Huang Ling and Xiao Gu had just gotten off the Route 104 ghost bus. They both knew it had been full of spirits.
When Jia Ming got into his car accident, the surveillance footage showed him driving straight into the bus on his own. All the abnormal behavior seemed to confirm that something truly extraordinary had happened at that time.
It was precisely those extraordinary events that led to Jia Ming's car accident, caused his personality to shift dramatically, and drove him to do absurd things like chopping up dolls and boiling them in a pot.
"Are you saying my husband was possessed by the ghosts on the Route 104 last bus?" Huang Ling was silent for a long time before she barely managed to accept reality.
"Possessed? You're being way too optimistic." Chen Ge glanced at the woman's phone. "You received a call from your husband while on the Route 104 bus. The one who called you was most likely your real husband. He knew you were on the last bus, and he also knew it was filled with ghosts. The most likely explanation is that he was on that bus too—his soul and obsession were trapped on it, turning him into a substitute death for your current husband."
What Chen Ge said was hard for Huang Ling to accept. If she hadn't been on that bus herself, hadn't witnessed the various horrifying ghosts with her own eyes, she would have thought Chen Ge was a lunatic.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say so much, but all those words condensed into a single question: "What should I do?"
She gripped the steering wheel helplessly. The thought that the husband she had spent every day with might have been replaced made her feel like she was suffocating.
"Do you want to find your real husband?" Chen Ge pulled his hand out of his backpack. From Huang Ling's tone and manner, he had basically confirmed she was nothing more than a victim.
"Of course." Huang Ling turned her head back again.
"To find your real husband, we need to start with the person pretending to be him. He should know a lot of things related to that last bus. Your real husband is on that bus, and only by figuring out everything about that ghost bus can we have a chance to find it and rescue him." The corner of Chen Ge's mouth curved into an arc. Everything he was doing right now was for the sake of that Route 104 last bus.
He had never forgotten that there was still a two-star horror scene locked inside the black phone. The name of that scene was Midnight Ghost Bus.
In terms of difficulty, Midnight Ghost Bus was comparable to Twilight Middle School, except that because it wasn't a fixed location, it wasn't easy to find.
"You want me to pump Jia Ming for information?" Huang Ling instantly understood what Chen Ge meant. She shook her head slightly, unwilling to do such a thing. Deep down, she still didn't want to believe any of this.
"I'm not asking you to pump anyone for information, and don't go making decisions on your own. All I need is for you to observe Jia Ming from the shadows and tell me about his abnormal behavior." Chen Ge left his phone number and WeChat with Huang Ling. "You can think of me as a fallback you've kept for yourself. Perhaps at some point, only I'll be able to help you."
Huang Ling repeated Chen Ge's words to herself, and it took her a while to fully grasp what he meant.
In her heart, the man before her might look strange and frightening, but he gave off an inexplicable sense of trustworthiness.
"Let's keep in touch. Oh, and don't tell anyone about what happened tonight—your husband, your parents, nobody." Chen Ge would have liked to drive back, tie up Huang Ling's husband, and force the truth out of him, but that kind of approach yielded poor results and could easily make Huang Ling turn against him.
"I understand." Huang Ling put away her phone and focused on driving.
A faint smile appeared on Chen Ge's lips. He didn't voice the thoughts swirling in his mind.
"A horror scene that can move on its own—this is the first time I've encountered one. There's absolutely no way I'm letting this slide. Then again, the Route 104 last bus, the ghost passengers, the child, and the shadow that even Red Raincoat fears... there has to be a connection between all of them..."
The taxi crept forward through the downpour. Chen Ge leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest.
At two in the morning, Huang Ling dropped Chen Ge and Xiao Gu off at New Century Paradise.
Before getting out, Chen Ge checked the driver's body once more. After confirming everything was fine, he left double the fare.
"Be careful on the road. Also, you should probably set my number to speed dial—it'll make it easier to reach me." After a few more words of instruction, Chen Ge left with Xiao Gu.
"Boss, are you really going to help Huang Ling? This whole thing is pretty terrifying." Only after Huang Ling drove away did Xiao Gu step up beside Chen Ge under his umbrella.
"Helping her is just a bonus. My real goal is to find the Red Raincoat's child. Didn't you say her child is on the last bus?" Chen Ge said it offhand, but to his surprise, Xiao Gu sank back into deep self-reproach after hearing it.
"This is my fault."
"Don't dwell on it. You're my employee. What happens to you happens to me." Chen Ge walked ahead, the downpour battering his body.
Trailing behind Chen Ge, Xiao Gu stared at his boss's back. After hesitating back and forth, he finally steeled himself and asked: "Boss, when you were on the phone with the Raincoat Woman, you said you were the president of the Supernatural Association. What kind of organization is that? And how come you don't seem that afraid of those things?"
"Curious, are you?" Chen Ge had saved Xiao Gu's life—not just once, either—and on top of that, Xiao Gu was a straightforward person without any hidden agendas, so Chen Ge felt relatively at ease around him.
"A little. Honestly, everything that's happened these past few months has me kind of scared." Xiao Gu's face was grim. "A month ago, I was drugged by a murderer and nearly dismembered. Two weeks ago, I'd just gotten out of the hospital when I was rushed back to the ER because of a blackout. And now tonight with the Route 104 bus—that makes three encounters with the supernatural in two months. If I don't do something about it, it's only a matter of time before something really bad happens."
Xiao Gu's face was etched with worry, the liveliness he once had nowhere to be seen. "I think I might be cursed."
"Once you move closer to New Century Paradise, you should be fine." Chen Ge didn't know whether to laugh or cry, though he understood Xiao Gu's feelings. Anyone else in his shoes would probably have lost their mind by now.
"Boss, I have this feeling deep down that something's definitely going to happen to me again. So I want to learn more about this kind of stuff. Do you think I could join your association?" Xiao Gu's words were nothing if not shocking. He stood beside Chen Ge with a bashful, conflicted look on his face.
"You want to join the Supernatural Association?" Chen Ge stopped in his tracks. He looked Xiao Gu up and down, then gave a slight shake of his head. "Although it's called the Supernatural Association, it's really just a mutual support group for psychiatric patients. Members encourage each other and help everyone reignite hope for a new life."
"That's really all it is?" Xiao Gu felt like the Supernatural Association Chen Ge described was nothing like what he had imagined.
"That's it—don't overthink it." Chen Ge tucked the exposed hammer handle of the Skull Crusher back into his backpack and zipped it shut. "Our Supernatural Association has three tenets: respect and compassion for others, understanding and acceptance of the heart, and gratitude and giving back to life."