"What's going on?"
"Why do I suddenly feel this palpitation in my chest?"
At that moment, on another bus, Zhou Junzhu pressed her hand to her chest, a cold sweat beading on her pale face.
The route she and Zhang Yaqi were "operating" was the No. 711 bus, with its terminal at a place called Stone Man Mountain. She had never heard of this place before—probably some obscure scenic spot.
Because it was a suburban route, there were no streetlights along the way. The dim headlights of the bus illuminated the winding mountain road ahead, while the shadowy rocks on either side loomed like standing ghosts, making Zhang Yaqi feel deeply uneasy.
As a teacher, Zhang Yaqi had initially refused to believe in the existence of ghosts—such idealistic nonsense. But ever since he saw the specter of a female student in the midnight hallway—a girl who had committed suicide in anger after a pregnancy scandal rocked the school—he had no choice but to accept that ghosts were real, and that the horror radio station truly existed.
Compared to Zhang Yaqi's tangled thoughts, Zhou Junzhu's mind was consumed by fear. As a vocational school student, her daily coursework wasn't heavy, and in her spare time, she loved devouring all kinds of horror stories to pass the time—especially the "Hell Apartment" from Black Spark, which scared her so much she dared not get up to use the bathroom at night, yet thrilled her to no end.
And so, Zhou Junzhu plowed through one horror novel after another during her free time. But one day, when she suddenly saw blood-red characters forming on the white wall, she was terrified out of her wits, thinking she had been dragged into that terrifying apartment described in the books, becoming a so-called resident.
Finally, after calming down from the extreme panic, she realized the blood characters were instructing her to escape this haunted dormitory building. When she pushed open the dormitory door, she heard a terrifying set of footsteps echoing through the empty hallway.
Nearly scared to death by the sound, Zhou Junzhu immediately bolted down the stairs. But no matter how fast she ran, the thumping footsteps always followed at a constant distance. The dormitory, which should have been only four stories high, seemed to stretch on endlessly. Finally, recalling some horror plots, she gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and turned around to walk toward the sound. Strangely, even as she kept moving toward the source of the footsteps, they never drew closer, always maintaining that same distance, echoing in her ears.
At last, where the stair railing should have been, there was suddenly empty space. Zhou Junzhu opened her eyes and found she had already exited the "haunted dormitory" specified by the task. At the same time, the school's broadcast system played the late-night program of the horror radio station, indicating she had completed the station's beginner script.
And so, Zhou Junzhu, even more inexplicably than Zhang Yaqi, was dragged into the radio station. However, despite loving horror stories, she was actually quite timid. Sitting on the bus now, her whole body trembled from time to time, terrified that, like in the novels, she would vanish from this world without a trace.
Like Chen Hai, Zhang Yaqi also failed to notice the manual in the hidden compartment.
Still, this bus ride went smoothly enough—until they entered the mountain road, when it started raining outside. The pouring rain reduced visibility even further, forcing Zhang Yaqi to slow down. They drove for nearly twenty minutes without passing a single stop, which sparked a faint, unrealistic hope in his heart: that this bus would skip all stops and just drive straight to the terminal!
Just as he thought this, he suddenly saw someone on the mountain road ahead, frantically waving at him with an anxious expression.
What's going on?
In the heavy rain, the man had no umbrella, soaked through from head to toe. Zhang Yaqi's heart stirred, and though it wasn't a stop, he pulled over anyway.
The man wiped the rain from his face, climbed into the bus, and thanked Zhang Yaqi profusely: "Thank you, driver! Thank you so much! I didn't expect there to be a bus at this hour. If I hadn't run into you, I'd be in big trouble!"
"Brother, what happened?" Zhang Yaqi, having nothing better to do, started chatting with him as he drove.
"Ah, don't even mention it, driver. Want one?" The man shook his head, pulled a pack of dry cigarettes from his clothes, and offered one to Zhang Yaqi. But as a teacher, Zhang Yaqi never smoked, so he shook his head with a smile and declined.
Seeing that Zhang Yaqi didn't smoke, the man didn't insist. He took out a lighter and lit up on his own. Zhang Yaqi frowned, wanting to remind him that smoking wasn't allowed on the bus, but since there were no other passengers and he didn't want to cause trouble, he opened his mouth and then said nothing.
After a couple of puffs, the man started talking freely. He said his surname was Zhou, and he was also a driver. He had quit his old job because the pay was too low and had recently started chartering vehicles in the area. That afternoon, a tour group had hired him to drive into the mountains, but halfway there, they encountered a flash flood. Overconfident, he forced his way through the water, causing the vehicle to break down. With no other options, he braved the rain to try his luck, hoping to find a ride to the scenic area so the management could send proper vehicles to transfer the passengers.
At this point, Driver Zhou thanked him again profusely, saying that if he didn't get the passengers out tonight, he'd definitely face complaints tomorrow, exposing his unlicensed operation. He'd be lucky to get off without a fine of thirty or fifty thousand.
Driver Zhou seemed very straightforward and talkative. As they chatted, Zhang Yaqi's fear gradually subsided, and he thought to himself, this guy doesn't seem like a ghost, does he?
The two of them were getting along well, and gradually, Zhou Junzhu felt less scared too. She came up from the back and told Driver Zhou he needed to buy a ticket.
"Oh, young lady, still working this late? Your boyfriend not coming to pick you up?" Driver Zhou glanced at Zhou Junzhu and teased her with a smile, making her blush and lower her head in embarrassment. But then she remembered something: since Driver Zhou was chartering vehicles in the area, he must know the Stone Man Mountain scenic spot well. So, after a moment's thought, she asked a question.
"Driver Zhou, what kind of scenic spot is Stone Man Mountain? I've never heard of it."