Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Maybe it was just my imagination.

The moment I took the red cloth bundle in my hand, the scene before my eyes dimmed several shades, as if a cloud had suddenly blotted out the sun.

And the Soul-Whip wrapped around my waist tightened in that same instant.

This Soul-Whip was given to me when I was a child by an old Daoist priest I had rescued from a drainage ditch.

He said to me, “You have the face of an asura and the heart of a bodhisattva. In this life, you’re destined to make your living between yin and yang.”

I hadn’t taken it seriously back then. But now, in my thirties, looking back on it…

From driving through Chongsha when I was young to helping people exorcise evil and repay debts now, the old man really had called it.

This Soul-Whip had saved me many times too.

“How do you feel?” Zhu Xuan looked at me with concern.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry,” I replied.

Master Yu had already told me that morning that using a living person to ballast the vehicle carried a huge risk.

Because from the moment I took on that role, it was as if I had two tickets in my hand.

One as a passenger, and one as the Vehicle-Ballasting Stone. My whole being was split in two.

If my fate wasn’t tough enough, then no matter what happened on the road, I would probably be the first to suffer.

Zhu Xuan put the box away and sat back down beside me, still muttering, “How is that possible? When I checked the tickets, I went row by row. There’s no way I missed anyone. When did that boy show up?”

“Don’t dwell on it. Maybe you just missed him for a moment, or maybe some passengers swapped seats on their own,” I said, trying to comfort her.

Zhu Xuan still couldn’t figure it out. Every now and then, she would turn her head to look at the boy.

The boy kept fiddling with his phone. No matter how you looked at him, he seemed completely normal.

I looked up at Master Yu. He remained calm, focused entirely on driving.

Gradually, drowsiness came over me, so I leaned my head against the bus window and closed my eyes for a light doze.

“Long… Chang… Dong…”

A strange, warped cry drifted into my ears as if carried in by the wind.

I opened my eyes in a daze, only to suddenly realize the bus had stopped. Outside, it was pitch-black!

The calling grew louder and louder, as though it were only separated from me by a single window.

I focused my eyes and looked outside. Beyond the highway guardrail stood a figure I knew all too well-Tang Dong.

Tang Dong was my childhood friend, and also my former business partner.

I treated him like my own younger brother and had protected him ever since we were kids.

But during the two years when I was busy caring for a gravely ill family member, he hollowed out my company and left me saddled with a massive debt.

Later, though, he overestimated himself and took a vehicle through Chongsha without authorization. He died on the highway.

It had already been more than half a year.

I looked at him calmly. I knew this was probably just another dream.

Lately, I often dreamed of him, especially when I was on a vehicle.

But I wasn’t afraid. Since I was little, there had never been much of anything I feared.

Besides, Tang Dong was a petty little man.

I didn’t believe he had the ability to turn into some kind of vengeful ghost.

Just then, the front door of the bus suddenly hissed open with a clunk, and gusts of cold wind blew in.

Tang Dong was still calling my name. I stopped paying attention to him and kept my eyes fixed on the bus door instead.

I had a feeling that something was about to come aboard.