Free Web NovelWhere should I go? This is one of the three ultimate philosophical questions of Socrates, alongside "Who am I?" and "Where do I come from?".
Facing such a question, Lu Yibei thought for a long time, finally unable to resist the heart-stopping feeling brought by the taxi meter's constantly rising numbers, and made a decision.
"Uncle Zhang, could you please take me near the Kua Jiang Bridge?" Lu Yibei said.
She thought about it repeatedly and felt that in her current state, there was nowhere else she could go; only Gu Qianqian's "den" could give her shelter.
"Mm, no problem." Uncle Zhang Shan responded indifferently, his surface calm, but his heart was already ruthlessly complaining.
It's clearly only a twenty-minute drive from University City to the Kua Jiang Bridge, yet he insisted on taking a huge detour, almost covering the entire city in over an hour. Is my gas free?
Even freeloading should follow basic principles. What good does it do you to fleece the sheep to death?
Wait, when did I start assuming she wouldn't pay for the ride? No, I must remember to ask her for the fare this time!
Uncle Zhang Shan thought, as if making a fierce declaration of resolve, he shifted gears, stepped on the gas, and drove all the way towards the Kua Jiang Bridge.
While the taxi was speeding, Uncle Zhang Shan occasionally observed Lu Yibei through the rearview mirror.
He saw her leaning against the car door, propping her chin with one hand, looking out the window, appearing troubled and pensive. Uncle Zhang Shan couldn't help but slightly furrow his brow.
Strange, why is she so quiet today? She's not pestering me to tell me stories. Zhang Shan thought.
Regarding the urban legend stories Lu Yibei told, his feelings had always been a mix of love and hate.
He loved that he could collect high-quality material, bringing extremely high popularity to his radio station.
He hated that those stories were too eerie; they sounded like real events happening nearby, making people feel uneasy.
Time flew by while Uncle Zhang Shan was struggling with whether or not to proactively bring up the urban legend stories with Lu Yibei. About twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped near the Kua Jiang Bridge, and immediately, a new problem began to trouble him.
This time, should he, or should he not, proactively ask for the fare?
As Uncle Zhang Shan was thinking, Lu Yibei's voice drifted faintly from the back seat, "Uncle, could you wait for me here for a bit? I don't have any cash on hand. I need to go back and get some before I can pay you the fare."
How about I first check Gu Qianqian's piggy bank and give the fare to Uncle Zhang Shan? I can't keep not paying the fare; it's not easy for him to work so hard driving late at night. Lu Yibei thought, I'll just pay Gu Qianqian back later.
Hearing Lu Yibei proactively say she would pay the fare, Uncle Zhang Shan felt an inexplicable tension. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his peripheral vision glancing out the window.
Outside the car window, the asphalt road after the heavy rain was wet and glistening under the streetlights. Wisps of white mist floated in the air, and further away, the mountains and water were a hazy expanse.
Everything within sight was desolate. Where could anyone possibly live here?
"This..." Uncle Zhang Shan hesitated, "You live here?"
"Yeah! Just under the bridge!" Lu Yibei looked at Uncle Zhang Shan with a serious expression and nodded.
Upon hearing this, Uncle Zhang Shan's expression instantly became solemn.
"..."
The bridge, under the bridge? I remember, last month under the Kua Jiang Bridge, it seemed like a bizarre corpse was pulled out? She lives under the bridge...
No way, Zhang Shan! No matter what, you have to get the fare this time!
I can't be a coward anymore. How much gas money have I lost because of her in the past month? This can't go on! Zhang Shan thought fiercely to himself.
If a person becomes poor, what money wouldn't they dare to earn? As long as it's not illegal, I'll still earn money from urban legend.
While Uncle Zhang Shan was thinking, Lu Yibei had already gotten out of the car and walked towards the side of the road, her figure disappearing into the bushes that had been washed bright by the heavy rain.
After Lu Yibei left, the deserted Linjiang Avenue quickly fell into a dead silence late at night. The white mist in the distance gradually thickened, blown by the cold wind, changing into various eerie shapes, slowly drifting towards the taxi parked by the roadside.
A chilling touch swept across Zhang Shan's dark skin. His body trembled slightly. He tightened his collar and silently rolled up the car window.
As if an illusion, the moment he rolled up the car window, he faintly heard the sound of a car door opening and then being gently closed.
It got colder and colder in the car, as if the hard shell and glass couldn't block out the chill from outside.
Zhang Shan faintly felt a hand gently and silently placed on him. There were sounds of a cool breeze blowing from somewhere near his ears, and in the fragmented sound of the wind, it seemed to be mixed with sinister whispers, telling Zhang Shan things he absolutely didn't want to know.
"Gulp—!"
Feeling the unsettling phenomenon in the car, Zhang Shan gulped hard but didn't dare to check through the rearview mirror for any abnormality in the back seat.
His face turned pale in waves. He gripped the steering wheel tightly until his knuckles turned white, cursing inwardly.
Damn it, I don't even need to look to know there's definitely something in the back seat!
Is this the consequence of asking that guy for the fare?
What should I do now? How about... how about... I just forget about the fare and leave quickly?
As he was thinking, a rustling sound suddenly came from outside the car window. It sounded like something was walking out from the shadowy bushes.
Hearing the sound, Zhang Shan silently released the handbrake, stepped on the clutch, engaged a gear, and then gently placed his foot on the accelerator, ready to step on the gas and drive away as soon as things felt wrong.
...
Lu Yibei went to the third bridge pier under the Kua Jiang Bridge, took a large handful of loose change totaling two hundred yuan from Gu Qianqian's piggy bank, and returned to the road by the bridge.
From a distance, she saw the back seat of the taxi was packed with "people."
Those "people" were pale figures, their forms somewhere between reality and illusion, looking similar to the tall, thin black shadow she had seen at the Hua Yu Sunshine Resort Hotel.
They twisted their bodies, sitting in the back seat, stretching their necks long, extending their heads next to Zhang Shan, sizing him up with malicious and curious gazes, restlessly fumbling with their hands and feet, and sticking out their tongues to lick back and forth.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei frowned. This should be the kind of not-yet-fully-formed Strange Tale mentioned in the Si Ye Shu, right?
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She had seen relevant content when she was studying the parts of the Si Ye Shu about the types of urban legend. These things that looked like ghosts and had no fixed form mostly belonged to not-yet-fully-formed urban legend. There would be subtle differences in the types after they became urban legend, depending on their body color.
But if this kind of thing doesn't turn into a Strange Tale, doesn't it not exist for long? Like mayflies, born in the evening and dying in the morning. How could so many appear all of a sudden?
Lu Yibei thought, and quickened her steps towards Uncle Zhang Shan's taxi.
Although not-yet-formed urban legend are said to be difficult to cause substantial harm, the number of those figures was so large that even the tires of the car were slightly deformed from the pressure.
In this severely "overloaded" situation, if Uncle Zhang Shan were to hastily drive the car away, it would easily lead to accidents or similar incidents.
As Lu Yibei approached the taxi bit by bit, those eerie figures seemed to sense something. They all looked in her direction and then froze in place.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei also paused slightly. With her arms crossed and a poker face, she cast a highly intimidating look at the figures in the car. The residual Spiritual Energy fluctuations left from the previous battle surged, and a flicker of flame-like light flashed in her eyes.
Then.
Something unexpected happened to Lu Yibei. The scene she imagined, where those figures would be intimidated and scatter like birds and beasts, did not occur.
Instead, patches of light suddenly appeared on them. Then, those patches of light spread rapidly across their pale bodies, like paper being ignited. After a few breaths, accompanied by a flash of illusory firelight, those figures vanished without a trace.
In the air, a faint, almost inaudible scream drifted with the breeze.
Lu Yibei, "..."
This...
They shouldn't have died just from me looking at them, right? Most likely, their time limit for existence was up, and they dissipated on their own. That kind of thing originally doesn't exist for long.
Lu Yibei thought, gently shook her head, collected her thoughts, walked forward, and lightly tapped on the driver's side window, saying softly, "Uncle, I've got the fare for you."
In the driver's seat, Zhang Shan, who had sensed the abnormality in the car, was in a state of high tension and hadn't noticed that Lu Yibei had returned.
The moment the car window was tapped, he suddenly felt something taut in his mind snap with a "snap!" in an instant. He didn't dare to look at what was outside the window, screamed, and stomped on the accelerator, rushing out.
After driving a hundred or two hundred meters, he came back to his senses, turned the car around, and slowly and cautiously drove back. He observed Lu Yibei through the car window for a long time. Only after confirming that she wouldn't suddenly turn into some ferocious and terrifying appearance did he slowly roll down the window halfway.
Taking the large wad of loose change Lu Yibei handed him, Uncle Zhang Shan didn't even count it, just stuffed it haphazardly into his pocket. He was about to roll up the window and leave but was stopped by her.
"Uncle, wait a moment, there's one more thing."
Hearing this, Zhang Shan glanced at Lu Yibei's small hand on the car window, suppressed the urge to flee, and said in a deep voice, "Speak."
"I just wanted to give you something..." Lu Yibei said, then put down the guitar bag on her shoulder, opened the zipper a crack, reached in and fumbled around for a while, and with a "swish!", pulled out a chillingly cold kitchen knife.
Zhang Shan, "!!!"
The silvery light reflected from the kitchen knife swept across his eyes. Beads of sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and his legs went weak.
Lu Yibei glanced at the kitchen knife in her hand and said awkwardly, "Uh, sorry! Got the wrong one."
Zhang Shan, "..." freёwebnoѵel.com
Lu Yibei put the kitchen knife back into the guitar bag and fumbled around again. Her eyes lit up slightly as she grabbed two or three First Light Spring Wind Curses, took them out, and handed them to Zhang Shan.
"Uncle, I see you always drive late at night, which is quite dangerous. I have a few talismans here; they're very effective. We're so familiar with each other, please be sure to accept them!"
"..." Zhang Shan stared at the talismans in Lu Yibei's hand, hesitated for a moment, nodded, said "Thank you!", then immediately rolled up the window, stepped on the accelerator to the floor, and sped away like a shot.
Watching the taxi's retreating back, Lu Yibei tilted her head and murmured to herself, "Uncle Zhang, he's really impatient, always so hurried and flustered."
...
1:30 AM, in an old building in the West District of Hua City.
After Zhang Shan returned home from work, the first thing he did was not start his radio show live stream, but turn on all the lights in the living room, take out the banknotes Lu Yibei paid him, and spread them on the table.
He sat on the sofa, propping his chin with his hands, staring intently at the pile of loose change, as if afraid they would suddenly turn into ghost money.
Zhang Shan was worried that the banknotes given by Lu Yibei might undergo some terrifying transformation, so he simply skipped today's radio show live stream and just stared at the pile of money for over three hours before finally feeling temporarily relieved.
"She actually paid? And even made up for the previous two times, this..."
"No, no, I can't let my guard down. Maybe it's a final burst of activity, the calm before the storm. I still have to wait until dawn and check again."
As he spoke, Zhang Shan got up, found a glass jar, stuffed Lu Yibei's fare inside, screwed the lid on tightly, and then placed it on the balcony where the morning light was best.
I heard those unclean things are most afraid of sunlight. I'll give this money a good sunbath. If there's still no change, then I can be sure there's nothing fishy going on. Zhang Shan thought.
...
That night, in the shack under the third pier of the Kua Jiang Bridge.
Lu Yibei lay on the sofa at Gu Qianqian's place, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. She didn't know if it was because of the eerie sounds drifting in from outside the house from time to time, or if she was worried about Gu Qianqian's safety, or perhaps both.
Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she simply got up. Thanks to the previous experience, this time she only got shocked once before fumbling in the dark and turning on the light.
Using the dim, yellowish light of the low-wattage bulb, she took out the bamboo slip from the camphor wood chest, unfolded it in front of her, and examined it carefully against the light. It didn't trigger any strange phenomena like the first time she saw it.
It was as if the mysterious power within the bamboo slip had completely disappeared in just these few days.
At this moment, the bamboo slip was just a relic with some age to it.
"Sigh—!" After observing for a long time, Lu Yibei softly sighed, put down the bamboo slip, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
The mysterious girl told me to find a way to get inside the bamboo slip, but how would I know how to get in?
Now the bamboo slip isn't reacting at all. Maybe it's "full" after swallowing Gu Qianqian and has entered a dormant state.
I don't know if Gu Qianqian is still alive after being swallowed. Lu Yibei thought, Gu Qianqian, you must stay alive! Otherwise, I won't return your money...
