The announcement blared over the intercom as the No. 14 bus pulled into the station.
The woman with wavy hair who now had a ghostly appearance, stumbled up from her seat, biting her lip as she dug her nails into her stomach, and made her way towards the bus door.
“Please exit from the back door,” the driver reminded her in a hushed voice, but the woman paid him no heed. She was already very close to the front door and took only a few steps to reach it.
“Ha-ha…”
As the door opened, the laughter of children playing outside drifted in. I peeked out and saw several small figures throwing a basket in front of the bus door before running and jumping toward the Maternity and Children’s Health Center.
“Whose brat is still up so late?” The woman with the wavy hair was wearing high heels that clacked loudly as she walked, and she was so distraught that she didn’t even bother to avoid the basket blocking her path. She was just about to step inside when a voice cried out, “Wheee”
Just as her sharp heels were about to plunge into the basket, the sound of a baby’s cry came from within the old and worn-out basket. The woman’s foot came to a sudden halt, her thin heel only a few centimeters away from the delicate skin of the baby. In fact, the baby in the basket was able to reach out and grab the woman’s calf.
The realization that she had almost taken the life of an innocent baby filled the woman with dread, and she slowly regained her senses as the hatred in her mind began to subside.
“Mama…” The baby’s voice was mixed with sobs, and the sounds that came out of its tiny mouth sounded like the word “Mama.”
The woman with the wavy hair crouched in front of the bus door, her mind frozen for over a minute. Suddenly, she changed her mind, and instead of getting off the bus, she picked up the basket and returned to her seat.
“What is this crazy woman planning to do?” Whether she was a human or a ghost, she posed no threat to me once she got off the bus. However, to my surprise, she not only stayed on the bus but also picked up a baby.
It’s not that I lacked sympathy, but the timing and location of this abandoned baby were just too bizarre. In the middle of nowhere, who would choose to abandon a baby at a bus stop in the early morning hours?
It was obvious that someone did not want the baby to survive. In other words, this was not abandonment, but intentional murder!
The woman with wavy hair held onto the basket tightly, and even when the baby inside started to cry, she didn’t take any action. Instead, she opened her handbag, took out her makeup kit, and started to apply it carefully.
“Is she crazy?” I aimed my phone at the woman with wavy hair, and the chat room exploded with comments.
“Oh my god, what the he** s this?”
“It proves that as long as humans are willing to try, they can be scarier than ghosts!”
“You people only focus on the surface. Haven’t you noticed the weirdest thing about this wavy haired woman?”
“Hey upstairs, tell us what you found.”
“It’s clearly the season for black stockings, yet this woman is wearing pants!”
“Damn you!”
After quickly touching up her makeup and covering her previously tear-streaked face with a thick layer of foundation, she finished applying her lipstick amidst the baby’s cries. “If my first child hadn’t been aborted, he would have been your age now.”
Looking at her face, which seemed to shed makeup with every smile, was definitely unappetizing. I even felt sorry for the baby in the basket.
The woman with wavy hair took out her phone, picked up the baby, and gently rubbed its swollen, tearful face. “You really look so much like him, that heartless man.”
Strangely enough, when the baby was in her arms, its crying became noticeably quieter, and its chubby face seemed to conceal deeper emotions.
“Since no one wants you, then I’ll be your mother. Come on, let’s say hello to daddy.” She dialed the man’s phone number, but as expected, he hung up. She tried several other numbers, but no one answered.
“Alright, Li Zijian, you’ve forced me into this!” Holding the baby in one arm, the wavy haired woman’s skinny arm squeezed the baby too tightly, causing it to cry out in pain. But she didn’t care at all.
After searching for a while on WeChat, she finally found her target. She clicked on the video call option and held her phone up in front of her face so that she and the baby in her arms could both appear on the screen.
The video call was answered after a short while, and the person on the other end was a quiet and introverted woman wearing pajamas with a big belly and swollen eyes who seemed to have just been crying.
“Who are you? How did you get my WeChat?” Her voice was very gentle, several times better than the wavy haired woman that was sitting on the bus.
“Who am I? Have you forgotten about the pictures in your email?”
“You seduced my husband!”
“Seduced? Let me tell you the truth, your husband’s so-called overtime was actually spent with me. We know every inch of each other’s bodies.”
“Shut up! You have no shame!”
“You have the nerve to say that to me? You’re the one who stole him away from me! I’m his wife, and look, I even have his son in my arms!” The woman with wavy hair sneered, “Don’t they look alike? Take a closer look, they resemble each other so much, your husband and my son!”
As she spoke, she brought the baby’s face up to the screen, and played with his little hands. “You… you…” The woman on the other end of the screen, who was pregnant, suddenly doubled over in pain and cried out. Hearing the commotion, the man sleeping in the living room rushed into the room.
“Rou Rou! Yang Rou!”
The woman’s white nightgown was soaked with blood as she fell off the bed. The man quickly dialed the emergency number.
The tragic scene was broadcasted in full detail through the phone video, while on the screen, the baby wailed, but the woman with wavy hair was smiling happily.
“Serves her right!” She giggled as she placed the baby back in the basket, then threw the basket aside as if it were a tool she had finished using, indifferent to the child’s cries.
Yi Yi, who was sitting beside me, had a kind nature and instinctively wanted to pick up the crying baby. But I held her shoulder and said, “Sit down, don’t interfere in things that don’t concern you.”
Before departing, the bus made another announcement. Following that, approximately 40 minutes elapsed without any notable occurrences for the three consecutive stops.
“We’re only a few stops away from the final station.” I tapped my foot nervously, feeling increasingly uneasy. Although the journey had been eerie, there had been no real danger, which was a bit too peaceful compared to the New Shanghai High School.
“Ding dong! We have arrived at Green Earth View. Please take your belongings and exit from the back door. Have a nice day.”
The front and back doors opened, and after about a minute or two, a rhythmic sound of copper bells rang outside the bus, which was very strange, just like the cowbells that shook when we drove cattle back in my hometown.
“What on earth is going to come up this time?”
The ringing sound gradually became clear, and the baby in the basket stopped crying. Several passengers felt confused. Just then, the five people in the back row who were wearing funeral attendees clothing all stood up at the same time. Their faces were ashen, and their movements were stiff.
The five of them lined up and got off the bus through the back door. As they turned around one by one, I saw that each of them had a yellow and red talisman paper stuck to the back of their heads.
“Sticking talisman papers to the back of their heads?” I stood up and wanted to use my phone to record the appearance of the talisman paper. But then I noticed a Taoist priest wearing a blue robe standing outside the bus. He was shaking a copper bell in one hand and waving a willow branch in the other, muttering incantations under his breath.
“Could he be the legendary exorcist?” I picked up my phone and walked to the back door of the bus. As the Taoist priest was chanting, he suddenly shook his body and looked at me in disbelief.
“You are….” I was about to speak when the Taoist priest stopped me with a gesture to keep quiet. He inserted his willow branch into his waist and quickly wrote a few words on a yellow piece of paper, which he then folded and held in his palm.
Swinging his copper bell, he closed his eyes and got on the bus. He handed me the yellow paper, still with his eyes closed, and then got off the bus without looking at anyone inside.
The whole process was quiet, and he didn’t even glance at the passengers.
I didn’t immediately open the yellow paper. Instead, I watched the Taoist priest and the funeral attendees walk away.
“The bus is now departing. Please remain seated and hold on tight. Thank you for riding the No. 14 autonomous ticketing bus. If you are boarding, please have exact change ready, as the fare is one yuan. Passengers getting on should proceed to the back door. Next stop is Station Huayuan District.”
Along with the announcement, the phone of the woman with wavy hair rang. She checked the caller ID and a nasty smile appeared on her face. “Hello? Li Zijian, how’s your precious wife doing?”
“Rong Rong, what are you saying? You are my sweetheart, and that old hag can no longer interfere with us.”
The voice on the phone was crystal clear, with the same tone, pitch, and intonation as the previous phone call, but the content and the way of speaking were completely different.
“You…Who are you?”
“I’m Zijian, silly! I called you so late to share some good news—we can finally be together openly!”
“Did you get a divorce?”
“No, it’s even better than that. That woman and her bastard child died in a car accident! I don’t have to divide my assets, and I can get a big sum of money from the insurance company! It’s fate! It’s destiny that brought us together!” The voice on the other end of the phone was filled with excitement, like a child who had done something good and was eager for praise.
“Stop the act! Do you really think I would still believe you?” The woman with wavy hair sneered coldly. “You called me late at night and even asked me to get rid of our child. You heartless jerk!”
“Get rid of our child? Rongrong, are you having a nightmare? I never called you and asked you to do anything like that! Besides, that’s my own flesh and blood. How could I bear to let you get rid of him?” The man on the phone sounded puzzled. “Rong Rong, I’m not lying to you. If you don’t believe me, just check the news yourself.”
I paid close attention to the situation on the other end and realized that the plot had taken an unexpected turn. Returning to my seat, I immediately took out my phone and searched the internet.
“This afternoon, around 5 p.m., a serious traffic accident occurred at the entrance of Jiangcheng Huayuan District. A private car collided with the No. 14 bus, resulting in two deaths and one injury. One of the deceased was identified as a pregnant woman named Yang Rou…” The news also included several pictures, one of which had a woman wearing a red maternity dress with her face blurred.
The woman with wavy hair must have also seen the news article, as she trembled with her phone in hand.
“Hello, Rongrong, you saw it, right? I wasn’t lying to you,” the man on the phone said.
“Zijian,” it seemed like someone was strangling her, the woman with wavy hair was having trouble breathing. “I’m sorry, I lied to you. Your wife never cheated on you. The child in her womb is yours…”
Her head was forcefully twisted as she looked at the baby that had crawled out of the basket. She stared at the baby’s face. “Look, he looks so much like you!”
TN: I don’t know what’s happening either….
TN: Just kidding, lol. So I will explain stuff without spoiling much. As can be seen from the chapter, Zhang Rong seems to be saying contradictory things, like saying at first that she would abort the baby, then later saying that if she didn’t abort HER baby, it would be the baby in the basket’s age. meaning that this girl is either unstable or is having illusions by some ghost.
Super minor spoilers—-
Zhang Rong is seeing illusions in the bus. I’m not sure if all passengers saw what she saw, but what I’m sure of is that her first calls with the guy named Li Zijiandi didn’t happen at all. He never told her to abort her baby or anything like that, and the call with the pregnant woman didn’t happen as well…I didn’t read that much forward, but in the next chapter there’s an explanation.
