The moment Old Wu finished speaking, I was dumbfounded.
Old Tang had told me his name was Tang Xiansheng himself, so there was no mistake. Now Old Wu was saying he was the first Route 13 driver, and he had been dead for ten years!
Thinking carefully, in the year since I joined the company, I really had never seen Old Tang talk to any colleague other than me.
Whenever he was with me, it was always just the two of us.
I had never seen Old Tang at company meetings. Whenever I asked, he brushed it off by saying he worked in maintenance repairing buses and didn't need to attend.
Just last night, I had drunk with Old Tang until dawn. As those scenes replayed in my head, the more I thought about them, the more terrifying they became. Even the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
Old Wu stood beside me, watching me freeze. After a while, he said:
"Hey, kid, you aren't making up a ghost story for your big brother here just to get out of this shift, are you?"
I swallowed and asked Old Wu seriously:
"Brother Wu, I'm not joking. Was Tang Xiansheng really the first Route 13 driver who died ten years ago?"
Old Wu sighed, lowered his head, and took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
"Kid, ten years ago I wasn't any kind of team captain. Tang Xiansheng was a colleague on my team. His family was poor. When the company first started this route, nobody wanted to do it either. In the end, he volunteered, just to earn a little extra money. Who would've thought he'd have an accident after just a month? Everyone on the bus died. It was the biggest traffic accident that year. How could I remember that wrong?"
By then, I was on the verge of breaking down. Although Old Wu had been drinking, I knew he definitely wasn't making this up. I even began to stammer.
"B-Brother Wu, I really can't drive th-this Route 13 anymore. It's too creepy. I..."
Before I could finish, Old Wu interrupted me:
"Little Li, say no more. It was my fault, but I didn't mean you any harm. I just saw that you were the youngest in our team and thought your strong yang energy might be able to keep this route under control! All right, if you really don't want to do it, I'll put in a request with the higher-ups tomorrow and try to get an outside driver hired."
After saying that, Old Wu seemed down too. He stubbed out his cigarette and patted my shoulder.
"Kid, you don't seem to be in a good state of mind. Whether what you said about seeing Old Tang is true or not, take a couple of days to rest before coming back to work."
I nodded without another word, then turned and headed for the dorm.
Old Wu called after me a few more times, but I ignored him. Right then, I really needed a good rest.
The person I had always considered my best friend wasn't even human.
In this world, apart from hypocritical bosses, selfish colleagues, and an old ghost who had been dead for ten years, I didn't have a single real friend.
At that thought, I couldn't hold back my tears. I felt I was a pitiful person too, and for a moment, I wasn't quite so afraid.
Back in the dorm, I lay on the bed like a walking corpse, without even the strength to take off my clothes or shoes. Looking at the two drinking glasses on the table, I let out a deep sigh.
"What sins did I commit in my past life? Why does everything have to happen to me!"
All the bizarre things that had happened over the past few days were enough to make a movie. If Old Tang was a ghost, then what he said certainly wasn't true.
Why had he told me about the accident ten years ago?
And he said that all three drivers had encountered the old woman who rode my bus before their accidents. What had he meant by telling me that?
As I thought about it, I couldn't help laughing. This ghost really had time on his hands. If he wanted to kill someone, he should just get it over with and take them away. Was he having that much fun with all this fucking supernatural trickery?
While my mood swung back and forth, my phone received a text from Bai Fan.
"Li Yao, did you get back to the company safely?"
It was already 1:40 a.m. She must have stayed awake because she was worried about me.
This was also when I was at my most vulnerable. Looking at that text, I suddenly felt a particular warmth. There was still genuine affection in this world, wasn't there?
I sent her a simple reply: "Got back safely. Go to sleep!"
After replying, I put my phone on the table and got ready to sleep. By chance, I noticed a slip of paper tucked beneath the glass Old Tang had used last night.
Curious, I rolled up from the bed and unfolded the note. An address was written neatly on it.
"Binhai District, 2386 Huaiyuan Road. Find Liu Qingzhu and ask him to help you!"
I suddenly remembered that last night, Old Tang had said he knew a master highly accomplished in Taoist arts and would introduce me to him to ward off misfortune.
This Liu Qingzhu was probably the accomplished master he had mentioned.
I crumpled the paper into a ball, threw it into the nearby trash can, and cursed:
"Fuck you! A ghost introducing me to a ghost catcher? Are you taking me for a fool?"
Although I had thrown away the note, the address was very familiar. I thought to myself:
2386 Huaiyuan Road. Fuck, the license plate number of the Route 13 bus I drive is 2386. How could there be such a coincidence!
My mind was a complete muddle. A good sleep would do me more good than thinking about anything, but I tossed and turned with my head full of Old Tang. Before I knew it, dawn was approaching.
I sat on the edge of the bed, wanting a cigarette. When I reached into my pocket, I pulled out a crumpled cigarette paper. I opened it and saw these words:
"Young man, I can tell you've gotten mixed up with something unclean. I've ridden your bus twice, and you're the only one who let me smoke on board. You're a good person. If you want to live, go to 2386 Huaiyuan Road tomorrow and find Old Liu!"
It was a piece of rolling paper for loose tobacco. Judging by its contents, the old man who had smoked on my bus these past two nights must have written it.
Actually, I had always felt that the old man didn't look like a bad person. But I had believed the old woman's words and thought he wasn't human. Only after Bai Fan greeted him did I know I had wrongly blamed him.
Why is it 2386 Huaiyuan Road again? What's going on? Does this person really exist?
I muttered inwardly, thinking that this was getting more and more complicated. People said having an elder in the family was like having a treasure. The longer someone lived, the more they knew. This old man could tell I had gotten mixed up with something unclean, so what he said should be reliable, right?
I lit a cigarette and carefully thought it over.
In the end, I decided to trust the old man and take the plunge. Once it was a little brighter, I would go to 2386 Huaiyuan Road and meet this Liu Qingzhu. Whether he was human or a ghost, I had to get to the bottom of this.
With all this on my mind, I didn't feel sleepy despite having stayed awake all night.
By six, it was fully light. I washed my face and hurried out, grabbed a quick breakfast at a roadside stall, then headed straight for 2386 Huaiyuan Road.
Huaiyuan Road was the city's largest "slum." The apartment blocks here were all nearly a century old, with chimney-like buildings, peeling facades, and filthy, chaotic grounds.
The residents were mostly migrant workers from elsewhere. In some cases, seven or eight people squeezed into a room of less than ten square meters.
An old man in a white undershirt sat at the entrance to the complex, his eyes narrowed. I walked over and asked:
"Sir, I'd like to ask about someone. Do you know a man named Liu Qingzhu in this complex?"
The old man seemed to be hard of hearing with age. As though he hadn't heard me, he kept his eyes closed and leisurely waved the fan in his hand.
I raised my voice. "Sir, Liu Qingzhu. Do you know him?"
The old man suddenly opened his eyes. Frightened, I fell flat on my backside. Both his eyes were completely white!
Just then, a woman of about forty ran over from nearby. Seeing me sitting on the ground, she hurried forward and helped me up, saying with a smile:
"Sorry, my father's been blind for decades. He didn't scare you, did he?"
I shook my head and asked her:
"I'm here to find someone named Liu Qingzhu. Do you know him?"
The woman visibly froze at the name, then quickly regained her composure and smiled.
"Yes, I know him. Liu Qingzhu lives right here in this complex. He's a fortune-teller and ghost catcher. You're probably here to ask him for help with something, aren't you?"
Her words surprised me greatly. I really hadn't expected Liu Qingzhu to actually be someone with spiritual abilities.
I nodded. "Ma'am, where does he live? Would you mind showing me the way?"
The woman slapped her thigh. "Oh, what bad timing. I saw him leave this morning. He said he was going into town to buy things and wouldn't be back until tonight."
I murmured an acknowledgment. "That's all right. I'll come back later!"
The woman nodded at me, then turned, helped the blind old man up, and went into the complex.
I returned to the dorm. Wanting to confirm whether the smoking old man was trustworthy, I sent Bai Fan a text.
"Bai Fan, let me ask you something. That old man you greeted on my bus last night-I heard you call him Sixth Uncle. Do you know each other well?"
Before long, Bai Fan replied: "He's from our village and lives pretty close to my parents' house. You could say he watched me grow up. Why?"
After reading Bai Fan's text, I finally let out a long sigh of relief.
That meant the old man was trustworthy. I thought I would meet Liu Qingzhu tonight, then go to Wazi Village the following day to ask the old man about everything properly. Right now, it seemed he was the only one who could help me.
I stayed a while longer, and it grew dark. I hurriedly took a taxi to 2386 Huaiyuan Road. The place was fairly remote and had no entertainment facilities. Although it was only seven in the evening, there were already very few people on the nearby streets.
Standing at the entrance to the complex again, I kept feeling that it gave off an oppressive atmosphere.
I was just about to enter and ask where Liu Qingzhu lived when I suddenly noticed that the blind old man from earlier was still sitting at the entrance. Only now, his eyes were open.
Yes, those eyes without any black in them, nothing but white, were open.
It wasn't completely dark yet. Although I had already prepared myself, seeing it clearly still made me break into a cold sweat.
Just then, the woman from earlier emerged from somewhere again. Seeing me, she smiled and said:
"You're here. Liu Qingzhu's back. Come on, I'll take you to him!"
I nodded. Something about this woman felt off, though I couldn't say what. Her friendliness just made me very uncomfortable.
I followed her into the complex and entered the building through a small side door.
This complex was really something. The stairwell had dim, yellowish incandescent bulbs that barely let me see the stairs.
Rubbish lay scattered everywhere, and a foul smell filled the place.
I covered my mouth and followed her. I had wanted to ask why nobody cleaned up, but the woman just walked with her head down and didn't seem to have any intention of talking to me.
We wound our way through the stairwell like that, climbing to the eighth floor and stopping in front of a battered wooden door plastered with little advertisements. Without turning her head, the woman said coldly:
"We're here. This is Liu Qingzhu's home. Go on in. I have something to do, so I'm heading home!"
With that, she continued upstairs.
Just as I was about to knock, my phone chimed. It was a text from Bai Fan:
"Oh, right, Sixth Uncle called out of the blue this afternoon and asked me to tell you that the Old Liu he wanted you to find is called Liu Yunbo. He also said you absolutely mustn't go to the wrong person."
I had just finished reading the text when, with a creak, the door to Liu Qingzhu's home opened.