Chapter 48: Dreamtied and Soulbound

I was completely bewildered. The middle-aged woman had a vice-like grip as she dragged me toward the rear door of the bus.

"What's wrong with you? I've been sitting in front of you the whole time. How could I possibly have stolen anything? Did you see me leave my seat even once after getting on?" I tried to defend myself, but she wasn't listening at all.

"It was you! I saw it clearly—it was you! A grown person acting like this, resorting to stealing!" She dragged me to the door. "We're going to the police station, right now!"

Confused and helpless, I was forced off the bus by the woman, who had accused me of being a thief.

As the bus slowly started and disappeared into the night, I chuckled bitterly. "Ma'am, I'm really not a thief. You can search me if you want—I don't have anything on me."

"I know you're a good person." Watching the Route 14 bus vanish into the night, she finally caught her breath and said, "It's because you're a good person that I wanted to save your life."

"What do you mean?"

"When the wind blew earlier, it lifted the mourning clothes of those funeral people. Guess what I saw?" she said mysteriously, speaking in cryptic, hesitant phrases.

I instinctively asked, "What did you see?"

"They're not human!" The wrinkles on her face deepened as she whispered, "Under their mourning clothes, they didn't have any legs!"

"No way!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. On the surface, this woman seemed like an ordinary shrewd commuter, but she had noticed something I hadn't. I'd been watching those people closely since they boarded the bus, but despite my training in criminal investigation, I hadn't seen anything unusual.

"Maybe it's just the angle?" She had been sitting close to them, while I had only observed them through my phone screen.

"Doesn't matter what the reason is. I don't need your thanks; I just want you to walk me home," she said. After getting off the bus, her demeanor became eerily mysterious, a stark contrast to how she had behaved earlier.

Since I was already off the bus, it was too late to catch it again. Resigned, I nodded. "Where do you live? It's not easy to find places around here in the middle of nowhere."

"Easy, easy. Just follow me, stay close, and keep your head down," she said.

We walked north along the road. Before long, I heard a woman's desperate cries for help. I instinctively started toward the sound.

"Don't get involved! Keep moving!" The woman's expression turned stern as she urged me to leave.

I hesitated. "This doesn't feel right. It sounds like the couple who got off earlier."

"I'm telling you, don't meddle. You'll only bring trouble on yourself," she said sharply, grabbing my arm and dragging me forward. Her grip was unnaturally strong, comparable to that of a grown man.

"I can't just ignore it!" The cries grew louder and more pitiful, as if the woman was being chased by someone wielding a knife.

I shook off the woman's grip and, despite her protests, left the road and ran toward the source of the cries.

The ground was uneven, and wild chrysanthemum branches scratched my legs, leaving sharp, stinging pain.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I called out. Pushing through the dark chrysanthemum grove, I saw the faint outline of a woman lying in a pool of blood. Without thinking, I ran over to her.

Placing my hand near her nose, I realized she wasn't breathing.

"She's dead?" Out of habit, I began examining her body, but strangely, there were no visible wounds. Instead, her neck bore dark, bruised marks, as if she had been strangled with a rope.

"Then where's all this blood from?" My hands trembled as I looked ahead. Not far from us, near a dirt mound, lay a man with multiple stab wounds.

"The man's dead, so…"

"Watch out!" The woman shoved me forcefully, and I fell backward just as a shiny fruit knife plunged into the spot where I had been crouching.

Heart pounding, I turned to look. The woman who had clearly stopped breathing was now shakily rising to her feet.

"You're alive?"

"She doesn't even know how many years she's been dead. Her body's probably rotting by now," the woman said as she stepped between me and the other figure. She seemed to be protecting me but tightened her grip on my arm, almost as if she was afraid I'd escape.

The ghostly woman, unfazed by her failed attack, let out a chilling laugh. "You dare accuse me? Your own son abandoned your grave, leaving you homeless…"

"Silence!" The woman's grip on my arm was excruciating. "Don't be afraid. I'll take you to my house. Once we're there, these wandering spirits can't harm you!"

Their conversation sent chills down my spine. There was no way I could follow her now. "Ma'am, I don't think I can walk you home. You two can chat. I've got to go."

I struggled to break free, but her grip was like iron, as if her hand had fused with my arm.

"Don't leave! My house is just ahead. Come on, have a seat, have a seat!"

The more insistent her invitation, the more terrified I became.

Clutching my phone, I used all my strength to shove her away.

Taking a few steps back, I asked warily, "Ma'am, where exactly is your house?"

The woman, who had been facing away from me, slowly turned her head—so far that it seemed about to fall off. She said, "It's just ahead, past that grave…"

"Grave?" I looked closer and realized the mound the man had been leaning against wasn't just dirt—it was an unmarked grave.

Instinctively, I turned and ran as fast as I could, desperate to get away from these two eerie women.

"Don't go! Come to my house! Once you're there, you won't see any wandering ghosts!" The woman's voice became distorted, echoing hauntingly in the night. I didn't dare look back.

My clothes tore, my shoes fell off, and my feet bled, but I had no sense of time or distance. I just kept running, driven by pure terror.

Finally, my legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground.

"Not running anymore?"

I looked up, and my blood ran cold. Perched on the grave a few meters away was a figure—not a person, but a ghost.

The middle-aged woman who had pulled me off the bus now stood over me, holding a stone. "One life for another. To kill is to cleanse the ten evils!"

With a loud thud, the stone struck. The world spun, and a searing pain erupted in my chest. My heart pounded violently.

…

When I opened my eyes, the grave, chrysanthemums, and ghosts were gone. Instead, I saw a blazing fire.

I stood, dazed, before the fire, listening to mournful cries. As my vision cleared, I realized I was standing on a wide road. Across the street, an elderly woman was burning paper offerings in an iron basin.

"This… Was it all just a dream?" I checked my phone and saw that it was still before midnight.

"How could it be?" The memories were vivid, and I remembered every detail.

I turned to my livestream audience. "Guys, I have a serious question: Did I get on a bus just now? Did you see those drunken workers and the funeral people?"

"Here we go again, the streamer's acting spooky!"

"Best actor award incoming! So realistic!"

"Bravo, Oscar-worthy performance!"

One viewer, Fortuneteller Liu from Mount Qingcheng, commented: "Young man, are you okay? Just now, I saw you standing by the road in a daze for about half an incense stick's time."

His words gave me a bit of relief. "So I was just daydreaming? That's a relief."

But when I reached into my pocket, I froze. The protective talismans I had kept there were now reduced to ashes—only four remained out of six.

"What the…? Talismans can burn themselves?"

I quickly recounted everything to Fortuneteller Liu in the chat.

After a long pause, he replied: "Strange! Judging by your story, it seems less like a dream and more like a divine intervention. Could it be that a higher power was secretly aiding you?"

"Don't joke about that. The only 'master' I know is a blind guy who's always dodging city inspectors." I examined the ashes, recalling the patterns and runes on the burned talismans. "Do you think the dream has anything to do with these two talismans?"

After another long pause, he replied: "Curious! Judging from your description, I'm 80% sure those burned talismans were a secret technique of Xiaozhuang Temple—Soulbound and Dreamtied! The child talisman binds the soul and pulls you into a dream, while the parent talisman allows you to experience calamities within the dream."

"Soulbound and Dreamtied…"