Chapter 103-104 Dead Man Driving Chapter and Turmoil at the Zhang Residence (1/2)
Yuanyuan was a sales girl of female apparels and most of her colleagues were girls about her age. Females of their age all shared a common habit: gossiping. They would spend every minute of their spare time prattling about boyfriends, relationships, and of course, the ever-so enigmatic topic of paranormal incidents.
Inadvertently, all eyes around the table were naturally directed upon the one single person who had no short of encounters with the paranormal: me! As the youngest and possibly the most powerful medium in town, the name of Murong Shiyan had become a household topic across the little hamlet of Wu Zhong County. As we ate, my companions and I endured the ceaseless bombardment of weird and strange questions unleashed upon us by the girls. ”Oh, Brother Shiyan! Are the rumors about your encounters true, or were they merely publicity stunts?” One of the girls asked. My eyeballs rolled upwards involuntarily while I nearly scowled out loud. But Yuan Chongxi was quick to answer; mumbling through the food in his mouth, he barked incredulously, ”That's up to you! It's only true if you choose to believe, and these things do not exist if you don't!” It was a just a bunch of nonsense Chongxi sprouted to keep the girl occupied, but I almost vomited my food when the girl yelled pompously, ”Oh, My God! What deep wisdom!” My eyes rolled again.
But another girl badgered me with another question, ”Brother Shiyan, Brother Shiyan. People say ghosts are just around us, even though we can't see them? Is that true?” At last, a question of substance, I almost breathed with relief, however menial it was. My fingers instinctively traced along the already-healed scar on my face, feeling the prickly sensation grazing on the tip of my fingers as I pondered a response. ”Urm... Well... The statement is right and wrong at the same time, I guess. Some people only believe in what they see. But there are times when what we witness are merely illusory distractions meant to lead us astray. On what grounds are we to judge if a person standing before us is a human or a ghost?” The girl immediately pointed at her own eyes. ”Our eyes of course!” ”That is true, only if we are looking at humans,” I said, giggling gently, ”But the same cannot be said for ghosts. You see them, and sometimes you don't. We rely on our minds.”
The table had turned quiet suddenly and all other chatters across the table died down as I began to feel the weight of the gazes from everyone at the table upon me. The girl was about to ask some more, when another girl beside her rummaged for her mobile phone. She fiddled at the controls of her phone and clicked at an icon that looked like a streaming app to me. She raised her phone and began speaking to its camera, ”Hi, everyone! Here we are, at a gathering where renowned medium...” My voice was stuck halfway at my throat and I fell silent, watching as the girl began receiving ”gifts” from other users of the app...
Suddenly I heard a disembodied voice emitting from her phone, ”Hey, it's Shiyan! Guess who I am!” Flustered, I barked at the direction of the girl's outstretched hand holding her phone, ”How can I know who the hell you are?” Another voice, unfamiliar to me, rang too, ”What medium! Just a bunch of shysters and charlatans!” And I choked hard, speechless beyond words...
Nevertheless, it was plain and clear that the girl had managed to reap a heap load of pixelated gifts from fellow users of the app, by using my face.
Girls today were so attracted to the mystic and mysterious such as the paranormal and supernatural. I was only able to breathe easily when we reached the end of the dinner, having weathered the shelling of bizarre questions. But to my dismay, that was not the end of the gathering; the girls wanted to adjourn to a karaoke joint for some more fun. Immediately, Yuan Chongxi and I quickly bowed out with the pretense of business, leaving Lin Feng to fend for himself among the girls. He was looking at us incredulously as we left, with Yuanyuan dragging him with her...
Yuan Chongxi and I immediately fled to our car and I pedaled hard on the throttle. Within ten minutes, we were back at the Center. But we had barely sunk ourselves into the sofa when Lin Feng called. I was thinking of teasing him as soon as I answered the phone, only to hear his agitated voice. ”Shiyan! We need you! There's been an emergency!” My brows creased into a frown. ”What's wrong?” ”We were on the way to the karaoke joint when we witnessed an accident! A bus filled with people had collided with a heavily-laden truck! Blood is everywhere!” ”Ah...” I murmured. Lin Feng would have been calling first to Zheng Shuang and not me, if this was a simple and straightforward accident. ”What did you see, Brother?” I asked again, sounding more definite now. And he answered, ”It's not just me... Even Yuanyuan and the girls saw it too...”
A chill dread ran down my spine suddenly. ”What is it that you saw?” I pressed again. ”I saw a female ghost, her hair disheveled and wild, who has only the upper half of her body! The bisected ghost was stuck to the rear axle of the truck when I saw it, grabbing on desperately to the shaft of the truck with her two arms wrapped around it tightly...” Ghosts would not easily allow themselves to be so easily seen by humans. But Lin Feng had explicitly mentioned that everyone was able to see her! This was no ordinary female ghost, I mused; she might have mutated into something worst and more malevolent. Most spirits retain their former emotions and awareness even though as ghosts, they have weaker willpower than humans, allowing them to be easily affected by other elements, especially hatred and grudge!
Xiao San was the only one among the Seven Sisters to die in an accident. This was also why she has the strongest hatred among them all. Without her sisters to keep her hatred in check, Xiao San would have long turned into another female ghost with as much malevolence as the one Lin Feng witnessed, one most commonly known as vengeful spirits.
These were not vengeful spirits we usually see in fiction; in fact, true vengeful spirits were not technically ghosts anymore, but an entity devoid of the ability to reason and feel, an impartial and neutral natural occurrence like a shark or a tsunami. But unlike most natural catastrophes, vengeful spirits dwell and lurk only at a designated spot, most likely the location where it died, such as the site of his or her fatal accident and among others.
”Get to somewhere safe at once!” I barked into the phone, ”Have the girls go home as soon as possible! I fear that our problems are only beginning. That is heavy stuff you witnessed there. Chongxi and I are on the way!” I slammed the phone back to its cradle and dragged Yuan Chongxi out the doors of our Center. Bewildered and perplexed, Yuan Chongxi did not know what was happening. ”Something bad has happened with Brother Lin,” I said before telling him the whole story. Chongxi began making calculations, trying to divine whatever he could on the way. He too had noticed that there was more than meets the eye to this case than a simple vengeful spirit.
”It's OK. We'll be fine,” Yuan Chongxi said suddenly, breaking my train of thoughts. He had finished his calculations and concluded that everything will be well. I was relieved to hear this. A bad omen now would spell disaster for us all.
We reached the scene of the accident within minutes. Apparently, the accident had occurred hours before Lin Feng and the girls passed by. Zheng Shuang was present when we came, and we found him talking to Lin Feng. He came to us when he saw us and we exchanged words of greeting. ”How is the situation? I did not expect you to be here?” Zheng Shuang's forehead creased. ”I was notified by the Traffic Police about this incident, hence I was summoned here. This is a terrible accident, and the driver of the truck...” He paused for seconds before he continued, ”According to the coroner's report, the time of death of the driver does not match the time of the accident! He was long dead for at least two hours even before the accident!” ”Interesting... A dead man driving...” I muttered with a sly smile forming slowly on my face.
”You have noticed something, did you Shiyan?” Zheng Shuang asked, noticing my wry smile, ”Could this be another plot of the...” ”We cannot be sure yet,” I said sharply, ”I'm sure Brother Lin had reported to you everything that he witnessed, did he not? Nevertheless, there are still some details that we need to iron out before we can be certain...” I gave Zheng Shuang a short summary on what vengeful spirits really were and instructed him to find out everything he could about the pickup truck and its driver. The information would be crucial to our investigations. Accustomed to our ways, he would report at once any information that he could glean before his superiors heard of anything!
As soon as I finished, my phone rang suddenly. It was a number that I could not recognize. I clicked the ”Answer” button only to hear nothing, save for the noisy static buzzing on the line.