Chapter 67: The Last Bus (Part 2)

One could tell at a glance that this family’s daughters did not live very affluent lives. Encountering this kind of matter was undoubtedly adding frost to snow for them. Even without Fang Lei stepping forward, Chen Jiu probably would still have lent a helping hand.

“Thank you, thank you all.” Wang Siqi was deeply moved, standing up to give Chen Jiu a proper bow.

All things in the world have yin and yang sides. The Route 37 that Wang Zhen saw yesterday was probably the yin realm passengers. That she was able to return home safely later was probably because the driver understood this was a living passenger who had mistakenly entered. The bus full of ghosts did not touch her, only driving her away and frightening her. Wang Zhen was timid with light Eight Characters, which was why she developed a high fever. She would need to nurse herself for ten days to half a month before her heart and soul could recover.

The problem lay with this Route 37. This bus must have had some incident in the past for these strange occurrences to happen.

Chen Jiu returned to the Wanshi Studio. Her first matter was to gather information, and by the way ask her second senior sister for some leads.

Second Senior Sister: Little Jiu, you’ve really become too good at slacking off now. Every matter comes to ask me. Are you using me as a human-shaped search tool? Next time I’ll charge you a hefty consultation fee.

Chen Jiu: No problem. Who told you to have so many information channels.

Web pages rapidly searched. The top result was a local forum post from Qiu City three years ago, with over a hundred follow-up comments: “The Truth of Route 37’s Last Bus (Terrifying When You Think About It).”

Main text:

I am an employee of the bus company. Because of work reasons I have come into contact with some internal materials. Let me tell about a strange matter of Route 37.

Route 37’s last bus would often be delayed when passing through the He River Bay Road section. The dispatcher asked the driver, and the driver said someone boarded along the way. But bizarrely, the vehicle record showed that section had no stops, and no one swiped a card to board.

Follow-up comments:

Holy crap, I rode Route 37’s last bus once and nearly didn’t get off.

That night I boarded from the train station. There were only a few people on the bus. After passing the old city district, the streetlights began flickering on and off. I didn’t pay attention at the time, just looked down at my phone. As I played, I felt the back of my neck getting chilly. I turned back to look, and the last row was somehow full of people. It scared me half to death.

When I boarded, the last row was empty! Every person’s face was as white as a dead person’s, and they didn’t make a sound. I didn’t dare look at all. When the bus reached my stop, I immediately got off. Looking back again, the carriage was still empty! Not a single person!

Chen Jiu unwrapped a lollipop and put it in her mouth, then clicked open another post with the title “Does That Route 37 Driver Have Some Mental Problems?”

Main text:

This driver has been driving Route 37 for many years, right? He used to drive quite steadily. Recently I don’t know why he often slams on the brakes, and says someone is crossing the road. Every time he brakes I look outside with him. There’s no one there. I estimate he’s getting old and has some mental problems. Where should this kind of situation be reported? Our passengers’ life safety should be guaranteed!

Follow-up comments:

This driver lives next door to me. He used to be very normal. It’s just these past few months he’s changed somewhat. I can’t quite say how, just that he’s become less fond of interacting with others. His wife says he’s prone to feeling stifled at middle age, often has nightmares at night, so his temper is bad. I didn’t ask further. But poster, now that you mention it, indeed, I feel unsafe riding his bus. We should unite and report this to their company.

There were also several comments echoing that the driver had mental problems. Only one very short comment abruptly said: “The driver has no problem. Route 37 has the problem.”

But this post didn’t have much heat, so this comment was pressed to the very bottom, ignored by everyone.

Chen Jiu closed the forum page, then opened another web entry: Route 37 Bus Falling Into River Accident. A medium-sized bus in Qiu City fell into a river, 13 people killed.

The page was very simple, an archive from a certain official media outlet, with a photo of the salvage scene attached. The river water was extremely turbid. Rescue personnel were using ropes to drag a half-sunk medium-sized bus. The carriage interior was a complete mess.

Chen Jiu stared at that photo for several seconds, then enlarged it. She discovered the driver’s seat window was open.

She had just about finished looking here, when over there Chen Ning also sent over the information she had found.

After filtering out some useless and overlapping parts, the remaining effective information was only one piece.

Chen Ning: After physical evidence extraction was completed, the Route 37 bus had no repair value left. Theoretically it should enter the aforementioned scrapping and dismantling process. But the bus company, due to involving compensation disputes and unclear responsibility determination, delayed and refused to carry out scrapping procedures. This accident vehicle was then parked for a long time at XX parking lot. If the information I gathered is not wrong, it’s still parked there as a memorial monument.

After saying this she considerately attached a location pin.

Chen Jiu was deeply impressed, sending her a small red envelope: Thanks senior sister, you’re so efficient.

Chen Ning instantly collected the red envelope, replying with a spinning circle emoticon.

After packing up her tools, Chen Jiu patted her shoulder, and Chen Xiaoxuan very consciously jumped on.

“Senior sister, where are you going?” Su Xiaoyu was holding her pen, lifting her head from her pile of homework. Bingbing lying beside her also lifted his head.

“Taking a temporary small job. You and Bingbing watch the house well, and figure out your own dinner delivery.” Chen Jiu rubbed her head: “If anything urgent happens, call me, or go find the grandmother next door.”

Su Xiaoyu received the shop-watching mission, and said with a straight face: “Okay! Senior sister, rest assured!”

Chen Jiu drove all the way to the western outskirts of Qiu City. This parking lot was not large, holding a dozen or so vehicles.

Besides buses, there were also medium-sized buses and small trucks. The vehicle bodies were covered with dust and bird droppings. The tires were flat. Faded scrapping labels were stuck on the window glass.

After getting out of the car, Chen Jiu twisted on her flashlight, shining it vehicle by vehicle, finally finding that accident vehicle.

It was parked at the innermost position, the body tilted. The tires on the left side were all flat. The windshield was completely shattered, cracks spreading like a spider web from the center toward the surroundings. The window on the driver’s seat side was open, just like in the online photo. Chen Jiu approached, shining her flashlight inside, one hand covering her nose. She discovered a deep scratch mark on the steering wheel, with several dark red streaks embedded in the mark. She didn’t know whether it was paint or bloodstains, or something else.

After observing this part, Chen Jiu walked two steps around the vehicle body, when she suddenly heard a few faint dripping sounds.

Drip. Drip.

Chen Jiu pondered for a moment, then crouched down, shining her flashlight toward the bottom of the vehicle. Liquid was seeping out from the gaps in the chassis.

Drip. Drip.

A gust of wind blew chilly. Chen Jiu stood up, staring at that open glass door of the driver’s cabin, as if someone inside was shaking the handle. It began to slowly close.

To avoid startling the snake, Chen Jiu temporarily sealed off her own aura, approaching closer to observe with concentration.

The carriage interior immediately began playing like a film from many years ago, vaguely showing many human shadows.

They piled together in a hazy mass, then dispersed, finding their own seats. Each person had their own fixed position. The driver’s face was ashen and gray, clearly also dead for a long time.

Everyone performed a silent pantomime, walking quietly, sitting down, then freezing in place.

Chen Jiu recalled the passengers Fang Lei had described, the carriage interior from Wang Zhen’s video. Combining them, they almost perfectly matched the scene reappearing before her eyes, including that woman wearing a dress with long hair.

Their faces were still blurry, making it impossible to see their expressions.

At this point, Chen Jiu could confirm that this was the yin side starting station of Route 37.

This bus full of people probably still didn’t know to this day that they had already died falling into the river. They still repeated the trajectory of the day of their death every day on the same route, boarding, alighting, waiting.

At this step, the matter seemed to become exceptionally simple. As long as Chen Jiu stepped forward and let them all know the fact that they had already died, the cycle situation could be broken.

But what puzzled Chen Jiu was, what exactly happened three years ago that made the driver lose his soul and even carry, with his eyes fixed straight ahead, 13 passengers directly into the river?

When the police situation was announced, it only said that according to information provided by the bus company and on-site witness reports, the vehicle showed no obvious abnormal deceleration or evasive actions before falling into the river. It suddenly deviated from the normal driving route, rushed into the oncoming lane, and smashed through the guardrail. Combined with preliminary analysis of the vehicle’s driving recorder, at the time of the incident the driver was suspected of suddenly losing control of the vehicle. Before the vehicle fell into the river, no records were received of people on the vehicle calling for help externally.

As for the sudden loss of control of the vehicle, the police preliminarily attributed it to sudden illness. But possibly because the subsequent consolation efforts were quite substantial, almost no family members came forward to pursue responsibility, and the follow-up was left unresolved.

Sudden illness? Chen Jiu maintained a skeptical attitude toward this.

It seemed that to know the inside story, she would have to visit the driver’s family members.

Wanting to obtain this part of the materials was also very simple. Pay money to Chen Ning, and she always had ways to get it.

Chen Jiu returned to her own car, opened her contacts list, and sent Chen Ning a transfer of 888 yuan. This money was still instantly collected. Chen Ning’s efficiency was ridiculously high. She only used half an hour to send the obtained information to Chen Jiu in full detail, and even made a very beautiful layout.

Chen Jiu couldn’t help sighing: Senior sister, how exactly do you do it?

Chen Ning said guardedly: Hey, this is legal, not a gray industry chain. Don’t get any crooked ideas. Are you thinking of righteously destroying your own kin?

Chen Jiu laughed: What are you thinking? I don’t mean to report you.

Chen Ning: Alright, I just called their company’s operations manager as an indirect surveyor. They don’t want to deal with this kind of matter either, basically应付ing it when they can应付 it. A few lies and it was extracted. No one will really investigate.

Chen Jiu: …

Chen Jiu stared at the eight hundred yuan she had transferred over, sighing. No wonder some money should be earned by Chen Ning. Eight hundred yuan in half an hour. If she doesn’t get rich, who will?

Chen Jiu: Thanks.

Then she put away her phone, started the car, and drove toward the destination Chen Ning had sent.

Old city district?

These three words made a bit of familiar memories surface in Chen Jiu’s mind. Since opening the shop, she had come to this area no less than three times. This probably couldn’t be described by mere coincidence.