Chapter Summaries

After returning from Tiger Waist Mountain, Little Li discovered that the girl in the red dress had been dead, then secretly took an old book from Old Wu’s building instead of burning it. While recovering from a fractured leg in the hospital, he learned that the old man who had bumped into him in the bathroom had died there after midnight.

• Little Li warned Little Six to avoid the girl in the red dress and went to sleep after his ordeal on Tiger Waist Mountain.
• A new investigation captain ordered a search of Old Wu’s building, but Old Wu tried to stop him from going upstairs.
• After Old Wu texted him to burn an old book, Little Li found it beside buckets of rotten fish and hid it rather than destroy it.
• Little Li escaped through a second-floor window, fractured his leg, and hid the book under his hospital mattress.
• Old Wu visited the hospital and asked whether Little Li had burned the book; Little Li lied, and Old Wu left after checking his jacket pockets.
• Little Li learned that the old man who had knocked him down in the bathroom had died there sometime after midnight, around the time Little Li had encountered him.

After a gang attacked Li Yao over a misunderstanding, the bronze bell killed the intruders, and Li Yao sought Liu Qingzhu’s help to deal with it. Back in the village, an old man warned him about the Route 13 bus and revealed there had been four drivers involved in the reservoir crashes, not three.

• Li Yao mistook a living old man for the man who had died in the restroom, angering the old man’s son and prompting Li Yao to leave the hospital.
• A gang led by men claiming to be Brother Qiang stormed Li Yao’s compound, where the bronze bell killed more than ten of them; police arrested one survivor.
• After the bell’s latest killings caused public panic, Li Yao went with Little Six to ask Liu Qingzhu for help, and Liu said they had to return to Tiger Waist Mountain.
• Li Yao and Liu Qingzhu returned to the village chief’s house, where Liu said he had come to search for something.
• The grandfather of the girl whose ox had died warned Li Yao that he should not have returned and asked about his Route 13 night shift.
• When Li Yao mentioned three drivers who had crashed into Tangwazi Reservoir ten years earlier, the old man held up four fingers, suggesting there had been a fourth driver.

After learning that a fourth Route 13 driver was still alive, I followed Old Liu into an underground cave, where they encountered dead people and an eerie temple before I passed out. Back in the hospital, I fled from gang members with Fatty while Little Six stayed behind to face them, and I went back for him because he was my brother.

• I learned from an old man that there had been four reservoir crashes and that he would tell me about the fourth driver later.
• Old Liu confirmed the fourth driver was alive and took me to dig up an entrance in the western cornfield, where he sought the second volume of a book.
• I followed Old Liu into the cave, where they passed a group of dead people in burial clothes and found an underground temple that opened after a tiger roared.
• I woke in the hospital the next day and learned villagers had brought me back after I supposedly fell while climbing.
• Gang members arrived at the hospital, so Little Six carried me out while Fatty helped me escape; Little Six stayed to confront the attackers.
• I climbed out of Fatty's taxi and went back for Little Six, thinking of him as my brother.

After surviving Liu Yunbo’s magical attack on Old Liu’s home, the narrator returned to work with Little Six and later reunited with Bai Fan. When Bai Fan read the old book the narrator had stolen from Old Wu, she revealed its title was Wondrous Art of Dream Stealing.

• Little Six defeated the machete-wielding men, and he helped the injured narrator escape to Old Liu’s home.
• Old Liu told the narrator that Liu Yunbo had emerged from the Tiger Demon Temple and wanted Tales of Yin and Yang Dwellings, a book that could reveal whether people lived with ghosts.
• A demon child’s letter broke Little Six’s hand, and Old Liu and Liu Yunbo fought using animated paper figures before the narrator and Little Six fled.
• The narrator took Little Six to the hospital, returned to work, and read the old book he had stolen from Old Wu.
• Bai Fan returned from her business trip and visited the narrator’s dorm, where she read the book’s title aloud as Wondrous Art of Dream Stealing.

Li Yao helped Old Liu get past the police guarding the bronze clock so Old Liu could destroy it before the lunar fifteenth. Old Liu stopped the clock, but he warned Li Yao to run as the chapter ended.

• Bai Fan read the strange characters in the old book as the Wondrous Art of Dream Stealing, though Li Yao had expected a different title.
• Old Liu arrived and warned Li Yao that the bronze clock would kill again by the lunar fifteenth unless it was destroyed.
• Li Yao persuaded Old Wu to distract the police so Old Liu could enter the courtyard, and Old Wu arranged for the drivers to start a fight at the gate.
• The drivers' staged distraction turned into a real brawl, drawing the officers away from the hall.
• Li Yao found Old Liu drenched in sweat beside the stopped bronze clock, and Old Liu shouted for him to run.

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.