careful and stay away from dangerous places.

He wasn't wrong. My luck really was terrible, and I kept encountering ghosts.

After all, only someone like me, a person about to die, could probably board a Hearse.

So I smiled and said my luck had simply been a little off.

I'd gotten tangled up with some unclean things and was on my way to find someone to help deal with them.

When the driver heard that, he asked if I was going to Fish Mouth Pier to find the Corpse Collector, Song Decai.

The moment I heard that, I was instantly interested.

So I asked if he knew him.

The driver gave an "Mm" and said he did.

He said that when his wife and daughter had died, an entire busload of bodies couldn't be recovered.

Four or five divers had gone down, but all of them had to resurface for one reason or another.

Even using a crane to lift the bus directly out of the water hadn't worked.

The corpses had soaked in the water for three days and three nights.

The families from more than ten households had stood watch by the reservoir and cried for three days and three nights, burning paper offerings morning and evening.

Some people said the river god in the reservoir had been disturbed and detained their family members.

In the end, the matter grew too serious, and they invited the Corpse Collector, Song Decai, over.

At the time, he looked dark and skinny, nothing like some great master.

But he merely walked around the reservoir twice.

Then the bodies of their family members began floating up one after another from beneath the water.

Without exception, every one of them faced downward, their backs toward the sky.

He jumped into the water and dragged them ashore one by one with his own hands.

That bus was eventually hoisted ashore successfully as well.

Over the years, in order to see his wife and daughter again, he'd gone to find Song Decai on his own.

But Song Decai was very strange.

Every time he went there, he was turned away at the door...