There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Driver Jackie laughed and said, "What's the problem? Their job is just to lay a layer of their new material when laying the bridge foundation. Even a child can do that, so of course there's no risk. There's never any risk when you're working."

"What kind of material is that?"

"I don't know. I've only heard that in many places, the mountains are loose, the rock foundations are disturbed, and the water veins are complex, it is difficult to build a qualified bridge foundation, and it is difficult to support a bridge that is fifty or sixty meters high."

"But once the old expert's materials are placed on it, it will be perfectly stable, and no matter how the construction is carried out, there will be no swaying. Normal high-rise buildings will sway to some extent at a certain height, but these bridges are completely still, which is nothing short of a miracle."

Before he could finish speaking, the car radio had finished its long commercial and started a new program, interrupting the driver Jackie's continuous narration.

"The midnight talk show is now starting..."

Chapter 58 Midnight Radio

"The midnight talk show is now starting..."

The male radio host's voice was deep and clear, like a tranquil pool of water. He began the program in a gentle, conversational tone, skipping the long introduction and even interacting with several listeners who had written in the previous episode.

Only then did he change the subject, steer the discussion back to casual conversation.

"...Thank you to all our listeners for your letters. With the support of many drivers, our program has collected and organized a lot of material and provided the production team with many wonderful ideas. The topic of this episode is still a submission from a driver friend. The story is about the section of the highway connecting the east and west. Now, I will share these stories with you."

When driver Jackie heard the program crew mention that it happened to be this highway, he couldn't help but start talking again: "It would be much more interesting if I were to tell this story. I wonder what the host will say. If anyone is unclear, I'll fill in the gaps."

Laughter erupted inside the car as several passengers watched the driver's deliberate performance with amusement, preparing to spend their rather long journey in this story.

"...The first story is about the history of the highway. Before this highway was built, there was a legend that there was a narrow, deserted trade route that could transport goods between two places through the mountains."

"But every time a caravan went into the mountains, people would mysteriously disappear. Sometimes, the caravan leader would lead the way, and the carts behind would suddenly disappear, along with most of the goods. More often, the caravan leader would lead the way, and suddenly his horse would stumble and fall into the abyss on the narrow mountain road. No matter how much the caravan members searched at the foot of the mountain, they could not find the victims."

"Such stories kept happening, which led to the complete closure of the once-populated trails. Later, lost hikers would often stumble upon the trails built back then and find them still hidden in the mountains among the tall trees, waiting for outsiders to set foot on them."

The host's voice, accompanied by the static of the radio, reached the passengers' ears. This not-so-novel but surprising story brought a fresh atmosphere to the somewhat dull carriage and stirred everyone's curiosity.

After the radio station finished telling the story, it went into the tedious commercial break, which conveniently gave the people in the car time to discuss it.

"To be honest, this story is just something some bored travelers made up to scare people. If so many people were really missing, this road would have been closed off as a dangerous area long ago, and there would be no way they would have built a highway," the square-faced young man calmly analyzed, which was very much in line with his usual rationalist style.

Driver Jackie added, "Actually, I can explain this. I've heard similar rumors before."

"Oh? Mr. Jackie, you agree with my point of view, right?" the square-faced young man said confidently.

"I suppose so. Your theory that it's impossible for so many people to have died and still be accepted is correct. But the disappearances did happen."

"Some are missing, but no one died? They were seriously injured, right? That would be considered a major accident."

“No, those people came back, and they weren’t hurt. They were just acting a bit strange,” Jackie said, organizing her thoughts.

"Strange?" the middle-aged man in the passenger seat asked.

"Yes, those missing caravan members often reappear on the side of the road a year or two later, along with their broken-down vehicles, and are rescued by passing cars. If they're lucky, they even manage to drive out."

"Is it that strange? Time travel?"

"I don't understand. The missing drivers all showed varying degrees of time confusion, and all said they just drove onto a side road they had never seen before, with a few detached houses along the way. Some even had some interaction with the residents. But none of them could explain why they were there or how they got back."

Disappeared? Will they come back later? I often hear these kinds of bizarre stories, but they usually start with a friend or someone I heard it from, and they are all hearsay with great conviction. They also like to use the first person to make it more believable, but in reality, there is not a shred of reliability.

The middle-aged man in the passenger seat said, "If there were a driver like that, I'd really like to meet him."

At this moment, the interrupted radio program resumed.

After a beautiful melody, a steady and magnetic male voice began a new broadcast on the radio.

"Welcome back to traffic radio. Next, let's share another submission from a driver friend, titled: Unfamiliar Rest Area."

"Speaking of this east-west highway, I have something to tell everyone: never, ever stop at an unfamiliar rest stop!"

"One night two years ago, I was rushing to pick up passengers going in the same direction and headed to a neighboring city, so I chose this highway on the spot. I had driven this road many times and had heard some strange things about it, but I didn't pay attention to it. Around 11 p.m., I drove this road with three people."

"The weather was sunny at the beginning of the day. We were chatting happily in the car and didn't notice anything unusual. The road conditions were also very good. We couldn't see any other cars on either side, and we easily reached a speed of 120 kilometers per hour."

"The radio station that day predicted heavy fog that night, and we all scoffed, thinking it was a false alarm. All I was thinking about was finishing this delivery as soon as possible so I could go home and enjoy a two-day vacation. That feeling was really great."

Upon hearing this, the quick-witted round-faced youth couldn't help but joke, "Haha, Mr. Jackie, you didn't provide this article, did you? It's so similar to our situation today."

Driver Jackie scoffed, "Then I'm really something. I've driven you twice, and with the double fare from earlier, I can probably charge four times the original fare, right?"

The male voice on the radio had already moved beyond a description amidst the conversation and entered the main storyline.

"...In the thick fog, I turned on my fog lights and drove slowly along the outermost lane, afraid of having an accident. But even after driving for a long time, the fog showed no signs of dissipating."

"The time displayed on the car was already past 1 a.m., which meant that I had spent three hours on this route that should have taken two hours. For safety reasons, after discussing with the passengers, we decided to stop at the next rest area and wait for the fog to clear."

"Not long after, a rest area sign that we had never seen before appeared in the thick fog. We followed the signs and drove into a spacious parking lot."

"I won't list all the strange things that happened during that time; I'll just talk about the strangest things I saw."

“During our time at this deserted rest stop, a car would drive in every ten minutes, stay for five minutes, and then drive away from the other side.”

"At first, we didn't notice the problem; we were just sitting in the car with the windows down. It wasn't until the passengers in the back seat were closest to us that we realized that the cars that drove in through the thick fog didn't have drivers in the front!"

"We're stuck in a rest area parking lot where ghost cars are roaming!"

Chapter 59 Mysterious Region

With the increasing popularity of television programs, radio programs have gradually declined, and the number of listeners and audiences has been decreasing.

Therefore, many radio stations began to produce sensational and stimulating ghost stories that skirted the line between reality and fantasy, allowing listeners to have a different experience in a world that was both real and surreal.

However, everyone understands that these so-called stories and true experiences should be taken with a grain of salt. The truth is often not as mysterious as it seems.

However, people's curiosity tends to favor overly precise and rational theoretical knowledge. They are more drawn to ambiguous answers that leave room for imagination.

"Mr. Jackie, have you been to that rest area parking lot mentioned on the radio?"

The middle-aged man in the passenger seat asked with a smile, his words not revealing much panic or helplessness, a stark contrast to the two pale-faced young men in the back seat.

Driver Jackie was still diligently fulfilling his duties, driving at high speed on the road, and replied, "I know every rest area on this road; there are no unfamiliar rest areas or parking lots."

The round-faced young man in the back row said, "But the weather forecast says there will be heavy fog tonight. If it's foggy, should we find a place to park?"

His implication was that we shouldn't follow the story's events; it would be best to drive directly to the neighboring city and not linger beyond the destination.

“Hmm…” Jackie pondered for a moment, “It’s not that I’m afraid of the parking lot in the story he mentioned. Actually, according to my father, during the construction of the first and second phases of the project, we shared a command center, which was equipped with a design and research building, a command headquarters building, an engineering construction building, and some auxiliary facilities.”

"At its peak, the command center could accommodate thousands of vehicles. If you wandered in during the fog, it was possible to be mistaken for an unfamiliar rest area."

The round-faced youth breathed a sigh of relief: "So he accidentally wandered into the old engineering command post. No wonder."

“What I’m worried about is the ghost car he mentioned… The story of this car has been around since the beginning of the highway and has never stopped.”

“Before the first phase of the project was completed, a road construction team reported that a car drove on the asphalt road they had just paved, and no matter how they tried to stop it, it was no use; the car drove straight past.”

"This matter caught the attention of the project manager, who went to check it himself and found that there was only a shallow tire mark on the road, which suddenly disappeared on the road after driving about 800 meters. It was as if the car had vanished into thin air."

"Subsequent sightings occurred several times, all in a deserted or closed road area, where an empty car would suddenly drive in, make a strange noise, and then disappear into thin air in a short time."

"I suspect that the driver bumped into this car."

The square-faced young man in the back seat asked, "Is there any other evidence to prove that it's the same car?"

The driver, Jackie, said hesitantly, "Nothing is particularly certain. It's just that my father told me he also witnessed it up close."

"After he finished his transport mission, he was driving back to the command center when he saw a white car driving in the distance. He thought it was another vehicle from the engineering team, so he switched his headlights to signal to the car in front that they could go together."

"But the car didn't budge and continued driving on the empty highway. My father jokingly sped up and overtook it, only to find the driver's seat empty. Eventually, the car disappeared into the command center's parking lot, and the entire parking lot was searched without success."

"So, ghost cars really exist?"

"I don't know. But I've heard that similar legends existed in this area even before the roads were built. They're probably stories passed down orally from the ignorant mountain people, about ghosts flying in the sky, wild beasts as tall as mountains, and falling meteors."

"Anyway, you can find every absurd story you can think of."

The square-faced young man in the back row asked, "Actually, the two of us went to a neighboring city to conduct a folklore survey. Mr. Jackie, could you tell us a few stories?"

"There's nothing that can't be told. These are all ghost stories that adults used to scare me when I was a kid."

Jackie didn't like the suspicious atmosphere in the car either. He deliberately steered the story towards local absurd legends, using the locals' eccentricities to prove the ghost car story unbelievable.

"The flying ghost is a legend similar to that of a ghost car."

"Local mountain people say that on clear nights, ghosts appear floating in the sky, moving at high speeds, and sometimes chasing pedestrians. During the day, if you look at the roadside, you will see a huge furrow, as if it had been dug by some huge wild beast."

"There are many legends about the form of ghosts, including male and female, old and young, and even green-skinned people and animal-headed people. But the locals have reached a consensus that these ghosts will take those who offend them to the underworld!"

The ending of this story continued to echo in the carriage, like a small awl piercing the passengers' eardrums.

The night outside was utterly still, as if even birds and beasts had hidden themselves away, and insects and snakes had gone into hibernation, all fearing the gloomy sky and whispering amongst themselves in their nests.

The passengers gazed at the night sky, as if the ancient ghost, passed down through generations, was spying them, sometimes hiding behind a star, sometimes peeking out, mocking the ignorant travelers.

Jackie also felt that his detailed description was too horrifying and did nothing to correct the situation, so he quickly turned the story to the second one, trying to change the atmosphere concisely.

"The legends of giant beasts and flying ghosts are from around the same time."

"Some say that there is a wild beast as tall as the mountains in the eastern mountains that sneaks around in the dead of night and attacks passing travelers. If you see three bright moons while you are walking alone at night, two of them are not the moons, but the eyes of that wild beast."

Driver Jackie laughed and said, "I guess this legend evolved from the huge tracks left by that flying ghost. The locals associated the huge tracks on the ground with a giant beast, which is why there is such a legend. These are just nonsense."

The square-faced young man asked awkwardly, "Really, no concrete evidence has been found?"

"Of course not. I've been driving this road for nine years, and my father has been driving it for many years too, and neither of us has ever encountered anything like this. Don't worry, I've also checked the traces they've been talking about. It's just a faint pit halfway up the mountain. I guess it was caused by construction vehicles passing through, and it's definitely not some monster."

The atmosphere inside the car gradually warmed up, and the passengers settled into their seats, with one window slightly open for ventilation. As the mysterious atmosphere outside faded into the midnight hour, the space became quiet and peaceful.

"Mr. Jackie, how long have we been driving?" the middle-aged man in the passenger seat suddenly asked.

"About two hours."

"That means it's already past 1 a.m. now."

The middle-aged man didn't elaborate much, stating it as if it were an obvious fact. Yet, everyone in the car shivered.

The fog has arrived.

Chapter 60 Fog

Outside the window, a thick fog rose up for no apparent reason.

"Mr. Jackie! What's going on with this fog?!" the round-faced young man in the back of the car cried out in alarm.

As a driver with many years of experience, Jackie did not panic. Instead, he skillfully switched to the far right lane, turned on the fog lights, reduced his speed, and controlled the vehicle at a uniform and stable speed to prevent a collision in the fog.