Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Brother Long, are you awake?” Old Zhang, who was driving, suddenly spoke up.

I quickly answered and sat up. A glance at the time showed it was already past ten at night, and there were noticeably fewer cars on the road outside.

“We’re almost at the service area, right? I’ll take over in a bit,” I said to Old Zhang.

Old Zhang nodded. He raised his hand as if he wanted to light a cigarette, but he couldn’t seem to hold on to it.

Only then did I notice his hand was trembling a little.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Old Zhang hesitated, his voice a little weak. “Uh, B-Brother Long… why are there so many people trying to flag down cars tonight?”

I leaned toward the window and looked out. Sure enough, there was a person standing by the roadside every dozen meters or so.

They didn’t stop sedans. They didn’t stop buses. They only slowly raised their hands when we were about to drive past.

This stretch wasn’t highway. There weren’t many cars on the road either, and with the poor lighting, those shadows were mostly standing outside the guardrail. I couldn’t see their faces at all.

“Don’t pay attention to them. Keep the car steady. We’ll be fine once we reach the service area,” I told Old Zhang.

Old Zhang gripped the steering wheel tightly, not daring to relax for even a second.

Just then, Wang Cheng, who had also fallen asleep earlier, woke up. Still groggy, he looked outside. “Damn, why are there so many people? Is there some tourist spot around here?”

Neither Old Zhang nor I answered him. We kept watching the road.

Wang Cheng stared quietly out the window for a while. Then, all of a sudden, one of his hands reached for the door.

The Soul-Whip at my waist shuddered. Wang Cheng had already opened the door-

I immediately grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back hard. The door slammed shut again with a bang.

Wang Cheng twisted his neck to look at me, his gaze fixed and vacant. “Let them get in…”

Old Zhang screamed in fright, and the car swerved with him.

“Hold the wheel!”

I roared at Old Zhang, then grabbed Wang Cheng by the collar and dragged him into the back seat by force.

Wang Cheng let out a low growl and reached out with both hands to choke me. I pinned him against the seat back, pulled out the Soul-Whip, and lashed him with it!

The whip struck Wang Cheng’s hand. With a howl, Wang Cheng clutched his swelling hand and collapsed onto the seat.

I moved into the front passenger seat and looked out through the window.

It was as if a layer of dust had settled over the glass. I could barely see the road anymore.

Clutching the Soul-Whip, I rapped the window twice, hard. The layer of dust outside abruptly scattered.

The car sped past another person reaching out to flag us down. In the rearview mirror, that person stiffly turned his head, his gaze seeming to follow us the whole way.

Old Zhang pulled out a few tissues and wiped the sweat from his face.

Wang Cheng was still lying in the back. Other than a few low sobs, he didn’t make another sound.

I turned on the radio, wanting to find something to listen to. By chance, I landed on a storytelling program. They were telling Journey to the West.

It was just that the host’s voice sounded strange, like someone had him by the throat. His pitch was thin and shrill.

“Now, as the tale goes, Sun Wukong was pinned beneath Five Finger Mountain for five hundred years. Then, one day…”

“Ah!”

Old Zhang suddenly shouted. The car jolted violently right after, as if we had run over something!

“B-B-Brother Long! I think I hit someone!”

As he spoke, Old Zhang tried to stop right there, but I slapped him hard.

An SUV behind us nearly crashed into us. It swerved at the last second and honked twice at us furiously.

“Are you insane? Where is there anyone?”

The road behind us was perfectly clear. I had been staring straight ahead the whole time too. There hadn’t been anyone in the middle of the road at all.

Old Zhang panted heavily, the hands gripping the steering wheel shaking nonstop.

A while later, just as he was about to relax a little, the car jolted again!

“Brother Long-”

“It’s fine. Stay calm.”

I raised a hand and pressed it on Old Zhang’s shoulder. “We’re almost at the service area. Once we get there, we’ll switch seats.”

Old Zhang nodded in a panic. Big drops of sweat rolled down onto his clothes, soaking the front of his shirt.

By then, Wang Cheng had also crawled back up. He huddled to one side like a quail, clutching the safety handle tightly.

Journey to the West was still playing on the radio, and the host’s voice had grown even sharper.

“Now let us speak of that holy monk from the Eastern Land, the reincarnation of Golden Cicada, bearing the merit of ten lifetimes.

“On this journey westward, he would inevitably draw the covetous eyes of countless demons and the ravenous hunger of myriad ghosts…”