Players, Please Board the Train

”The salt field worked through the night, and my friend’s cousin once removed found it strange. With so many people working, why still watch the place? Without a second word, he planned to head back.”

”But just then, someone walked out from the edge of the salt field, waving at him from far away.”

”My friend’s cousin once removed thought the person had spotted him, so he waved back. To his surprise, the other person beckoned him to come down.”

”He took a couple steps down the slope but then felt it was pointless—he might just get roped into work—so he pretended not to see it, turned around, and went back.”

”When he got home, he found the door locked, so he crawled through a hole in the wall into the attic to sleep. His family and that relative had gone to the salt field overnight looking for people and didn’t return until dawn. The whole family was wailing in grief. Woken by the noise, he came downstairs, and his shocked family asked him if he was a man or a ghost.”

”Then my friend’s cousin once more told the whole story. The relatives who had gone to look for people also visited the salt field, but there wasn’t a single person where he said he saw someone.”

”It was then that it dawned on him: the people he’d seen working at the salt field that night were wearing clothes from decades ago—nothing like what anyone wears now. And supposedly, the salt field had been the site of a big case in the past, where all the workers were killed. Maybe what my friend’s cousin once removed saw were the ghosts of those who used to work there.”

Long Aotian finished his story there and looked at the others. ”How was my story?”

Xu Huo and the other two were silent for a moment before Xie Ling said, ”That’s a story about how laziness can save your life.”

Her comment instantly wiped away whatever horror had just been building. Long Aotian propped his feet on the table. ”I think my story’s better than Xu Ruosi’s. The whole salt field was filled with ghosts. Wouldn’t you guys be scared?”Whether they were scared or not, the room began to rise again.

Long Aotian’s story was mediocre, and his delivery wasn’t as gripping as Xu Ruosi’s. Xie Ling at least hadn’t been frightened. So when the room returned to ground level, the others barely spared him a glance and moved straight to the next round.

The third story was Xie Ling’s turn.

”This happened when my mother was young. She was the youngest in the family, with several older brothers, so everyone doted on her and let her run wild through the village and mountains.”

”One day, she went with some other village kids to pick wildflowers. When they reached a forest, they suddenly heard a very strange sound coming from a waste pit ahead.”

”Back then, garbage trucks weren’t common, so some villages would dig holes in the hillside. The openings were a bit like wells, and people would dump any trash or unwanted old items into them. The pits were usually spacious inside, and looking into them from outside could sometimes feel creepy. Plus, except for throwing away trash, adults generally didn’t go there, so kids were pretty scared of the place.”

”My mother was pretty bold at the time. Eggged on by a few friends, she ran over to the waste pit to see what was making the noise inside.”

”She didn’t see anything, but the other kids started chattering, saying that two years ago, a pair of twins from the village had come to play, accidentally fallen into the pit, and died. They half-feared, half-excitedly guessed that maybe the twins were playing down there.”

”The group of kids scattered. My mother wanted to run too, but she slipped and accidentally tumbled into the waste pit.”

”Because a lot of trash had been dumped there over those two years, there was a sloping mound inside, so my mother wasn’t hurt when she fell. But the other kids had all run off, and no one answered her calls for help. Remembering that the twins had died there, she was overwhelmed by fear and slowly drifted into unconsciousness from exhaustion.”

”The kids who had been with her all went back to the village. My grandmother only then realized she hadn’t returned. She went door to door asking and learned they’d been to the waste pit. She gathered people to search along the way and finally found my mother in the pit.”

”The day my mother came home, she started running a fever. Even with medicine and shots, she remained unconscious. Someone in the village suggested finding a god to look into it.”

”In my hometown, people who do fortune-telling, divination, and solve paranormal problems are called gods. The moment this god arrived, he said my mother was in trouble. He fed her some special liquid, and she suddenly woke up for a bit and told my grandmother, ’The twins are standing hand in hand on my bed, asking me to play with them...’”

Xie Ling had to swallow hard at this point and take a breath before continuing. ”My grandmother was terrified. When my mother fell asleep again, the god prepared some tools and had my grandmother carry toys from home to the place where the twins had died, burning paper money to send them off.”

”My grandmother did as she was told. Whether it was psychological or not, while burning the paper, she thought she heard children’s laughter. She was scared too, so after burning the paper, she hurried home.”

”The ritual for my mother was already done. The god told my grandmother that by the next day, everything would be fine.”

”My grandmother couldn’t sleep and stayed by my mother’s side all night. Sure enough, by dawn the next day, my mother woke up. But after waking, she didn’t remember anything about the twins asking her to play. My grandmother, afraid she’d get sick again, told the whole family never to mention it. And from then on, she never allowed my mother to go into the forest again.”

”But I heard that occasionally, people would still hear sounds coming from the waste pit nearby. No one dared to go near it anymore, and the pit was eventually abandoned.”

Xie Ling let out a long breath. ”That’s the end of my story.”

Xu Huo noticed her eyes were red and said, ”A place for dumping trash might have rats. It’s not unusual to hear sounds.”

”Your mother might have heard rumors, got sick, and then developed delusions. It’s not even certain whether those twins really died in the waste pit.”

Xie Ling looked at him in surprise. ”Why do you say that?”

”If two kids really died there, the pit would have been filled in long ago, wouldn’t it?” Without needing any detailed analysis, whether for superstition or to prevent future trouble, if children died in it, the first choice would be to seal the waste pit.

Bai Wenxian nodded beside him. ”You said the opening of the waste pit was like a well. Its actual depth probably wouldn’t exceed ten meters, otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered digging the pit in the first place.”

”Your village must have raised dogs and pigs, right? That means there wouldn’t be much kitchen waste. What they dumped was mostly hard-to-dispose-of plastic items and old clothes, which act like a soft cushion. How could it be that two kids fell in and both died?”

”Your mother didn’t even have a scratch from the fall.”

Xie Ling was stunned for a moment. ”What you’re saying kind of makes sense... After you guys analyzed it like that, I’m not so scared anymore.”

The room began to rise. As she left, she said, ”I’ll wait for you guys outside once I get the clue. Hurry up and get out.”