"What, you don't know?" The driver surnamed Zhou was taken aback, seeming a bit surprised.
"We've only just been assigned to this route."
Hearing Zhang Yaqi's explanation, Driver Zhou nodded, his expression suddenly turning mysterious. "Well, Stone Man Mountain has quite a few stories. Actually, it wasn't always called Stone Man Mountain."
Zhou Junzhu was confused. "If it wasn't Stone Man Mountain, then what was it called?"
"Heh heh heh heh..." Driver Zhou let out another eerie chuckle. "You've come to the right person with that question. You only know Stone Man Mountain as a scenic spot, but only us locals who grew up here know its true background."
This man kept teasing them, dragging it out, and it made Zhang Yaqi a bit impatient. She feigned annoyance. "Driver, if you want to talk, then talk. If not, forget it. Keeping us hanging isn't nice."
"Haha, don't misunderstand." Driver Zhou laughed heartily. "It's not that I'm holding back, but..." He glanced at Zhou Junzhu beside him. "I'm afraid I might scare this young lady."
The words were said casually, but they made Zhang Yaqi's heart skip a beat. Afraid of scaring Zhou Junzhu? Could it be that Stone Man Mountain really had some hidden secret?
Hearing this, Zhou Junzhu also felt a twinge of nervousness. Still, she wasn't about to be scared off by a single sentence. Suppressing her unease, she forced a smile. "Driver, go ahead and tell us. It's just a story, right?"
"Well, if you say so, I'll tell you." Driver Zhou chuckled again. "This Stone Man Mountain wasn't originally called that. Its real name was Dead Man Mountain."
"Dead Man Mountain?!"
Those three words startled Zhou Junzhu badly. She had thought she was just driving a regular suburban route, but the destination, Stone Man Mountain, had a real name of Dead Man Mountain...
Seeing Zhou Junzhu's face turn pale as a sheet, Driver Zhou was a bit surprised. He'd thought she was just shy, but hadn't expected her to be this timid.
Still, he continued.
"Dead Man Mountain has always been a burial hill. But it's lush and green, with nice scenery. Later, someone saw the potential in the landscape and invested in tourism development. The unlucky name 'Dead Man Mountain' obviously couldn't stay, so they changed it to the more pleasant-sounding 'Stone Man Mountain.' But that was many years ago. Not many people know about it except the locals. If you ask me, there are plenty of dead buried up there..."
"Dead Man Mountain... a burial hill... So that's how it is..."
Zhou Junzhu unconsciously raised a hand and bit her nail—a little habit of hers when she was nervous.
Only Zhang Yaqi knew that Zhou Junzhu wasn't simply scared by the name. It was because the bus they were driving wasn't an ordinary one—it was a midnight ghost bus, where malevolent spirits could appear at any time!
According to Driver Zhou, Dead Man Mountain held countless dead from past generations, and the route they were running passed right through this burial ground. Would those corpses crawl out of their graves and board their bus?
Seeing Zhang Yaqi and Zhou Junzhu's pale faces, Driver Zhou seemed a bit embarrassed. He scratched his head. "Well... I didn't want to say it, but you insisted. Driver, just focus on driving. I'll go sit in the back."
With that, he scurried to the back of the bus and found a seat.
"What do we do... Teacher Zhang... What do we do..."
Zhou Junzhu's mind was a mess of tension and panic. Her body, which had just calmed down, started trembling slightly again. She really was too timid!
"Zhou, don't be afraid." Forcing down his own fear and unease, Zhang Yaqi tried to soothe her. "Maybe it's just a background story the radio station cooked up to scare us participants. Sure, Dead Man Mountain is a burial hill, but that was over a decade ago. The development has been going on for years without any incidents. Let's not get too worked up and scare ourselves."
Zhou Junzhu nodded, finding some sense in Zhang Yaqi's words. Besides, Driver Zhou had said Dead Man Mountain had always been a burial hill. The bodies buried there were decades or even centuries old. Surely they wouldn't rise up after all this time?
As if comforting herself, she managed to calm down a bit. Just then, several figures appeared on the mountain road outside the window, waving their hands to signal the bus to stop.
Even though this wasn't a bus stop, management on suburban routes like this was lax. It was the same in the village where Zhang Yaqi worked—buses would stop for anyone waving and let people off anywhere. So he didn't find it strange. After confirming the figures were students, he hit the brakes.
The students were all wearing raincoats and carrying backpacks, looking like tourists. Maybe the bad weather had cut their trip short.
One, two, three, four, five—five people in total.
The five of them, dripping wet, boarded the bus, sighing as they found seats. Perhaps out of boredom, soon after they sat down, Driver Zhou turned around and struck up a conversation.
"Students, what's up with you?"
"Ah, don't even ask. We've had terrible luck!"
"Were you planning to visit Stone Man Mountain?"
"Yeah, we were going to camp there, but the mountain weather changed so suddenly. The rain's coming down hard, and we were afraid of flash floods, so we didn't dare stay. Our camping plans are ruined. What a bummer!"
As he spoke, the boy let out a string of sighs. Zhang Yaqi saw in the rearview mirror that these boys were carrying large hiking backpacks, likely filled with camping gear.
Like Driver Zhou, these boys didn't look like ghosts at all.
Could it be that among all the passengers on his bus, there were no ghosts? Or had no real spirit boarded this bus yet?
Filled with doubts, Zhang Yaqi continued driving steadily. Before long, they reached a stop—the second one on this route. The first stop had had no passengers, but at this second one, a young man in a hat finally got on.
"Thanks a lot, driver," the young man said, his face lighting up with joy at the sight of the bus. "It's so late—I thought I wouldn't make it home!"