That remark came so suddenly that, even though I knew it was only a joke, it still put me on edge.
I had spoken with Master Liu Yunbo, and he was absolutely trustworthy. Perhaps the overlap of half a month was only a coincidence.
Seeing my grave expression, my younger cousin burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Come on, man, a little joke scared you that badly? Have you been watching too many movies like The Untold Story?"
I came to my senses, let out a breath, and said impatiently, "Cut the crap and eat your food!"
When my cousin saw that I was genuinely angry, he stopped daring to joke around with me. We had planned to hang out in my dorm after eating, but the meal had been rather unpleasant, and neither of us felt like it anymore. We went our separate ways.
Back at the company, I headed straight for Old Wu's office. I had already told him I wanted to quit, and he had agreed to hire an outside driver. But since Master Liu had told me to keep driving, however unwilling I was, I could only grit my teeth and carry on.
Unfortunately, the ever-busy Old Wu was out again. Although he was only a team leader, which sounded like a minor position, the company boss held several other posts and had no time to bother with our little company.
So Old Wu was effectively the second-in-command here, wielding authority that no one challenged.
I left the office with nothing to do. I had been so preoccupied with staying alive these past few days that I had completely forgotten about Bai Fan, the goddess I had met on a blind date. Since it was still early, I sent her a text.
"Are you busy? I'm near your workplace. Want to have dinner together after work?"
Bai Fan quickly replied: See you at the entrance at five thirty!
I was overjoyed that she hadn't refused. That meant she hadn't forgotten me yet. I hurried back to polish my shoes and change, getting ready for our second date that evening.
At five thirty, I stood ramrod straight outside her office building, waiting for her to finish work, wearing the suit I had bought last year to be a groomsman and a new tie.
It was an upscale office building full of white-collar professionals. Since Bai Fan had asked me to wait at the entrance, I didn't want to embarrass her if we happened to run into a coworker.
At the very least, I couldn't let anyone tell that I drove a bus.
A goddess was a goddess. Even in that bustling crowd, her radiance couldn't be lost.
I spotted her at once. Unlike the first time we met, she was wearing a white blouse and a business skirt that day, exuding a sharp, capable charm.
She soon noticed me too and waved. Watching her approach from a distance, I was utterly smitten. A girl this wonderful was someone I could only see on television or in my dreams.
Thinking about everything I had experienced lately, that saying really did fit: "Misfortune lurks within good fortune; good fortune rests within misfortune!"
Bai Fan reached me and burst into a giggle. "Did you just get out of a meeting?"
Puzzled, I shook my head. "No."
"If you weren't in a meeting, aren't you hot wearing all those layers? It's almost forty degrees today!"
I might not have noticed if she hadn't mentioned it, but now that she had, I realized I really was hot. My forehead was already covered in beads of sweat.
This time, I had brought five thousand yuan in cash, bulging out my pocket. I had wanted to take her to Story of Time again, but she thought it was too expensive and flatly refused. In the end, she dragged me into a little noodle shop.
I wasn't much of a talker. Whenever she fell silent, I didn't know what to say either, so things grew a little awkward. She kept deliberately finding topics to talk about.
"Oh, right. What Sixth Uncle said on the phone the day before yesterday left me completely confused. How do you know him, anyway? Who did he tell you to find?"
I had been under a lot of pressure these past few days and really wanted someone to whom I could spill everything. Even if they couldn't offer any advice, it would still be better than keeping it all bottled up.
Bai Fan was an understanding girl. I knew that if I was willing to tell her, she wouldn't find it annoying and would listen seriously, even if the whole experience sounded absurd.
But this wasn't anything good, after all. Girls were timid to begin with, and there was no need for me to trouble her with it.
"Oh, it's nothing. Sixth Uncle often takes my bus, so we know each other, more or less. I asked him for help a few days ago."
Bai Fan murmured an "Oh" as she ate her noodles and didn't ask any more.
After dinner, I wanted to take her to a movie. To my surprise, she suggested a newly released horror film. Naturally, I was utterly opposed. I was practically seeing ghosts every day already; just hearing the word "ghost" made me tremble all over.
But I couldn't win against her, and in the end, I went into the theater with her anyway.
I was fucking speechless. As far as I remembered, domestic horror films had always been absolute garbage. Apart from using sound effects to scare people, everything else was on the level of a cartoon. They could put you to sleep.
But the horror movie that night had a suspenseful plot and gory scenes. Worst of all, it occasionally sprang something on you out of nowhere!
It was already hot in summer, and for the sake of appearances, I was wearing a shirt and tie with a big suit jacket over them. Sweat streamed down my head as though the droplets were lining up to pour off.
When I finally endured my way to the end of the movie, I looked as if I had just come out of a steam room, with water running down every side of my head.
As we left, I heard a young couple behind us whispering.
"Babe, look at that guy. He was so scared his whole head's soaked. I bet he wet himself down below too. Heeheehee!"
"Hahaha... heeheehee... what a total chicken!"
The young couple kept laughing their heads off. I didn't know whether Bai Fan had heard, but I had heard every word. If she hadn't been there, and if I hadn't been trying to maintain my image as a civilized person, with my short temper, I would have turned around and sent them both flying with a kick apiece.
I forced down my anger and stole a glance at Bai Fan beside me. She seemed not to have heard, looking down and tapping at her phone without a care.
Overall, the date had been a success. Although Bai Fan hadn't been scared into throwing herself into my arms, at least I hadn't been scared into throwing myself into hers either. That was good enough. I was very satisfied.
The first thing I did when I got back to my dorm was hurry to strip naked and take a cold shower.
I changed into my work clothes and put on the bracelet. With everything ready, I drove the Route 13 bus out of the station at eleven sharp, beginning that night's shift.
To my delight, Sixth Uncle was taking the bus back to his village that night too. It was entirely thanks to his lifesaving note that I had managed to stay alive.
I felt especially close to him when I saw him this time. Grinning, I said, "Sixth Uncle, want a smoke? Light up if you do. You can smoke in whatever seat you like!"
Sixth Uncle didn't stand on ceremony. Cheerfully, he took out his long tobacco pipe, lit it, and took a puff.
"Boy, have you seen Old Liu?"
"Yes. Look, Sixth Uncle, this bracelet I'm wearing was a gift from Master Liu." As I spoke, I raised my hand and shook the bracelet on my wrist.
"Good. Old Liu really came through."
Remembering the note Sixth Uncle had given me, I followed up on the subject.
"Sixth Uncle, I reckon you have some abilities yourself, don't you? You could tell I'd gotten mixed up with something unclean?"
"I wouldn't call them abilities. I'm old, and I've seen a lot." Sixth Uncle smiled and took a puff after he spoke. Clearly, my praise had put him in a good mood.
We talked quite a bit on the way back to the village. In particular, I gave him a detailed account of Old Tang's sudden appearance the night before.
Sixth Uncle really was a man who had seen the world. Despite all these matters involving people and ghosts, he remained perfectly composed, without so much as furrowing his brow.
"I know about Old Tang. I also know about that Liu Qingzhu he told you to find!"
"Sixth Uncle, you know them both?"
At that, Sixth Uncle scolded me. "You silly boy. Neither of those things is human. How could I know them?"
Realizing I had misspoken, I gave an awkward laugh.
"This Liu Qingzhu lived in the same place as Liu Yunbo, the man I sent you to see. There was a fire in their residential complex ten years ago. It burned a lot of people to death. Liu Qingzhu died in that fire."
Sixth Uncle's words sounded very familiar. That was right: this was exactly what Old Tang had told me the night before. The difference was that Old Tang had said Liu Yunbo died in the fire, while Sixth Uncle said the man who died was Liu Qingzhu!
Of course, between the two, I trusted Sixth Uncle more. I was more inclined to believe that Liu Qingzhu was the one who had burned to death back then. After all, Sixth Uncle and Master Liu Yunbo were helping me, and Old Wu had confirmed that Old Tang was dead.
I still had some doubts.
"Sixth Uncle, why do you think Old Tang keeps getting so close to me? What's he after, playing all these ghostly tricks for so long?"
As we neared the stop, Sixth Uncle held his pipe out the window and tapped it, then said unhurriedly:
"You go to the office building in your company compound often, don't you?"
I nodded. "Often. Pretty much every day. Why, Sixth Uncle?"
"Do you know about the abandoned little two-story building behind it?"
"Sure. I heard it's been abandoned for ten years or so. It takes up so much space. I don't know why they haven't torn it down!"
Sixth Uncle's eyes lit up, and he lowered his voice.
"That abandoned two-story building was your company's office building ten years ago. The last room at the east end of the second floor was an archive room. All of Old Tang's secrets are in there!"
Just as Sixth Uncle finished speaking, I pulled into the stop. I had wanted to ask him more, but he got up, shouldered his carrying pole, and got off on his own.
I had plenty of questions. I didn't know what Sixth Uncle's background was, but he could describe the front and back of our office building with perfect clarity.
What surprised me even more was how clearly he could describe the rooms and their locations inside that abandoned two-story building.
The little building stood behind the main building, and no one normally went over there. I had only wandered around out front out of curiosity when I first joined the company.
According to my coworkers, it really had been the original office building. Later, when the company had money, they built a new one in front of it.
"Old Tang's secrets are in the two-story building!"
On the drive back to the company, I kept turning Sixth Uncle's words over in my mind.
What secrets did Old Tang have? Hadn't he simply had a driving accident ten years ago that killed a busload of people?
And that second-floor archive room Sixth Uncle had mentioned-after the building had lain abandoned for ten years, could there still be anything in there?
It started pouring on the way back. After parking the bus, I braved the rain to get an umbrella from the gatehouse. The room was empty, with the light on. I didn't know where the guard had gone.
I took an umbrella and strolled through the company compound. Thinking it over, with no one at the company and even the guard away, this really was a good opportunity to visit the two-story building. Gritting my teeth, I turned, circled around the main building, and headed toward it.
I hadn't paid much attention to it before. After ten years of abandonment, I had expected broken windows and rotten wood, but every window of the little building before me was covered with nailed-on iron bars. From a distance, it looked more like an old prison.
The main door stood open. I switched on my phone's flashlight and carefully slipped inside by its faint light.
The corridor was not only frighteningly dark but also extraordinarily quiet. Most of the rooms on either side had their doors open. Strangely, every one of them was completely empty.
"The company has so many discarded parts, some of them even piled up in the yard. This abandoned building is so spacious. Why don't they use it as a warehouse?"
While I was puzzling over this, I heard footsteps and hurried into a room in fright.
Thud... thud... thud... thud...
The sound came from the second floor, drawing closer from a distance. Gradually, I heard the sound of an iron chain as well, and cried inwardly:
Oh no, someone's locked the main door!!