Chapter 41: Qiu Xiaoli's Main Soul

After getting off the bus, I wandered the streets for a while.

By around seven o'clock in the evening, I was waiting at a bus stop. At this hour, the buses were already sparsely populated. I was waiting for the final bus the middle-aged woman had mentioned, hoping to find its driver.

I was, of course, familiar with the city's last bus. The 202 bus had the longest route, the most stops, the earliest start time, and the latest finish time of any bus in the city. It was what we colloquially called the "Ring Route," as its path circled the entire city.

I didn't have to wait long before the 202 arrived. Without much thought, I tossed my fare into the box and boarded. Even though the bus was mostly empty, there were still a few passengers. I quietly took a seat near the driver, waiting for him to close the doors and pull away before I spoke.

"Driver," I said softly, "I have a question for you."

The driver seemed like an honest, straightforward man. He replied heartily, "What is it, young man?"

I poured out everything I had heard about the girl in the white dress. When I mentioned the white dress, the driver’s complexion shifted dramatically, and the bus itself seemed to shudder.

"Yes, there is such a girl. She wears a white dress, and her face—her face is even paler than the dress. She always appears at eleven o'clock at night, just when the 202 makes its final run."

The driver proceeded to tell me everything he had seen and heard. I must say, it wasn’t just the driver who felt terrified; hearing his account made my own skin crawl. Imagine a bus driving through the dead of night, completely empty save for the driver, when suddenly a girl with a deathly pale face boards. Wouldn’t anyone else on that bus be chilled to the bone? The fact that the driver hadn't lost his mind yet was a testament to his nerves.

Once I had my answer, I got off at an earlier stop to catch another bus toward my next destination. From the driver, I had learned where the girl boarded and where she got off. I was now heading to her disembarkation point.

I reached my destination quickly. Upon arrival, I found nothing unusual; it was just an ordinary street. There was a small convenience store behind the station, so I walked over, intending to make inquiries.

The clerk was a plump woman in her forties or fifties. I walked in, bought a bottle of water as a pretext, and while paying, asked, "Ma'am, I have a question. Have you seen a girl in a white dress around here lately?"

The woman, who had been busy counting out my change, suddenly looked up. Her face went pale, and I could see the terror etched into her features. A surge of excitement went through me—it seemed I had found the right person.

She stared at me for a moment before saying, "Yes, I have."

I urged her to tell me the whole story. As she recounted that night, she was shaking visibly.

The story was roughly this: The woman was divorced and ran the convenience store by herself. To make ends meet, she stayed open very late. The night she saw the girl, she had stayed open later than usual—her shop was the only one on the street still lit.

Suddenly, the 202 bus pulled up in front of the store. The breeze from the bus made the rusted bus stop sign creak discordantly. The doors opened, and a girl in a white dress, her head bowed, stepped off. Her movements, framed by the empty bus behind her, looked utterly eerie.

The girl walked straight into the shop. The woman had been on her phone, talking to her young daughter at home, and hadn't paid much attention. She just called out, "What are you buying?"

Thinking the girl was just ill, she didn't find her strange appearance suspicious. By the time the woman finished her call, the girl had grabbed a lollipop and walked out.

"Hey! You didn't pay!" the woman shouted, rushing out to catch her. But as she reached for her, the girl turned around. The woman let out a piercing scream and collapsed to the ground.

One could easily imagine what the woman had seen—the girl’s face. "It's all right," I said, trying to comfort her. "It's all over now."

The woman looked at me as if she wanted to say more. I took the change from her hand, offered a few more words of comfort, and quickly made my exit.

At this point, I was certain I had come to the right place. Only one final piece of the puzzle remained: was this girl in the white dress actually Qiu Xiaoli?

It was strange—why would Qiu Xiaoli’s soul come here?

With these questions swirling in my mind, I arrived at the bus stop where the girl boarded. A few hours passed, and it grew closer to eleven o'clock. The station grew quieter, and by the time eleven approached, I was the only one left.

In fact, the nearby streets were completely deserted, save for the occasional taxi whizzing by. A sense of dread began to creep over me.

Without realizing it, the clock struck eleven. The 202 bus emerged from the darkness in the distance. The bus was empty, its two headlights glowing like a pair of eyes. The girl in white had yet to appear.

The bus screeched to a halt in front of the platform. I hesitated, unsure whether to board. But just as I wavered, a white shadow flickered past. I turned, startled, to see a girl in a white dress with her head bowed, walking step by step toward the bus doors.

I was shocked; I hadn't even noticed when she had appeared beside me.

The girl boarded quickly. I stared at her back, a chill running down my spine. This fear was different from the one I felt when merely imagining a scary scene.

I followed her onto the bus and watched her back in silence. She walked slowly to the very last row and sat down. As she settled into her seat, I saw her face. It was Qiu Xiaoli.