That text message's timing really dealt me ten thousand points of damage.
I was screwed. I had found the wrong person! The Old Liu on the old man's note was named Liu Yunbo, not the Liu Qingzhu that Old Tang had mentioned!
Just as I turned to leave, the battered wooden door in front of me opened.
Before I could see who had opened it, a hand suddenly shot out from inside and clamped tightly around my wrist.
It was a bloodless hand as dry and withered as a twig. It looked as if the slightest force would snap it, yet its strength was immense. I struggled hard to pull free, but it forcibly dragged me a little farther inside.
In desperation, I had a sudden inspiration and shouted:
"Old Tang asked you to save him!"
The person inside seemed to hear my shout and released my hand. Although it had only been a dozen seconds or so, my wrist was already covered in bruises.
I rubbed my wrist and turned to run, but an extremely hoarse voice came from inside:
"You're so young, yet you've got plenty of unclean things on you!"
Those words stunned me. After hesitating a moment, I slowly drew back the foot I had just stepped forward with.
The wooden door swung fully open. A skeletal old man in ragged clothes stood leaning on a stick, staring straight at me. Most of his hair had fallen out, leaving only two tufts of snowy white hair at his temples.
What made my heart tighten was that his right eye was entirely green. At first glance, it looked like an emerald embedded in a piece of dead wood!
"Ahem, ahem..." The old man lowered his head and coughed twice, then raised it to look at me.
"Was the Old Tang you just mentioned Tang Xiansheng?"
For some reason, I felt as though some magical force had imprisoned me. My whole body was stiff, and I couldn't move.
I nodded and said, "Yes. He asked me to come find you to save him."
I deliberately reversed the story. Old Tang wasn't human, so anyone he recommended was absolutely untrustworthy. If I honestly admitted I had delivered myself to his doorstep, I was genuinely afraid this old man would gobble me up in a few bites.
"Heh... hehehe." At that, the old man covered his mouth with his right hand and laughed. His laughter echoed back and forth through the shabby, dim stairwell, sending chills down my spine!
"You little brat. Disaster's hanging over your head, and you still have the mind to pass messages for him?"
I had no idea how to answer that. Then another thought struck me: was he hinting that he was about to make his move?
I instinctively backed away two steps. He continued, "Have you been running into one strange person after another lately?"
I almost laughed when I heard that, cursing inwardly, You've got a fucking green eyeball, and you're asking me if I keep meeting strange people?
But I absolutely didn't dare say that aloud. I merely murmured, "Yeah." My palms were sweating. I wasn't focused on exchanging nonsense with him at all, only on how to get out of there quickly.
Suddenly, an idea came to me. I sighed and said:
"Sir, Old Tang ran into someone formidable. He sent me to tell you that from now on, I'll be passing messages between you two!"
The old man paused. I saw his emerald-like eye move slightly.
"Come inside. I'll show you something!"
With that, the old man turned to go inside. The moment he turned, I cursed inwardly and took off running. As I reached the turn in the stairs, I heard him shout, "When there are lots of people, don't..."
I couldn't make out the rest. All I cared about was running down from the eighth floor with every ounce of strength I had.
It was pitch-black all the way down. My clothes snagged and tore in several places, but I couldn't worry about that.
Once I got out of the building, I felt as though I had been reborn. I braced my hands on my knees and gasped for breath.
Suddenly, a pair of hands landed on my shoulders from behind. I cried, "Ah!" in fright and quickly dodged away.
I looked back and saw that the person who had patted me was a short, fat middle-aged man. By the faint light at the entrance, I could barely make out his face.
He looked about fifty, with thick eyebrows, large eyes, and an honest face. But whatever he had been through, it had left a knife scar through his right eyebrow.
Seeing that he had startled me, he smiled apologetically and said:
"Sorry, young man. I saw you bent over with your hands on your knees and thought you'd had too much to drink and were throwing up!"
I had thought the old man had chased me outside. Seeing that this man looked quite friendly, I finally breathed a sigh of relief and said quietly:
"It's nothing. I went to the wrong person and nearly got scared to death!"
"Oh," the man said. "I've lived here for over ten years. Who are you looking for? Let's see if I know him!"
Still panting, I said, "I'm looking for an elderly gentleman named Liu Yunbo who can catch ghosts."
The man suddenly laughed. "What a coincidence. I'm Liu Yunbo. But you've got it wrong. I'm not old, and I can't catch ghosts!"
When I heard that the man before me was Master Liu Yunbo, whom I had risked so much to find, I almost jumped for joy. I hurriedly grasped his hand and said:
"You have to save me! Sixth Uncle from Tang Hollow Village recommended that I come ask you for help!"
Liu Yunbo nodded. "Oh, since Sixth Uncle sent you, come inside with me and we'll talk!"
No matter how I looked at him, I couldn't see this short, fat middle-aged man having any ability to catch ghosts. But with all the strange things happening, I had no other choice.
I timidly glanced into the entrance I had just fled through. Liu Yunbo seemed to notice my misgivings and said with a faint smile:
"I'm here. Don't be afraid!"
Trembling, I followed Liu Yunbo back into the dim stairwell that resembled a demon's lair.
But looking at his broad shoulders and steady footsteps, I seemed to gain some reassurance and wasn't quite so afraid.
Liu Yunbo lived on the third floor. Apart from a black-and-white photograph hanging on the wall and a collection of old furniture, there was nothing else in his home.
As soon as I sat down, I couldn't wait to speak:
"Master Liu, I know you're a man with real abilities. I've gotten mixed up with something unclean. You have to save me!"
Then I recounted in detail the eerie things that had happened while I was driving over the past two days, including Old Tang and Liu Qingzhu, whom I had just mistakenly visited.
After hearing me out, Liu Yunbo looked me up and down and slowly said, "Have you heard the folk belief that water ghosts drag others down to take their place?"
Water ghosts finding substitutes-I had heard about that when I was very young.
There was a large river not far from my home. Several years ago, a girl had drowned while washing clothes by the river. From then on, someone actually drowned in that river every year.
The villagers all said that the spirits of people who drowned there were trapped in the river. Only after finding a new ghost to take their place could they reincarnate.
Liu Yunbo continued:
"Ten years ago, the first driver plunged into the reservoir with that busload of people. I think that was an accident. But the second driver and his passengers were substitutes dragged down by the first busload. The same went for the third!"
Hearing this, I felt as though everything had suddenly become clear. I quickly nodded and said, "That really does explain it. Now I'm the fourth driver. Do you think there's still time for me to quit?"
Liu Yunbo shook his head without answering me right away. My heart leaped into my throat.
"What? It's too late? Am I doomed?"
He shifted his heavy body and struggled to rise from his chair. "No. You can't quit. You have to keep driving that bus."
My greatest wish now wasn't to win five million in the lottery. It was to return to my old, peaceful, ordinary life and stay far away from the last Route 13 bus-the farther, the better.
When I heard that I still had to keep driving, I felt as though a huge stone had settled on my chest and couldn't be removed.
"Let me put it this way. You drove its first run after ten years. That's equivalent to entering a contract with Route 13. If you don't resolve this and simply wash your hands of it, getting away unscathed won't be so easy."
I was dumbfounded. So this Route 13 bus was bound to me? Or were the water ghosts from the third bus that had crashed pinning all their hopes on me?
I hurriedly asked:
"Isn't there any other way?"
Liu Yunbo turned and went into the bedroom. A little later, he came out holding a bracelet made entirely of black beads, handed it to me, and said:
"This bracelet can keep you safe for a while. Whatever you do, remember to wear it every day when you go out on your route. Come see me after work on the fifteenth day of this lunar month!"
Before I could speak, Liu Yunbo waved his hand. "All right, go back for now. Staying here too long isn't good either."
Although I still had a bellyful of questions, I was afraid of annoying him and didn't dare ask anything more. I bowed deeply to him, tucked the bracelet away securely, and turned to take my leave.
After leaving the residential complex, I kept examining this lifesaving treasure.
It was a thoroughly unremarkable bracelet, nothing more than a dozen or so jet-black beads strung together.
I didn't know what the beads were made of. They didn't look like wood, much less jade.
It was already nine thirty at night when I returned to the dormitory. I hadn't wanted to go out on my route again, but remembering Master Liu Yunbo's instructions, I steeled myself and went downstairs.
I put the bracelet on my wrist and looked down at it every three to five minutes, terrified of losing this lifesaving treasure.
At eleven sharp, I drove the Route 13 bus out of the station as usual. As always, the villagers boarded one after another, chatting and laughing. I had been thinking that if I saw Sixth Uncle, I could tell him what had happened today.
Unfortunately, he didn't take the bus that night.
I had needed to pee since before setting out. After reaching the paper mill safely and waiting for all the villagers to get off, I hurried to relieve myself by the roadside.
The rural dirt road was pitch-black and full of bumps and potholes at night. As I turned back to board the bus, I took a nasty tumble.
I muttered inwardly that when your luck was bad, you could trip just walking. That saying really couldn't have been truer.
On the way back to the station, I kept thinking about what Master Liu Yunbo had told me. In the blink of an eye, I reached the reservoir. In the headlights, I suddenly caught sight of someone standing in the middle of the road ahead.
I broke into a cold sweat and immediately slammed the brake pedal to the floor.
Fortunately, I braked in time and didn't hit the person. Panting, I was just about to unleash a stream of curses when I glanced down and suddenly noticed that my right wrist was completely bare.
The black bracelet was gone!
I had clearly put it on my wrist. How could it be gone? I slapped my forehead.
"Fuck! It must have fallen off when I took that tumble after getting out to pee!"
Just as I was getting creeped out, I looked in front of the bus, and every hair on my body stood on end.
The person standing in front of the bus was none other than Route 13's first driver-Old Tang, who had been dead for ten years!