Chapter 57: One Went Mad

Yuan Feng walked up to me, fiddling with his spring knife. "That girl has always been invisible. Everyone's busy discussing whether to stay or go, barely able to fend for themselves—who would care about someone else?"

"Exactly, let's just take care of ourselves first. No need to worry about others." Wang Chunfu chimed in. They both assumed I had some real skills as a Taoist practitioner and wanted to follow me.

On the bus, the driver of the Route 14 called out again, "Hurry up and get on! One more minute, and I'm leaving without you!"

The others turned to me in unison. "You're the cop here; we'll follow your lead. What's the call?"

I didn't answer right away. Instead, I scrutinized each of their faces. Even if the driver and the missing girl were ghosts, only two of the six people here were actually human.

Without confirming their identities, I didn't dare to speak rashly. If I let a ghost stay, my situation would only become more perilous.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding. I'm not a Taoist with any kind of supernatural powers. Just a week ago, I didn't even believe in ghosts or monsters. So, there's no need to follow my lead." Holding Yi Yi's hand, I stepped aside, distancing myself from their debate.

"I choose to stay."

"Jianye, let's stay too. That guy must still have a trump card up his sleeve."

Two minutes later, the Route 14 bus drove off. Other than the guy in the hospital gown, everyone else stayed behind.

Watching the bus disappear into the distance, I decided to take a gamble. I hoped the guy in the hospital gown and the driver were both ghosts.

"What now?" Yuan Feng called everyone to gather around me.

"I'm not planning on sticking with you all." I decisively rejected their overture, taking Yi Yi aside.

The group panicked at my stance. "Don't say that! We're in the same boat. There's safety in numbers!"

"Exactly, it's still a couple of hours till dawn. Together, our combined yang energy is stronger."

"You can do whatever you like, but I'm not traveling with you. And don't even think about following me," I declared firmly, leaving no room for negotiation. "Take care of yourselves. One last piece of advice: don't trust the people around you."

With that, I took Yi Yi's hand and walked away.

"Uncle, are we really leaving the group? It feels safer to stay together," Yi Yi said fearfully. Her small hand clutched in mine, she obediently followed along.

"I won't hurt you. Those people are no good!" Glancing back, I saw the three men looking anxious. None of them noticed Zhang Rong lying on the ground, her eyes rolling back and her body convulsing.

Circling the crematorium, I found nothing but scattered ghost money and eerie shadows cast by the trees.

"Could she have gone inside the crematorium?" At the back door of the building, I looked at the rusty, swaying iron gate creaking in the wind. "As much as I want to uncover the truth, entering a crematorium in the middle of the night seems over the line."

The commission from Hell Show was about a girl, but there were two kids on the bus. That meant one was human, and the other was a ghost.

I had been protecting Yi Yi the entire time, but I'd overlooked the other child—someone I knew almost nothing about.

"Should I go in to look for her?" If Yi Yi was the girl from the commission, I could relax. But the alternative was far more troubling.

"Yi Yi, you said you were looking for your mom. We've reached the final stop, so why haven't we seen her yet?"

"I don't know. She told me over the phone to take the Route 14 bus to the final stop, and she'd meet me here."

"A phone call?" My mind immediately made a connection. The curly-haired woman also boarded the bus late at night because of a call—a call from a ghost.

"Who called you?"

"It was my mom."

"Are you sure? Could it have been an impostor? Was there anything different about the tone, word choice, or phrasing?"

"It was definitely my mom!" Yi Yi insisted. Her determined face made me unsure of how to respond.

Based on my rational analysis, all the answers I came up with were devastating for the little girl.

"Alright, we'll wait here for your mom." I had just resolved not to enter the crematorium when shouts erupted in the distance.

"Run! Damn it, that crazy woman is following us!"

"Help! Officer, save me!"

Frowning, I turned to see Jianye, Yuan Feng, and Wang Chunfu sprinting toward me, chased by a grotesque creature crawling on all fours.

"No, that's not an animal." My eyes widened—it was Zhang Rong, shrieking and feral.

"Run!"

The area outside the crematorium was an open field, offering no cover. I gritted my teeth, picked up Yi Yi, and climbed over the back gate. "Damn it. I ended up in this cursed place after all."

The three men, seeing me climb over, quickly followed suit.

Yuan Feng moved nimbly, vaulting over with ease. Jianye used the chain on the gate for leverage and followed right behind. Their swift actions left Wang Chunfu struggling at the rear.

The overweight and middle-aged Wang Chunfu clung to the edge of the gate, his legs scrambling for a foothold.

"Help me! Help!" he cried out desperately. Jianye and I grabbed his hands, but that brief moment of delay was all Zhang Rong needed to catch up.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. A person could really attack like a wild beast. Wang Chunfu's lower body was torn to shreds, blood pooling everywhere. Eventually, his grip failed, and he was dragged into the darkness by Zhang Rong.

"Close call."

I turned to Yuan Feng and Jianye, who were panting heavily with their backs against the wall. "What happened?"

"Well, it's actually that fat guy's fault. He thought no one was around and tried to assault Zhang Rong. Who knew that crazy woman would flip out and start attacking everyone?" Yuan Feng chuckled sleazily, glancing at Yi Yi in my arms. "Sorry to interrupt your little love nest."

"Watch your mouth, or you'll regret it," I shot back, glaring at him. I knew we couldn't stay outside for long—Zhang Rong could return at any moment.

"Now that we're inside, we might as well search for the missing girl. Listen up: we go our separate ways. Don't get in each other's way."

Yuan Feng's hand lingered in his pocket, likely gripping his knife. "Why are you so fixated on that girl? Is she your protection target or something?"

This killer had already picked up on something unusual about the girl. I didn't bother denying it. "She's likely the key to whether we survive tonight."

Yuan Feng paused, lost in thought, while I set Yi Yi down and led her deeper into the crematorium.

This was my first time in such a place, despite having encountered plenty of corpses in recent years.

"Offices, storage rooms, ceremonial halls, urn storage, morgue, cremation rooms…" Most of the doors were locked, but a few could be accessed through alternative routes.

To guard against any unexpected horrors, I held my phone in front of my face, keeping an eye on the livestream.

Crematoriums typically have two types of paths: one for people and another for transporting corpses.

The corpse route was chained off after work hours, while a red wooden sign marked the pedestrian path with a warning: No Entry.

The path Yi Yi and I took seemed to be the pedestrian route, but the red sign had been knocked over.

Reaching the back of the building, I found a door slightly ajar behind the disinfection room, as if deliberately left open to signal someone had entered.

"Could it be Yuan Feng and Jianye?" Curious, I approached the door and noticed an eight-trigram mirror hanging above the frame. Its surface bulged outward in an unnerving convex curve.

"This place feels strange. Should I go in or not?" Turning to my phone, I consulted the viewers.

Liu Banxian from Qingcheng Mountain: "There are two types of eight-trigram mirrors: convex and concave. Concave mirrors are typically used to 'attract fortune,' while convex mirrors are for 'warding off evil.' The convex mirror before you resembles a turtle shell with its outward-arched surface. It's meant to deflect malevolent forces, but notice how it's cracked—that's a clear sign evil spirits have long taken residence!"

"So, Sage, should I go in or not?"

"Friend, even seeking death has its limits. Haven't I made myself clear enough?"