124: Chapter 124 Tyrannosaurus Rex Trailer

The road outside the Qinghe Safe House descended into total chaos before dawn.

GPS navigation systems were leading ambulances into blocked alleyways and guiding supply trucks onto the wrong side of elevated roads; even taxi drivers familiar with the area were driving in circles at the same intersection three times over.

Some people got out of their cars to curse at their navigation systems, others called the police, and some, upon hearing the station announcements over their car radios, suddenly jerked their steering wheels toward deserted side roads.

Tang Zhiwei had no choice but to order all vehicles to turn off their navigation and switch to manual instructions and paper route maps.

The problem was, the paper routes were also starting to be contaminated by ticket stubs.

Delivery slips drifting out from the warehouse stuck themselves onto windshields, with arrows always pointing in the same direction.

Terminal Station.

It was at this moment that Tyrannosaurus King drove into Qinghe.

His tow truck had just returned from the Jiangbei support route; the string of text on the front, "Super Invincible Number One Most Powerful Tyrannosaurus Warrior King," hadn't been washed off yet, and from a distance, it looked like a rescue vehicle plastered with flyers.

He pulled up outside the Safe House, and upon seeing three out-of-control trucks blocking the intersection ahead, his expression darkened.

"Who set up this formation?"

Zheng Xiang replied over the walkie-talkie: "It's not a formation; everyone's just been led astray."

Tyrannosaurus King got out, walked around, and touched the tire of the lead truck.

Wrapped around the tire was a nearly invisible yellow thread, with one end trailing into a roadside storm drain.

He looked up toward the Safe House.

"I can tow them."

"Tow them where?" Tang Zhiwei asked.

"In the opposite direction of where it wants to go."

"Are you sure you can do it?"

Tyrannosaurus King grinned, though his smile was a bit forced.

"No. When does a tow truck driver ever have certainty? You just hook it up and see what happens."

He had two assistants lock the out-of-control trucks with steel cables one by one, then positioned his own tow truck horizontally across the intersection.

As the cables pulled taut, the car radio turned on automatically.

"Please drive your vehicle into Terminal Station."

Tyrannosaurus King's hands froze on the steering wheel.

A man's voice immediately came over the radio, sounding just like his father.

"Little Wang, come home and eat."

The smile on Tyrannosaurus King's face vanished instantly.

His father had passed away early; when he was alive, he used to love calling him late at night while he was working overtime to scold him, telling him to just fix cars and not fix himself into an early grave.

The voice was too similar.

It was so similar that he nearly released the clutch.

Zheng Xiang shouted his name over the walkie-talkie: "Tyrannosaurus King!"

Tyrannosaurus King snapped out of it, reached out, and ripped the entire radio unit out, sparks flying from the severed wires.

He didn't look at the broken wires, only stared at the road ahead.

"My dad didn't call me Tyrannosaurus King," he said.

The engine roared to life.

The tow truck jerked backward, and the tires of the first truck dragged across the ground, leaving black marks.

The yellow thread sprang out of the storm drain as if it had been stepped on, attempting to wrap around the steel cables.

Tyrannosaurus King didn't let off the gas, directly steering the front of his vehicle toward the side blockade zone.

The steel cables emitted a piercing screech.

The out-of-control truck was forcibly dragged off the main road, its cargo bed slamming into a temporary guardrail and pinning a section of the yellow thread that had emerged from the ground beneath a concrete barrier.

A path finally opened up in front of the Safe House.

Tang Zhiwei immediately ordered the vehicles carrying the wounded to evacuate through this path.

Tyrannosaurus King jumped out of the truck, his pant legs covered in mud.

Just as he was about to catch his breath, a non-existent passenger station appeared in his rearview mirror.

The platform was long, the roof was leaking, and dozens of yellowed route signs hung in mid-air.

An old bus was slowly pulling into the station.

Tyrannosaurus King didn't turn around to look at the physical reality.

He stared into the rearview mirror, his face turning pale.

"Sister Tang," he said, picking up the walkie-talkie, "behind the intersection... a station has appeared."

Tang Zhiwei was silent for two seconds.

"Don't let any vehicles go in."

"Is there a driver inside?"

"No."

Tyrannosaurus King watched the bus in the mirror come to a stop, its doors opening.

He took a deep breath and maneuvered the last tow truck horizontally, its front facing the phantom station.

"Then I'll block it for now."

After Tyrannosaurus King blocked the phantom station, the three trucks ahead began honking their horns simultaneously.

The honking wasn't a standard continuous blast, but a rhythmic, intermittent sound like station announcements.

Every time it sounded, a vehicle at the intersection would try to turn toward the station.

Tyrannosaurus King didn't use his tow truck to force them back again; instead, he arranged roadside construction cones, barriers, and two empty tow trucks into a crooked arc, hiding the actual viable path behind them.

"What do you call this?" Zheng Xiang asked over the walkie-talkie.

"A temporary detour," Tyrannosaurus King said.

"You set it up like a maze."

"Mazes are good. Doesn't it love leading people the wrong way? I'll make it get it wrong for once."

An ambulance carrying the wounded drove up from the distance; the driver had already turned off the navigation, but was still clutching a paper route map that had been blown into the vehicle.

The arrow on the map, which should have led to the Safe House, was slowly veering toward the phantom passenger station.

Tyrannosaurus King pulled his tow truck directly across the path, forcing the ambulance to stop.

The driver leaned out and cursed.

"Are you sick?!"

"Yes," Tyrannosaurus King said, pointing at the windshield. "Look at that paper. It's trying to make you send people onto that bus."

The driver froze, looked down, and saw that the route map had turned into a black ticket.

Someone in the ambulance coughed.

Without waiting for the driver to react, Tyrannosaurus King grabbed the black ticket with pliers and tossed it into a containment bucket.

As the ticket burned, the sign for the phantom passenger station flickered twice.

He returned to the driver's cab and discovered that even though the radio had been ripped out, his father's voice was still ringing in his ears.

"Little Wang, come home and eat."

Tyrannosaurus King gripped the steering wheel and didn't move for a long time.

Then, he fished a crushed package of biscuits out of his toolbox and took a bite.

"I'm eating," he said.

The voice didn't sound again.

After the intersection was blocked, Tyrannosaurus King didn't go after that phantom station.

He knew that no matter how sturdy his truck was, it couldn't drive into a non-existent bus.

He parked his tow truck at the outermost position, facing the real road, with the rear connected to the guardrail by steel cables, as if tethering all the evacuating vehicles with a rope that couldn't be led astray by navigation.

A private car tried to squeeze past; the driver was slamming the steering wheel in anxiety, saying his mother was inside and he couldn't be delayed.

Tyrannosaurus King told him to roll down the window and asked what the old woman in the car was named, which floor she lived on, and what color slippers were kept at the entryway of their home.

The driver was stunned by the questions, and only after answering did he realize the old woman in the passenger seat hadn't said a word the entire time.

The old lady was clutching a black ticket, but when she heard her son say "the blue slippers by the door," her fingers slowly loosened slightly.

Tyrannosaurus King didn't say anything more and simply had Zheng Xiang take them to the Lamp-Keeping Zone.

He sat back in the driver's cab; the phantom passenger station was still in the rearview mirror.

The station didn't look like it was about to charge out, but rather as if it were waiting for a driver to drive their car into it of their own accord.

Tyrannosaurus King pulled out the key and shoved it into his pocket.

"Want me to drive?" he said to the mirror. "Then you learn how to fix a clutch first."

Tyrannosaurus King sat back in the driver's seat and first twisted the rearview mirror toward the real road.

He didn't want to look at the station again, nor did he want the station to decide his direction for him.

After the tow truck started, the front was always pointed toward where there was light.