"He was terrified. He immediately spun the car around and drove back, but the road seemed to grow longer and longer, as if he would never make it out."
"Just when he was on the verge of despair, his phone suddenly rang. His grandmother was worried about his safety and asked why he hadn't come home yet."
"He told her everything that had happened to him, word for word. Strangely, while he was on the phone with his grandmother, the car had already driven out of the Eastern Outskirts without him even noticing."
"Only after he hung up did he suddenly realize that his grandmother had passed away back home from illness last year. He had been unable to leave an important project at the time, so he hadn't gone back."
"His deceased grandmother saved his life?" As soon as
"It wasn't so much his grandmother who saved him as the goodness in his subconscious. From a psychological perspective, because he hadn't been there to see his grandmother one last time, he'd been carrying guilt ever since. That guilt kept him rational even when his mind began to break down." Dr. Pei slipped both hands into the pockets of his white coat. "I'm only using him as an example because he was lucky. There are many unfortunate patients locked up in this hospital. I'm telling you all this because there are all sorts of strange occurrences in the Eastern Outskirts, and you should be extra careful when you go investigating. I know it's not really appropriate for me as a doctor to say things like this, but I still hope you'll take heed."
"Dr. Pei, do you have more patients like that bus driver here?" The more Chen Ge listened, the more certain he felt that he had come to the right place. "Can you tell me about their experiences?"
"If you listen to too many of their stories, it can shake your own sense of reality. Besides, this involves patient confidentiality. Even if you were a police officer, I couldn't just disclose it freely." Dr. Pei turned down Chen Ge's request.
"That's fine. I still want to thank you." Chen Ge felt that Dr. Pei was a good person — at least among all the psychiatrists he'd encountered, he was one of the better ones.
After leaving the psychiatric hospital, Chen Ge took a taxi back to New Century Amusement Park. He checked the time and saw it was just past nine.
"This is right around when the last Route 104 bus departs. Maybe I should go try my luck tonight?" When Chen Ge had returned last night, he had plugged in Fan Cong's electric scooter to charge — he was worried that when Fan Cong came to pick it up, the battery would be dead and it would be inconvenient for him to get back.
But Fan Cong must have had something come up; he hadn't shown up during the day.
"Tonight I'll follow the Route 104 bus route and keep watch. Whether I run into the Red Raincoat or the last bus, either one will do. If it gets too late by the time I reach the Eastern Outskirts, I'll just crash at Fan Cong's place." Chen Ge ran through the tasks on his plate in his head. "The deadline of my agreement with the Red Raincoat is getting closer — that's the top priority. Once I have some free time later, I'll send
After checking his backpack, Chen Ge rode the electric scooter to the entrance of New Century Amusement Park and greeted the old gatekeeper.
The old man was already used to Chen Ge heading out late at night and never asked a single question. Truth be told, the two of them had a really good relationship.
Back when Chen Ge's parents had first disappeared, he had lived in the haunted house every day. Once night fell over the entire park, the only people left were the old gatekeeper and Chen Ge.
Sometimes the old man would run into something he couldn't handle and ask Chen Ge for help. On days when he was in an especially good mood — or an especially bad one — the old fellow would pull out a couple bottles of liquor and drag Chen Ge to the park cafeteria in the dead of night to sneakily cook some dishes and have a late-night meal.
During Chen Ge's hardest times, many people in this park had helped him, so when the park ran into difficulties, he stood up without a moment's hesitation.
"Little Chen, you're practically a boss now. That electric scooter doesn't exactly match your current status." The old man held a enamel mug, and even from a distance Chen Ge could smell alcohol — what the old fellow had poured was definitely not water.
"We'll see about that later. I still haven't gotten my driver's license. The people at the driving school have it in for me — they say I drive too recklessly."
"Then just change your habits. They're doing it for your own good. Safety first."
"Can't be bothered to change. I'll just hire a dedicated driver later." Chen Ge rode the electric scooter out of New Century Amusement Park. After finishing his chat with the old gatekeeper, he realized something. "Once I actually bring that Route 104 ghost bus back, I'll probably only be able to drive it in the outskirts. Getting to the city center would still be inconvenient. Though I've heard the Line 4 subway in the city center is haunted — maybe I'll go check it out when I have time."
Riding the scooter, Chen Ge arrived at the nearest Route 104 bus stop and stood in the cold wind for a full half hour. Neither the ghost bus nor the Red Raincoat appeared.
"Could it be that it only shows up on rainy nights?"
Chen Ge was somewhat unwilling to give up. He continued along the Route 104 bus route toward the Eastern Outskirts.
At eleven o'clock at night, Chen Ge entered the Eastern Outskirts of Jiujiang. He could immediately feel that something was different about this place — there wasn't a single car on the road.
"Last time I came, there were still the occasional taxi heading this way. Could it be because of what happened before that taxis no longer come to the Eastern Outskirts at night?" Chen Ge shook his head slightly. He didn't think his own influence was that powerful. Something terrifying must have happened in the Eastern Outskirts again.
"Didn't run into anything — the fated moment just hasn't arrived. Can't blame me for that." Every time he passed a bus stop, Chen Ge would linger for a while.
At first he was still eagerly anticipating the ghost bus's appearance, but gradually he lost hope and buried his head, heading straight for Liwan Town.
The road conditions kept worsening. At half past eleven, Chen Ge suddenly felt a chill on his neck. He held out his hand, and fine as ox-hair raindrops fell into his palm.
"It's raining?"
Chen Ge pulled out his phone and checked the weather forecast. It clearly said there would be no rain in Jiujiang for the next few days.
"Rain is actually a good thing. Heavy yin energy means a higher chance of encountering ghosts, and the Red Raincoat is very likely to show up."
Putting his phone away, Chen Ge looked around. Although he had been to the Eastern Outskirts several times, the surrounding buildings still looked unfamiliar.
The dim yellow streetlights gave off a faint glow, but they couldn't dispel the darkness. The atmosphere grew oppressively heavy for no apparent reason.
"I'm still on the Route 104 bus line right now. Should I wait at the stop for a while?"
The changes happening around him were very similar to what Dr. Pei had described at the psychiatric hospital. Chen Ge had a premonition that the ghost bus would very likely appear tonight.
"Xiao Gu said that the Red Raincoat's child is on the Route 104 ghost bus. All I need to do is get on board and grab the child for her, and let her confirm whether it's hers."
Chen Ge had his own plan. He would only let the Red Raincoat confirm the child's identity — but he never said he would give the child back to her. His original agreement with the Red Raincoat was simply to help her find her child. As for whether he would return the child, and how he would go about it — that was an entirely different matter.