Midnight Bookstore

I went in and came out again. The sky was dark and it was bright again.

The Old Priest took a deep breath. He tried to suppress the sorrow in his heart and the tears in his eyes. He muttered to himself, “The boss and the rest must be busy. That’s why they can’t come pick me up. That’s right. That must be it. Boss said that he values me the most out of all the employees under him.”

The Old Priest walked out. He stood by the roadside and was ready to take a taxi back to the bookstore. A van drove past him. The Old Priest waved his hand out of habit. He was old and had traveled extensively for most of his life. It was a habit to block a passing ox-cart or a four-wheeled car for a lift.

Perhaps young people were too embarrassed to do so. However, the older generation always helped one another. There were many kind-hearted people in this society. Also, it was not easy to take a taxi here.

The van stopped. An old man in his sixties popped out. He had white hair, but he looked very energetic. The old man was holding a cigarette in his mouth. He shouted, “Brother, where are you going?”

“South Street.”

The old man smiled and said, “Alright, get in the car. I was on the way home.”

The Old Priest got in the car. He found that there were two more people in the car. One was a man and the other was a woman. They were not young. The woman looked like she was in her forties and the man looked like he was in his fifties with a hunchback.

Even though the Old Priest got in the car, he lowered his head and did not say anything. The woman smiled at the Old Priest enthusiastically. There was a myriad of emotions flowing between her brows.

The Old Priest’s heart warmed at the sight. A flirty older woman! Then, he thought about why he was in the detention center and the Old Priest subconsciously shivered.

It was completely dull for a moment. The older woman who was secretly flirting with him did not seem cute anymore.

“Big Brother, are you here to see your child?” The white-haired old driver asked as he drove. This old man wore a pair of sunglasses. His clothes were foreign. At least for people in their sixties, it was a relatively new style. If he danced in Sunset Red Square, he would become a courtesan. Never assume that the old men and women who danced in the square were purely friends.

“No, I was just released.”

The hunchbacked old man suddenly raised his head when he heard that. He looked at the Old Daoist. The eyes of the fifty-year-old woman next to him were glazed over.

“Yo!” The old driver smiled and said, “Brother, what did you do to get locked up for so long?”

The Old Priest was only treated as a criminal suspect and stayed in the detention center for a short while. Despite that, it was as if he had been locked up for decades in the eyes of this group of people.

Perhaps when he first got locked up, Old Daoist was big and tall. He was full of vigor. When he was released, he had become a scrawny seventy-year-old man.

The Old Daoist touched his buzz cut. He was dispirited. He sighed, “I didn’t do anything. I accidentally killed someone.”

The three people in the van inhaled sharply.

The hunchbacked old man’s back was no longer hunched. He turned sideways and smiled at the Old Priest. This old hunchbacked man wore a liberation hat and plastic slippers. He looked like an honest old farmer. However, the Old Daoist saw the two rows of white teeth in his mouth when the man smiled. This guy was definitely not a farmer.

The big woman next to him deliberately rubbed herself against the Old Daoist. These two old people were still very powerful! The old man was so comfortable that he was fooled. This pretentious act was good.

The car entered the city and headed toward South Main Street. The Old Daoist asked, “What do my brothers and sister do?”

“I do transport services,” the old driver replied. “I run errands and sell medicinal herbs from the mountains to earn some hard-earned money.”

The Old Priest nodded and did not ask any more questions. At this moment, he felt like returning home. He missed his Little Monkey.

He leaned back and felt the pain behind him. He reached out to touch it. It was a Guanyin statue. The statue looked exquisite, but the base was red. It gave him a strange feeling.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to see this thing after so many years.”

“Oh, brother, you recognize it,” the old man who was driving replied.

“I haven’t seen it for a long time. Is the base covered with black dog blood?”

“That’s right. It’s a habit from the early years of transportation. Now, there’s one in every car. I pray to Guanyin for safety,” said the old man who was driving.

The black dog’s blood on the base of the Guanyin statue looked a little blasphemous to him. However, in the early years, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, this was the habit of many long-distance truck drivers. Back then, driving a long-distance truck was a risky way to earn money. Now, the job does not have many risks other than gas thieves.

In the older times, there were highway robbers. The more cunning ones would scatter nails on the road. When a truck drove past, the tires would be punctured. There would be a tire repair shop close by. It was extremely expensive to repair the tires. They wouldn’t let you go unless the truck was repaired.

The more vile ones would attack the entire village. They would kill people and steal goods. They were unscrupulous.

Anyway, young people may not believe it but back then, it happened all the time. Drivers would go to any lengths to ward off evil.

The Old Priest had driven many long-distance trucks in the past. He had used this kind of Bodhisattva statue too.

“Brother, I can tell from your accent that you’re not a local. Correct?” The old driver asked.

“Yes. I’m from Shaanxi.”

“Ha, a fellow countryman!”

“Really?”

“Really! Let’s have a drink together. Do you still have anyone back home?”

The Old Priest was released after being locked up for so long. He figured that there shouldn’t be anyone at home. “No one.”

There was a monkey and many ghosts.

“Then let’s have a drink together. It’s fate that we met, right?”

The old driver did not wait for the Old Priest to refuse. The van turned into a small restaurant across the street. “Come, let’s have a drink together. I like to listen to stories. Brother, tell your story.”

The Old Priest could see that the old driver was very enthusiastic. It was not a pretense. He had traveled all over the world for so many years, he could see that.

The Old Priest was still a little touched. He reckoned that the boss and the others had not come to pick him up anyway. It would not be a problem to have a drink before going home, right? He had just come out of the detention center. He could not let this opportunity go to waste.

The small restaurant was very cold. The boss sat there playing games on his phone. He stood up and got ready to cook when the people arrived. He didn’t ask for an order. He just went straight into the kitchen. He must know these people.

“Brother, sit. Come, let’s drink some white wine first.” The old driver called out. The hunchbacked old man and the woman sat next to him. They ate, drank, chatted, and bragged.

The Old Priest had only been locked up for a month. Yet, he bragged to them that “I’ve been in prison for thirty years.”

He made up stories in his mind and bragged. The Old Priest had spent most of his life finding a living with his mouth. How could a person who started a live broadcast sell Underworld coins as RMB? He was an expert at bragging!

The atmosphere of the meal was very warm. Even the quiet hunchbacked old man toasted the Old Priest. The older woman drank with the Old Priest twice.

The Old Priest bragged to them about health after bragging about the prison. Then, he bragged to them about the supernatural.

The Old Priest was good at it. He had no other skills in his life. He was good at serving ghosts!

Just when the atmosphere was at its peak, another car stopped outside. It was a black Mazda SUV.

The old driver saw two middle-aged men carrying a sack from the car. He got up and walked out to help them deliver the sack to his van.

The two middle-aged men seemed to have noticed the old man in the restaurant. They said something to the old driver. The old driver didn’t mind. The three of them smoked a cigarette outside and the old driver came back.

“The goods have arrived. I’m going to deliver them. Brother, have you eaten?” The old driver asked.

“Yes, very well.” The Old Priest was satisfied. He ate well and he bragged well. Everyone who liked to brag knew that if you had good listeners, the bragging felt good.

“Brother, let him drive you back.” The old driver pointed at the man driving the Black Mazda. “He’s on the way.”

“Okay, okay.”

After eating and drinking, the Old Priest went to take a piss. When he returned the van had already left. The woman had left too.

The Old Priest felt a little empty in his heart.

A middle-aged man pointed at the Old Daoist and said, “Let’s go. It’s on the way back.”

“Alright, thank you.” The Old Daoist got into the car and sat in the back.

The middle-aged man started the car and drove towards South Main Street. This was the city center.

The Old Daoist was a little excited when he thought about going home.

However, the middle-aged man drove very fast and made a sharp turn. The Old Priest had just drunk alcohol and felt a little nauseous. He was too embarrassed to vomit in a stranger’s car so he bent down and endured it. He swallowed it back!

When he bent down and lowered his head, the Old Priest noticed that there was a book under the seat of the car. He picked it up and took a look. It was a primary school student’s homework book.

“Hey, brother, your child’s book must have been left in the car. Hurry up and take it back. Don’t let the child find an excuse to say that he lost his homework.”

The middle-aged driver was stunned for a moment. He gave a stiff smile and reached out to take the book.

When the Old Priest handed it over, he glanced at the cover. He exclaimed, “Yo, your daughter’s name is Wang Rui.”

“Good name. I know a person whose daughter’s name is also Wang Rui. His surname is also Wang. Let me tell you, this person… is very unlucky. Do you know how unlucky he is?! Hahaha. If I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know how unlucky he is! Hahahaha…”