Chapter 74: Dead Man Driving
“My name is Zhang Liao, um, that Zhang Liao from the Three Kingdoms period.”
“Don’t misunderstand, I’m not an ancient person who lived through the Three Kingdoms period, nor did Zhang Liao transmigrate and get reborn or anything.”
“It’s just that my parents gave me a rather grand name.”
“Because of this name, I’ve been the butt of many jokes since I was a child, which made me depressed for a long time, and I even sulked with my parents.”
“But fortunately, my grandpa told me that a name is just a title; what you’re called doesn’t matter, what matters is how you act.”
“Zhang Liao is very famous, but it was he himself who became famous, not the name Zhang Liao.”
“It’s the person who makes the name famous.”
“I think what Grandpa said makes a lot of sense.”
“Cough, cough, I’m getting off topic.”
“It’s like this, today is a very good day, and the school is having a rare holiday, so I decided to go back to my hometown to see Grandpa.”
“I got on the bus heading home, but at the next stop, a strange person got on.”
“The person looked about my age, probably a university student too.”
“Why do I say the person is strange?”
“‘He’ was very cold, his face was very pale, not a natural paleness, nor the pallor of someone sick and lacking color, but more like the deathly pale of a living person who has lost their vitality.”
“The person walked past me, and I didn’t smell anything, and the person was very cold.”
“No smell, maybe the person took a shower before leaving home.”
“But being so cold is a bit problematic.”
“Could the person have just come from an air-conditioned room?”
“But how is that possible?”
“Deathly pale face, body very cold, feeling the cold just from them passing by, I suspect this person is very abnormal.”
“I felt uneasy, sensing that this trip home would be dangerous.”
“Grandpa once said that when you feel uncomfortable, you must leave, otherwise, whatever happens next will surely make you regret it.”
“Yes, I deeply understand this. When I was young, I was playing with my friends and went into an abandoned village in the back mountain.”
“As soon as we walked in, I felt a chill run down my spine, and my hair stood on end.”
“At that moment, I immediately took my friends and left.”
“But another group of children who came to play didn’t choose to leave with me.”
“And then those children didn’t come back that night.”
“When the adults found out they had gone to that abandoned village and went to look for them, all the children were found hanging from an old locust tree, their skin completely stripped off.”
“Later, this incident caused quite a stir.”
“The police came to handle it, but there were no results. However, at night, I seemed to see some strange people heading to the village in the back mountain overnight.”
“Then, the next afternoon, the village was burned down. I heard the adults say that the matter seemed to be resolved.”
“I don’t know what the situation was.”
“But from then on, everyone in the village was forbidden from going to the back mountain.”
“Now, I also feel uneasy, my hair is standing on end, I think I should get off the bus.”
“Yes, I’ll get off at the next stop.”
On the bus, under the direct sunlight, the cabin remained dim.
Sparse passengers were scattered throughout the seats.
The driver was focused on driving, never looking up at the rearview mirror.
The display showing the number of passengers seemed to be broken, as it always showed ‘1’.
The pen, which had been moving, finally stopped.
The boy named Zhang Liao closed his notebook and carefully put it into his backpack.
He subtly glanced at the young man sitting in the third row from the back of the cabin.
His face was pale, and he looked like someone who had been dead for a long time, sleeping with his eyes closed.
The other person seemed to notice him peeking, and his eyelids twitched slightly.
It seemed as if he was about to open his eyes.
The boy quickly averted his gaze, thinking to himself, “This person is definitely not normal!”
On this sweltering summer day, the sun, full of yang energy, seemed unable to quell the unease in his heart.
It felt as if as long as he remained on the bus for another second, his unease would continue.
“I must get off at the next stop, even if it costs money to take a taxi home, it’s safer than taking this bus,” Zhang Liao thought to himself.
The old bus slowly drove along the road.
Time passed slowly.
More than an hour had passed, and the boy’s expression became increasingly anxious.
Bus stop after bus stop was missed; this bus had no intention of stopping.
What was going on with this bus?
It was one thing if they didn’t stop at stops where there were no people, but why weren’t they stopping even when there were people?
Moreover, those people seemed not to see the bus, letting it pass by without waving it down.
Once or twice could be understood; perhaps those people weren’t waiting for this bus. But after so many times, there couldn’t possibly be no one waiting for this route, right?
He became anxious, a growing sense of foreboding filling his heart.
“I should immediately tell the driver to stop!” The boy made up his mind, gathered his courage, and stood up, intending to ask the driver to stop.
Then he would get off.
But suddenly, the bus jolted.
The boy sat back down.
He looked out the window blankly.
The scenery changed, turning into a dirt road, and the surrounding city buildings rapidly became sparse.
With just one jolt, they had left the city and arrived in the suburbs.
The boy looked blankly at the rapidly receding city, which vanished in the blink of an eye.
Fear gradually welled up in his eyes.
He swallowed, cautiously moved his seat to the window, then looked around. After confirming no one noticed his actions, he quickly reached out to try and open the window.
The windows of the old bus could be opened.
This bus was not of a unibody design.
But now, a bizarre scene unfolded; no matter how hard he tried, the window wouldn’t budge.
The boy’s pupils contracted. Without hesitation, he took out the pen-shaped window breaking hammer from his backpack and struck the window.
A faint sound was heard.
The boy opened his mouth, looking at the window in disbelief.
He looked down at the window breaking hammer in his hand, then at the undamaged window, and fell deep into self-doubt.
Wait, did I buy a fake?
That’s impossible; he had previously used it to break the window of his advisor’s car.
For that, he was sarcastically chided by his advisor multiple times until the glass was repaired, and the advisor stopped being sarcastic.
This couldn’t be a fake.
Could the glass be too hard?
The window breaking hammer couldn’t break it?
He thought to himself.
He didn’t think about trying again because he noticed that the strange young man had opened his eyes because of his actions.
He was staring at him with interest, as if watching something novel.
“Perhaps I should go find the driver?”
The boy swallowed, thinking to himself.
“Interesting.”
The young man sitting in the back glanced at the passengers on the bus.
There weren’t many passengers; not many people were riding this bus, which was nominally heading to the countryside.
Including himself, there were only about eleven or twelve passengers.
But among them all, only this boy seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with this bus.
From his previous vigorous writing, it seemed he had written his will before starting his attempt at self-rescue.
Lin Qian’s gaze shifted slightly. He didn’t remind the boy, and closed his eyes again, sensing the now-subdued fierce ghost.
He had still boarded this ghost bus that could lead to a supernatural land.
Not for any other reason, but for the improvement of his own strength.
Lin Qian had already realized that to truly become stronger, controlling fierce ghosts was not enough.
What he needed most now were peculiar killing patterns and the absolute terror of fierce ghosts.
And in reality, finding such ghosts was very difficult.
Relying on Headquarters…
Emm…
If Headquarters encountered such ghosts, they’d be lucky to handle them.
Headquarters couldn’t even handle a knocking ghost.
Therefore, if Lin Qian wanted to possess mysterious killing patterns or even a restart ability,
he could only go to dangerous places.
For example, a supernatural land.
For example, a ghost painting.
And the fastest method for supernatural advancement was undoubtedly to complete the puzzle pieces of fierce ghosts.
Although he could cause fierce ghosts to crash, and he could also have revived ghosts control crashing ghosts to complete the puzzle pieces.
This could indeed increase the terror level of the fierce ghosts.
However, the killing patterns would also increase.
In the end, having a ghost with over a dozen killing patterns would cause problems.
Furthermore, if these killing patterns were not opposing or compatible, a very troublesome situation would arise.
Although he hadn’t encountered such a situation yet, he was certain it was trouble.
For a ghost controller, it’s not that more abilities are better, but that the abilities are more useful and more bizarre.
Of course, these could all be considered excuses.
What Lin Qian primarily wanted was to complete the puzzle pieces of the ghost performer.
The sooner he could find a ghost performer, the safer he would be when the ghost performer eventually lost control.
How terrifying the ghost play troupe is, let me put it this way:
Four parts of the ghost lake’s supernatural power couldn’t even wet the shoe of a black-faced opera singer.
And this was just one ghost performer.
Although not every ghost was as terrifying as the black-faced opera singer, there were still thirty-four ghosts only slightly less terrifying than that one!
And several other puzzle pieces.
If he didn’t believe his own strength was insufficient, he would have already forcefully entered Caesar Grand Hotel to control those ghost performers.
Going to a supernatural land, though dangerous, was also an opportunity.
Lin Qian’s current goal was simple: find a ghost performer, then widely control fierce ghosts, and push the terror level of his own fierce ghosts into the category of S-class supernatural events.
Only then would he have the courage to venture into places like Caesar Grand Hotel, the Ghost Post Office, the Wang Family Old House, and even the Ghost Ship abroad, places that held puzzle pieces of the ghost play troupe.
Lin Qian slowly closed his eyes. By the time he left the supernatural land, his strength in the real world would be top-tier for this era.
Well, excluding a certain chuunibyou.
In any era, one must rely on strength to get things done.
The bus moved forward slowly, and the boy’s eyes darted around, muttering to himself, constantly cheering himself on.
Although he knew that finding the driver might not be effective, it was the only thing he could do now.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
Finally, after more than ten minutes of psychological preparation, the boy gathered his courage and stood up.
Gritting his teeth, he walked towards the driver.
Soon.
“Driver, can you stop? I want to get off.”
The boy’s unconfident voice echoed in the cabin.
Instantly, the passengers who were not asleep looked up at this student, who was neither particularly bold nor particularly timid.
The cabin fell silent.
The driver completely ignored the boy, his eyes fixed forward, solely focused on driving.
The boy’s face immediately flushed slightly, but looking at the gazes in the cabin, his heart couldn’t help but race.
“Driver…”
But the inner unease made him overcome his embarrassment.
He spoke again, this time a little louder and with more confidence, “Can you stop the bus? I want to get off.”
Once, it could be dismissed as the driver not hearing, as the boy’s voice was quite soft.
But the second time, the boy’s voice was clearly louder, and the driver couldn’t possibly have not heard.
Yet the driver still paid no attention to the boy.
Looking at the driver, who remained silent and hadn’t even moved, the boy had a vague, ominous premonition.
Is this driver really human?
Or, is he still alive?
The boy was startled, and a chill quickly rose on his back; he was scared by his own guess.
“I say, Driver, what do you mean? Someone has already asked you twice, and you’re pretending not to hear?”
“Are you deaf? Or are you just trying to bully a student?”
A middle-aged man in his thirties immediately lost his temper.
He stood up directly, walked to the student’s side in a few steps, and frowned at the driver.
The driver remained silent, deeply implementing the principle that silence is golden.
The car was not moving fast now; judging by the speed of the scenery passing by outside, it was only about forty miles per hour.
So the rest of the people had no reason to worry about anything happening.
Moreover, this driver was obviously bullying someone.
Watching a show and eating melon seeds was a habit everyone had.
As if on cue, someone had already picked up their mobile phone to start filming.
But even under the deterrence of the camera, the driver remained silent.
It seemed as if he didn’t even put the middle-aged man in his eyes.
“I’m going to lose my temper, are you really deaf back there!”
The middle-aged man’s anger was completely ignited. Fueled by rage, he directly reached out to grab the driver’s arm.
The expressions of the others immediately changed, and they were about to speak up to stop him.
But the next moment, the words they were about to say stopped on their lips.
Their expressions shifted from amusement to astonishment, confusion, bewilderment, and finally, horror.
With a thud.
The driver fell onto the aisle.
The middle-aged man froze on the spot, then reacted and quickly retreated, moving away from the driver.
“I, I just lightly touched him, I didn’t use any force!”
“You all saw it.”
“It wasn’t me!”
The middle-aged man panicked.
Zhang Liao stared at the fallen driver in astonishment. The driver’s face was deathly pale, and his eyes were blank and lifeless.
Judging by his appearance, the driver was already dead.
And he definitely hadn’t died just now; it was obvious he had been dead for a while.
But how could a dead person drive!
The car!
The boy suddenly reacted and looked sharply at the driver’s seat. Just as he was about to rush forward to steady the steering wheel, he froze in place.
He opened his mouth wide, and a chill shot straight up from his spine to the crown of his head.
Why?
Why was the steering wheel turning and making a turn by itself, with no one controlling it?
And then returning to center after the turn?
Wasn’t the driver already lying in the aisle?!!
