eurekapd Chapter 431 Road Signs
Chapter 431 Road Signs
By this point in the story, Wei Lan's throat was a little hoarse. She took out a bottle of water from her pocket and gulped it down.
"let me guess."
Tian Qinghe picked up the conversation: "Is the following story like this: The welder suddenly saw everyone in the carriage turn their heads and stare at him, just like the train attendant, without saying a word?"
"And there was a creepy smile on his face?"
"Then he realized that everyone in this carriage was a ghost?"
Wei Lan's eyes widened immediately: "You've heard of it?"
"No."
Tian Qinghe smiled slightly, saying it was purely based on experience.
Wei Lan glanced at him suspiciously and pursed her lips. She deliberately paused before continuing to pique Tian Qinghe's interest and make the most terrifying part even more impactful.
Unexpectedly, this person just blurted it out in such a dry and uninteresting way.
"Then?"
Tian Qinghe asked.
"That's it." Wei Lan shrugged. "You're talking about the ending."
"That's it?"
Tian Qinghe was taken aback: "This isn't the ending? What about the welder's fate?"
“Why not?” Wei Lan said, “A good ghost story ends abruptly at the scariest part.”
“Uh…” Tian Qinghe was speechless: “That’s true.”
After all, it's just a story, with no background or ending, purely for scaring people, but it's told quite well.
In the pitch-black night, in the desolate wilderness, a mountain, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, gradually approaches that point, creating a truly vivid scene.
However... it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the ghost story in the car behind. Maybe it's just foreshadowing?
"Where did you hear that?"
Tian Qinghe asked with great interest, as he had a feeling that the story wasn't finished yet.
"An old man told me this."
Wei Lan said, "A few years ago, I went from Guixi to Tianhai. I didn't have any money then, so I took a green-skinned train. An old man got on the train, and we started chatting."
She has an outgoing personality, and also enjoys chatting with strangers while traveling due to her profession.
"Have you been to western Guangxi?" Wei Lan said, "There are a lot of mountains there, and they are different from ordinary mountains. In many places, you are walking on a flat road, and suddenly there is a solitary mountain rising up from the ground in front of you."
“It was particularly abrupt.”
"It was even more terrifying at night. The house I lived in backed up a mountain—yes, that close. Getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night could scare a person to death."
"It was so dark, but it was also very close to the house, so the light could only illuminate a little bit of the outline. But you could tell that in the dark, there was a huge, tall section... hidden in the darkness, just inches away from you."
"When the wind blows, the trees on the mountain sway slightly, giving the feeling that the mountain is rising and falling, breathing."
Wei Lan still gets chills when she recalls that scene.
"A giant, dark shadow, seemingly alive, is looking down at you, ready to approach at any moment."
"In short, that trip left a very deep impression on me."
“I told the old man about this, and he told me a ghost story about the mountains and the train.”
"Weren't you sitting on that old-fashioned green train back then?" Tian Qinghe couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Isn't the sense of immersion strong?"
Wei Lan nodded heavily.
She pointed around and said, "We're on a high-speed train now, it's completely different. You'd have to be on a green train to hear this story to understand how terrified I was back then."
"In short, since the train in the story also terminates at Tianhai, I will tell the story of the paranormal events in Tianhai."
"Wait a minute," Tian Qinghe asked, "A paranormal event? Is it really true?"
“The old man said it was true.” Wei Lan shrugged: “Back then, didn’t many people take the train to the city to work? This matter caused quite a stir back then.”
"But he was just saying it casually, and I think he was lying. These kinds of ghost stories were very common in the past."
"There are also cases like the dismemberment case in Shenzhen in the 90s, and ghost stories and murder tales from Hunan and Hong Kong. These are all related to the changes of the times and reflect the anxiety of rural migrant workers towards big cities."
"Hmm...that makes sense."
Tian Qinghe gave an awkward smile, but he didn't say that the strange tale from Xianggang was very likely true.
As Tian Qinghe turned on her phone, realizing it was almost time for their agreed-upon meeting, she heard Wei Lan mutter to herself:
"The main question is, assuming this is a true story, who spread the rumor? The welder?"
"But the whole carriage was full of ghosts, how did he survive?"
"Maybe he found a way out." Tian Qinghe looked at her phone absentmindedly. "He wasn't in that carriage, was he? He said he went out for a smoke."
"...Hmm, maybe."
Wei Lan stretched, still looking somewhat confused, but the confusion quickly dissipated.
Without saying another word, Tian Qinghe walked to the connecting area between the carriages, and the phone rang right on time.
"Hey."
Tian Qinghe said weakly, "I'm almost there—huh? Brother Chen? It's you?"
His eyes lit up slightly, and his tone instantly became less perfunctory.
On the other end of the phone, Chen Yuetan's voice came through: "Sorry, I've brought you back from the coconut grove."
"It's okay, it should be."
Tian Qinghe chuckled, and the two chatted briefly. It turned out that Chen Yuetan had also been temporarily called back.
Although he had left the Thirteenth Bureau, he had promised before leaving that Chen Yuetan would still do his best to assist with Yu Tianrong's matter.
The "road sign" is the most important artifact left behind by Yu Tianrong, and it is also the only way for the Thirteenth Bureau to determine her condition.
This is a directional artifact; its original ability was very simple: to determine the user's life or death.
"活" indicates to the right.
Death: Indicates to the left.
But later, the [road sign] began to swing up and down continuously, and according to the bureau's research, this indicated that Yu Tianrong was constantly shuttling between the realm and reality!
What's wrong with the road sign?
Tian Qinghe asked why the message from the bureau didn't provide a detailed explanation, only mentioning the anomaly.
"I remember that its swings haven't been too large in recent years, they've been relatively stable, and this has been going on for quite a while now?"
“Yes, that’s the problem.” Chen Yuetan’s tone was somewhat serious: “At 1:25 a.m. today, the [road sign] ceased to be stable and began to become unbalanced.”
"The speed gradually increased, and the amplitude of the swing also became more intense. The amplitude of the swing reached its peak at 1:30, and then gradually weakened."
"It wasn't until 1:35 that the data returned to its previous level."
"Ten minutes..." Tian Qinghe frowned. This was too short a time; there was simply not enough time to investigate thoroughly.
However, he still had a vague idea of what was going on.
"Is there external interference?" Tian Qinghe said, "If the problem lies with Bureau Yu itself, there's no point in calling me back."