Volume Two: The Secret Burial in the Cliff Valley Chapter 93: The Crossroads

After Third Uncle finished speaking, I turned around and headed straight for the stairs.

He grew anxious at once and seized my arm. “Come back here. Where do you think you’re going?”

I waved him off. “What, are you trying to trick me again while I’m half asleep? Last time you told me to crawl into a coffin, you used exactly the same line. Now you’re trying to set me up again?”

Third Uncle said with complete seriousness, “Yang, the two of us have been through life and death together. Since when has what your Third Uncle says ever been unreliable? Whenever you’ve been in danger, haven’t I always stood in front of you? Why would I ever cheat you?”

I looked at him miserably. “Third Uncle, aren’t you ashamed saying all that? Just tell me what it is. Don’t feed me this nonsense.”

He said, “It’s nothing much. I just need you to deliver a package for me.”

“A package? We’re a brokerage firm, not a delivery company. Since when do we handle shipments?”

“I’ve been out these past couple of days negotiating a deal. This thing was hard to get, and I need it delivered to someone,” he explained.

I eyed him suspiciously. “Why not deliver it during the day? Why must it be in the middle of the night? Besides, why don’t you take it yourself?”

He let out a helpless sigh. “I’m here waiting for an important guest. Otherwise, why would I ask you? Aren’t you my own nephew? This is a good thing. I’m not about to hand it to an outsider. Just listen to your Third Uncle and get the item there, and your task is done.”

Since he had put it that way, I had no choice but to agree.

The moment I did, he hurried me outside. Parked there was an electric tricycle, with a parcel sitting in its cargo bed.

He pointed at it and said, “Nephew, just drive this over and that’ll do.”

The parcel was wrapped in a neat square, and it seemed there was a box inside, reinforced with wooden slats on the outside. I picked it up and tested the weight; it was heavy, enough to strain my arms.

Then, as if he had suddenly remembered something, Third Uncle pulled out another object and looped it around my neck.

I looked down and saw that it was the Five Emperors coin we had obtained, the Jiaqing piece, threaded onto a red cord.

I was just about to ask what was going on when Third Uncle grabbed my arm, handed me a slip of paper, and said with great gravity, “Nephew, there are a few things I need to tell you. You have to remember them.”

I nodded and casually tossed the parcel back into the cargo bed of the electric tricycle.

“First, you are not to open the parcel on the way, and you are not to do anything else. Go and come back quickly. Second, never look back after delivering the item. No matter what you hear behind you, do not turn around. Even if you take the wrong road, you must not go back; find another way around. Third, when you reach an intersection, whether the light is red or green, go through quickly without hesitation. And one more thing: once the recipient gets the package, make sure he signs the slip.”

He rattled off all of this in one breath. His eyes were fixed on me, as though afraid I might forget.

To be honest, if you thought about those rules closely, they were a little strange. But at the time I probably still wasn’t fully awake. My head was foggy, and I was thinking only of getting the delivery done quickly so I could come back and sleep. So I didn’t give it much thought.

I waved to Third Uncle, then started the tricycle.

By the time I drove out of the pedestrian street, the night wind was blowing, and my mind had begun to clear a little. I pulled out the slip Third Uncle had given me and glanced at it. The address written there was 18 Evergreen Street.

I had been out and about often lately, so I was somewhat familiar with the neighborhood. I knew Evergreen Street well. It was the bleakest street in the area. The shops there were all old businesses, badly run, and the location wasn’t a commercial hotspot to begin with. There were usually very few people around. Even in daytime it was deserted. It was practically a ghost street with no one on it.

I shivered all over. I couldn’t tell whether it was the wind or fear, but what exactly was Third Uncle asking me to do? In the middle of the night, I was actually being sent to that ghostly place?

Still, I had already set out, and Third Uncle had forbidden me to look back. Once I left, there was no turning around. I figured he must have been worried I might change my mind. Third Uncle really was devious.

I muttered a few complaints to myself, but there was no way to stop the tricycle, so I headed toward Evergreen Street.

From the company to Evergreen Street was several blocks away, and since it was late at night there were hardly any cars on the road. I estimated it would take at most thirty minutes.

I thought that if I delivered it quickly, I could get the matter over with, so I drove the electric tricycle as fast as I could.

By then it was deep autumn, and tonight the streets were especially cold and desolate. Two rows of plane trees lined both sides of the road, and the ground was covered with fallen leaves. The night wind stirred them up, sending them whirling through the air like yellow butterflies.

For some reason, there wasn’t a single pedestrian on the road, only the occasional car roaring past. I crossed two streets and came to an intersection.

Beyond that crossing, the road ahead would curve into Evergreen Street.

From a distance, I saw that the traffic light at the intersection was red. But I remembered what Third Uncle had told me: no matter whether the light was red or green, I was to go straight through.

Besides, there were no pedestrians at the time, and the electric tricycle I was riding had no license plate, so I naturally had no reason to care about traffic rules.

Without the slightest hesitation, I did not slow down at all and drove straight through.

Who would have thought that just as I passed through, I suddenly heard a little girl crying behind me.

The cry was pitiful and broken, drifting toward me in fits and starts. At first I thought I was imagining it, or that I had misheard.

But the crying did not fade as I moved farther away. Instead, it grew clearer and clearer.

“Help! Big brother, help me!” the little girl cried between sobs.

“Never look back after delivering the item. No matter what you hear behind you, do not turn around.” I remembered Third Uncle’s warning and hesitated over and over in my mind, wondering whether I should look back.

Then the little girl’s crying became even more heartbreaking. With a sharp squeal, I braked and stopped the tricycle.

I, Li Yang, may not be a model youth, but I am not the kind of person who stands by and watches someone die, am I? Maybe the little girl was really in trouble. Even if I didn’t meddle, I could at least help her make a phone call.

Thinking this, I gritted my teeth and suddenly turned around.

Under the pale, cold moonlight, at the intersection I had just passed, there were two people.

A woman covered in blood was lying on the ground, while a little girl was clutching the woman’s head and crying out for help at the top of her lungs.

“Ah...” I was startled. It looked as though they had been in a car accident. How had I not noticed when I rode past just now?

“Little girl, what happened?” I hurriedly asked.

“Big brother, please save my mom. She was hit by a car... sob... sob...” The little girl’s crying was enough to unsettle anyone’s heart. I hesitated. Something about tonight felt rather suspicious. Should I really get involved in this or not?