Chapter 178
Chapter 178
Sudden death?
Qin Ying pulled over a stool and sat down, studying Third Aunt Xu’s expression.
A loved one had died suddenly, and under suspicious circumstances at that. Third Aunt Xu was under tremendous strain.
Now that she had a stranger like Qin Ying to talk to, she unexpectedly found herself wanting to unburden her heart.
As they spoke, the little girl in her arms grew drowsy and fell asleep.
Once the child was asleep, Qin Ying asked, “Did Third Uncle Xu die suddenly from a heart condition?”
Third Aunt Xu nodded at first, then hesitated.
After a long silence, she sighed. “The authorities told us that was what we had to say publicly.”
“But it wasn’t that simple.”
Third Uncle Xu had been the stationmaster of a small railway station.
He was the same age as Qin Zhiguo and only a few years away from retirement.
The station where he worked was fairly remote, and the job wasn’t particularly demanding.
He was a disciplined man who neither smoked nor drank.
He treated his daily station inspections as exercise and had always been in excellent health.
The day before, while celebrating the Ghost Festival at home, he had still been able to lift and carry heavy things without any trouble.
Yet after working one night shift and seeing a train through the station, he vanished without a trace.
When he was found at the entrance to a tunnel the next day, he was already dead.
Third Aunt Xu shifted uneasily, her lips moving before she finally said, “The authorities told me to claim the body. They said he’d suffered sudden cardiac death.”
“I don’t believe them.”
She shook her head. “I knew my husband’s health better than anyone.”
“And…” After a moment’s hesitation, she lowered her voice. “And I saw the body.”
Third Aunt Xu couldn’t even begin to describe the twisted expression on the face of the man who had shared her bed.
Even now, the memory of that face beneath the white sheet filled her with dread.
“That expression… It was obvious he’d been frightened to death.”
“I was afraid the old lady wouldn’t be able to take it, so I still haven’t let her see him.”
Only then did Third Aunt Xu seem to come back to her senses. She gave a rueful exclamation. “Just look at me. Why am I telling you all this?”
“Don’t take it to heart, and please don’t tell anyone else.”
Seeing how pale Qin Ying’s lips were, she assumed she had frightened her and was about to apologize when Qin Ying asked, “Third Aunt Xu, could you tell me more about it?”
“The truth is, a friend of mine seems to have encountered something too.”
Qin Ying invented a friend on the spot, hoping to coax more information out of Third Aunt Xu.
She repeated the title of the post she had found that day.
“My friend said there’s something unclean around the tunnel.”
Sure enough, Third Aunt Xu’s expression changed the moment she heard that.
“I knew it wasn’t that simple.” Third Aunt Xu clearly knew something.
She muttered, “I warned your Third Uncle Xu ages ago. I told him that if it came to it, he should take leave and stay away from that godforsaken section of track.”
“But he wouldn’t listen.”
Qin Ying immediately realized that Third Uncle Xu must have come home and told her about something.
She pressed, “What exactly happened?”
Third Aunt Xu hesitated for a while, but ultimately told her.
High-speed railways could be found everywhere these days, but some places still relied on the old green trains.
Due to Yunlan City’s unusual terrain, it had retained special public-service trains for people traveling to and from remote villages.
After those old trains had been running for long enough, certain unspoken rules became common knowledge.
The authorities might publicly denounce superstition, but even archaeological teams would secretly slip their director’s business card into the Coffin before opening it. That way, if the tomb’s owner wanted revenge on someone for disturbing their rest, they could go after the director.
The more people traveled and the more they saw, the more they tended to believe in certain rules.
The old green trains that ran through the mountains year-round had rules of their own.
For example, passengers had to close the curtains when traveling at night.
Most importantly, they shouldn’t casually look outside when the train passed through a tunnel.
The train Third Uncle Xu received every night around midnight had to abide by those rules.
But even following the rules didn’t guarantee safety.
Starting more than two weeks ago, strange things had repeatedly happened whenever trains traveled through that section of track.
For example, an attendant in an old-fashioned uniform from the previous century would appear carrying a thermos and ask each passenger whether they wanted water.
Any unsuspecting passenger who held out a cup would receive a cupful of foul-smelling, ice-cold water.
Some passengers sat beside the window at night playing on their phones, only to see a white figure hanging outside and continuously following the train.
Others would be half asleep in their seats when a man with a shaved forehead and a long queue shook them awake and asked, “Where are you from? Your clothes look so strange.”
…
Even the train attendants often encountered strange things.
Sometimes extra people would inexplicably appear in a carriage. Dressed in tattered padded jackets and wearing their hair in queues, they would walk through the train like living people.
Every now and then, they would touch this and that, then shamelessly pester the attendants for food with cheeky grins.
No one dared refuse them.
Every one of these incidents occurred shortly before or after a train entered or exited the tunnel.
And that troublesome tunnel happened to be right by the small station where Third Uncle Xu worked.
That section of the line had been his responsibility.
Third Uncle Xu had encountered strange things too. On foggy days, he had seen figures standing beside the signal lights and waving.
Illuminated by the lights, those figures’ necks looked unnaturally long.
Third Uncle Xu had always been a brave man. Even after seeing them several times, he merely went home and told Third Aunt Xu about them as if they were nothing more than curiosities.
She told him to stop going to work, but he refused to listen.
The day he died had also been foggy. No one knew what came over him, but after seeing the train through the station, he took his flashlight and walked into the dense fog.
By the time he was found again, his body had already gone stiff.