Last Bus of Route 13

The fact that the vehicle that hit Bai Fan was a hearse sent chills down my spine. Aren’t hearses supposed to be out early in the morning with the bus fleet? How could it suddenly appear and hit Bai Fan?

Moreover, Tang Yao lied. Could she be behind this? I knew Bun Hairstyle had a soft spot for Tang Yao, so I didn’t call him. After watching the video, I hurried back to the hospital.

The more I thought about it on the way, the angrier I became. A red Mazda? Why not say it was a red airplane?

As soon as I entered the hospital room, I started yelling at Tang Yao.

“I just watched the surveillance footage. It was clearly a white hearse that hit Bai Fan. You lied. Was it you who caused this?”

Tang Yao sat calmly, watching my fury without retaliating, and slowly said in a low voice:

“I did lie, but when you asked me, there was someone eavesdropping outside the door. I couldn’t tell the truth.”

“Eavesdropping?”

“When you came in, didn’t you notice a little nurse sneaking around behind you? Once you left, she was leaning against the door, listening.”

I was puzzled. The nurse didn’t know us, so why would she eavesdrop? Was Tang Yao just messing with me?

Seeing my disbelief, Tang Yao chuckled and said:

“While you were away, the boss at the Great East Gate Restaurant kept mentioning you. If you want to know more, come over tonight for some noodles.”

After saying that, she stretched lazily and continued:

“I’m tired, going to rest. You stay with Bai Fan for a while.”

With that, she gave me a playful glance, picked up her handbag, and walked out.

Tang Yao didn’t want to elaborate, and there wasn’t much I could do about it.

The Great East Gate Restaurant, the place with Ghost Beer and worm-infested noodles, open all night. Why did Tang Yao arrange to meet there? It seemed she was quite familiar with the shop owner.

But then again, why not go? Although the place was a bit eerie, I’d been there countless times before, so it didn’t scare me much.

After what happened to Bai Fan, Xiao Liu still had to drive the Route 13 bus. I hired a nurse to look after Bai Fan at the hospital, and around eight in the evening, I headed to the Great East Gate Restaurant for the meeting.

Previously, I usually went there after midnight, but today was the first time I arrived so early at eight. The streets were bustling with pedestrians and vehicles, yet strangely, almost no one ventured into this alley.

I wondered why, despite the alley being sparsely populated, even the nearby residents avoided it. With meals priced at just 2 mao, the shop owner must be living on air.

Entering the restaurant, I was greeted by the familiar square face of the shop owner, his signature smile, holding an old menu as he approached me.

Seeing the shop owner reminded me of his previous advice about the three “don’ts.” The first two had passed, but the last one-don’t talk to strangers-I had been talking to strangers almost daily without encountering anything unusual.

I found a seat and ordered a bottle of Ghost Beer.

The shop owner smiled and asked:

“Haven’t seen you in a while, been busy?”

“Yeah,” I replied softly, not in the mood for conversation.

The shop owner was perceptive enough not to press further, handed me a bottle of beer, and headed back to the kitchen.

Tang Yao and I had agreed to meet in the evening, but without a specific time. I wasn’t sure when she’d arrive.

As I was pondering this, I suddenly heard a voice behind me.

“Oh, you’re here early. Quite dedicated, aren’t you?”

The sudden voice startled me. I turned around to see her, and was surprised to find the restaurant’s glass door tightly shut, with no sign of it having been opened.

I asked in surprise, “When did you come in? How come I didn’t hear a sound?”

Tang Yao sat down across from me with a smile. “I just got here. Maybe you were so lost in thought that you didn’t hear me come in.”

I didn’t have time for small talk, so I got straight to the point. “Alright, I’m here now. Tell me, what exactly happened with Bai Fan getting hit?”

Tang Yao didn’t rush to answer. She called the boss over and ordered a bowl of noodles before slowly saying, “Nothing particularly special, but Bai Fan did mention something strange to me before we went shopping.”

I asked anxiously, “What was it?”

“Bai Fan didn’t know you were out of town. A few nights ago, she went to your company to catch a ride with you. She said she saw a sneaky colleague heading towards the back of the office building.”

Heading towards the back of the office building?

Tang Yao’s words piqued my interest. Behind the office building was that abandoned second floor. Except for Old Wu, no one in the company had any interest in that rundown place. Who would go there in the dead of night? Was it Old Wu?

“And then?”

“Then Bai Fan said the person noticed her and glared at her fiercely. The next day, Bai Fan got hit. I don’t know if it’s connected to that strange person.”

I took a deep breath and asked, “Are you suggesting this person wanted to kill Bai Fan to silence her?”

Tang Yao tilted her head. “I didn’t say that. Bai Fan just mentioned that the person was wearing your work uniform and seemed shady. She also said she would warn you to stay away from him when she saw you.”

“Did Bai Fan mention what the person looked like? Were they fat?”

Tang Yao thought for a moment and said, “Not fat. She said it was a skinny person.”

A skinny person?

So it wasn’t Old Wu!!

Old Wu was of average build. While not a fatty, he definitely couldn’t be described as skinny.

If it wasn’t Old Wu and they were wearing our work uniform, who else would be interested in that second floor?

Seeing my confusion, Tang Yao mocked, “Bai Fan went to find you and ended up in this mess. You’re definitely involved.”

I took a sip of Ghost Beer, nodded at her, and then left.

On the way back to the hospital, I kept replaying Tang Yao’s words in my mind. Did Bai Fan really get into an accident because she discovered that skinny person heading to the second floor?

If that’s the case, does this colleague trying to sneak into the second floor know something? Were they aiming for the archive room on the second floor?

Bai Fan had seen the person’s face. Once she wakes up, everything will become clear.

For now, the first step is to find that hearse and get Bai Fan treated.

After reaching the hospital, I called Bun Hairstyle and asked him to accompany me to the city’s funeral home tomorrow.

Our city has two funeral homes. I worked at one of them for a few days, and I had seen the hearses there. None of them matched the one in the video that hit Bai Fan.

I suspect that the vehicle must be at the other funeral home.

The next day, at the crack of dawn, Bun Hairstyle and I set off early to the funeral home to look for the hearse. However, we were told that there were an unusually high number of deaths today, and all the hearses had been dispatched.

With no other option, we wandered around, waiting for nightfall when the vehicles would return.

After a day of aimless wandering, night finally fell, and we hurried back to the funeral home!

The hearses at the funeral home had a dedicated parking garage. Bun Hairstyle pulled some strings, greased a few palms, and finally managed to get in touch with an employee who could help us.

This man, in his fifties, had been working at the funeral home for many years and was now in charge of logistics. On the way to the garage, he kept asking why we wanted to see the hearses. After we explained, he scoffed and waved his hand dismissively, saying:

“A hearse hitting someone? You must be mistaken. Hearses carry bodies at a snail’s pace. Besides, the road by the Zhongdong shopping mall is always crowded; no hearse driver would take that route.”

I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I just nodded, saying we wanted to have a look to put our minds at ease.

Once the old man opened the garage door, Bun Hairstyle and I slipped inside to search for the vehicle.

There were about a dozen hearses parked in the garage, but strangely, the one from the surveillance footage that hit Bai Fan was nowhere to be found.

Puzzled, I exited the garage and asked the old man again.

“Are you sure these are all the hearses you have? Could there be one that’s not back yet?”

The old man chuckled as he closed the garage door, saying:

“Young man, look at the time. Who has funerals at this hour? All our hearses are here.”

I sighed. It didn’t make sense. Besides the funeral home, there shouldn’t be any other hearses.

As the old man locked the door, he suddenly remembered something and turned to us, saying thoughtfully:

“Ah, come to think of it, we do have another hearse. But that one’s past its service life and has been retired.”

Bun Hairstyle quickly interjected:

“Who cares about service life? If it has wheels, it can run. Where’s the car? Show us.”

The old man scratched his head and reluctantly agreed.

We circled around the garage and found the retired hearse on a grassy patch of open ground.

There was no mistake. From the front to the compartment, the color and model matched the one in the surveillance footage exactly. This was the hearse that hit Bai Fan!

Bun Hairstyle and I exchanged a shocked glance and asked the old man:

“Are you sure this car has been sitting here unused for a long time?”

The old man nodded.

“No one’s driven it. It’s too old and stalls easily. It’s considered bad luck for a hearse to stop during a funeral, so the company doesn’t allow it on the road.”

Bun Hairstyle turned on his mobile phone flashlight and shone it on the four wheels, noticing a lot of dirt on the tires. He frowned and said quietly:

“You’re kidding, right? If no one’s driven it, how did the dirt get on the tires?”

The old man sighed helplessly:

“No one’s driven it recently. Before it was retired, only Mr. Wang from the company could drive it without it stalling. But he passed away last month, and no one’s touched it since.”

“The driver passed away?”

The old man pointed at the building next to us and said, “He’s dead, died of a heart attack. His family didn’t even come, and now his body is still frozen in the mortuary. Don’t believe me? I can take you to see it.”

The driver died, and someone took the car and hit a person with it. It was a strange occurrence. After discussing it with the man with the Bun Hairstyle, we decided to go see this Mr. Wang to find out if what the old man said was true.

The old man led us into the neighboring freezing mortuary. The room was very cold. He took out a notebook, checked it for a while, and pulled a body out of the cold storage.

Although the body was frozen and had not decayed or deformed, it was clear that the person had been dead for a long time.

We stared at Mr. Wang on the mortuary table, puzzled.

The old man sneered and said:

“I’ve been working here for over twenty years. I know a thing or two. If you said you heard some noises or saw some ghosts at the funeral home, I’d believe you. But if you insist that the hearse out there, which often stalls, was taken out by someone, I’m telling you, it’s impossible, unless…”

The old man said this with a smirk and then held back the rest.

The man with the Bun Hairstyle, who was impatient, asked in a low voice:

“Unless what? Just say it.”

“Unless the body itself got up and drove the car.”

Just as the old man finished speaking, we suddenly heard a “click, click, click,” and the lights in the mortuary went out!!

The room was filled with bodies, and the lights going out magnified our fear exponentially.

The man with the Bun Hairstyle cursed in fright:

“Damn, why did the lights go out?”

“Thud… Thud… Thud…”

In the pitch-black space, we heard a series of strange noises, coming and going, near and far. My scalp tingled, and I was about to pull out my mobile phone for some light.

Suddenly, we heard another “click, click, click,” and the lights in the room flickered back on.

Breathing heavily, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, looking around in terror.

The man with the Bun Hairstyle was also scared stiff, his eyes wide open, leaning against the wall as if he could barely stand.

The old man had been relatively calm, but after glancing at Mr. Wang’s mortuary table, he was so scared that he collapsed on the floor, his finger trembling as he pointed at the table and said:

“Where… where did it go?”

I followed his gaze and almost lost my soul in fright.

The table was empty; Mr. Wang’s body was gone!!

Did the body run away by itself??