"Why was only his body recovered?"
Lu Fei examined the ticket, utterly perplexed.
"He wants me to help find his family, but where are they trapped? In the river where the accident happened?"
After pondering for a while, he decided to first visit the accident site to look for clues.
The next day.
He got up early and had Hu Zi drive him to the river where the accident occurred.
The river was called Hulu River, named for its alternating wide and narrow sections resembling a gourd.
The water flowed gently, with a highway bridge spanning its narrowest section.
Back then, the bus had suddenly lost control after crossing this bridge, crashing through the guardrail and plunging into the river.
As the accident happened late at night on this remote road with no witnesses, rescue efforts were not deployed in time.
The next day, only a deformed bus and one passenger were salvaged.
The cause of the accident remains unknown to this day.
Some say the driver wanted revenge on society, others claim someone tried to seize the steering wheel, while others speculate about water ghosts dragging people down.
The theories vary.
'Boss, the riverside looks scenic. Doesn't seem haunted at all. How could so many people die here?'
Hu Zi glanced around, his face filled with confusion.
'If you only look at the scenery, of course you won't notice anything.'
Lu Fei spoke as he walked onto the bridge.
The opposite end of the bridge led to the suburbs, where farmland could be seen in the distance. The terminal station of Bus Route 44 was Sifang Town, a suburban settlement.
The town appeared ordinary, and Lu Fei had never heard of any strange occurrences there.
'Then how should we look, boss?'
Hu Zi followed Lu Fei, imitating his manner of observing surroundings, but still couldn't discern anything unusual.
'See how the river stretches wide both upstream and downstream, but narrowest here? Dark, damp energy accumulates in this bottleneck. Over time, this inevitably creates negative effects.' Lu Fei examined the area before walking down to the riverbank beneath the bridge.
The area under the bridge never saw sunlight, naturally becoming a place abundant with yin energy.
Standing by the river under the bridge, both men felt a chilly, eerie atmosphere.
Though not wide, the river's water appeared black and bottomless.
'Over a dozen people on that bus, only one recovered. Were the others washed away?' Hu Zi squinted at the distant river. 'This waterway seems long enough to connect to major rivers. If bodies reached those big rivers, no wonder they couldn't be found.'
'It's probably not that simple.'
Lu Fei shook his head and walked further downstream.
This section of the river formed a wide circular shape, resembling the belly of a gourd.
Lu Fei watched for a while. He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but the river water seemed to be rotating slightly, even though the current was clearly flowing downward.
"Strange,"
Lu Fei took a few steps forward, trying to get a clearer look.
"Stop! What are you two doing? Stay right there!"
An urgent shout came from behind them.
They turned to see a man in a red vest resembling maintenance staff hurrying over.
"Calm down! Whatever hardship you're facing, grit your teeth and push through. Don't do anything rash..."
Lu Fei and Hu Zi exchanged glances, suppressing laughter.
This man had mistaken them for suicidal individuals.
"Old brother, you've misunderstood. We just thought the scenery looked nice and came down for a walk."
"No walking here! Didn't you see the sign?" The man angrily pointed at the warning sign by the road. "This river looks calm, but there are dangerous undercurrents beneath. Fall in and you won't resurface!"
"Our apologies, we truly didn't notice."
The two returned to the road.
"You youngsters are too reckless! Dare to wander by this river? People have died here before, you know?" The man glared, picking up a long fishing net from the ground.
He appeared to be a staff member responsible for cleaning river debris.
"We heard a bus fell into this river years ago. Do you know about that incident, brother?" Lu Fei signaled Hu Zi with his eyes.
Hu Zi quickly stepped forward to offer a cigarette.
"You knew about that and still came down here?" The man's attitude softened slightly after accepting the smoke.
"This river's been troubled since before that accident. That bus was just unlucky! I only dare collect trash here on clear days - otherwise you might fish up... peculiar things."
"Oh? What kind of things?" Lu Fei pressed urgently.
"Why are you asking about this?" The older brother eyed him suspiciously.
"Big Brother, you don't understand," Lu Fei sighed, assuming a pained expression. "I actually had a friend on that bus—a perfectly healthy person who vanished without a trace. Alive or dead, there's no sign of them. I just want to know how the accident happened."
"You're quite the loyal friend, but I don't have time to chat now. I need to finish this work while the light's still good."
The older brother's expression softened slightly as he hoisted the net and walked toward the riverbank.
"Big Brother, working in this heat must be exhausting. Let us give you a hand."
Lu Fei waved Hu Zi over, and the two stepped forward to help without another word.
"You two..."
The older brother seemed both flustered and touched.
With their enthusiastic assistance, what usually took over two hours to clean up was finished in less than an hour today.
After finishing the work, they sat resting under the shade of a tree.
Lu Fei handed over another bottle of water.
"You're a kind young man! But I advise you not to get your hopes up. Those who sink into the gourd's belly can never be retrieved." The older man sighed, offering well-meaning advice.
"Big brother, what do you mean by that?" Lu Fei naturally wouldn't miss this chance to gather clues.
"I don't fully understand it myself. Heard it from an old body-retrieval specialist. We mainly do river salvage work, sometimes come across corpses and such. We never touch those ourselves - always call professional corpse retrievers." The man puffed on his cigarette as he spoke.
"When that bus sank back then, we also called corpse retrievers."
"That old man just kept shaking his head when he saw Hulu River. Said something about the gourd's belly being a bottomless pit, that the River Lord was claiming lives, and whoever falls in never returns. The families wouldn't accept that though - wailing and demanding a search. The old man had no choice but to go in with his team. Three days and nights they worked, only managed to recover one body."
"What River Lord?" Lu Fei's eyes widened.
The man pondered before shaking his head. "That I don't know either. The riverbank was pure chaos that day. I just remember Old Xing-tou saying those things."
"Brother, can you still contact that old corpse retriever from back then?" Lu Fei sensed this practitioner might be someone extraordinary.
"Old Xing-tou nearly lost his life that time. Retired afterward. I've still got his number, but not sure if it still works." The man pulled out his phone, scrolling through contacts until he found a string of digits.
"Thanks, brother."
Lu Fei happily noted down the number and handed the entire pack of cigarettes to the man.
"To be honest, you folks shouldn't get your hopes up! Not to scare you, but since that incident, many families have tried searching for people here. The results were..."
The man trailed off, a flicker of fear flashing in his eyes.