At the same moment, the other buses were also driving along the late-night roads. And unnoticed by anyone, as these buses left the main terminal, something imperceptible happened to the very last bus.
At the rear door of that bus, a passenger suddenly appeared.
Although the main terminal was the departure point for the buses, it was also a stop, so a passenger appearing wasn't strange. What was truly strange was that this passenger's appearance went completely unnoticed by anyone. Even the two crew members on the bus paid no attention, as if they couldn't see this passenger at all!
Though they couldn't see the mysterious passenger, the two participants felt a strong, chilling aura sweep across their backs. This invisible guest stood motionless at the door, then slowly moved toward one of the participants, eventually merging completely with their form.
That intense, icy aura vanished entirely.
After this brief interlude, time shifted back to the mission. On another bus route, Chen Hai was fully focused on driving Bus No. 13 through the late-night roads.
Along the way, he hadn't discovered the driving manual in the hidden compartment. However, due to years of professional vigilance, whenever a passenger approached to chat or asked to get off midway, he ignored them entirely, kept his mouth tightly shut, and stared straight ahead.
Chen Hai wasn't foolish. In his view, this world seemed calm but was fraught with danger. The seven or eight passengers on the bus all appeared normal, but a ghost could easily be among them. The strategy he'd devised in the short time since was simple: never speak to any passenger, then slowly figure out a reason to kick them all off at some stop. Whether they were human or ghost, as long as he drove an empty bus into the terminal, he'd meet the requirement that ghosts couldn't outnumber humans.
The more Chen Hai thought about this plan, the more feasible it seemed. Lost in thought, he almost drifted off, when suddenly a black shadow flashed before his eyes. Startled, he instinctively slammed on the brakes.
The bus jolted, stopping in the middle of the road with a massive lurch. Amid the complaints from passengers behind him, Chen Hai saw a bizarre scene right in front of him. The silhouette of an old woman, like a grandmother, was crouching in the middle of the road, hunched over, fiddling with something. She was dressed entirely in black clothes and pants, nearly blending into the darkness. If Chen Hai hadn't been an experienced night driver, he would have hit her just now.
"What the hell are you doing?"
The bus stopped less than a meter away, but the old woman in black showed no reaction, still crouching in the road, rustling about with something unknown. Furious, Chen Hai opened the door and jumped out. Just as he was about to lose his temper, he suddenly noticed a small flame burning in front of the old woman. Black ashes rose from the flame into the sky, and in her hand, she clutched a stack of yellow paper.
This...
Chen Hai's heart skipped a beat. The old woman in black was burning funeral money.
But why burn it here, of all places? And why right in the middle of the road, just as his bus was coming?
If it was a coincidence, it was too perfect!
Sensing something unusual, Chen Hai already regretted his impulsive move. But if she didn't move, the bus couldn't pass. After thinking it over, he steeled himself and stepped forward, about to speak—
"Wuwuwu, wuwuwuwu..."
Before Chen Hai could say anything, the old woman began sobbing mournfully. Amid the eerie cries, he could faintly make out a few words: "My poor son..."
Just then, the "middle-class elite man" also stepped off the bus from the rear door, gesturing for Chen Hai not to act rashly. He walked up behind the old woman, reached out to help her up, and forced himself to speak calmly.
"Ma'am, are you alright? Did we scare you?"
Hearing Zhu Yilun's voice, the old woman's cloudy eyes moved slightly. After a long pause, a smile more bitter than a cry spread across her lips. "It's fine, it's fine. Young man, did this old woman scare you all too?"
"We're fine, but the road here is busy with cars and people, and it's dangerous. Ma'am, let me help you to the side to rest, how about that?"
"No! I'm not going anywhere! Don't you dare try to move me!"
To Zhu Yilun's surprise, the old woman refused to budge an inch. This left the two men in a bind. If she wouldn't move, the bus couldn't pass, and how could they complete the story's assigned task?
"Ma'am..." Chen Hai tried to persuade her again, but Zhu Yilun subtly shook his head at him.
This old woman was almost certainly problematic. It couldn't be a coincidence that she appeared here. There was even a chance she was a ghost in disguise. In this situation, using force against her was out of the question—it would greatly increase the risk of triggering a deadly trap.
And the act of burning funeral money late at night suggested there was more to her story. If they didn't resolve the issue behind it, the bus wouldn't move an inch tonight!
If that was the case...
Zhu Yilun pondered for a moment, then pointed at the burning flame on the ground and finally spoke slowly.
"Ma'am, if I may ask, who are you honoring?"
This question was quite bold. Chen Hai's heart felt like it skipped a beat, as if he expected the old woman to be enraged and transform into a vengeful ghost, killing them both on the spot.
But that imagined horror didn't happen.
"My poor son..." Mentioning this seemed to stir the old woman's grief, and tears began to fall freely. "Young man, you don't know, today is the seventh day after my son's death. I'm burning some things at the spot where he died, afraid he won't receive them..."
Her deceased son, the seventh day, the spot where he died!
There was a lot of information in that sentence!
For a moment, Zhu Yilun wasn't sure if he should dig deeper. What if this was a trap to trigger death?
But after thinking it over, if he couldn't persuade the old woman to leave the road, the bus couldn't pass, and failing the story's task meant certain death anyway.
With that in mind, he felt a bit calmer. Since it was a life-or-death gamble either way, he might as well take the risk.
"Ma'am, what exactly happened to your son?"
PS: Thanks to Destroyer Sion, Cangyun Shiyu, and Heye Chi for their tips. I haven't finished the second chapter yet; it'll be a bit late, maybe half an hour to an hour.