My Iyashikei Game

Chapter 972: I Have No Regret

The boy beside the telephone booth raised his head. His pair of innocent eyes looked at Zhang Mingli. He didn’t say anything.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a ghost. It’s too unsafe to stay here alone. You should go home.” Zhang Mingli sighed. “If you really have no other place to go, you can come with us. We still have an empty seat.”

The boy still didn’t say anything. His chilly hands grabbed the candy. He stared at Zhang Mingli as if he wanted to imprint Zhang Mingli’s face into his eyes.

“Is this your first time being a ghost? Tell me your plan! Are you planning to grab me to be your scapegoat? You need to say something for me to cooperate with you!” Zhang Mingli was agitated. He reached for the boy to grab him, but just as he was about to grab him, the boy disappeared. The candy fell to the ground. The boy didn’t take the candy with him.

“Was the boy an introvert? He reminded me of me when I was young.” Zhang Mingli picked up the candy and ate it. He kicked the pebbles on the ground. The phone in the abandoned booth suddenly rang.

“Could the boy be waiting for a call?” Zhang Mingli was feeling awkward. The boy was doing fine, but he came to scare him away. “It’s bad if it’s his parents. How come I keep messing things up?” Zhang Mingli picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Daddy, don’t go any further. Please come back.”

“Daddy? Are you a scammer?” Zhang Mingli shouted at the phone. “Your father is on your way to catch up to your mother. I don’t have time to waste.”

As he was about to hang up, a female voice came from the phone, “Come back. I know you’re in deep pain. We can start over again. I won’t…”

“Who are you? There’s nothing to start between us!” Zhang Mingli hung up. “What a strange call. It made it sound like I was the one who cheated.” Zhang Mingli mumbled as he got into the car. He told Huang Yin and Han Fei what had happened. Huang Yin didn’t pay attention, but Han Fei memorized everything. He looked at the candy wrapper and phone.

“What are you looking at?” Zhang Mingli asked Han Fei.

“You didn’t throw the wrapper into the trash can.”

“The fuck. You have 11 girlfriends, and you want to take the moral high ground? Fuck you.” Zhang Mingli started the engine. He was anxious, so he kept accelerating.

The car didn’t drive far before they heard funereal music. It was quite scary.

“Teacher Zhang, drive slower. If you die, you’re not going to get to your destination.” Han Fei reminded.

Several seconds later, a funeral procession came. It was a small profession. Everyone was in white, but no one cried. They had their faces lowered. The car that carried the coffin moved very slowly. The driver also had his head lowered and didn’t see the road.

“This is such a jinx.” Zhang Mingli slowed down. He was afraid of running into the procession. “With so many people sending him off, he has lived a worthwhile life.”

There were elders and children in the procession. Their feet didn’t seem to hit the ground. The legs didn’t show up in the car light.

Everyone had their heads lowered. But when they passed by Zhang Mingli’s car, a child suddenly glanced over. When he saw Zhang Mingli, his expression changed like he had seen a ghost. The child pulled on the adult’s sleeve. He wanted to say something, but the adult closed his eyes and ears and pushed the child forward. The car with the coffin slowly drove over. Han Fei narrowed his eyes to look at the death portrait. The portrait was covered by a black cloth. As the breeze lifted it up, half of it was revealed. The man in the picture looked suspiciously like Zhang Mingli.

“Is he dead?”

The funeral music floated away. The procession appeared to be the threshold of this nightmare. After it disappeared, the temperature dropped, and the atmosphere tensed.

“Where is the end of this road?”

Zhang Mingli became quieter. He kept running into trouble when he wanted to accelerate. There would be broken stones or potholes on the road. The car would break down for no reason.

“It’s fine. I travel this road a lot. These are to be expected.” Zhang Mingli was consoling Han Fei and Huang Yin. Suddenly, two cars stopped in front of them. Several drunkards were dragging a woman in red into the forest. The woman was so drunk that she was like a dead body. She allowed them to manhandle her easily. The three drunkards had salacious smiles on their faces.

“Fuck. Why do I keep running into these things?” Zhang Mingli slowed down. Without hesitation, he grabbed the axe and ran out. “You fuckers! Why would you do something like that?”

The axe smashed the windshield. Zhang Mingli waved the axe around. He really tried to kill the drunkards!

The three woke up immediately. They knew Zhang Mingli was dangerous. They dropped the woman and disappeared into the forest.

“Wake up!” Zhang Mingli tapped the woman’s face. The woman gave no response. “Was she drugged?” He didn’t want to be delayed, but he didn’t want to put the woman alone by the roadside. “This is so annoying! Why do I need to do all these things?” He cursed, but Zhang Mingli still carried the woman carefully. “Damn it! So heavy!” That probably triggered the woman because she reacted. She raised her fair arms and circled them around Zhang Mingli’s neck. Her cheery lips opened, and she whispered something to Zhang Mingli.

“Pretending to be unconscious? The thing I hate the most is being lied to! Get down!” Zhang Mingli tried to shake the woman loose, but she wouldn’t let go. He hoped Huang Yin and Han Fei would come to help him. With each of his steps, his footsteps turned heavier. The woman’s hair fell to cover his line of sight.

“Teacher Zhang, this way!” Han Fei shouted. He used Cursed Words. Zhang Mingli followed the voice and finally returned to the car.

“Damn it! This woman is so heavy!” When he recovered his sight, Zhang Mingli pointed behind him. When he recovered, he noticed there was no woman on his back. “What the. Where is she?”

The woman was gone, but Zhang Mingli looked older.

“There are more ghosts at night. Those are probably ghosts. Thankfully, you didn’t get dragged into the forest.” Han Fei didn’t dare to get down the car. This nightmare was very special. Mad Laughter’s tattoo kept telling him that once he got out of the car, he would die.

“Who cares? As long as I’m innocent, I’m not afraid of ghosts.” Zhang Mingli tossed the axe aside and returned to driving.

Zhang Mingli kept running into different incidents. There were babies crossing the roads, souls looking for scapegoats, and haunted cemeteries.

The car also had some problems. It could run as fast as it could. Zhang Mingli got down alone to handle all these incidents. He became more tired. Even his cursing didn’t sound as powerful as before.

“Are we not able to shake this grave loose? It has been following us! How about we go down to dig it up?” Zhang Mingli was direct. He saw the single grave from the rearview mirror. He parked after a long time. He grabbed the axe and got down. The grave wasn’t big. It was unsure what was buried there. Zhang Mingli saw a few crows picking away pebbles from the gravestones.

Zhang Mingli chased the crows away and smashed the grave with a swing of the axe.

Huang Yin and Han Fei looked at him. At first, they thought the problem was with Zhang Mingli. They even suspected that he had killed his first love, but now they had a different thought.

“Everything that we met on the road represents the troubles in his life. The female carcass could be his past relationship; the boy could be his son; the drunkards and woman could be the desires in his life; the rocks and holes on the roads are miscellaneous problems in life; the babies might be his aborted children. As Zhang Mingli became more tired, the car became worse. This car should represent his life.” After Zhang Mingli got out of the car, Han Fei started to search the car to find more clues.

“Then, what does the chasing grave represent?”

“It could be housing loan or family.” Han Fei found many debt notes in the car. They were from the same person. The person was Zhang Yougui. He appeared to be Zhang Mingli’s uncle, and he owed Zhang Mingli a lot of money.

“In that case, this road trip is Zhang Mingli’s life. But where does it end?”

“I have another thought.” Han Fei put everything back. “The portrait in the funeral procession was very similar to Zhang Mingli. When a child saw Zhang Mingli, he was so shocked, like he had seen a ghost. I suspect Zhang Mingli is already dead, but he doesn’t know about it.”

“That’s possible!”

Huang Yin and Han Fei discussed when the darkness outside the window dispersed. They turned to look. Zhang Mingli found a lot of leaves and lit a fire on the grave.

After doing that, Zhang Mingli took out three cigarettes. He placed them by the grave. “I’m sure your descendants will be blessed, so stop chasing me!” Zhang Mingli was a rash person, but he was principled too.

“Back on the road!”

He scanned the GPS. The road was twisting, but Zhang Mingli never thought about turning back. They came closer to the destination. The night outside the window became more dangerous. Compared to when they first left, Zhang Mingli looked a lot more tired. But his eyes were still fiery with anticipation.

“My story is about to reach its end. Do you want a cigarette?”