Last Bus of Route 13

Bun Hairstyle rarely made a fuss, but seeing his tense expression, I quickly got out of bed, threw on my clothes, and hurried with him to the woodcarving shop.

The woodcarving shop was a mess, the window glass shattered to pieces, and the wooden works inside were scattered everywhere, tossed all over the floor.

When Bun Hairstyle arrived, several yellow-haired Little Brothers stood trembling to the side, heads bowed, waiting for a scolding.

Bun Hairstyle glared and asked,

“What happened? Say it again.”

One of the Little Brothers said,

“Qiang-Ge, when I left last night, I checked the shop carefully. I definitely locked the door after leaving. I don’t know what happened-when I got here this morning, it was already like this. I checked the cameras, it looked like…”

This Little Brother, afraid of Bun Hairstyle, trailed off, his voice getting quieter and quieter.

Bun Hairstyle pressed,

“Looked like the wooden figure in the display case came alive, right?”

“Yes, yes, I saw it on the footage. The wooden figure in the display case was perfectly fine inside at first, then it just disappeared for no reason. After that, there was a strange person moving stiffly, rummaging around.”

That wooden figure, the one Xiao Zou had mistakenly carved eyes on, was considered the shop’s treasure by Bun Hairstyle and placed alone in a glass display case. I glanced over-at this moment, the case was missing both the glass and its contents, only a bare base remaining.

Bun Hairstyle didn’t waste words and quickly turned to the shop’s backroom monitoring room.

He fired up the computer, and as soon as he saw, he was stunned.

The surveillance video files were corrupted-they wouldn’t play.

Furious, Bun Hairstyle slapped the table and glared at the yellow-haired Little Brother, who jumped back in fright, nearly falling onto his rear.

“Qiang-Ge, I swear I didn’t break the video. I just watched it a moment ago and it was fine!”

“Not your fault? Bullshit. You’ve been browsing every kind of domestic and foreign site, the computer’s full of viruses-don’t you have any sense?”

The Little Brother was left speechless by the scolding, cowering in the corner, trembling.

I whispered to comfort him,

“Don’t get too worked up, maybe you just saw it wrong and it was a thief.”

As soon as I finished, Bun Hairstyle’s phone started ringing-drip drip. He didn’t even check who it was, answering in a foul mood.

He barely said a few words before shaking his head repeatedly, saying no, he hadn’t seen, didn’t know, then he handed the phone to me, grumbling,

“Damn it, it’s for you.”

For me?

I took the phone, baffled.

It was Xiao Zou’s voice. I said “Hello?” and Xiao Zou spoke urgently,

“It’s over, a huge problem.”

I was startled. Yesterday, I’d used the beast eye carving knife at her shop to carve eyes on a wooden figure-had her grandpa found out? I asked cautiously,

“What’s wrong? Did your grandpa discover the wooden figure?”

“No, not that. My grandpa did a count last night and I managed to cover it up. But this morning, I found the wooden figure was missing.”

“What?” I exclaimed in surprise.

Bun Hairstyle’s shop had just lost a wooden figure with carved eyes, and now the one from last night was gone too? Such a coincidence?

I asked,

“Anything else missing?”

“No, just the one you carved eyes on last night.”

“All right, I’ll come over now to help you look.”

Without another word, I hung up and rushed straight to Xiao Zou’s family’s woodcarving shop, not caring anymore about Bun Hairstyle’s situation.

The door to Xiao Zou’s shop was open. As I stepped inside, I happened to see Old Master Zou heading out. The old man still remembered me, and smiled as he asked,

“What’s up, Little Brother, here for something?”

I glanced at Xiao Zou beside him, awkwardly replying,

“Old Master Zou, I…nothing much, I’m here to see Xiao Zou.”

Old Master Zou paused, looked at me, then back at his granddaughter, as if understanding. He smiled and nodded,

“Good, here for Xiao Zou. You two chat, I’ll be back later.”

He picked up a large bag and went out, looking quite pleased.

Once he was gone, I hurried inside with Xiao Zou and asked,

“How could the wood carving I carved the eyes on go missing? Did a thief get in?”

Xiao Zou looked troubled,

“I clearly put it with the other wood carvings last night, but it was gone this morning. And except for that one, nothing else is missing. Doesn’t seem like a thief.”

I didn’t dare tell Xiao Zou that Bun Hairstyle’s shop also lost a wooden figure. But I thought to myself-how odd. If it wasn’t a thief, did the two wooden figures with eyes just grow legs and walk off?

No more words, Xiao Zou and I got busy searching every space in her house, even the kitchen and bathroom, but still couldn’t find the wooden figure.

Sweating all over, I stared at a room in the backyard and said,

“Let’s check here-maybe your grandpa noticed something odd and moved it to his workshop.”

I’d just taken a step when Xiao Zou quickly held me back, face determined,

“No, that room is my grandpa’s carving room, no one’s allowed in, not even me.”

“Carving room? But when I came yesterday morning, wasn’t your grandpa carving in the living room?”

Xiao Zou said seriously:

“Everything else was carved in the living room, but half a year ago, Grandpa started carving things in this room. He hasn’t finished yet.”

I had already witnessed Old Master Zou’s craftsmanship. That carving knife in his hands was as agile as a swordsman wielding a blade. If he had been working on something for half a year and still hadn’t finished, what kind of colossal creation could it be?!

Hearing this, I became even more curious to take a look inside. I pushed her hand aside and said:

“Come on, it’s fine. I won’t touch anything. Just one glance. Maybe the missing wood carving is really in this room.”

Xiao Zou still refused to let me in, blocking the door with her body and glaring at me as she said:

“I said no, and I mean it. Even Grandpa doesn’t let me look inside. How could I let an outsider like you see it?”

Seeing how insistent Xiao Zou was, I decided not to push her further. I followed her back to the living room and sat on the sofa, trying to come up with a plan.

At first, our conversation was going well, but the longer we talked, the more I felt something was off. This little girl was actually shifting all the blame onto me, acting as if everything was my fault and she was the innocent victim.

Sure, I had hidden the fact that I carved eyes on the wood carving and hadn’t returned it to her, so I bore some responsibility. But if you traced the issue back to its root, wasn’t it her mistake in mixing up the goods in the first place?!

Women-no matter their age-are truly unreasonable creatures!

Having divided the blame, I sighed and said helplessly:

“We can’t find it anyway. How about I go buy another piece of wood and carve a new one?”

Xiao Zou sighed and waved her hand dismissively:

“Grandpa went to the market to buy wood. He’ll be back soon, but there’s no time for that.”

I asked, puzzled:

“It’s just a wooden figure, right? If you’ve got a knife and some wood, you can carve another one anytime. Why not just come clean with Old Master Zou?”

Xiao Zou looked worried and said:

“You don’t understand. My grandpa treats wood carvings as his life. I could burn down the house, and he wouldn’t care, but touching his wood carvings would definitely anger him. When I was little, I broke one of his carvings and got quite the beating. Especially this time-it’s a wood carving with eyes…”

The more Xiao Zou spoke, the more frightened she seemed. She curled up on the sofa, hugging her knees, almost on the verge of tears.

I couldn’t help but ask:

“What’s the difference between carvings with eyes and those without? Doesn’t Old Master Zou always avoid carving eyes on the pieces he sells?”

“These wood carvings with eyes aren’t for sale. Grandpa specifically built a wooden house to store them inside.”

“A wooden house for wooden figures?”

I found it hard to believe, even a bit creepy. Old Master Zou didn’t seem like someone with mental issues, but building a house for wooden figures?!

Before I could recover from my shock, Xiao Zou continued:

“The wooden house doesn’t just contain wooden figures with eyes. Grandpa also carved little cats, dogs, and even small furniture to put inside.”

I swallowed hard in disbelief. I had only ever seen such complete sets of items in paper houses burned for the dead. Old Master Zou wasn’t in the business of serving the deceased, so why would he do this?

“We’ve searched everywhere earlier. Where’s the wooden house? I didn’t see it.”

Xiao Zou replied:

“It’s in Grandpa’s bedroom. You’re not allowed in there either.”

Well, great. Xiao Zou wanted me to help, but this was off-limits, and that was off-limits. Staying here felt like a waste of time. I might as well go back and help Baldy find the wooden figure that was lost at his shop.

I stood up and said:

“I’ll go back to Baldy’s shop and look for the wooden figure you mixed up. If I find it, we won’t have to worry about this knockoff anymore.”

Hearing this, Xiao Zou leaned forward nervously and asked:

“Can you really find it? I called him this morning, and he said he hadn’t seen it.”

“I’ll give it a try. I’ll contact him by phone.” As I spoke, Xiao Zou and I exchanged phone numbers. I put on my coat and headed out.

Today was the 15th day of the lunar month, and I still didn’t know what dangers might lie ahead or how to survive them. Yet here I was, running back and forth looking for wooden figures. I let out a cold laugh, realizing I had run out of cigarettes. I decided to stop by a nearby convenience store to buy a pack.

While paying, I noticed three or five middle-aged women gathered at the store entrance, chatting about their daily lives.

One of the older women looked at a curly-haired sister and said:

“I heard your little dog got beaten to death by a dog dealer last night?”

The curly-haired sister sighed.

“Yeah, I raised it for years. I cried my heart out.”

“That dog dealer is such a bastard. If we catch him, we should beat him to death. Did you see him last night?”

“I did. Old Song almost caught him. He’s tall and skinny, and he looks pretty scary.”

“People who do such heartless things must be disfigured. What does he look like? Tell us so we can keep an eye out for him.”

The curly-haired sister frowned and said:

“He really looked scary. Forget his nose and mouth-his eyes were huge, bulging out like cow eyes…”

Hearing this, I froze. The pack of cigarettes I had just bought slipped from my hand and fell to the ground.