Chapter 001
My friend and I had an encounter and he is now in the hospital.
It happened after my mother's funeral.
After a busy day, most of my relatives left. I made an appointment with my friends and went back to my hometown to pack some things.
Because of work, I now live alone in the city. My hometown is in another county a few hundred kilometers away. Except for some holidays, I rarely have time to go back.
This time, because I received the news of my mother's accidental death, I took a leave and asked a friend to go back with me.
My mother's body was found by a neighbor. She was in poor health, but when we contacted her over the phone, she never mentioned any illness.
When the neighbors found the body, my mother had been dead for three days. Since there were no relatives or friends around, they contacted me and called the police.
It is said that according to the forensic examination results, the mother died suddenly of myocardial infarction, and there was no news after that, and the case was left unresolved.
According to the custom in my hometown, after a funeral, there is nothing else to do.
I cried so hard on the day of the funeral, and I really regretted not spending more time with her. But now, it's too late.
My friend’s name is Lin Tian. He kept comforting me and said things like “I feel your condolences.”
On the second day after the seventh day, I simply tidied up the house, took some common things, and returned to the city with my friend.
There is no highway from my hometown to the city where I work, so there is only an old road.
It was a winding road, which we locals called the back mountain. The mountain road was twisted, and there was a bend almost every few steps, winding like a giant snake twisting in the mountain.
Lin Tian was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat. I was so tired during the past two days that I fell asleep almost as soon as I got in the car.
When I woke up, it was already dark. I looked out the window and the old forest on the mountain was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything clearly.
After walking a short distance, I suddenly saw a person standing on the roadside ahead with the help of the car lights. He looked like he couldn't find his car and was stuck on the road, looking very pitiful.
Lin Tian also saw it, but for some reason, he suddenly cursed and said that today was really a hell of a day. After turning more than ten corners, he had already met seven or eight people taking taxis.
I thought it was not strange to stop a car on such a mountain road. Maybe someone's car broke down and they couldn't wait, so they just went ahead. When you go out, you will encounter all kinds of difficulties.
Perhaps it was because my mother had just died, I felt a little guilty and couldn't help but say to Lin Tian, "Let's stop and take a look. Maybe others are really in trouble. We should just treat it as a good deed."
Lin Tian rolled his eyes at me, but didn’t want to argue with me too much.
The car slowed down and stopped next to the man.
I rolled down the window, but because it was dark, I couldn't see the man's face clearly. I just asked him where he was going.
But he was hesitant and just gestured with his hands. Lin Tian and I looked at each other and thought he was a mute.
Lin Tian lost his patience and told the man directly that they were in a hurry, and if he wanted to take a ride, he should get in quickly and shout when he reached the place where he wanted to get off.
The man nodded repeatedly, murmured something, opened the car door and sat in the back seat.
The car started moving forward again. I looked back and saw that the man had a pale face but dark eye sockets, and was dressed in red and green, looking rustic. Although I have heard of many cases of robbery under the guise of hitchhiking, I saw that he was thin and weak, and Lin Tian and I were the only ones there, so even if he really had bad intentions, we would not be afraid.
The car kept moving forward. I was no longer sleepy because I had just woken up. I just chatted with Lin Tian. Unconsciously, we had walked out of the old road in the mountains. But I didn't hear the mute shouting behind me.
After a while, Lin Tian suddenly asked me, Brother, do you feel a little cold?
I shrank my neck and was actually shivering a little. Considering the weather in the south in July, this shouldn't happen.
I thought about it and thought it was because I sat in the car for too long and it was night.
But after a while, I couldn't even speak without breathing out white mist. Just when I was about to ask if it was too cold, Lin Tian looked in the rearview mirror and suddenly shouted, what the hell is that sitting in the back!
I was startled by his shouting and thought I was being robbed while doing good deeds, so I quickly turned around to look.
When I saw this, I almost passed out!
The mute who was riding in the car was gone! And there was a paper figure used for funeral processions on the back seat for no apparent reason!
He was wearing clothes made of red paper, pants made of green paper, and his face was as white as snow with two pieces of black paper pasted over his eyes.
Seeing this kind of thing for no reason in the middle of the night, I immediately panicked. I broke out in a cold sweat and said to Lin Tiandao, "Where is the mute man?"
Lin Tian was also panicked. He wanted to step on the brakes to stop and see what was going on, but he found that it was of no use after stepping on the brakes for a long time!
Lin Tian's face turned pale. I guess I'm not much better. I was getting anxious when a strange cry suddenly came from behind me, which scared me so much that I trembled all over!
Two pale hands suddenly reached out from the back seat and grabbed Lin Tian and me by the shoulders.
We looked back at the same time, and saw that the mute suddenly appeared in the back seat again, crawling towards us with his head sticking out!
Next, I only heard Lin Tian scream! His hand slipped, and the car crashed into the guardrail on the side of the road. I was dizzy and knew nothing...
When I woke up, I was lying in the hospital. The nurse told me that Lin Tian and I were not seriously injured and would be discharged after a few days of recuperation.
Lin Tian's family took him away early. I stayed in the hospital for three days. Police came to check on the situation from time to time. After all, in their eyes, we were the culprits of the accident. But I didn't say a word about the paper man. I knew that even if I told them, they would just think I was crazy. So I insisted that it was the brake failure. Fortunately, Lin Tian was not stupid and said the same thing as me.
Three days later, I was discharged from the hospital, and the first thing I did was to look for Lin Tian.
I called him several times, but his phone was always turned off. I had no choice but to call Lin Tian’s sister.
This little girl has been following Lin Tian and me since she was a child. I learned from her that Lin Tian was more seriously injured than me, and his family had already arranged for him to be transferred to another hospital when I was in a coma.
Because they knew that Lin Tian accompanied me back to my hometown because of my mother's death, and then this happened. When , he kept repeating what happened that night. His parents thought it was unlucky and hurriedly processed the transfer procedures to keep him away from me.
The little girl told me the general situation on the phone, which meant that her parents thought this matter was unlucky and now did not want me and Lin Tian to meet. But we are both good young people of materialism in the 21st century and have never believed in these weird things, so she did not take these things to heart.
She just told me the location of the hospital where Lin Tian was staying and the time when his parents were not in the hospital. At the end, the little girl asked, "Brother Tan, my brother was almost scared to death. I don't know if it was because of the concussion. Did you really encounter a ghost?"
My heart skipped a beat and I remained silent for a long time without answering her.
When she saw that I didn't say anything, she said in surprise, "This can't be true!"
I quickly covered up, as if I was afraid that others would see me as a monster, and said that was impossible, it was just a problem with the car.
The little girl said "oh" and didn't ask any more questions.
In fact, I also suspected that it might be because my mother had just passed away, I was in a bad mood, and it was dark, so I saw it wrongly.
But then I thought, even if I am like this, Lin Tian shouldn't have any problems. So after thinking for a long time, I decided to go meet him.
I arrived at the hospital in the afternoon. According to the little girl, Lin Tian's parents were not there at that time.
I looked at the ward number, it was 603.
I got on the elevator and ran straight over here.
After walking around the ward, I whispered his name.
When Lin Tian saw it was me, he almost burst into tears.
I thought I didn’t have the ability to scare him to tears, so I asked what was wrong.
He grabbed my hand, and I was afraid that people around me would misunderstand me.
Lin Tian said, "Brother, I finally saw you. I thought you were dead! No matter who I asked, no one would tell me about you."
After hearing this, I couldn't help but feel a little sad, as if I was the only one left in the world. But I understand what Lin Tian's parents mean. In their eyes, I am now a synonym for bad luck. The older generation is more or less superstitious. If Lin Tian was my son, I would definitely not let him continue to contact this unlucky star that caused him to be hospitalized.
I was about to say a few words of comfort when Lin Tian suddenly tightened his grip on my hand and said in a low voice, "You saw it too! We must have seen a ghost!"
When asked this question, I didn't know how to start. Although I felt that I was not wrong, I was not sure about it because I had learned atheism since I was a child.
Just as I was hesitating, an old man suddenly walked into the ward.
Lin Tian's ward was a room for two people. The old man looked at the bed next to him, then looked at us, and said, "Young man, did you go to the wrong ward? This is my bed."
I stared at him for a long time. The old man looked weak and haggard, as if he had been ill for a long time.
Before Lin Tian came to his senses, I interrupted and said, "Uncle, my brother has lived here for a few days, that's right. Think carefully about which room you will live in."
But the old man refused to give in and insisted that this bed was his.
I was bored listening to this, so I stood up and pointed to the medical record card at the end of the bed and said, "Look, sir, it's clearly written on everyone's bed."
The old man took a look and said, "Yes, this is my bed!"
When he said that, I was stunned and looked at the medical record card.
There were only three words written in the name column above: Chen Dongsheng!
The old man pointed to the name above and said, "Look! Was I right? This is my bed!"
I didn’t know what to say, and looked at Lin Tian helplessly. I saw that he was also looking at me with an expression of disbelief on his face.
I knew that he was a patient who had been here for a few days, and he was not stupid enough to go to the wrong room. I hurriedly said to the old man, "Uncle, please sit down for a while. I will ask the nurse. Maybe they made a mistake."
Fortunately, the old man was sensible and just snorted coldly without continuing to make things difficult.
