delivery man

chapter3

"One day, on the day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, he finished delivering his last order of takeout and had an accident on his way home, dying on the spot." The old man continued, "But the weird thing is, for the next week, every night he was seen wearing his work clothes, carrying a takeout bag, returning to room 2304, knocking on the door three times, and then... Disappear."

"And then what?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Rumors of a haunting began to circulate in the neighborhood. Some said that the delivery man had delivered a special order in his lifetime, to an address that shouldn't exist, and had seen things he shouldn't have seen, so he couldn't rest in peace after his death."

"Then the property decided to seal off room 2304 and convert it into an equipment room. But even then, every year around Midwinter, someone would still hear a knock at the door from the end of the hallway, always three times."

When the old man said this, he suddenly shot a glance at me, "You look a bit familiar, like... No, it should be that I'm remembering it wrong."

Leaving the old man's house, Old Wang and I stood in the corridor and both felt an inexplicable chill.

"The delivery man," I asked, "did the old man say what his name was?"

Old Wang shook his head, "No, but we can check the records of car accidents that happened here more than twenty years ago."

Back at Lao Wang's house, we immediately searched the Internet for relevant news. Soon, we found a local news from twenty-four years ago:

"Delivery rider killed in late-night crash.

The news reported that a takeout rider named Li Ming, after delivering his last order of takeout on the night of the Mid-Yuan Festival, ran a red light while riding back and was hit by a truck, killing him instantly. The family of the deceased claimed that Li Ming had called home that night to say he had received a remote order and would return after the delivery, but did not return until late at night.

The report also mentioned that the police found on Li Ming's cell phone that the last order he took was abnormal: the system showed that the order had been completed, but in fact, his cell phone's location showed that he had never arrived at his destination.

After reading the news, my heart sank to the bottom. It was too similar to my experience: late night orders, mid-day, Rongfeng neighborhood, knocking three times on the door...

"We've got to find Taoist Lin," Old Wang said gravely, "This is much more complicated than we thought."

That night, we once again went to the small temple on the outskirts of the city. Taoist Master Lin listened to our findings and looked grave: "I see. This is not an ordinary wandering spirit, but a 'hungry ghost' that has been obsessed for a long time."

"'Hungry ghosts'?" I asked in disbelief.

Taoist Master Lin explained, "In folk beliefs, if a person dies with strong dissatisfaction, resentment, or obsession, they may turn into 'hungry ghosts', forever hungry and wandering the human world forever. This Li Ming, probably encountered something unclean on his delivery trip, got haunted, and became a 'hungry ghost' himself after death."

"Then why did it come to me?"

Taoist Master Lin pondered for a moment, "It could be because you are in the same profession, or you once inadvertently walked through its territory and were marked by it. Now it wants to continue to fulfill its unfinished business through you."

"So what do I do?" I asked eagerly.

Daoist Lin took out a yellow talisman paper from the cabinet, "This is an exorcism talisman, you carry it with you. Also, these three days are the end of the Mid-Yuan Festival, and the Yin Qi is the heaviest, so it's best for you not to be alone or work at night."

I nodded and accepted the runes.

On the way back, Lao Wang suggested that I continue to stay at his house for the next few days, and I gladly agreed. Even with Taoist Lin's talisman, I still didn't dare to face the "hungry ghost" that might have set its sights on me alone.

Old Wang gave me the sofa bed in the living room, and thoughtfully placed incense ashes in all corners of the house, saying that his grandmother had taught him that it could keep out some unclean things.

That night, I tossed and turned, my mind replaying the news reports of Li Ming and the spooky Room 2304. The deliveryman, the Midwinter Festival, the car accident, the three knocks on the door... The pieces were like a puzzle, but I was always one puzzle piece short of seeing the whole picture.

At three o'clock in the middle of the night, I was awakened by thirst. When I got up to go to the kitchen to pour water, I inadvertently glimpsed a blurred figure on the street outside the window, standing under the streetlight, looking up at the window of Old Wang's house.

The man was wearing takeaway overalls similar to mine and appeared to be carrying a delivery bag in his hand.

My heart skipped a beat and the glass of water in my hand almost fell. Who was that? Could it be... Li Ming?

I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window again; the streetlight was empty. Was it my hallucination?

I returned to the living room, only to find a takeout bag on the couch at some point, the exact same kind that was uniformly issued by my company.

I opened the bag with a shudder, and inside was a lunch box. Lifting the lid, the box was empty, except for a small blood-stained order ticket:

【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

At the bottom, a line was scribbled:

"It's your turn to deliver."

I sucked in a breath of cold air as the small ticket floated down from my hand. Just then, the exorcism talisman given by Daoist Lin suddenly spontaneously combusted and turned into ashes.

A piercing chill swept through my body, and I felt something standing right behind me. Slowly turning around, a pale, inhuman face was facing me, less than ten centimeters away.

It was a young man's face, but with deep-set eyes, protruding eyeballs, and the corners of his mouth ripped to the base of his ears, revealing rows of sharp teeth. He was wearing tattered takeout uniforms, and the word "Li Ming" was faintly visible on the license plate on his chest.

"Knock... Three times..." It said hoarsely, reaching out a withered hand toward my cheek.

I wanted to scream, but my throat felt like it was being choked by invisible hands and I couldn't make any sound.

Just at the moment its hand was about to touch me, the red rope bracelet on my wrist suddenly emitted a dazzling red light. Li Ming's ghost let out a shrill whine and retreated as if burned by a blazing fire before disappearing into the darkness.

I collapsed to the ground, at which point Old King rushed out of the bedroom, startled by the scene before him.

"What happened?" He asked eagerly.

I shuddered and pointed to the takeout bag and bloodstained chit on the floor, but to my shock, there was nothing there.

Early the next morning, we once again went to see Taoist Lin, and I told him about last night's experience.

After hearing this, Daoist Lin's expression became even more grave, "Things are more serious than I thought. That 'Hungry Ghost' is already very strong, able to materialize and even break through my talisman in a short period of time. Luckily, you have that red rope bracelet that protects you for now."

"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked in near despair.

Taoist Master Lin pondered for a moment, "To completely solve this problem, we must find out why Li Ming became a 'hungry ghost' and why he haunts you. There must be some sort of connection between you and him, some sort of connection that we haven't discovered yet."

He suggested that we find out more information about Lee Ming, especially his living address and family.

Leaving the temple, Lao Wang proposed to go to the city archives to make inquiries. Through layers of formalities, we finally found some records from twenty-four years ago.

Li Ming, male, 26 years old, migrant worker, had no relatives in the city. After his death, his body was retrieved by his parents, who were far away in the countryside. Previous address: Room 3, basement, No. 15 Riverside Street, Chengnan District.

My heart almost stopped when I saw the address - it was the very basement I was currently renting!

"Old Wang," I said with a shaky voice, "the place where I live... Is where Li Ming lived before he was born."

Old Wang was also stunned, "No wonder the landlord said that the delivery man who lived there before had a car accident. But he said last year, not twenty-four years ago."

We looked at each other in disbelief and suddenly realized a terrible truth: history was repeating itself. Every once in a while, a deliveryman would live in that basement and then meet an untimely end around the Midwinter Festival. And I, in all likelihood, was next.

We decided to pursue the case. Through the city library's old newspaper archives, we found out more details about Li Ming's death.

Several follow-up reports mentioned that the last delivery order Li Ming made before his death was to an apartment building that had been abandoned for years. What's even weirder is that the account number where the order was placed was untraceable afterward, as if it had vanished into thin air.

The last report came from a small folklore magazine with the headline, "Takeout Ghost Messenger: Urban Legend or Real Event? . The article quotes one of Li Ming's coworkers:

"In his lifetime, Li Ming has said that he encountered a strange order to be delivered to the top floor of an abandoned building. When he knocked on the door three times, a voice inside the door asked him to go in, but he was afraid and didn't go in, just left the delivery at the door and ran away. After that he always said someone was following him and said he heard knocking, three times, every night."

After reading this information, I got chills all over my body. This is almost exactly what I experienced!

Just then, my cell phone suddenly rang and a new order notification popped up on the screen:

【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

Old Wang saw the cell phone screen and his face changed drastically, "Don't answer it! This is obviously not right!"

But the frightening thing is that I did not click on the order, but the order status is automatically changed to "taken order". Immediately after, the phone showed a system message:

[Please complete the delivery within 60 minutes or your credit score will be affected.