The driver took out his cell phone, intending to make a call, but just as he was about to dial, he put the phone down again.

"No, I can't call now."

"Why?"

The driver wore a troubled expression. "Master, to be honest, in the Kongshi Men (Corpse Control Sect), I'm just a small fry, responsible for picking up and dropping off people. In front of those big shots, I'm just a dog."

"I know. You don't need to introduce yourself in such detail. I'm not interested in that," I said coldly.

The driver gave an awkward smile and said, "Master, you're an expert, living the life of an expert. You don't understand the situation of us dogs. Some small things that you experts think are nothing to us dogs can directly mean losing our jobs, or even our lives."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

The driver continued to smile apologetically. "Actually, it's nothing. I just hope you can understand us dogs. It's already past one in the morning. An expert like you can call anyone without any problem. Even if you disturb their sleep or interrupt something important, they'll understand.

"In fact, even if you have nothing to say and just call them in the middle of the night to joke around, no one would dare say anything. But if we dogs dared to do that, the trouble would be huge.

"Master, Shi Tu may not be in prison, but his freedom of movement has been restricted, and he's under close surveillance. To bring someone in to see him, you need the approval of several big figures, and those big figures aren't people a low-level dog like me can disturb in the middle of the night.

"I need to find a suitable time during the day to go there myself and humbly beg them to get this done. Master, you need to give me a little more time. Otherwise, being kicked out of the Kongshi Men or being cooked and eaten is a small matter. If I delay your meeting with Shi Tu, that would be a huge problem."

After listening to his long speech, I couldn't help but sigh inwardly. What a talkative dog.

Since he was begging me so humbly, I couldn't be too harsh, so I asked him, "Based on your past experience, how long will it take to get this done? Is one day enough?"

"It's a bit uncertain, but I'll try my best. If I can get it done in one day, I'll definitely get it done within one day. If it's really not possible, then you'll have to wait another day," the driver said with a sincere expression.

He had said everything to this point, so what else could I say?

"Alright, do as you said. You have my cell phone number, right? The one I used to call you at the station. Contact me after you've taken care of things."

The driver looked at me in astonishment, clearly not expecting me to be so easy to talk to.

I just smiled calmly, not intending to make things difficult for him at all.

"Let's go, let's head back to the city first." I prepared to get into the car.

The driver didn't dare to delay and quickly climbed into the driver's seat. However, the car stopped inexplicably after driving only a short distance.

The driver went down and took a look around, then told me that there was a problem with the car and that it probably couldn't be driven. We would have to wait until tomorrow to find someone to come and fix it.

"Really? We're not going to spend the night in this wilderness, are we?" After saying that, I planned to check the car's condition myself.

The driver quickly stopped me, saying, "No, no, a little further ahead is the main road. There's a bus stop there for the night bus. There's one every half hour. I'll stay here and watch the car. You can take the bus back to the city."

"Alright." I turned around and walked in the direction the driver pointed me to.

The driver could hardly contain the smile on his face at my quick agreement. He clearly breathed a sigh of relief and got into the car, waiting for me to walk away.

However, after walking a few steps, I went back and knocked on the car window.

The driver quickly lowered the car window and asked me what other instructions I had. He pointed out the way to me again.

I smiled and shook the two strands of hair in my hand. "It's nothing big. I just wanted to tell you that I took two strands of your hair. Later, after I return to the shop, I'll press these two strands of hair on my altar.

"If you arrange everything within two days and I successfully meet Shi Tu, you'll be fine. But if two days pass and you haven't taken care of things for me, or if I can't contact you at all after two days, then you will quickly turn into a pool of stinking black blood within an hour.

"You don't have to worry too much. One hour is all it takes. The process won't be too long. Within ten minutes, all the hair and nails on your body will fall off. In about twenty minutes, your fingers and toes will start to turn black. After half an hour, the skin on your body will develop varying degrees of ulceration. After forty minutes, your internal organs will react, but the organs won't fail so quickly. The brain and heart will last for a hundred and twenty minutes, until everything on your body that can rot has rotted, then the brain and heart will stop working.

"Although we didn't study the same path, we should have all read some common introductory metaphysics books. You should know what kind of curse I'm going to cast on you. There shouldn't be anyone among your close friends who can break this curse, right?"

My tone was always calm, but the driver's face became increasingly ugly. Finally, he suddenly reached out to snatch the hair in my hand.

However, how could he take back something that was already in my hand? He only bumped into the car door for nothing and gave himself a bloody nose.

"Expert, master, hero, I'm just a small fry. I'm just a dog who guards the door and delivers messages for others. Master, please be magnanimous. Just treat me like a fart and let me go, okay?"

The driver opened the door and rolled out of the car, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing. Perhaps he felt that kowtowing alone wasn't enough to express his sincerity, so he slapped himself a few times after kowtowing for a while.

An exaggerated look of unbearable pity appeared on my face. "Oh dear, what are you doing? I'm not even as old as you. How can I accept such a grand gesture? Stop it, get up quickly."

However, although I said that, I had no intention of helping him up at all.

The driver kowtowed a few more times and said that he was wrong, begging me to let him go.

I said, "I didn't mean to make things difficult for you. Arranging for me to see Shi Tu within two days, that's what you said yourself, not what I forced you to say. You just need to keep your word. As long as you keep your word, I promise not to make things difficult for you."

The driver was almost crying, begging me to give him a few more days, saying that he really couldn't get it done in two days.

"To be honest, Shi Tu isn't anyone to me, so I'm not really in a hurry, but I'm afraid Ling Dang can't wait." I took out my cell phone and dialed Ling Dang's number.