When Liu Qingzhu heard that I had forgotten to close the village chief's door, he grew even more nervous than I was and shouted:
"I'll handle things here. Hurry to the chief's house, now!"
I immediately turned around and sprinted toward the village chief's house to the east.
I thought again of that old yellow ox's gruesome death, and broke into a cold sweat.
I fell three times running from the west end of the village to the east, but finally reached the chief's house.
Panting hard, I nervously glanced into the courtyard.
The door was open!!
I cautiously approached the door and called softly:
"Chief, are you in?"
There was no response from inside.
I clenched my fists and stepped into the house, one step at a time.
The chief slept in the east room, and that door was open too!!
I had a bad feeling. I slowly edged forward, nervous, and suddenly spotted a pool of blood on the floor by the light of my phone.
Farther ahead was another!
The bloodstains were smeared and scattered, stretching all the way into the room. There was no telling whether they had been brought in from outside or had flowed out from the room.
I called softly again:
"Uncle Chief, say something if you're in there!"
Still that unnerving silence!
I took a deep breath and simply rushed into the room in a few big strides.
No one!!
The quilt on the kang had been thrown aside, the table lay overturned on the floor, and a huge pool of blood remained in the middle of the room.
I almost cried. Where was the chief??
I remembered the screams from that ruined house in the fields last night, and the thing that looked like a living person being dragged inside.
My legs shook harder and harder.
I had gotten the chief killed!
Just as my despair reached its peak, Liu Qingzhu returned.
"How is it? Is the chief all right?"
His urgent voice reached me before he entered the room.
I crouched on the floor with my hands over my head, cursing myself through and through.
Liu Qingzhu entered, looked around, and hauled me up from the floor, asking:
"Kid, where's the chief?"
I finally lost control and shook my head, crying.
"Old Liu, I was careless. That man-eating guy probably killed the chief!"
"Ah..."
Old Liu sighed and sat on the edge of the kang.
"What's with the blood on the floor? Did you actually see the chief when you got back?"
"No. When I got back, both doors were wide open, and the chief was already gone!"
Liu Qingzhu fell silent for a while, then took a copper coin from his pocket and turned it over in his hand.
"Old Liu, do you think the chief might still be alive? Should we go look in that ruined house from last night?"
Liu Qingzhu shook his head and said:
"What's there to look for? That thing never leaves anything alive once it sees it. By now, I reckon it's gnawed the chief down to nothing, not even bones!"
Hearing Liu Qingzhu say that filled me with guilt.
The chief was already seventy. Apart from being a little greedy, his character was beyond reproach.
Now my carelessness had gotten him killed!
Seeing my grief, Liu Qingzhu comforted me:
"You didn't mean it. The chief had no descendants. Remember to put up a cenotaph for him later and give him a proper send-off."
I nodded. That heart-wrenching regret made living unbearable.
After dawn, I found the village funeral specialist, and news of the chief's death soon spread through the village.
Everyone put on mourning clothes of their own accord. Hundreds formed a long procession to see the chief off.
On the way to bury his clothes and belongings, the villagers' wails shook heaven and earth, making me feel even worse.
It was clear that the chief had been popular in the village and dearly loved by the villagers.
After the funeral, Liu Qingzhu and I boarded a bus back to the city.
From last night until we boarded, Liu Qingzhu had kept examining the copper coin in his hand.
In a foul mood, I glanced at what he was holding and said:
"Old Liu, the chief's death might not have been your fault, but you ate his food and slept on his kang. Now that the old man's gone, aren't you even a little sad?"
Liu Qingzhu gave me an indifferent look and said:
"Everyone has their own fate. What should I be sad about? I wasn't the one who forgot to close his door!"
His words were clearly barbed. Knowing I was in the wrong, I didn't snap back.
"We still haven't caught the guy who killed the chief. Is it really all right to leave like this?"
Old Liu slipped the copper coin into his pocket.
"It's fine now. That thing's finished!"
"What do you mean, finished? I haven't even asked you yet-what happened after you chased that woman last night?"
"Ahem." Liu Qingzhu coughed twice.
"I caught up with her. I got the copper coin back, didn't I? With the coin in my hands, that guy is just a corpse that can't move!"
I looked at him in confusion.
"That's the tiger-patterned copper coin, right? What exactly does it do?"
Liu Qingzhu leaned back, looking utterly exhausted, closed his eyes, and said quietly:
"There's something evil attached to it. It's strange stuff!"
I wasn't interested in the coin, so I didn't pursue it.
"Old Liu, whatever else happened, I did stay another day. I can ask you another question now, right?"
Looking as though he was about to fall asleep, Liu Qingzhu gave a soft "Mm."
This second question was crucial to me. Ever since I started driving the last bus on Route 13, one wave of strange events and strange people after another had come at me.
Even the chief's death, when it came down to it, had some connection to Route 13.
Who was human and who was a ghost, who was connected to whom-none of that fucking mattered. What mattered most was whether I could leave, whether I could escape this vicious circle!
"Old Liu, I truly trust you now. Tell me, can I stop driving Route 13 or not? I want to live in another city!"
Old Liu seemed to have anticipated my question. His eyes remained closed, his expression unchanged.
"You have to keep driving that bus. This isn't over. If you leave, you'll die!"
What a coincidence!
Old Liu's words were exactly the same as what Liu Yunbo had told me back then.
It seemed the fate of this first half of my life really was inextricably tangled up with the last bus on Route 13.
I leaned back in despair, watching the plants and trees flash past the window, my heart bleak!
Back at the company, I trudged toward the dormitory with nothing left to live for. Police tape still cordoned off the yard, leaving only a narrow path for company staff to come and go.
On the way, I happened to run into Old Wu. Without a word, he came up and slapped me.
"You little bastard, where the hell have you been these past few days?"
I really wasn't in the mood to argue with him. I kept my head down and said nothing.
That only made Old Wu more agitated.
"Why aren't you saying anything? You stayed away from the company for two days and had Little Six sign in and cover your shifts. You're so fucking important now you can give yourself time off?"
I had been feeling guilty about the chief's death all along. With Old Wu scolding me, I actually felt better.
"Old Wu, slap me again!"
Old Wu's face turned green with anger.
"What, you think I don't dare?"
Smack! Old Wu slapped me again.
Those two slaps made me feel much better. I raised my head and told him:
"Old Wu, keep hitting me! Harder!"
Old Wu was baffled. He looked me up and down and said:
"Buddy, what's wrong with you? What happened to you?"
"Never mind that. Just hit me as hard as you can. Come on, hit me!"
As I spoke, I grabbed Old Wu's arm and swung it toward my head.
Old Wu yanked his arm free and hurried several steps back.
"Are you sick in the head? You..."
Old Wu pointed at me, then flicked his sleeve helplessly.
"Enough. Quit screwing around and get back to work tonight. The city's cracking down hard right now!"
With that, Old Wu gave me a wide berth and left.
When I returned to the dorm, Little Six was cleaning. Seeing me, he threw his arms around me.
"Buddy, you're back!"
I pushed him away and cursed:
"Could you be any more disgusting?"
Little Six sat beside my bed with a grin and asked:
"Buddy, what were you doing at Tiger Waist Mountain these past few days? Be honest, are you seeing someone?"
I wasn't in the mood to discuss it and asked him instead:
"What about you? Tired from driving these past few days? Anything happen?"
Little Six clapped his hands.
"Something good actually did happen!"
I unpacked my luggage and asked absently:
"What was it?"
"I was driving the day before yesterday, and guess what? I actually ran into the girl in the red dress I saved by the reservoir!"
My heart gave a sudden thud.
"What??"
Little Six continued:
"I knew you'd be scared. Listen, that girl isn't dead. The one who died in front of the bronze bell a while ago wasn't her!"
I put down what I was holding, sat beside Little Six, and asked:
"What did she say to you?"
With a goofy grin, Little Six made a money-counting gesture.
"She asked if I'd received the money. I thought it was a bonus from the company, but it turned out she'd given it to me. If you'd told me earlier, I couldn't have accepted it!"
Doubt stirred in me. That wasn't right. Hadn't the girl in the red dress clearly said that night that she'd bought a plane ticket to go abroad?
How had she ended up on Little Six's bus so soon?
"Little Six, while I was gone these two days, how did the police investigation into the bronze bell killing go?"
"The police said the woman in red who died was from Tiger Waist Mountain Village too. She'd been abroad these past few years and had only come back to see her boyfriend a few days before it happened!"
As Little Six finished speaking, my heart plunged into a bottomless abyss!