After this brief interlude, the other participants boarded the buses parked at the station according to the routes assigned on the schedule. However, just as Chen Mo was about to get on, he felt someone tug at him, seemingly intentionally or not. Turning around, he saw Li Yan behind him, whispering in an extremely low voice.
"Watch out for the woman beside you."
Li Yan wanted him to be wary of this woman—what did that mean? Chen Mo was momentarily taken aback. Could it be that he knew her background?
In this eerie radio station, Li Yan was a genuine veteran who had undergone four formal missions. Since he took the initiative to warn Chen Mo about this woman calling herself Jiao Jiao, it meant she was no newcomer to these tasks.
Unfortunately, time was limited and there were too many eyes and ears around to inquire further.
Silently noting Li Yan's warning, Chen Mo then walked toward the driver's cabin of this bus. According to the story's assignment, from now on, he was the night-shift driver for Route 404—a point that absolutely could not be violated.
Reaching out to wipe the dusty rearview mirror, the interior of the vehicle became fully visible. He then spotted the woman calling herself Jiao Jiao, sitting idly in the conductor's seat by the door—a seat only found on these obsolete old models that still had dedicated ticket sellers.
Just then, a chilling sensation suddenly struck. Though nothing unusual surrounded him, Chen Mo's body involuntarily shuddered, as if brushed by an invisible, icy wind.
He abruptly turned around. The cabin was, of course, empty and devoid of anything, yet Chen Mo could still feel strands of cold, eerie energy coiling and drifting around him, faint yet present. Perhaps from the moment he boarded this bus, he had already fallen under the story's curse, doomed to be haunted by ghosts.
Looking through the rearview mirror, the glamorous woman in the empty cabin seemed oblivious to this chilling aura, maintaining her indifferent, languid demeanor. When she noticed Chen Mo looking at her, she even feigned drowsiness, covering her mouth with a hand as she yawned.
"Handsome, stop dawdling. Drive to the terminal—I still have clients to attend to."
Despite her sleepy appearance, her words left Chen Mo utterly stunned. He couldn't tell if she truly didn't feel the cold aura or simply remained unfazed by it.
Though urged by the woman, Chen Mo didn't rush to start the bus. Instead, he carefully examined the interior of the driver's cabin.
Not letting a single clue slip by—this was a hard-earned lesson from many participants within the radio station, paid for with their lives.
A fan, a water cup, a towel—all ordinary items commonly found on old buses. Chen Mo fiddled with them for a moment. With a click, a small storage compartment on his left popped open, revealing a notebook with a ballpoint pen clipped to it.
"Is this... a driver's manual?"
Chen Mo's heart tightened. A driver's manual was, of course, meant for bus company employees to read, but it was hidden so discreetly that he wondered how many participants would actually find it.
With that thought, Chen Mo immediately opened the manual, and the rules came into view.
One: Depart on time. Two: No refusing passengers. Three: No stopping outside designated stops. Four: No smoking on the bus; no conversing with passengers while driving. Five: No lingering at stations; parking time must not exceed one minute. Six: ...
In the old days, buses didn't have so many rules, especially on suburban routes where passengers could often flag them down or get off with a wave. But this manual strictly codified these rules, suggesting at first glance that this Western Bus Company had a very rigorous operating style.
However... this was a world of supernatural stories.
These seemingly proper driving rules were, in fact, likely the mission requirements that participants in this story must strictly follow. If they failed to adhere to the manual, they might directly trigger the deadly mechanisms of this tale!
If he hadn't found this booklet, the consequences would have been unimaginable!
Just then, a piercing electric bell rang out in the bus terminal—ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling. Many people would recognize this sound, as drivers couldn't watch the clock every second. In the old days, buses used such bells to signal departures, a practice still in use in many places.
At the sound of the bell, all participants felt a jolt of tension. Simultaneously, gray mist began to seep back around the station yard, surging toward the five buses in the center.
Glancing at his watch—exactly 10:30—Chen Mo started the engine and drove toward the station exit before the mist could envelop him. He could already imagine what would happen if he failed to depart on time and got caught in the fog.
From the outside, one would see one eerie bus after another emerging from the mist, leaving the station and heading off in different directions.
The Route 404 bus he was driving had ten stops in total. Based on a one-and-a-half-hour journey, that meant roughly ten minutes per stop. So, there were about nine minutes left before reaching the first station.
This triggered mission had completely separated the participants. No one could predict what they would encounter, and the use of any items was forbidden. All they could rely on was their own meticulous observation and bold reasoning.
At that moment, on other routes, the remaining participants shared the same anxious feelings as Chen Mo. However, Zhang Yaqi oddly noticed that, despite only hearing Chen Hai explain driving once, once he sat in the driver's seat, he somehow operated the vehicle with uncanny familiarity. It seemed this was indeed a supernatural world defying logic, and the radio station wouldn't hinder participants in any way unrelated to the mission.
This realization brought Zhang Yaqi a secret relief, but his distraction also caused him to overlook the hidden manual in the compartment on the left side of the driver's cabin.
"It's really cold in the dead of night," he muttered.
Just then, he and Zhou Junzhu both felt a chilling aura sweep over them, wrapping around them in wisps. The bus, seemingly due to its age, rattled and clattered as it swayed its way toward the suburbs.