"Alright, open your eyes now," I said with a smile, not daring to tell Bingbing about this matter for fear of scaring her. It would be more appropriate for her to discover it on her own.
After waiting for about twenty minutes, the next small train arrived, with two men in long robes slowly operating the levers.
"Don't talk once you're on the train," I said, noticing that there were already quite a few ghosts aboard.
The train stopped, but no one got off at this station. There were eighteen carriages in total. Bingbing and I walked to the last one. This carriage was empty. We got on and sat on the low, small stools. By then, from the rear of the train, the long-robed men at the front were no longer visible. I then patted the rusty tin carriage.
Hearing my signal, the long-robed men began to push the carriage with a creaking sound. However, my action attracted the attention of all the ghosts in front, and they all turned to look at me with puzzled expressions.
I pointed the shoddy mourning stick forward and said sternly, "What are you looking at!"
*Swish*, all the ghosts turned their heads back. This uniform of the White Impermanence was indeed quite intimidating.
It was just Bingbing's attire and demeanor that weren't quite fitting. She was a bit scared by the ghosts in the front carriages, who had died in various ways and generally wore ferocious expressions. She held my arm tightly, constantly shrinking back.
I helped her sit up straight and steady. Leaning close to her ear, I whispered, "You are an underworld official! You are an underworld official! You are an underworld official! What are you afraid of! Say it three times to yourself!"
"You, you are an underworld official!"
"You are!"
"Oh, I am an underworld official, I am an underworld official..."
After chanting for a while, Bingbing finally stopped trembling. The ghosts in front didn't pay much attention to us. We soon reached the first station. Two ghosts got off, and four ghosts got on. I saw a bull-headed figure standing on the Bridge of Helplessness, presumably an underworld official escorting the four ghosts into the underworld. I was not very familiar with the bull-headed department, only knowing Commander Ma Jiaojiao of the horse-headed department. The bull-headed and horse-headed departments were of a higher rank than our White Impermanence department.
Therefore, out of respect, I voluntarily got up and waved my mourning stick towards the bridge.
The bull-headed ghost official was quite courteous. He took the large axe from his shoulder, waved it at me, grinned with his bloody mouth, and then returned.
"See, it's alright. They all think we're real White Impermanences," I whispered.
Bingbing nodded, "Th-that's really good."
At the second and third stations, there were also ghosts getting on and off, but no underworld officials.
At the fourth station, there were many ghosts. A real White Impermanence underworld official was using a steel wire rope to string the apprehended ghosts together and push them onto the train one by one. This time, I couldn't reassure Bingbing, as even I was a little nervous. The critical point was that this guy looked just like the White Impermanence in the movies, terrifyingly so, with a long, blood-red tongue and corpse spots all over his face. Judging by his appearance, he must have been dead for many days, almost rotting, before being brought to the underworld to become a ghost!
Scolding and pushing, the White Impermanence got all the ghosts onto the small train, and finally discovered me and Zheng Bingbing.
At such close proximity, I felt he could see my true identity. Fearing he might cause trouble, I immediately took off the Soul Requisition Order from my waist and said proactively, "Living underworld official."
The White Impermanence raised his chin, retracted his sword-like long tongue into his mouth, frowned, and looked at my Soul Requisition Order: "Wu Chengfeng?"
"That's me," I said, cupping my hands. "This is Zheng Bingbing. We've both met Commander Xie."
The White Impermanence was rather indifferent. He said nothing, let his tongue hang out again, turned around, raised his hands, and hopped back towards the Bridge of Helplessness.
The train started again, and I let out a long sigh of relief. It was strange; I wasn't afraid of other underworld officials, but I was somewhat afraid of this White Impermanence. It was like how I wasn't afraid of other animal carcasses but would be particularly terrified of seeing a human corpse. Is it repulsion of the same kind?
We continued forward. Since our train was now full, only our last carriage had two remaining spots. In fact, each carriage only had four seats, with four people sitting opposite each other. Because Bingbing and I were "White Impermanences," we enjoyed privileges, which is why no ghosts had boarded our carriage earlier. Some of the ghosts in the front had already sat five or six.
At the fifth and sixth stations, fewer ghosts got off, and more got on. Eventually, there was simply no more space. The two remaining ghosts cautiously approached us and asked if they could ride in this carriage.
"Come on up," I beckoned.