Chapter 435: I Once Rode This Train

I had never dealt with Two-Faced Buddha, but judging from the various arrangements he had left behind regarding the Eight Characters Divine Fiends, I could tell he was a terrifying opponent with immense capability and a mastery of scheming.

His disciple, Lu Xing, had inherited these exact traits: cold-blooded, cunning, and completely unscrupulous.

People like them cared nothing for worldly constraints. Morality? The law? Would men who held no regard for heaven itself change their ways for mere mortals?

They would sacrifice everything to achieve their goals, so I had to assume the absolute worst of their intentions.

The proportion of disabled people in Shuangfo District was absurdly high, and those with vulnerable hearts were far more susceptible to unfamiliar beliefs. Two-Faced Buddha could reap immense benefits from this. With that in mind, could the mastermind behind this series of tragedies be Two-Faced Buddha himself?

I questioned Lu Ming in detail. He had only been five years old the year of his accident, and he had already forgotten much of what happened.

Only after my repeated pressing did he recall a few blurry scenes.

Lu Ming's family had been struggling financially. Shuangfo District was constructing new high-rises at the time, so his father, Lu Wenchang, followed the construction team and brought the family to live there temporarily.

During the day, Lu Wenchang went out to work and Lu Ming's mother, Chang Feifei, worked as a hotel cleaner, leaving the boy home alone.

According to him, the weather was scorching that day. He had stayed inside with no intention of going out, but then he saw a child standing by his windowsill. The child was short, with only his head showing above the ledge.

When Lu Ming reached this part of the story, Lu Wenchang harshly scolded him, essentially telling the boy not to speak nonsense or make things up.

The little guy felt wronged. Only under my repeated pressing did he continue, explaining that after the adults left for work that afternoon, the child had just kept standing outside the window, waving at him with a cheeky grin.

Around two or three in the afternoon, Lu Ming finally gave in to his curiosity, went out the door, and followed the child outside to play.

Then the tragedy that changed his family occurred. The two children climbed onto a single-story house slated for demolition, and in the end, that child pushed Lu Ming off the roof.

Lu Wenchang called the police afterward, wanting to catch the child who had pushed Lu Ming off the roof. However, when the police checked the surveillance footage, they found that Lu Ming had been completely alone from start to finish. There was no other child.

Whether Lu Ming was lying or a supernatural phenomenon had truly occurred, no one could say for sure. After all, too much time had passed.

Personally, I leaned toward this being one of Two-Faced Buddha's schemes, but I had no evidence to prove it to Lu Ming's parents.

After finishing his story, Lu Ming lowered his head, looking a bit sleepy. He didn't dare look at his parents, a deep sense of guilt and unease hidden in his small heart.

I hadn't even had a chance to speak after hearing the little guy's story when an old woman sitting next to Lu Ming's parents spoke up. "You share the same fate as my great-grandson. Sigh, if he hadn't been in that accident, he would probably be about your age by now. Would you let me give you a hug?"

The old woman was dressed immaculately, carrying an aura of elegance that could only be cultivated by someone of high status. Unfortunately, she was blind; her wide-open eyes were entirely white.

Lu Ming didn't speak, and his parents stayed silent as well. The train car instantly fell quiet. The old woman waited for a moment, and upon realizing no one was going to answer, she shook her head. "I just haven't heard my great-grandson's voice in a long time. That was a bit presumptuous of me."

The old woman seemed like a pitiful person too. Kind-hearted as she was, Chang Feifei gestured for Lu Ming to go over.

The little guy obediently walked over to the old woman, though he still seemed a bit reluctant. "I'm not your great-grandson, you know," he muttered.

Withered hands gently patted Lu Ming's head. The old woman's eyes were wide open, but sadly, those milky-white eyes couldn't see a thing. Eventually, two faint trails of tears slid down her cheeks. "It is fate that we are sitting together on this final train. It'll be good to look out for one another on Yellow Springs Road."

"Ma'am, please don't say such inauspicious things. We are going to attend the Buddha Assembly today to see the buddha light and the buddha children. Don't speak nonsense." Although Lu Wenchang was unhappy with the old woman's words, he still maintained his manners out of respect for her age.

"How could there be so many buddhas in this world? I am ninety-nine years old this year. My eyes may be blind, but my heart is not. I see much more clearly than you do." The old woman reached out and traced Lu Ming's facial features. "Such a pity for a child this young. What a pity."

I was highly intrigued by the old woman's words. She was a perceptive person; she seemed to have already realized that this train was far from ordinary.

I leaned in deferentially and lowered my voice. "Ma'am, you just mentioned that this is the final train, and you brought up Yellow Springs Road. Do you happen to know this train's final destination? My memories from right before I boarded are blurry. I was hoping you could give me some pointers."

The old woman turned her head toward my voice, staring at me with those milky-white eyes for a long time. "Seems I've met a perceptive person. But what good does knowing do? Sometimes it's better to remain blissfully ignorant."

She pulled her hands back and leaned against her seat. "I don't know exactly where this train is headed either. But I did board it once before, only to be escorted off later."

"Is that so?" I immediately perked up.

"The first time I boarded this train was when I turned exactly ninety. I can't remember the details clearly anymore, but I remember sleeping in my own bedroom one moment, and the next, I woke up in the middle of the night at a subway station. There were people all around me, and I was forcefully shoved onto the train by the crowd. I groggily found my seat. Nobody around me spoke; it was deathly quiet. I just sat there as the train rumbled past station after station. I don't know how much time passed before the scenery outside the window finally began to change. I saw many things I had never seen before." Pausing, the old woman pointed at her eyes. "I wasn't always blind. I likely ended up this way precisely because I looked at things I shouldn't have."

Her expression was completely serene, as if losing her sight meant nothing to her. "Believe what I'm about to tell you, or don't. If you don't, just treat it as a story. Don't take it to heart."

"This train stops many times along the way, but most of the time, passengers are only allowed to board, not disembark. There are only six exceptions."

"The first station is Land God Temple. A region's soil and water nourish its people, and the local land protects them. Both the birth and death of a soul must pass through the local Land God Temple. The first time I saw 'people' disembark was next to a dilapidated Land God Temple."

"The second station is Yellow Springs Road. As the saying goes, Yellow Springs Road is hard to walk, and it spares neither the old nor the young. On the true Yellow Springs Road, you can't see the sun, moon, or stars when you look up, nor can you see the earth or dust when you look down. Look forward, and there is no sunlit path; look back, and there are no friends or family in sight. I don't know how long I sat there before I finally saw people being pushed off the train, left to wander the boundless Yellow Springs."

"The third station is Hometown-Viewing Terrace. As the proverb goes, once you reach Hometown-Viewing Terrace, you can gaze upon your home from afar, but you can never return. When the train doors opened there, many people willingly stepped off."

"The fourth and fifth stations are Vicious Dog Ridge and Golden Rooster Mountain. These two stations are extremely perilous. Many of the people who disembarked there simply vanished without a trace."

"The sixth station is called Wild Ghost Village. It was the last stop I passed through, though I don't know how that village was formed. The number of people on the train had been steadily dwindling. I didn't dare stay on board any longer. I had just walked to the doors, ready to disembark, when an old man in his fifties or sixties suddenly rushed out from the eerie, ghost-infested village. He pointed at me, cursed at me furiously, and then shoved me right back onto the train. His voice was incredibly familiar to me; he sounded just like my late husband. Come to think of it, my husband had been exactly fifty-nine when he passed away."

"I wanted to look at him just a little longer, but the train had already started moving again."

"I was the only one left in the entire train car. Later on, it felt like someone spoke to me, and in my daze, I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up again, I found myself lying in a hospital bed. My youngest daughter was sitting by my side, gripping my hand. As soon as she saw I was awake, she hurried off to call the doctor. Only after asking did I learn that I had gone into temporary shock the night before. If I hadn't been discovered early, they never would have been able to save me."

The old woman smoothed out her clothes, looking as though she were dressing up to visit family, and revealed a bright smile. "It was quite a coincidence, really. I was unconscious in my room, and normally, no one would have noticed. But as it turned out, the wind blew my old man's memorial portrait right off the altar table, smashing it to pieces. My youngest daughter heard the crash and ran out of her room, which is the only reason my life was saved. You can treat all this as just a story if you like. But this time... I will be getting off at Wild Ghost Village..."