Last Bus of Route 13

The little girl vanished, perhaps due to the rainy and dark night, and I didn’t think much of it, quickly returning indoors.

In the following days, I accompanied Shuilian up the mountain in the mornings, and every night at nine-thirty, the little girl would promptly come to play with my mobile phone.

Strangely enough, despite the lack of electricity here, my phone’s battery always seemed to be on the verge of dying, yet it never actually ran out.

Searching for the ginseng doll with Shuilian was fruitless, but chatting with her about everything under the sun was delightful. Shuilian was particularly curious about life in the city.

As a bus driver, I shared my experiences and observations with her, and she often listened with fascination, promising that if given the chance, she’d love to visit the city with me.

I mentioned the little girl in the red dress to Shuilian, but she claimed not to know of any such child in the village.

Interestingly, the little girl seemed to deliberately avoid Shuilian. She would only appear after Shuilian had delivered my dinner. Even if Shuilian arrived late and we chatted until past ten, the moment Shuilian left, the little girl would show up.

I borrowed some books from Shuilian. When the little girl arrived, I’d make room for her. I’d lie on my side reading, while she lay beside me playing on the phone. Anyone observing might mistake us for father and daughter.

As for who the little girl belonged to or her name, I asked several times, but she only mentioned she was from the village, revealing nothing more.

Unlike the city, the village had a simple, honest atmosphere with fewer bad people. Seeing the little girl unafraid of walking at night, I gradually stopped worrying about her.

Over time, she became more familiar with me, and recently, she even brought me various wild fruits to eat.

Tonight was no different. The little girl wore a sweet smile, holding a bunch of wild fruits.

I munched on the fruits while reading a novel, as the little girl lay beside me playing on the phone.

“Little sister, you know, staring at screens under candlelight every night isn’t good for your eyes. You should try coming during the day,” I said, taking a bite of the fruit.

Without looking up, the little girl replied, “Uncle, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Her words annoyed me, and I said quietly, “I’ve told you many times, call me brother instead of uncle.”

The little girl didn’t respond, absorbed in her phone as if she were diving into it.

I shook my head, thinking that if she lived in the city, she’d be a typical internet-addicted teenager.

Seeing her engrossed, I didn’t bother her further and continued reading my novel.

After a while, she asked, still focused on the screen, “Uncle, why do you go up the mountain with a sister every day?”

Her question surprised me. Shuilian and I usually started climbing at four or five in the morning, when few villagers were around. How did this little girl know?

I spat out the fruit pit onto the ground and asked, “I’m looking for medicinal herbs. How do you know I go up the mountain daily? Where exactly do you live?”

Without lifting her head, she softly said, “What herbs are you looking for? Maybe I can help you.”

I chuckled, patting the little girl’s head as I said, “Thank you, but you don’t need to help. Just be good at home.”

The little girl seemed quite eager, insisting, “No need to be polite. Just tell me, what kind of medicine are you looking for?”

Though her eyes were glued to the mobile phone screen, her confident tone made me wonder if her parents were skilled in medicine.

Casually, I replied, “Looking for ginseng to treat that sister’s illness.”

Upon hearing this, the little girl suddenly lifted her head, her eyes wide as she asked, “What illness are you treating with ginseng? That sister looks pretty healthy to me.”

Her innocent expression was truly adorable, speaking with the tone of a little adult. I laughed and explained, “That sister has a birthmark on her face. Eating ginseng will make it better.”

The little girl didn’t say anything further, lowering her head to continue playing with her mobile phone.

After reading for a while, I felt sleepy and didn’t bother her, placing the book over my face and drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I found the mobile phone turned off and placed beside my pillow. I had no idea when the little girl had left.

Moreover, I noticed that the cup I used for drinking water, which was kept on the cabinet, was missing.

The little girl had always been well-behaved, never touching my things without permission. But where had my cup gone?

I didn’t think much of it, and after freshening up, I continued with Shuilian to climb the mountain, under the guise of searching for the ginseng doll.

While climbing, I brought along some wild fruits the little girl had given me for Shuilian to taste. Shuilian was surprised to see these fruits, saying they were quite rare and couldn’t be found halfway up the mountain, only at the very top.

Her words made me curious, so I asked Shuilian if the village doctor’s family had a little girl.

Shuilian shook her head, saying the village doctor was an old man without any children.

I was quite surprised, having assumed the little girl’s parents were the village doctors skilled in medicine. It seemed I was mistaken.

That evening, thunder and lightning began outside again. The thunder was particularly loud, even making me, a grown man, feel a bit scared. I thought the little girl probably wouldn’t come tonight, so I extinguished the candle and prepared to sleep.

Just as I yawned and lay down, I suddenly heard the sound of the door opening. I quickly got up and lit the candle.

Before long, the little girl came into the room. It was raining heavily outside, and she was drenched, looking at me pitifully as she asked, “Uncle, I haven’t played on the mobile phone today. Why did you put out the candle?”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I got up, quickly grabbing a towel to dry her hair.

While drying her hair, I asked, “Little sister, do you wait for your parents to fall asleep before sneaking out every night? They don’t know, do they?”

The little girl didn’t answer me. Instead, she mysteriously pulled out my cup from her pocket and handed it to me, saying, “Uncle, here you go.”

It turned out the little girl had taken my cup. I accepted it, puzzled, and saw it was half-filled with water.

“Tomorrow, give this cup to that sister. Let her wash her face with this water, and her birthmark will be cured.”

The little girl spoke with such conviction that it was hard not to believe her. Watching her serious expression, I couldn’t help but chuckle and repeatedly agreed, setting the cup aside and urging her to get into bed and warm up.

The little girl didn’t hesitate. She climbed into bed, wrapped herself in the blanket, and started playing with the mobile phone.

Over the past few days, she had become quite adept at using my phone. She could turn it on and off by herself, find games, and even accidentally delete several important things of mine.

I didn’t bother her and sat on the chair reading a novel.

I must have dozed off again because when I woke up, it was daylight and Shuilian had come to find me. She picked up the cup from the cabinet and was about to drink when I remembered the little girl’s words and quickly stopped her:

“Don’t drink that. It’s for washing your face.”

“For washing my face?”

“Yeah, if you wash your face with it, your birthmark will disappear.”

I said it casually, almost jokingly, as I started to fold the blanket.

To my surprise, Shuilian took it seriously, her face lighting up with a smile as she eagerly took the cup to the kitchen to wash her face.

After tidying up the room and having breakfast, I went up the mountain with Shuilian, as usual, to look for the ginseng doll.

On the way, I started telling Shuilian about the college life I never experienced-choosing classes freely, dating freely, staying up all night singing and playing games with roommates. Shuilian listened with envy.

We happily climbed to the halfway point of the mountain, and as expected, found nothing and began our descent.

As we turned to head down, I caught a glimpse of Shuilian’s face with the birthmark and was astonished to see that it seemed to have lightened!

I told Shuilian to hold still and took a closer look. The birthmark had indeed faded from its original deep red.

Suddenly, I thought of the water the little girl had brought, and my heart skipped a beat!

Hearing that her birthmark was improving, Shuilian couldn’t stop smiling and hurried down the mountain to look in a mirror.

By the time we reached the bottom, the birthmark on Shuilian’s face had completely disappeared without a trace.

Without the annoying birthmark, Shuilian’s already good looks and smooth skin were now truly stunning!

As we hurried past the lake towards my house, we ran into Old Lady Qiu, who was wearing her red scarf.

Shuilian, eager to see her reflection, greeted her briefly and rushed past.

I noticed Old Lady Qiu’s expression turned extremely excited when she saw Shuilian’s birthmark-free face!

At home, when Shuilian saw that her birthmark was indeed gone, she was overjoyed and couldn’t stop thanking me, hugging me tightly.

I awkwardly accepted the big hug.

After a while, she burst into tears of joy and said she wanted to show everyone in the village, then dashed out.

Sitting alone in the house, I thought about the little girl. Something about her was definitely unusual, and I had a bold suspicion-could she be the ginseng doll?

Without the birthmark, Shuilian’s twenty-year-old worry was gone, and she was probably so happy that she forgot everything else. She didn’t come to bring me lunch from noon till evening.

I ate a few wild fruits the little girl had given me, waiting for her to come play with the mobile phone again tonight.

When it was completely dark, the little girl came as expected, bringing lots of fruits again.

I pretended nothing had happened, made room for her, and lay down to read.

The little girl seemed to have forgotten about the cup from last night, not mentioning it and just focusing on playing with the mobile phone.

And so, it was late at night again, and I started urging her to go home. The little girl reluctantly put down the phone, nodded, and headed out.

This time I was prepared. I insisted on seeing her off, but as we stepped outside, she started walking faster and faster, so fast that I couldn’t keep up even at a jog.

In just a few minutes, the little girl had disappeared from sight, leaving me behind!

Scratching my head in confusion, I was about to head back home when I noticed someone working in the fields in the distance.

Even though I didn’t have my mobile phone, I knew it had to be past midnight. Why were there so many people working in the fields?

Curious, I walked over to take a closer look. In the field, there were four or five men dressed in white, busily working under the bright moonlight.

Their identical white clothes stood out starkly.

The more I watched, the more uneasy I felt, until chills ran down my spine.

To my astonishment, not only were their clothes and builds identical, but their facial features seemed exactly the same too!