Chapter 4 Thirty-eighth night hearse

Legendary gods like to ride in chariots, like the chariot that the Yellow Emperor rode in when he fought Chi You in ancient times, and the fire bird chariot of Apollo, the sun god.Since 1885, German engineer Karl Benz made a car in Mannheim, a two-stroke single-cylinder 0.9-horsepower gasoline engine, which has the basic characteristics of modern cars, such as spark ignition and water cooling cycle. , steel pipe frame, leaf spring suspension, rear-wheel drive, front-wheel steering, etc.But when he proudly drove this iron monster into the street, everyone couldn't avoid it, but now, the car has become a status symbol, and it has become the best way to distinguish you from ordinary people. So many local officials stick to it No matter how poor you are, you can't be a cadre, no matter how hard you are, you can't be a hard worker. The purpose of the leadership is that everyone who has a long car must have a car. Even if there is no road, it is fine to drive in the yard and enjoy it.

Ji Yan's father recorded a story about a car in his notes. Of course, this car is not something you can buy casually, or in other words, even if it is given to you, you probably wouldn't dare to take it. "I have been looking for the hearse, a kind of thing in mythology, although it is a myth, there are legends about it all over the world. Some people say that people who see the hearse will die peacefully the next day, and some people say that the hearse will be taken away. The soul of the wicked, it is very difficult for those who get on the hearse to get off. However, no one has seen it, and even the appearance of the hearse cannot be described. I don’t know whether it is luck or bad luck, but I actually became the one who has seen the hearse People, and more than once. I recorded it with a pen, which can be regarded as a way to make up for the gap in this regard.

At that time, trains were still very tense, and airplanes were no different from UFOs to ordinary people, so taking small passenger cars became the mainstream transportation method, especially in the early days of reform and opening up, when a large number of migrant workers returned to their hometowns for New Year’s Eve , They all choose to take a car, which is cheap and comfortable. Perhaps because it was too late and it was a halfway station, there were only two people in the huge station at nearly 12 o'clock at night.Me, and a middle-aged man. He is very tall, almost a head taller than me, and his whole body is like a door panel. He wears a military cotton cap on his head, wrapped in a gray-green cotton jacket. Standing upright, it felt like it was going to shatter when touched.The skin on the square Chinese character face is dry. It seems that I often work outdoors. However, the eyes are big and flexible, but they are also simple. If you look at these eyes, even you will not be able to lie The head of his tall and straight nose was red and transparent from the cold, and bursts of white mist spit out with the opening and closing of his wide red and black lips.He carried a large travel bag on his shoulder and a rough cloth bag in his hand.I was sitting on the cold bench, but he seemed to be in a hurry. A pair of huge Jiefang shoes dangled in my eyes, making me almost dazzled.

He wanted to come over to chat with me several times, but he stopped again. In the end, I took the initiative to ask where he was from. The middle-aged man was very happy. After all, if we can chat while waiting, it won't seem too long and difficult. "I'm from Jiangxi." He spoke Mandarin very well, and then smiled, showing his neat teeth.He looked very strong and looked older than me.He said that he came here to work, and his friends and fellow villagers left a few days ago.Because I want to work more in the past few days, I will pay more overtime and earn more.However, the car was delayed again. If this car can't catch up, it will be a bit dangerous to go back for the New Year.

"Why hasn't this car come yet?" He turned his round head.I also looked at the direction the car was coming from. The two of us had been waiting for an hour. "What's in the bag?" I looked at the bag curiously, the bag was still wriggling, and the middle-aged man smiled shyly. "It's two chickens. I gave them to me when I was leaving. I couldn't sell them, so I just took them back. I was afraid they would make noise, so I sealed their mouths with tape." He told me that there was still a lot of food in the bag. He also took out a piece of mung bean cake, skimmed half of it, and insisted on giving it to me, but I refused, so I had to accept it. Fortunately, it was very sweet.He was also happy to see that I was eating happily. He took the remaining mung bean cake in his hand and said that he would eat it when he got off the bus.

Just when I was about to fall asleep, the middle-aged man woke me up and said that the car was coming.I opened my sleepy eyes and saw a bus coming in quietly.I don't know whether it was my intuition at the time or the car just appeared here suddenly. In short, I couldn't hear a sound at the silent station. Looking around, the dark night was so deep and scary, as if it would engulf us at any time. "Get in the car, brother." He struggled to pick up the luggage and urged me.I hesitated.It was an ordinary passenger car, and although the lights were not too obvious, it could be vaguely distinguished.Very shabby, with almost all the red splattered paint on the outside.I took the luggage and followed the man, but when I stepped on the stairs with one foot, I heard a sentence in my ear, "Go down." I looked around suspiciously, and there was no one. Looking directly ahead, it turned out that the driver looking at me.

A man with a mustache, very thin, with high cheekbones on both sides, the lips under the huge aquiline nose are as bright red as lipstick, and exaggeratedly tilted to the sides, that kind of smile looks very impressive disgust.His deep eyes actually glowed in the dark night, he moved his lips and uttered two words. "Get down." I was terrified, and I walked down uncontrollably. There was no sound in the car. Soon, the car started and drove into the dense night, and disappeared in a flash, as if it had never been here. I waited until almost dawn before I waited for the second bus.Everyone was surprised when they went up.The driver even said that he was supposed to arrive last night, but because of the bad weather ahead, he changed it to morning, thinking that there would be no one waiting.

"This is the last bus." The driver smiled.I suddenly began to worry about my friend who was waiting for the bus with me, but the uncontrollable pajamas made me have no time to think about it. More than a year after this incident, I didn't expect to meet that strange car again. In fact, there was nothing special about the car from the outside, but I could recognize it at a glance. It was a summer night, very muggy.Because I needed to meet a friend in a hurry, I had to stand alone at the station waiting for the bus late at night. Behind the station was a large lawn as high as a person. The crickets were very loud, but the bus never came.Although the car didn't come, two gangsters came.

As if there was a mirror between them, they were about the same size, fat and thin, wearing a black and red checkered shirt and light-colored beach pants, with loose slippers on their feet, cigarettes in the corners of their mouths, and hands in their pockets looking at them. with me.To be precise, it should be looking at the bag I am carrying.I laughed in my heart, although I am not a martial arts expert, but it is more than enough to deal with you two bastards.But I don't want to cause trouble, after all, I'm out of town, so when the car stopped again without a sound, I got in the car without any hesitation, anyway, I was driving forward, and I'll talk about it when I get to the city.Unexpectedly, the two younger students also rushed up. After the three of them got into the car, the door slammed shut, and they drove forward slowly again.

After getting in the car, I realized that the car was almost full.Everyone sat blankly, looking at us with indifference.The inside of the carriage is very dilapidated, but it is very abnormal. Everyone in the carriage is looking forward, maintaining the same sitting posture, and there is no conversation at all. If I get up with my eyes closed, I’m afraid it’s an empty carriage.There is not even a ticket seller on the bus.The driver was a woman with a yellow knitted cap on her head. She looked pretty from the dim yellow lights on the roof, but she should be in her early thirties. She had a strange smile on her face.From getting in the car to now, she just focused on driving and looked ahead, but the light on the front of the car was very weak, which was far behind the boundless darkness outside.

As I walked back, it got darker, but I could barely see it. I found that there were two seats in the last row, so I sat down, and the other vacant seat was snatched by a gangster just now, sitting next to me, smoking a cigarette , Looking at me with a strange smile. I turned my head in disgust, but found a strange thing. The neighbor on the other side was actually wearing a thick padded jacket.There is also a huge black military cotton cap on his head, but his head is looking out of the window, and I can't see his appearance clearly.But in such hot weather, wearing a winter coat is too ridiculous. But I couldn't laugh because a terrible idea came to my head. There seemed to be something at my feet, I looked down, it was a coarse cloth bag, but the opening was opened.I fiddled with my feet curiously, and a chicken head fell out. It is said to be a chicken head, but in fact most of it is rotten.The chicken's mouth was sealed with tape. "It was two chickens. My fellow gave them to me when I was leaving, but I couldn't sell them, so I took them back. I was afraid they would make noise, so I sealed them with tape." The words of the man who waited for the car with me more than a year ago are in It echoed in my ears. His forehead began to sweat, cold sweat.My head is always looking at the head with the black cotton cap, hoping that he can turn around and deny the thoughts in my heart.At this time, the gangster sitting next to me suddenly jumped up and shouted in a broken voice. "I'm a robber!" It seems that he practiced this sentence for a long time, and swallowed his saliva after he finished speaking. I saw his huge Adam's apple rolled down, and looked at his companion standing at the front of the car with pride.But what happened next surprised him. It's a pity that the panic reaction they expected did not appear in the carriage. Everyone seemed to be like a deaf person, sitting upright in their seats as usual, treating them as transparent people. The gangster got angry and roared again, but his voice was obviously trembling. Even the most stupid person should have noticed the weirdness of this car.When people are afraid, they will take violent actions to cover up or show that they are not afraid.So do they.The bastard standing next to me put a knife on my neighbor, but he didn't look back. "No blood, you think we are joking!" The gangster thrust the knife into his neck hard, but when he pulled it out, there was no trace of blood on the knife. The gangster looked at the knife with straight eyes. And he finally turned his face away slowly. It was the same familiar face as it was more than a year ago, but it was very thin, but its expression was indifferent and weird, its eyes were like dead fish, and there was no blood on the originally dark and thick face. Against the background, there is actually a slight red light. And in his mouth, he was biting half a piece of mung bean cake, a piece of moldy mung bean cake crawling with maggots.I know the mung bean cake because I ate the other half. For more than a year, he has been in this car for more than a year? Is this the legendary hearse?My mind is in a mess and I can no longer think about the problem calmly.The gangster standing next to me stared at the knife, and sat down in a daze, with no expression on his face anymore. He was sitting in the same sitting posture as everyone else, with his dull eyes looking forward. His companion Gao shouted at him, but there was no response.And I quickly stood up and ran to the door. That friend of mine was still biting the dry and moldy mung bean cake, looking at me blankly. Seeing that his companion was silent, the gangster at the front put the knife on the female driver's neck. "Stop! You fucking stop!" His words were no longer coherent, and while he was talking, he stomped his leg on the floor of the car, and the female driver stopped with a squeak. "Do you want to go on?" Her voice was very pleasant, ethereal, and even seductive.The gangster with the knife stared at her blankly, but quickly shook his head to wake himself up, biting his lip and shouting. "Open the door quickly, or I will stab you to death!" The female driver obediently opened the door.Standing on the edge, I ran down as if fleeing.Seeing the car door open, the gangster hesitated for a while. He wanted to call his accomplice, but in the end he walked towards the car door by himself. Just a few seconds after he hesitated, the car door closed.The gangster's head that had just been stretched out was tightly clamped by the car door, but his body was still inside the car.He screamed in fear and slammed on the car door with his hands. "Open the door, open the door quickly!" The voice was as unpleasant as a howling wolf, but soon the car started to start, and the gangster was crying and begging me with pleading eyes. "Help me! Help me!" The voice gradually faded away with the car and disappeared.I was blown by the cool wind, and my sanity recovered.Looking around, after driving for so long, I went to find that I was still at the station, and I didn't leave half a step at all.The footprints and cigarette butts of those two people remained on the ground, proving that all this was not an illusion. It was indeed a hearse, but I actually met it twice in a row. I don't know when the car will stop next time, but one thing is certain, the young man whose head was caught by the door will continue to suffer forever. What puzzles me is that since it is a hearse, who is the driver? Is it the god of death? Stop and let new guests go up. " I close the note.Looking at the deserted station.If the boss hadn't asked me to go to such a far place to collect manuscripts, if these writers hadn't hibernated like animals in this remote town, I wouldn't have to stay alone at the station in winter.But after reading the story, I really don't have the mood to wait for the bus anymore.Just when I was thinking whether to continue waiting or go back to stay overnight and wait for dawn before going back, I felt something slowly approaching behind me. It's a car, a very old car.There was a human head on the door.The car drove past slowly.I stood there dumbfounded.Knowing that the car door passed in front of me.The head was rotten from under the nose, leaving only the bones, but the closed eyes suddenly opened. "Open the door, open the door quickly." The row of teeth that had almost fallen out collided and made an indistinct sound. "Open the door, open the door quickly." He kept repeating, but the car had already passed by. The whole process only took a few seconds, but it seemed like hours to me. "Let's go back and find a cheap hotel." I wrapped my collar tighter, grabbed the shriveled wallet in my pocket, and walked towards the small town not far away.