Chapter 8

San Gou, who couldn't stay idle, wanted to discuss last night's strange events with Jiang Yue but felt it was inconvenient with others around, which made him extremely uncomfortable.

The driver, Mr. Zhou, was also from Xingcheng. He usually delivered goods, traveling south and north, and was quite talkative. He kept telling various jokes on the way, mostly crude and a few clean, without caring whether San Gou was a minor. He drove with one hand and joked with the other, showing his excellent skills as an experienced driver.

People who drove on the road for a long time were particularly superstitious about discussing strange things on the road. The entire two to three-hour drive, Mr. Zhou's mouth hardly rested, but he didn't mention a single word about yesterday's bus trip.

Jiang Yue's home was in the eastern part of the city, while Mr. Zhou's was in the north. They had to be dropped off at the fork in the road.

They flagged down a taxi, jumped in, and directly gave the name of the neighborhood.

"Go to Crescent Harbor."

Crescent Harbor was about ten to twenty years old and had once been a sensation in Xingcheng, making it quite famous. The taxi driver, naturally, was familiar with it.

Taxi drivers had a living map in their heads. Upon hearing the destination, he automatically planned the route.

"Brother, we have to take a detour today. Lotus Avenue near Xingcheng Second Hospital is under traffic control."

"Traffic control on that section?" Jiang Yue sounded skeptical.

Lotus Avenue was one of the main roads in Xingcheng, especially near Xingcheng Second Hospital, which was often congested even during non-peak hours. If there was traffic control at noon, who knew what the surrounding roads would look like.

"Isn't it weird? I've been driving a taxi for eleven years, and I've only encountered traffic control on Lotus Avenue twice. The last time was when a senior official visited Xingcheng many years ago."

"Is a senior official visiting again these days?"

"Not this time. I heard it's a temporary control. I picked up a fare from the hospital just over half an hour ago. A colleague said something happened at the hospital."

"What happened?" Jiang Yue's eyelids twitched when he heard about an incident.

"They say a patient in the ICU jumped from the building."

"Jumping from a building isn't enough to warrant traffic control?" This reason couldn't even fool a kid like San Gou.

Jiang Yue fell silent.

Not only were the taxi driver's words second or third-hand, but even if they were first-hand, they were full of doubts.

Patients in the ICU were completely unable to take care of themselves.

Moreover, anyone who had been to a hospital knew how sturdy the windows were. Even a healthy man would find it hard to break them open, let alone a patient in the ICU.

Even if the news were true, it wouldn't justify controlling the entire road.

The taxi driver spoke with exaggerated enthusiasm, "They say it's a very strange incident."

"How strange?"

"The door to the ICU was locked, and the patient forced the window open and jumped down. The ICU is on the top floor, and the building has eighteen floors. They say the concrete ground was cracked."

"Jumping from the eighteenth floor and not cracking the ground would be strange."

"Cracking the ground isn't strange. What's strange is that there was no blood, no body... nothing but a hole. That's what's strange!"

At this point, the taxi driver himself felt a bit uneasy and glanced at the rearview mirror nervously.

If Jiang Yue's physics teacher were present, he would have used formulas to calculate the potential energy and force of a fall from the eighteenth floor, concluding scientifically that the person would die and the body would be in a terrible state.

Eighteen floors...

Jiang Yue couldn't help but think how peculiar the designer must have been to set the total number of floors to eighteen.

Of course, some taxi drivers loved to spread rumors and embellish them for attention.

Jiang Yue listened as if it were a story.

Even if it were just a story, there were too many unconvincing details.

Jiang Yue didn't take it seriously.

The car stopped at the entrance of the neighborhood, and the fare was 28 yuan. As a student, Jiang Yue rarely used mobile payments and preferred cash.

He handed over 30 yuan, and the driver skillfully returned two coins.

Just as Jiang Yue took them, he suddenly grabbed the driver's wrist, staring straight at his palm with a slightly surprised look.

The driver was startled by Jiang Yue's sudden action: "Brother, I'm not into that!"

This man, with his fat head and oily face, had a wandering mind and thought Jiang Yue was attracted to him.

Jiang Yue immediately let go and smiled faintly: "You're overthinking it."

He added, "Just a word, you're in big trouble."

The taxi driver grinned, showing his yellow teeth: "What's the deal? Are you trying to scare me? I may not be in the underworld anymore, but I can call a hundred guys in a minute. Do you believe it?"

Communication between people is indeed a difficult task.

Jiang Yue thought about it and swallowed his words. Seeing that the driver wasn't a good person, why bother with a thankless task?

He pushed the car door open and got out.

"Idiot!" The driver cursed and sped away.

"Second Brother, what's going on?" San Gou, knowing his brother wouldn't cause trouble for no reason, was curious about his actions.

"This driver is probably possessed or has done something bad. There's a black line on his life line, indicating he's losing twenty years of his life."

"What does that mean?" San Gou was curious.

"It means, according to my calculations, he will lose about twenty years of his life."

"Is it that serious?" San Gou was surprised.

"It's that serious. I can only tell those who are destined to hear it. Most people wouldn't believe it, so I didn't say anything."

"Better not to. From his tone, he's not a pleasant person. If you told him, he might ask for a solution and mock you."

"Everyone has their fate. We can't force it. But this is indeed strange." Jiang Yue frowned.

"What's strange?"

"The black line is very unusual. Normally, such lines are faint and hard to see. His black line is like a worm burrowing into his palm, very clear and urgent. This suggests that his calamity is sudden..."

"Will something happen on the road?"

"It doesn't seem to be a car accident. There are no signs of bloodshed."

"Then is he sick?"

"It doesn't seem like that either. That's why it's strange."

Jiang Yue was puzzled. He had never seen such a hand reading before.

Entering the neighborhood, it was noon and raining, so there weren't many people around.

Jiang Yue's home was on the 11th floor of a mid-rise building, with two elevators and four units per floor. His home was 801, on the east side.

Opening the door, San Gou rushed in without waiting for Jiang Yue to remove the key. Just as he was about to sit on the sofa, Jiang Yue called him.

"San Gou, wait."

Jiang Yue felt something was off, quickly walked over, and stared at San Gou's buttocks, looking concerned.

"Second Brother, why are you staring at my butt?"

"What's wrong with your pants? They're torn. Where did you get them?"

"How can that be? These are the pants I bought for the New Year. I just put them on this morning." San Gou protested.

Jiang Yue gestured for him to take them off and check.

Seeing the holes in the buttocks area, San Gou was stunned. He held the pants, puzzled. The pants were fine when he put them on this morning.

Torn pants weren't unusual.

What was strange was that the wear and tear, as well as the fading, suggested decades of use.

The problem was that these were new pants bought at the beginning of the year.

It was as if someone had deliberately aged the pants in that area.

In contrast, the rest of the pants were almost new, with at least 90% of the color and fabric intact.

The same pants showed such a bizarre contrast!

Jiang Yue was silent.

Using his strong memory, he recalled the events from the morning until they entered the house.

San Gou's pants were fine when he left.

This was certain.

Leaving, taking Mr. Zhou's car, getting out, taking a taxi home, and walking into the house.

After reviewing all the steps, a clue emerged, and Jiang Yue exclaimed, "That taxi."

A corresponding detail was the strange black line on the taxi driver's palm...

A vague answer was forming in his mind.

Jiang Yue quickly grabbed San Gou's hand and examined it closely but found nothing unusual.

He checked San Gou's entire body but found no abnormalities.

"Second Brother? Was that taxi unclean?"

Jiang Yue pondered, "I remember he mentioned picking up a fare from Xingcheng Second Hospital a few minutes ago?"

"Did he bring something dirty from the hospital?" San Gou's face turned pale.

"From the timing, that should have been our previous fare."

Thinking about the taxi driver's story about the jump, Jiang Yue felt a chill.

He had initially dismissed the story as a tale.

Now, he believed it to some extent.

Of course, if the taxi driver hadn't exaggerated and it was true, there would be more to the story.

As for whether the jump was related to the driver's previous fare, Jiang Yue had no solid evidence.

Fortunately, San Gou wasn't directly affected, just a bit of the aftermath. But even the aftermath was bizarre.

How could a perfectly good pair of pants become so worn without any artificial aging?

This was beyond Jiang Yue's understanding.