Chapter 6 Nightmare

  As soon as he said this, I knew the man was in trouble. Sure enough, the middle-aged woman's face changed, her facial muscles twitched, and she let out a loud "hiss" before slapping the man's face with a loud smack. But that wasn't all - the uncle standing next to the woman naturally got angry too. This was a classic case of bullying! The uncle suddenly stood up, not giving the man any time to react, and punched him hard in the face, cursing: "Damn it, you dare to flirt with my wife? Don't you want to live?"

  Everyone in the carriage was silent, but there was a feeling that the man really didn't want to live. The sympathetic glances from the past were all the same, and even if this middle-aged woman had stuck to it, no one would have bothered her. However, in everyone's eyes, I was the culprit, yet no one thought that this punch would actually wake the man up. He took two steps back, surprisingly not entangling himself anymore, his face changing with uncertain thoughts. After a few moments of contemplation, he suddenly pulled out his wallet from his pants pocket, extracted a wad of cash, and waved it in his hand, saying: "I'll pay for a sanitary napkin, one with blood on it - whoever gives me one will get 1,000 yuan!"

  The man's method is indeed useful, except for the two little girls, all the other women seem to have been moved, but they are hesitant because of their dignity. However, not everyone can do it, and instead, the middle-aged woman who was just smiling brightly said: "Big brother, I have..."

  As she spoke, she hid behind the back of the car seat and then reached down to feel around for a while. Sure enough, she pulled out a sanitary napkin, which was actually a Comfort brand one. She looked embarrassed as she held it in her hand, staring at the man who was smiling slyly at her. As for the woman's husband sitting next to them, he didn't react at all, just coughed and sat down, looking out the window as if there was some beautiful woman outside that he couldn't take his eyes off of. A thousand yuan wasn't a lot of money, but who wouldn't want something for free?

  The man didn't haggle with the couple, handed over the money and took the sanitary napkins in his hand. He walked up to me, squeezed out a faint smile: "Is this okay?"

  I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded. The man suddenly looked relieved and didn't say much either. He directly took the blood-stained tissue and slapped it onto his forehead. This image was indeed shocking and attention-grabbing. Everyone's gaze fell on his head. Poor guy got fooled by me - of course, I don't think that way. Although the image was really bad, at least from the gossip mirror, you could see that the ghost didn't dare to get close. It just kept staring at me with a cold and eerie feeling, like an arrow piercing through my skin, making me feel a dull pain.

  At that moment, I tensed up and pulled Xiao Xue into my arms. Taking a deep breath, I tried to stabilize my voice and said: "Driver, let's go..."

  The driver didn't say a word, but nodded solemnly and drove the car out steadily in the direction of Jiang City. However, I had another talkative guy by my side now. The man came over after the car started moving, with a flattering smile on his face: "Master, my name is Zhang Jianhua, don't know..."

  Looking back, the ghost had disappeared. The vengeful spirit was bound to the place of its death and couldn't leave, so it wouldn't be able to follow us out of there either. I let out a sigh of relief, put away the Bagua mirror, and glanced at Zhang Jianhua with a bitter smile: "Don't call me an expert, I just know a little bit about this stuff. I think you've been pretty unlucky lately too, or else that vengeful spirit wouldn't have targeted you."

  It turns out that Zhang Jianhua is a bitter water belly, and he started chatting with me. I only knew then that Zhang Jianhua wasn't someone with a good background. In Jiang City, he's a local snake who does everything from eating and drinking to whoring and gambling. However, this guy knows how to behave himself. Earlier, in order to save his life, he endured a beating without saying an extra word. Now, as I listen to him talk, it seems that recently things have been going terribly for him. He even got sick not long ago and almost lost his life. Luckily, he managed to pull through, but he still hasn't recovered. Nevertheless, he's extremely grateful for my kindness and even patted his chest, saying: "Great man, I've got some reputation in Jiang City, people know me. If you ever need anything in Jiang City, just call me. You're my lifesaver!"

  After leaving that place far away, the people in the car didn't have much to say, apparently skeptical about the so-called ghost sighting. However, at this time, the driver suddenly said a sentence: "In March, I saw someone get off the bus to use the restroom and ended up falling off the cliff and dying."

  The driver's words were gloomy, and he didn't say anything, but they confirmed what I said. It was clear that the driver knew something, and it proved one thing - there really was a substitute ghost. For a moment, no one in the car spoke, and their eyes flickered towards me, without the mocking gaze from earlier. But at this time, I didn't pay much attention to it, closing my eyes to think about why I couldn't see ghosts before, nor could I feel them, but these past two days, I kept running into them. Was there another reason behind this? People often say that humans have three flames on their body, and when the flame of fate dims, they will encounter misfortune. Had my flame of fate already dimmed, or was it...

  My mind is all muddled, the manual says that once a person starts encountering ghosts, it proves that their luck is very bad, and unlucky things will come one after another. Even cultivators can't escape this strange circle. If the luck is bad, it means there's a problem with the destiny, unfortunately, the manual doesn't say much about this, and I couldn't think of anything either.

  It wasn't long before the sun went down, and the car finally arrived in Jiangcheng. Xiaoxue and I got off the car, and Zhang Jianhua followed me enthusiastically. When he heard that we were going to stay overnight, he hurriedly contacted a hotel and soon found a pretty good place. Although the hotel was not big, the environment was nice, and all the rooms were air-conditioned single rooms. Zhang Jianhua even paid the bill in advance for me. I asked the boss and only then did I know that it cost 80 yuan per night. Xiaoxue and I each had a room, so it was 160 yuan in total. However, when I wanted to return the money to Zhang Jianhua, he had already left. Before leaving, he even ordered meals for us. It wasn't until then that I realized I didn't know how to contact Zhang Jianhua.

  It's fine if we can't get in touch, maybe next time. After finishing dinner, I stayed in my room with Xiaoxue, but somehow we started talking about Dazhuzi. To be honest, apart from knowing where the body was abandoned and a license plate number, thinking about going to report it to the police made me feel a bit anxious. However, this matter clearly couldn't be delayed. After a while, I finally spoke up: "I'll go to the traffic police department tomorrow to file a report - huh, should I go to the criminal police department instead? After all, this is about abandoning a corpse."

  Xiaoxue didn't say much, just felt a bit sad, and tears welled up in her eyes. She threw herself into my arms and sobbed softly: "It's all my fault, brother. If you hadn't been protecting me, you would have left long ago, and none of this would have happened."

  As soon as I saw the girl crying, I got a headache. I just patted Xiaoxue's back and sighed: "Okay, don't blame yourself anymore. Can I still abandon you and run away by myself? Am I still human if I do that? Besides, it's nothing, it's just going to report a case."

  Although I said that, but for some reason my heart is very heavy, always feeling that things are not so simple, maybe it's a premonition that something will happen, of course I won't know, it's just that what I thought was a simple matter, yet it led to many things and affected my whole life, my originally dull and ordinary days completely changed.

  I didn't know, I was going to study the notebook and the eight trigrams mirror carefully, but Xiaoxue had been annoying me for a while, and when she left, she completely messed up my mind. She said that Xiaoxue lowered her head and took several deep breaths, at that time I was thinking wildly and didn't notice Xiaoxue's appearance. Just as I was in a state of confusion, Xiaoxue suddenly kissed me on the face and nervously said: "Brother, I like you——"

  After finishing speaking, Xiaoxue blushed and ran out quickly, then went back to her own room, leaving me sitting stupidly on the bed, not knowing what I was thinking about, my heart in a mess, unable to calm down again. For a man who had never had a girlfriend before, a girl, especially one who looked pretty good, saying she liked him, this was a huge shock.

  Xiaoxue has a clear and beautiful appearance, with the youthful beauty of a girl. Although she doesn't wear makeup or dress up, she still looks quite pretty. She's a bit chubby, and when I hold her in my arms, it feels indescribably wonderful. Although sometimes I had some improper thoughts before, but I really never thought that anything would happen between Xiaoxue and me. It's not because of other reasons, but because after all, we are relatives, although not close ones, still relatives.

  The more I think about it, the more worried I become. How should I deal with this relative? And how should I handle my relationship with Xiaoxue? It seems like we're still distant relatives, but it's all so complicated. The more I think about it, the more anxious I get. Lying in bed, I can't think of anything else, and I don't know if Second Uncle will scold me when he finds out. Thinking about the serious words he said before he left, my head is getting bigger...

  But as for Xiaoxue's so-called "secret admirer" thing, I didn't have any other thoughts about it. However, could I give up? I couldn't give up - this was the first time a girl had liked me! My mind was racing with thoughts, and when I closed my eyes, it seemed like I saw Xiaoxue standing in front of me, and I couldn't help but feel a little excited. I didn't know how to face Xiaoxue tomorrow, but I was really looking forward to seeing her. As I lay there lost in thought, before I knew it, I had dozed off to sleep.

  That night I had a dream, and in the dream, Xiaoxue appeared. Of course, there were some entanglements in the dream that made me excited all the time. Then Er Dage appeared, scolding and shouting at me. My father also appeared, and it was all chaotic. Later, I returned to that melon field and the thatched hut. Dazhu's wife was still doing something with someone else. I was excited, when suddenly a strong gust of wind blew in, and an evil ghost appeared. The ferocious and terrifying evil ghost started chasing me desperately, chasing after me all the time...