Midnight Bookstore - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: What The Hell Did I Save?
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
For someone who was clueless about cars, choosing the right car was one of the trickiest tasks. They would normally ask their friends or relatives for advice. After all, different cars had their advantages and disadvantages, or some common problems, be it quality or performance.
In spite of how complicated choosing the right car was, if a tiny cigarette butt could burn a hole in a car, it clearly had nothing to do with the lack of quality assurance, right?
It could only mean one thing; it was made of joss paper!
The driver was middle-aged, his eldest son might only be in primary school, yet the man told him that the car was from his son.
It could possibly mean that his son had ‘burned’ the car for him.
The man was dead, so his son burned a car made of joss paper for him.
Zhou Ze shook his head. As a matter of fact, he had not been able to tell that the car was not real. He only realized that something was odd after hopping into the car, but he decided to go along with it instead.
He was also an illegal trespasser back to the human world. He had no intention of being Celestial Master Zhang. Besides, he was a ghost himself.
If he was to start raising the flag by fighting the ‘evil’ ghosts, he would basically be a betrayer to the ghosts.
Zhou Ze placed his hand over the hole to hide it. He pretended to be sleepy with his eyes closed, pretending that nothing had happened.
Zhou Ze remembered when he was still at the orphanage, there was a teacher that would occasionally take them out to play some sports. His other job was to guard the entrance.
Since the man’s surname was Qin, the little kids would call him Uncle Qin.
Uncle Qin was a great teller of stories, especially horror stories. He enjoyed watching the fear on the kids’ faces when he was telling the stories. The chairman warned the man many times, yet he continued to make them up.
However, Uncle Qin had passed away from a heart attack before Zhou Ze left the orphanage to study.
Zhou Ze remembered a story that Uncle Qin had told them before, called The Ghost Litter.
Apparently, there were many kinds of ghosts during ancient times. Most people would go straight to Hell after they died. They would drink the Mengpo Tang after reaching the Yellow Spring and enter reincarnation. Only a few ghosts could stay in the human world.
However, some ghosts did stay behind. They might or might not be aware that they were dead, and they would still do the things they were doing when they were alive.
For example, being a porter for a litter.
They would appear in remote places or on the streets late at night, asking if the people were looking for a ride. They would offer affordable prices to their customers.
However, the service provided by ghosts was not that simple. The price of riding a Ghost Litter was not money, but the person’s lifespan, or their life force.
Only Yama was worthy to be carried around by the ghosts in a litter. The living were not worthy at all.
It was like having an old woman in her eighties kneeling before you, it would shorten your lifespan.
Zhou Ze clearly remembered the story. As a matter of fact, he remembered lots of stories that Uncle Qin had told him. Even after he started working, he did not forget any of them.
The reason was that Zhou Ze knew Uncle Qin, who had only watched the entrance of the orphanage, had gone to see the kids in every room the night before his death. Zhou Ze knew because he was still not asleep when Uncle Qin passed by.
It felt like Uncle Qin knew his death was approaching, thus he came to bid farewell to the kids.
It was like people believing everything that Warren Buffet said would be a great business opportunity, even if it was just a little fart.
If Uncle Qin knew when he was going to die, Zhou Ze could not convince himself that Uncle Qin had made up all the stories he spoke.
The driver was still jabbering on his own while Zhou Ze sat calmly in the back.
Taking his lifespan? Draining his life force?
Zhou Ze was not too worried about it. He was not human; he was a ghost too!
Frankly speaking, even though Zhou Ze was unfamiliar with the classes and ranks of ghosts, the fact that he could still walk in daylight and live like a normal human being obviously meant that his level was a lot higher than most other ghosts, right?
His fingernails could even harm the faceless woman in the swamp in Hell. Zhou Ze was quite confident that he could take on other ghosts.
“Many people have started working as a taxi nowadays, meaning that they are lots of misbehaving people too,” the driver continued to talk, even though Zhou Ze did not respond.
“There are all kinds of birds in a big forest. Either way, if you are fussy about everything, you’re going to live a shorter life. Even though I know I should just ignore them, some people really have a tag on them that says ‘come hit me and ram me to death’. Those people are particularly annoying.”
Zhou Ze squinted. He felt a little sleepy. He had an urge to fall asleep. However, he knew he could not fall asleep outside a freezer. He immediately realized that the feeling was not real.
Zhou Ze suddenly burst out laughing.
He realized why the driver kept jabbering along the way. It was not like the man was unaware of how annoying he was.
It was because Zhou Ze was still awake, so the man had to keep talking to pretend that everything was normal.
The man was waiting for Zhou Ze to fall asleep, but he had always been slow when it came to sleeping.
Zhou Ze smiled. He placed his hands on the car seat and closed his eyes.
Time to sleep.
The car gradually slowed down.
The driver’s voice turned softer after Zhou Ze fell asleep.
At the same time, the driver turned around to look at Zhou Ze.
However, he seemed to be struggling to make a decision before he firmly shook his head with a sigh. He continued to focus on driving.
The car had almost reached the bookstore.
Zhou Ze was unsure how a car made of joss paper driven by a ghost was able to transport a person with a living body.
He could not find any explanation to it, since physics did not really teach anything about ‘ghost force’.
There were records about the Yellow Turban Soldiers and Qimen Dunjia in history. Perhaps they were of the same kind that he was encountering.
{TL Note: Yellow Turban Soldiers are soldiers that were summoned by Daoist magic. Qimen Dunjia was a kind of Daoist magic.}
Zhou Ze opened his eyes. He could sense that the driver’s body was slowly turning into light dots.
Interesting. It seemed like he kept stumbling into kind-hearted ghosts lately.
The driver was meant to ‘take his money’, but did not have the heart to do it. It must be his first time, yet he failed to set up his mind straight to do it. He was freed from the world while struggling to make up his mind.
He had started to disappear. He would be sent to Hell to be reincarnated.
It turned out that the driver was not just murmuring nonsense. He really had four kids. He enjoyed being a father. He was working hard to feed his family, to provide a good environment to grow up in for his children.
He was a good father. He was a good man, too. He wanted to stay longer in the world by draining the life force of the others with the ‘Ghost Litter’, but he was too soft-hearted to do it.
Zhou Ze slowly raised his head. The driver did not notice that he had woken up. He was focusing on the road.
Slowly, Zhou Ze saw light pouring in through the window. There was heavy traffic on the roads.
The driver was about to disappear. It must be a recollection of his memories before his death, similar to how lightning could record something that had happened under special circumstances.
Zhou Ze subconsciously lit a cigarette. Since the driver was already freed from this world, it no longer mattered if he set the car on fire.
The car was playing the song Liang Liang, a tune that was quite popular lately.
The driver was humming while driving the car. He seemed to be in a good mood. He was thinking of adding some peanuts to his dinner before calling his kids. The days might be tough, but they were satisfying.
Zhou Ze saw a bus on the road ahead. It was a school bus. It even had the emblem and name of the school on it.
Zhou Ze was not too bothered by it until he suddenly saw a little girl standing up at the back of the bus. She was facing the rear window. The car behind could easily see her through the window.
The girl was wearing a flowery, blue dress. She was quite adorable.
Zhou Ze frowned. He knew who the girl was. It was the girl that he had saved. He had heard that the girl had woken up. Doctor Lin even mentioned that the girl’s father wanted to thank him by treating him to dinner.
Zhou Ze was lost in his thoughts. Does this mean the driver was the cause of the accident?
So many kids were injured. If he did not intervene, a little girl might even die.
“Such a cute little girl, just like my youngest daughter,” the driver mumbled to himself. It was the scene that took place right before his death, so he was unaware of the person sitting behind him.
Zhou Ze looked at his surroundings. The driver did not seem to be drinking, nor was he being distracted by something else. What was the reason that the man rammed his car into the bus, resulting in the accident?
Did some other car ram into his car from behind?
Meanwhile, the girl standing on the bus suddenly opened her mouth and spat her tongue out.
Yes, she spat her tongue out!
The girl spat her tongue out like a red carpet for a pair of newly-weds. It was so long that it was making his scalp turn numb.
Meanwhile, the girl had a disdainful grin as she stared at the driver.
“Holy crap, she’s a monster!”
The driver stepped on the wrong pedal in a panic. The car immediately rammed into the bus ahead.
BANG!
—-
After a quick flash, Zhou Ze found himself standing in front of the bookstore.
He discovered the ashes of the car made of joss paper scattering on the ground nearby. The ashes drifted in the wind and sprinkled in the air like stars.
Zhou Ze was not injured, not even the slightest scratch.
The driver had kept his promise by sending him to his destination.
However, Zhou Ze did not go into the bookstore.
The cigarette between his fingers was still lit up.
He took a deep breath and licked his lips.
Mister, you shouldn’t smoke in the hospital. The girl’s voice echoed in his ears.
What the hell did he save?