Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 42

The most terrifying thing is when the air suddenly goes silent…

Zhou Ze pressed his lips together. Dr. Lin lowered her head, also feeling somewhat relieved.

One cheated emotionally, the other “physically.”

When one person makes a mistake, there is guilt; when two people make a mistake together, it becomes gender equality.

At this moment, Zhou Ze started laughing, his laughter carrying a hint of indulgence.

Indeed, after his own death, the person who bought his house turned out to be his current “wife.”

Indeed, Dr. Lin was wealthy. For her, buying a second-hand house in Tongcheng, where the former owner had died, was an easy task. Moreover, it seemed that only she would clean this place and keep everything exactly the same as before.

Moved?

Of course, he was moved.

Zhou Ze was Zhou Ze. Even though he now inhabited Xu Le’s body, the perspective he assumed was still his own.

Xu Le was already a thing of the past. Regardless of how bumpy or undignified this young man’s love life had been, Zhou Ze would not concern himself with it.

It was like during New Year’s Eve dinner, when everyone was eating happily, and some fool suddenly pulled out his phone to show everyone pictures of starving refugees who are skin and bones in Africa, asking, ‘Can you still eat after seeing this?’

Having such a woman, one who seemed possessed and kept remembering and missing him, how could he, as a man, not feel proud or moved?

“Find my clothes and put them on,” Zhou Ze said, pointing at Bai Yingying.

The female corpse nodded and gave a quick “Oh.” Unlike last time, she didn’t dare treat this as a game anymore or add fuel to the fire. She obediently went into Zhou Ze’s bedroom, changed into his clean clothes, and came back out.

Dr. Lin was still standing where she was, saying nothing.

She seemed to feel a kind of release, a sense of relief. However, Zhou Ze didn’t let her sink further into that emotion. He stepped forward, grasped her hand, and said seriously, “There’s something I need to tell you. Come with me.”

Holding Dr. Lin’s hand with a hint of dominance, Zhou Ze led her out the door and into the elevator. Bai Yingying followed silently behind. She knew that speaking now would only make things worse.

Everything was simply too coincidental.

Downstairs, Zhou Ze walked to Dr. Lin’s Cayenne and gestured for her to hand him the car keys.

Zhou Ze had made up his mind. He was going to tell her who he truly was, regardless of whether she could accept it or not, regardless of whether she was like “Lord Ye who loved dragons” from an ancient tale.

In any case, Zhou Ze wanted to tell her the truth. He didn’t want to hide anymore, didn’t want to pretend. After all, circumstances had changed; back then, he was an unregistered ghost, but now he had been “cleansed.”

There was no reason to wrong himself any longer.

“You don’t have a driver’s license,” Dr. Lin reminded him.

“Give me the keys,” Zhou Ze said firmly, in a tone that left no room for argument.

He wanted to take her to the hospital, to that familiar operating room, to prove his true identity through action.

Otherwise, he feared that merely explaining it in words would make her think he was suffering from a bout of “pitiful husband’s delusional syndrome.”

Dr. Lin handed over the car keys, and the three of them got into the car.

Zhou Ze sat in the driver’s seat, Dr. Lin in the passenger seat, and Bai Yingying obediently sat in the back.

The engine started, and the car backed out.

Zhou Ze appeared calm and skilled.

That fool Xu Le didn’t even have a driver’s license, but he himself was an experienced driver.

Then—

A sharp, continuous screeching sound filled the air, “squeeeeaak…” followed by a jolt of the car.

Zhou Ze fell silent.

The two women in the car also fell silent.

The Cayenne’s body had scraped hard against a utility pole.

In the pitch-black night, as if by cruel coincidence, a particularly diligent crow once again flew overhead, letting out its eerie “Caw… Caw… Caw…” cries.

The air once again fell into an awkward silence.

Zhou Ze unbuckled his seatbelt and said, “You drive.”

“To the People’s Hospital?” Dr. Lin switched seats and asked.

“Yes, the People’s Hospital.” Sitting in the passenger seat, Zhou Ze covered his forehead with one hand, then lightly bumped his head against the car window.

It had been too long since he last drove, and now that he was in a different body, his driving skills had become much rustier.

But no matter how many excuses there were, that moment just now was really embarrassing.

The car got back on the road and soon merged onto the East Expressway viaduct.

Inside the car, it was very quiet. Dr. Lin didn’t speak. Even though she didn’t know why Zhou Ze wanted to go to the hospital, she didn’t ask.

Their marriage had already been riddled with cracks beyond repair.

Bai Yingying sat in the back seat, gazing at the scenery outside the window. It had been a long time since she’d been out. Although Lady Bai used to talk to her almost every day, she herself rarely had the chance to actually come out and see the world.

Besides, she knew that it wasn’t appropriate for her to speak right now.

Zhou Ze suddenly sat upright and said, “That car—is it going the wrong way?”

On the other side of the low concrete barrier was the opposite lane of the viaduct. A white sedan was there, but its front faced the same direction as their own.

That meant the other car was driving against traffic.

Just then, a large bus drove by in the adjacent lane, its high beams glaring sharply.

Immediately after came the piercing sound of sudden brakes.

Zhou Ze instinctively closed his eyes and covered his head with both hands. The bus was in the other lane and couldn’t possibly hit them, yet this scene almost perfectly mirrored the most terrifying image burned into his memory.

Back then, on his way home from work, he had been hit by a large truck in just this way.

Now, everything before him was pulling out that most horrifying, most unwanted memory from the depths of his mind.

Bang!

A dull crash sounded, and Dr. Lin immediately stopped the car.

In the adjacent lane, the bus had collided with the white sedan driving the wrong way. The smaller car was thrown aside and then slammed hard by the bus’s front end into the concrete barrier. Its entire body was crushed out of shape.

Turning on the hazard lights, Dr. Lin quickly got out of the car. Looking at her husband trembling in the passenger seat, a flicker of disappointment crossed her eyes, but she immediately went to the trunk, took out the warning triangle, and placed it behind the car. Then she climbed over the barrier and ran to the other side.

She was a doctor, and she had to fulfill her duty. When accidents happen, if there are medical professionals nearby, the victims’ chances of survival increase greatly.

“Boss?” called Bai Yingying from the back seat.

Zhou Ze let go of his hands and looked around blankly. Seeing the crash scene in the adjacent lane, he noticed that Dr. Lin had already gone over.

“Come with me. We’re helping.”

Zhou Ze got out of the car, his legs weak.

This was a form of human self-protection instinct; when a mental wound is triggered, it often brings about a physical weakening as a protective response.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Ze hesitated for not even a second and climbed over the barrier, heading toward the accident site to help.

Bai Yingying followed closely behind.

The bus driver’s face was covered in blood; he must have hit his head on the steering wheel or something during the crash. Three other people got off the bus, probably passengers. In any case, the bus was nearly empty.

“This guy’s crazy! Driving against traffic on an overpass? If you want to die, don’t drag others with you!” The bus driver cursed while pressing a hand to the wound on his forehead.

Anyone in his position would be furious after something like that.

“Stop shouting and help!” Dr. Lin barked at the bus driver.

Responsibility for the accident could be determined later; for now, they needed to get the people inside the car out.

“Hey! Can you still hear me? Can you respond?” Dr. Lin called out to the people trapped in the mangled sedan.

There was no reply.

The bus driver kept cursing under his breath but still joined the rescue effort. The road was rather isolated, a stretch of the overpass that rarely saw traffic. A few cars passed by without stopping to look and just drove straight on.

“Try prying the door open!” Zhou Ze suggested.

“We don’t have any equipment, so how are we supposed to pry it open?” Dr. Lin’s tone was tense. It irritated her even more that her husband, who didn’t understand the situation, was still trying to direct her.

Inside the sedan were two people—a woman and a child. Their condition looked terrible. Both were covered in blood, and no matter how loudly she called to them, neither gave any response.

The car door had been crushed inward and was jammed completely. It would normally take the fire department with special tools to cut it open.

Zhou Ze stepped forward and grabbed hold of the door. Bai Yingying came up beside him. Being a zombie, her strength was tremendous. The two exerted force together.

With a sharp crack, the door came clean off. In the process, Bai Yingying even crushed down the back of the car seat.

Dr. Lin froze in astonishment.

The bus driver and the few passengers nearby were equally stunned.

They thought they must have been lucky; maybe the door hadn’t been jammed too tightly.

Zhou Ze bent down, supporting the woman’s neck with one hand and holding her legs with the other, carefully pulling her out first. Then he went back to pull the boy’s body out.

Dr. Lin immediately examined the woman’s body, her expression darkening. When the boy was pulled out, she checked him next, and her face turned somber.

They were dead.

Both of them were dead.

“They’re dead?” the bus driver asked in disbelief, his expression twisted with shock and anger. “Damn it! Those bastards drove out here in the middle of the night to get people killed, and now they’ve ruined me too!”

“Call the police and the ambulance.” Dr. Lin’s phone was still in her car, so she shouted to the bus driver.

Though furious, the bus driver still pulled out his phone and started dialing.

Zhou Ze, however, turned both the woman’s and the boy’s bodies over. Dr. Lin looked puzzled at his action.

“When I pulled them out, I checked them briefly,” Zhou Ze said. “They both have multiple external injuries, clearly from the crash. But they shared one identical wound. On the back of the head, there’s a sunken fracture in the skull. That’s most likely the fatal injury. I think it was caused by someone striking them with a hammer wrapped in cloth.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Lin immediately examined that spot herself. After checking, she quickly realized what he meant and said, “They were already dead before the crash!”

Yes. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why both victims suffered the same fatal blow in the exact same location. It was too much of a coincidence, an impossible one.

“The dead were placed inside the car and driven against traffic,” Zhou Ze said, looking at Dr. Lin with a faint smile. “Then the scene was staged to look like an accident. Quite a clever setup.”

Then Zhou Ze turned his head toward the bus driver, who was still pretending to be on the phone with the police. The other passengers who had been standing nearby slowly began to move, closing in around them.

The bus driver met Zhou Ze’s gaze, a faintly meaningful smile curling on his lips. Speaking into the phone, he said, “Boss, bad luck tonight. We ran into a few nosy fools.”