Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 316 Laro Mine

The night is getting darker.

At the crossroads of the road to the headless, Ran Qing stood two white spirit banners, waiting for the midnight minibus to arrive.

At the end of the bend ahead, the tent and its light were obscured by the pine forest and could not be seen.

But there was no further movement from that side.

After the young girl fell asleep, the night fell into silence.

With nothing to do, Ran Qing and the other two took out playing cards and sat by the roadside to play Dou Dizhu (a card game) to pass the time and wait for midnight.

Ran Jianfei's mysterious disappearance left Ran Qing with mixed feelings.

But... it's just a little complicated.

After the initial emotional shock subsided, Ran Qing gradually regained her composure.

Although they were puzzled and curious about Ran Jianfei's mysterious disappearance and his departure in a minibus, they ultimately had no father-son relationship.

The image of that man in his memory was too vague, and his character was despicable.

Even if you forced Ran Qing to shed a couple of tears, he would struggle to do so, let alone if no one forced him to reminisce.

Ran Qing's calming down also relieved Mo Li and Long Zongshu.

Soon, the atmosphere between the three of them returned to a relaxed state.

They played cards and chatted about all sorts of things under the light of a flashlight.

But it was mainly Mo Li who spoke, while Ran Qing and the other person listened.

After all, in terms of knowledge and experience, Ran Qing and Long Zongshu were just two high school students who had never traveled far from home. The farthest place they had been to in the past ten years was Lao Wang Mountain.

Their lives were too bleak; they were full of fantasies about the outside world but knew nothing about it.

Mo Li cheerfully shared the local customs and interesting stories from other provinces with them, and the three of them showed no unease about immediately encountering terrifying evil spirits.

However, the cars that occasionally passed by the intersection accelerated and sped away from the intersection after seeing the three young people chatting and playing cards by the roadside.

As Ran Qing and the others looked at the vehicles, they could see the drivers' stiff, pale faces.

Not a single driver dared to look this way, much less meet their gaze.

They clearly all thought the three of them were ghosts.

"...By the way, it's already 11:40," Long Zongshu, who was shuffling the cards, suddenly said, "Didn't Aunt Luo say she was leaving at 11:30?"

The intersection where Ran Qing and the other two were waiting was the only way back to Moonlit City from the bend ahead.

But Luo Xuefang, who had set up a tent and was camping on the other side of the bend, had not yet brought her daughter over.

She clearly stated before that she would only stay until 11:30 before leaving.

Ran Qing glanced at the cheap digital watch on her wrist; it was already 23:42 PM.

There are only a few minutes left until midnight.

Mo Li stood up and said, "I'll go take a look."

She volunteered and jumped up, heading towards the bend in the road.

The girl's footsteps faded away in the darkness, and soon Mo Li returned.

“Aunt Luo is packing up her tent, getting ready to go back,” Mo Li said.

Upon hearing this news, Ran Qing nodded but said nothing.

He had mixed feelings about his biological father, let alone his stepmother and sister.

Anyway, Ran Jianfei left the mother and daughter a huge sum of money, 180,000 yuan in cash, plus an apartment in Yue Zhao City. Ran Qing wasn't interested in these things; they were enough for the mother and daughter to live on.

Ran Qing and the other two put away the playing cards, checked the soul banner again, and then began to wait.

As midnight approached, the night wind at the crossroads gradually turned cold and damp.

Ran Qing's Yin-Yang Eyes could vaguely see shadowy figures floating and moving in the distant woods and on the dirt road. Those were the wandering ghosts and spirits of the surrounding area.

However, it is indeed unusual for such a large number of wandering ghosts to gather at a crossroads on the outskirts of a city.

Ran Qing sat up straight, looking around, wondering when the midnight minibus would arrive.

Long Zongshu and Mo Li, like him, looked around nervously and anxiously.

There are four directions at the intersection. Which road will the minibus come from?

Where will it head next?
On the screen of a cheap digital watch, the numbers representing the passage of time jump slowly.

23:57……23:58……23:59……

Finally, when the numbers on the digital watch screen jumped to [00; 00], Ran Qing's digital watch emitted a cheap beeping sound.

A chilling aura descended upon this crossroads out of nowhere.

Ran Qing, who was sitting by the roadside waiting, was stunned for a moment. She saw that the expressions of her two companions next to her suddenly froze, as if something had happened.

Mo Li, Long Zongshu... they all stared at Ran Qing's face with extremely shocked looks.

Such a gaze startled Ran Qing, who suddenly felt a strange sense of dread.

He turned his head slowly and stiffly, and saw a large, cold minibus with its lights off, silently parked behind him.

The car's headlights, now off, stared coldly at Ran Qing's face.

Inside the empty minibus, a faint, eerie green light lingered.

On the windshield of the bus, half of the red metal lettering has fallen off, and the route of the minibus can only be guessed from the incomplete characters.

[Moonlight over Laro Mine]

Ran Qing's eyelids twitched suddenly.

The moment he saw the minibus, his heightened senses, amplified by his experience as a spirit medium, detected an incredibly foul, cold, and malevolent odor.

This strange odor, and the sense of horror that accompanied it, was more intense than any ghost or monster I had ever encountered before!

Midnight minibus...

The midnight minibus that was rumored to appear on the road where the road was cut off has actually appeared.

Moreover, it appeared out of nowhere, without any warning.

Ran Qing instinctively stood up, stepped back, and created distance, staring at the dark, cold minibus in front of her.

The slightly dilapidated minibus was no different from the other minibuses that usually traveled through the towns and villages.

On the rusty frame on the roof, a black rainproof tarpaulin was tied with ropes, the contents of which were unknown.

Inside the minibus, where all the lights were off, it was dark and gloomy, with a faint, eerie green light emanating from it, but the scene inside was still unclear.

It was only vaguely certain that there were no passengers besides the driver.

Ran Qing and Mo Lizongshu exchanged a glance, somewhat surprised and uncertain.

Suddenly, the minibus door opened, revealing a dark interior that resembled a gaping maw of a monster, waiting for the three to enter.

Long Zongshu swallowed hard, then suddenly straightened his neck and walked up, becoming the first to step onto the metal steps of the minibus.

Seeing this, Ran Qing and Mo Li quickly followed behind.

Finally, there was Little Cotton, tucked between its legs, looking terrified.

The three people and the dog boarded the minibus.

Inside the dimly lit and cold car, there was an unsettling chill in the air.

Strangely, after getting into the car, the strange smell that had made Ran Qing so uneasy, and the terrifying and dangerous feeling that had been there, all disappeared.

Inside the minibus, apart from being a little cold, there seemed to be nothing unusual.

(End of this chapter)