Recaps

After Old Liu subdued the bronze bell, he and Li Yao set out to find the fourth driver from the Route 13 last bus. At a roadside inn, Li Yao discovered that the room next door was empty, then was shoved inside and confronted by a pair of bloodshot eyes.

• Old Liu survived the bell's destruction, and Li Yao cared for him in the hospital until Old Liu insisted they leave to find the fourth driver.
• Li Yao recognized Bai Fan's friend Tang Yao as the woman who had died beside the reservoir, but Old Liu dismissed his warning about her.
• Old Liu and Li Yao traveled to the western development zone and checked into a roadside inn with a room at the end of the second-floor corridor.
• Unable to sleep through the snoring, Li Yao went into the corridor during a thunderstorm and spoke with the inn owner.
• Li Yao found the supposedly snoring guest's room empty, was shoved inside, and saw bloodshot eyes staring at him.

The narrator and Old Liu investigated a fire-haunted building for Zhang Qiang, also known as Bun Head, after he offered to stop pursuing the narrator in exchange for their help. Their nighttime investigation led them to a burned dance hall, where a charred woman appeared and Old Liu vanished.

• Bun Head told the narrator that his sister-in-law's hotel building had suffered two deadly fires and asked him and Old Liu to investigate.
• The narrator and Old Liu entered the building and encountered a strange scavenger woman whom Bun Head claimed he had not seen leave.
• Old Liu judged the building to be dangerous and said they would return at night, when evil spirits could emerge.
• Old Liu prepared chicken blood, white paper, and incense ash before taking the narrator back to the building after nine that evening.
• After finding nothing unusual on the second floor, they went to the third floor, where a charred woman danced and Old Liu disappeared.

After escaping a figure in the abandoned building, the narrator reunited with Old Liu, who revealed that the inn—not the building—was dangerous. As Old Liu went upstairs to investigate, the owner confronted the narrator in a room downstairs.

• The narrator fled the abandoned building after seeing a dancing figure, then met Old Liu outside the inn, where Old Liu explained that he had used the building as a distraction to investigate the inn.
• The narrator and Old Liu found the inn’s first-floor rooms empty except for one locked room, and overheard the owner speaking to someone who was not there.
• The owner approached their hiding place, but left when another guest arrived and asked for a room; Old Liu then prepared to go upstairs after a scream sounded.
• Old Liu told the narrator to stay in a room and use chicken blood, white paper, and incense ash for protection, but the narrator forgot how to arrange the items.
• The narrator tried to escape through a window, but the owner entered holding Old Liu’s battered stick and said, “You’re back, young man!”

The narrator, Bun Head, and Old Liu escaped the sinister inn after discovering its locked room full of corpses and learning the innkeeper had eaten Bun Head’s men. They went to seek Big Sister-in-Law’s help finding Route 13’s fourth driver, but the chapter ended with the narrator and Old Liu spotting the innkeeper among her crowd.

• Bun Head arrived at the inn and accompanied the narrator upstairs, where they found the rooms empty and blood covering several floors.
• Bun Head broke into the locked first-floor room, and the narrator found Old Liu beneath a pile of corpses; Old Liu revived and explained that the innkeeper had swallowed the other guests alive.
• Old Liu retrieved his battered stick and said the innkeeper had eaten Bun Head’s men, who had disappeared from the lobby.
• The narrator, Bun Head, and Old Liu left the inn, found a chain hotel, and agreed to ask Big Sister-in-Law for help locating Wang Dazhong.
• Bun Head introduced Big Sister-in-Law as the powerful head of the local underworld, and Old Liu and the narrator spotted the innkeeper among the people gathered around her.

The narrator and Old Liu found Wang Dazhong, the only survivor among the earlier Route 13 drivers, and Old Liu cured his wife of a supernatural affliction. Wang Dazhong revealed that Wu Baoku had taken his place on the last Route 13 bus, leaving the narrator with a crucial lead.

• The boss lady gave the narrator money and agreed to investigate the fourth driver, while Bun Head accused Wang Dequan of running a man-eating hotel.
• Bun Head learned that Wang Dequan really was the hotel owner's twin brother, and he told the narrator that Wang Dazhong worked at a nearby garment factory.
• The narrator and Old Liu found Wang Dazhong at Hengxin Garment Factory, but he refused to discuss the Route 13 incident.
• After learning Wang Dazhong's wife had a supernatural illness, Old Liu drove a weasel spirit from her body and restored her to normal.
• Wang Dazhong explained that he had driven Route 6 and that Wu Baoku had volunteered to take his place driving the last bus on Route 13.

The narrator learned that Old Wu had been the fourth driver on the deadly Route 13 and set out with Old Liu to find Guan Jun in Tangwazi Village. At dinner in a villager’s home, he recognized a woman from his bus and showed her a pouch she had dropped, but opening it revealed a human finger bone and sent everyone fleeing.

• Wang Dazhong told the narrator that Old Wu had become Route 13’s fourth driver after the veteran drivers were forced out, and pointed him toward Guan Jun in Tangwazi Village.
• The narrator and Old Liu planned to visit Tangwazi Village, while Old Liu warned him to be wary of its people.
• The narrator asked Bai Fan about Guan Jun and warned her that Tang Yao had changed, but Bai Fan dismissed his concern.
• The narrator found a red pouch left on his bus by a woman and then persuaded Old Liu to go with him to Tangwazi Village.
• At a villager’s dinner table, the narrator recognized the woman from the bus, but she denied knowing him and said the pouch was not hers.
• The woman opened the pouch, revealing a human finger bone, and the people at the table scattered in terror.

Little Li and Old Liu searched Tangwazi Village for Guan Jun, but all three Guan households denied knowing him. A village chief warned them that the old woman who had hosted them dug up graves, leaving them to wonder what they had eaten.

• Little Li and Old Liu stayed with an old woman from the first Guan household after villagers drove them away from their meal.
• A white-haired old man beneath a willow said Guan Jun lived in the village and asked Little Li why he was traveling with a burned ghost, then vanished when Old Liu called.
• The old woman denied knowing Guan Jun, and the man at the second Guan household angrily rejected the name.
• A woman at the wealthy third Guan household also denied Guan Jun was part of her family and called him a monster.
• The village chief reacted with alarm when Little Li said they had stayed with the old woman and warned that she dug up graves, asking whether they had eaten meat at her house.

The narrator and Old Liu investigated Guan Jun in the village, where Auntie Li died under suspicious circumstances. A box left by Guan Jun’s mother revealed that Guan Jun was Liu Yunbo, Old Wu’s sworn enemy, and the chapter ended with two paper coffins appearing outside their door.

• The village chief told the narrator and Old Liu that Guan Jun had roamed the mountains at night and dug up graves, then rushed to Auntie Li’s house after hearing she had died from a snakebite.
• The narrator lent Li Gang money for Auntie Li’s coffin, and Li Gang revealed that Guan Jun had belonged to the wealthy Guan family and disappeared after his mother died.
• Old Liu told the narrator that Auntie Li had not died from a snakebite, then warned him that the matter was not over.
• Li Gang brought them a box that had belonged to Guan Jun’s mother, and the narrator and Old Liu found strange prescriptions and a photograph of Old Wu, Liu Yunbo, and their comrades.
• Old Liu identified Guan Jun as Liu Yunbo, who had changed his name and sent Old Wu the sinister bronze bell.
• The narrator opened the door after another knock and found no one, but saw two paper coffins on the ground.

The narrator and Old Liu investigated burial companion paper coffins that appeared in village homes and were linked to two deaths. They discovered the old woman Guan digging the coffins from graves, but Old Liu revealed that someone else in the village was responsible for delivering them.

• Old Liu identified the paper coffins left at the narrator’s door as yin-heavy burial companions and told him to leave them in the sun to rot.
• Old Liu visited Ma Dong’s coffin shop, warned him to stop, and concluded that Ma Dong had no yin energy and had not left the coffins.
• Old Zhang died with snakebite marks, and a burial companion paper coffin was found in his storeroom; Li Gang said his household had found one too.
• The narrator learned that five village households had discovered paper coffins, and Old Liu helped them deal with the objects.
• Old Liu and the narrator followed the old woman Guan to a neglected burial ground, where she dug a burial companion paper coffin from a grave.
• Old Liu told the narrator that someone besides Guan and the coffin shop owner had the specific job of delivering paper coffins.

The narrator investigated the village’s buried paper coffins and the coffin shop owner’s mysterious black coffin while more villagers died. He ended the chapter discovering paper figures bearing his and Old Liu’s names pasted onto the remaining coffins.

• Old Liu told the narrator to watch the coffin shop owner after the old woman stopped digging up paper coffins.
• The narrator saw the owner bow to the black coffin, then broke into the shop and took a paper figure before fleeing when the owner returned.
• Another villager died after a paper coffin was discovered in his woodpile, and the village chief urged everyone to search their homes.
• Old Liu examined the paper figure and concluded that the black coffin had moved, then told the narrator to keep watching the owner.
• The narrator returned to the coffin shop and, after the fat woman caught him again, stumbled beside a coffin and saw paper figures labeled Li Yao and Liu Qingzhu pasted to the remaining coffins.

Li Yao investigated the paper coffins appearing around Tangwazi Village and discovered the coffin shop owner and the fat woman were delivering them together. He broke into the coffin shop to open the black coffin, and its shocking contents left him screaming on the floor.

• Li Yao tore up the paper figure bearing his name at the coffin shop but left the one bearing Old Liu’s name behind.
• A little girl at the village entrance said she saw more children than were there and asked why Li Yao always stood with a burned old grandpa, making him suspect she meant Old Liu.
• Li Yao told Old Liu about the coffin shop, then decided to patrol the village at midnight to find whoever was delivering the paper coffins.
• Li Yao followed two figures and recognized the sack carrier as the fat woman and the person ahead as the coffin shop owner.
• Li Yao returned to the coffin shop, broke in, and opened the black coffin, then screamed at what he found inside.

The narrator found Liu Yunbo inside the black coffin and learned that he had buried the village’s paper coffins to punish villagers he blamed for his mother’s death. Liu Yunbo accused Old Liu of starting a deadly fire and warned the narrator not to trust him, while Old Liu later declared that Liu Yunbo would die that night.

• The narrator opened the black coffin and found Liu Yunbo inside, then learned Liu Yunbo had once been called Guan Jun and had buried the burial-companion paper coffins.
• Liu Yunbo explained that villagers had driven his mother to her death and claimed Old Liu started the fire at Residential Community No. 2386 that killed many people; he gave the narrator a yellow paper figure for protection.
• The narrator asked Old Liu about the fire, noticed his discomfort, and concluded that Old Liu had lied; the village chief then found many paper coffins at the fat woman's house.
• Old Liu arranged to return to the city and asked the narrator to bring him the book from Old Wu, saying Liu Yunbo had taken its second volume from the Demon Cave.
• Old Liu identified the coffin shop owner's paper figure as an ancient cursing art and said Liu Yunbo was using the moving coffin to cultivate yin energy.
• Old Liu told the narrator he had instructed the village chief and that Liu Yunbo would die that night, leaving the narrator disturbed by Old Liu's expression.

After returning to work, the narrator planned to bargain with Old Wu over Liu Yunbo’s secret while driving Route 13 again. On a late-night food run, he ate at a mysterious noodle shop that seemed invisible to others, then discovered the noodle he had burped up was a white maggot.

• The narrator returned to the company, and Old Wu scolded him before reacting with shock when he mentioned Guan Jun.
• The narrator hinted that he knew about Old Wu’s past and planned to trade Liu Yunbo’s secret for a way off Route 13.
• The narrator took Little Six’s shift and drove the Route 13 bus back to the company at one in the morning.
• The narrator found an old-fashioned noodle shop in an alley, ate two bowls, and paid the owner fifteen yuan after he insisted the bill was only twenty cents.
• A taxi driver denied that any noodle shop existed in the alley, and the narrator realized the piece of food on his sleeve was a long white maggot.

The narrator learned that Old Wu had driven the cursed Route 13 bus and had arranged for it to reopen after a man surnamed He protected him for ten years. Later, the narrator and Little Six returned to the eerie noodle shop, where Little Six ate without noticing anything unusual, and they encountered the dead Tang Yao outside.

• The narrator told Old Wu that Guan Jun was living under the name Liu Yunbo, then traded the information for Old Wu’s account of Route 13.
• Old Wu confessed that he had driven the bus, that a man surnamed He had stopped it with his blood, and that he had reopened the route after his ten years of protection ended.
• The narrator gave Old Wu Liu Yunbo’s address in Tangwazi Village and left, angry that Old Wu’s story had not revealed how to escape the curse.
• After Little Six finished his shift, he took the narrator to the same alley noodle shop where the narrator had eaten the night before.
• Little Six ate the noodles and drank old Huadan Beer, while the narrator hurried him out and watched him spit up only ordinary noodles.
• Tang Yao, the dead girl in the red dress, appeared and greeted the narrator and Little Six.

After Tang Yao appeared again, the narrator sought Mr. He while learning that the mysterious book might be an evil text called Seven Essentials of Corpse Driving. At the chapter’s end, he discovered that other people could not see the noodle shop or the invisible passenger following them.

• The narrator left Tang Yao and focused on finding Mr. He, while Little Six insisted that Tang Yao had not died at the bronze bell.
• Old Wu said Guan Jun was in Tangwazi and revealed that the book was called Seven Essentials of Corpse Driving, which Guan Jun had wanted because of his interest in the dead.
• Old Liu demanded the book, but the narrator claimed his girlfriend had taken it; Old Liu offered to take him to Mr. He after he brought the book back.
• The narrator returned to the company, where Little Six and Bun Head invited him to eat noodles, but Bun Head saw only a wall where the restaurant stood.
• A taxi driver asked whether the middle-aged man following them was getting in, but the narrator saw no one outside the car.

The narrator and his companions investigated the fire at 2386 and found the scarred former security guard who had been convicted of starting it. After they returned to question him at night, someone locked them inside his warehouse, where blood began dripping from the ceiling.

• Bun Head introduced the narrator to Shunzi, who said a security guard had been jailed for accidentally starting the fire at 2386 and had only recently been released.
• Shunzi gave the group the guard's address, and they found him scavenging at a dump near 2386.
• The guard, whose face was badly burned, accepted the narrator's money but told them to return at night.
• The narrator, Bun Head, and Little Six returned after dark and entered the guard's foul-smelling warehouse to look for him.
• The warehouse doors slammed shut and locked, and blood dripped from the ceiling as the three men shone their phones upward.

The narrator, Bun Head, and Little Six found a decomposed corpse in a crate and were pursued through the warehouse by glowing red eyes before Shunzi broke them out. Outside, Little Six spotted a hunched figure holding a crowbar on a nearby rubbish heap.

• The narrator and Bun Head saw glowing red eyes in the warehouse, and Bun Head called Shunzi to get help.
• Little Six walked deeper into the warehouse, and the narrator and Bun Head followed him past the blood-dripping ribs.
• Bun Head pried open a crate, and the three men found a badly decomposed corpse inside.
• The red eyes approached the men as they waited by the doors, but Shunzi smashed the lock and they escaped.
• Shunzi explained that no one else would come out at night, and Little Six pointed out a hunched figure holding a crowbar on a rubbish heap.

After the police discovered a corpse in the dump warehouse, the narrator tried to learn whether the old security guard had started the fire at 2386 Residential Compound. A witness connected someone in Tang Yao’s photograph to the corpse’s crate, leaving the narrator fearing that one of his friends might be involved.

• Bun Head, Little Six, Shunzi, and the narrator found a corpse and human ribs in the warehouse, but the old security guard escaped before police arrived.
• Tang Yao rode the narrator’s bus and left behind a photograph of him, Bun Head, Little Six, and Shunzi at the dump.
• The narrator returned to the dump, where Shunzi said police had not found the old guard and warned that the warehouse ribs were human.
• An old man recognized the photograph and said he had seen someone push a slatted wooden crate into the warehouse.
• The old man pointed to the person in the photograph who had pushed the crate.

After learning that Shunzi had framed the warehouse murder on the old security guard, the narrator met the guard and heard how Liu Yunbo’s curse led to the fire at 2386 Residential Compound. The account revealed that Liu Yunbo had started the fire to save the building’s residents, while the narrator discovered the yellow paper figure Liu had given him had vanished.

• An old man identified Shunzi as the person pushing the crate, and Bun Head later confirmed that Shunzi had confessed to killing the man and framing the old security guard.
• Tang Yao took Bai Fan and the narrator to the haunted Great East Gate Restaurant, where the narrator stopped Bai Fan from eating the noodles.
• Bun Head, Little Six, and the narrator waited for the old security guard after his release and questioned him about the fire at 2386 Residential Compound.
• The old security guard said Liu Yunbo had given him a yellow paper figure and cursed him with A Hundred Ghosts Cry at the Door, prompting his friend to start a fire to save the residents.
• The narrator realized Liu Yunbo had started the fire as a sacrifice to break the curse, then found that the yellow paper figure Liu had given him was missing.

After the yellow paper figure disappeared, the narrator searched for Old Liu and grew increasingly frightened by strange incidents. One night, he and Little Six encountered a ghostly family waiting for a bus, and the chapter ended with a Route 13 bus passing them.

• The old security guard said Liu Qingzhu had sacrificed an eye to save him during the fire, and Bun Head recognized him as Elder Liu.
• The narrator went to 2386 Residential Compound to find Old Liu, but found his home shut and apparently empty.
• The narrator spent several days anxious and unable to sleep without alcohol, while Little Six tried to reassure him.
• The narrator saw a family of three waiting at a bus stop after midnight, and they seemed to draw closer each time he looked back.
• Little Six led the narrator into a late-night restaurant, where the owner called the family ghosts waiting for a bus and said the living must not look at them.
• As the narrator and Little Six returned to the company, a bus passed with Route 13 glowing on its front.

The narrator left with Old Liu to find the renowned yin-yang master He, hoping he could help end the Route 13 curse. On the way, Old Liu exposed a fraudulent exorcist’s mistake, and the chapter ended with two women unconscious after a chopstick ritual revealed two spirits were involved.

• The narrator saw what looked like his Route 13 bus on the road, but it vanished when he looked again.
• Old Liu told the narrator he had found an expert named He and urged him to hurry before He moved on.
• The narrator left Little Six to drive in his place and traveled with Old Liu to an old residential complex, where an overcoat-wearing man was treating a possessed woman with needles.
• Old Liu stopped the man and used a chopstick in a bowl of water to identify the woman’s deceased second aunt as the possessing spirit.
• The man in the overcoat snapped the chopstick while trying to pull it out, and he was flung away as the woman fainted.
• A second elderly woman also fainted, and Old Liu realized another ghost was possessing the first woman.

Old Liu drove the ghost out of the old woman, then fought the spirit possessing the middle-aged woman while the man in the overcoat’s methods failed. Old Liu collapsed after defeating the spirit, and a nurse told the narrator that he had no heartbeat.

• Old Liu and the man in the overcoat each treated one of the two possessed women, with the overcoat man choosing the younger woman.
• Old Liu shouted at the spirit in the old woman and struck with his stick; the woman woke and asked about the child’s mother.
• The man in the overcoat used a talisman and a heavy iron weight on the younger woman, but she attacked him and tore his face.
• Old Liu struck the younger woman, was knocked down, then smeared his blood on his stick and hit her until she fainted.
• Old Liu collapsed, and the narrator carried him to the hospital, where a nurse said he had no heartbeat.

After Old Liu survived a mistaken death pronouncement, he and the narrator learned that Mr. He had been taken by Scorpion and joined Bun Head’s men to confront him. The resulting fight let the narrator reach the room where Mr. He was supposed to be, but he found only a young man watching television.

• The doctor explained that Old Liu’s heart was on the right, and the narrator forced him to have his head wound stitched before they returned to the apartment complex.
• A woman Old Liu had helped told them that Scorpion’s gang had taken Mr. He away to treat someone, so the narrator contacted Bun Head for help.
• Old Liu warned that the missing yellow paper figure could cause A Hundred Ghosts Cry at the Door and said they needed to find Mr. He before the fifteenth day of the lunar month.
• Bun Head gathered more than twenty men and led the narrator and Little Six to Scorpion’s hotel to demand Mr. He’s release.
• Scorpion refused to let them see Mr. He, Bun Head declared he would take him by force, and their groups broke into a brawl.
• The narrator rushed upstairs and entered the room where Mr. He was supposed to be, but found a young man watching television instead.

The narrator rescued Mr. He, who looked like a teenager but claimed to be seventy-three, and learned that Scorpion’s father had died shortly after Mr. He predicted a funeral. After hearing whispers beneath his bed all night, the narrator found that Little Six had swept a clump of long woman’s hair from under it.

• The narrator found Mr. He and asked for help escaping the Route 13 Last Bus, but Scorpion’s men burst into the room before they could talk.
• The narrator escaped with Mr. He, while Bun Head refused to believe the young-looking man was the legendary Mr. He.
• Mr. He went home to water his flowers and warned that Scorpion would be busy arranging a funeral; later, Bun Head reported that Scorpion’s father had died.
• The narrator heard a woman’s whispers beneath his bed, grew too frightened to investigate, and stayed awake beside Little Six’s bed until morning.
• Little Six swept the room and found a clump of long woman’s hair beneath the narrator’s bed.

After discovering long hair and hearing a woman's voice beneath his bed, the narrator sought Mr. He’s help with the haunted Route 13 bus. Scorpion attacked them, fatally stabbed Mr. He, and heard his final warning that someone the narrator trusted had been lying to him.

• The narrator found long hair beneath his bed and told Little Six that ghosts haunted the Route 13 last bus, but Little Six refused to quit.
• The narrator visited Mr. He, who began to explain how to deal with the bus before Bun Head warned that Scorpion was coming.
• The narrator tried to take Mr. He to city hall, but Scorpion and his men intercepted them at a gas station.
• Bun Head arrived with his men as Scorpion ordered his followers to kill the narrator and Mr. He.
• Scorpion stabbed Mr. He, who gave the narrator two final sentences, including a warning that someone he trusted had been lying to him.