The strange passengers—that is, ghosts.
There were two more such passengers on his bus.
A young woman and a middle-aged man clutching a briefcase. They looked normal, but the moment their expressions shifted even slightly, Chen Mo was almost certain: these two were definitely also ghostly beings.
In other words, all four passengers who had boarded his bus, one after another, were the "strange guests" mentioned in the mission.
He lowered his voice and recounted what had just happened on his bus to the other party. After a few seconds of silence, he heard Li Yan's reply.
"This is exactly what I wanted to tell you."
Li Yan's response also surprised Chen Mo, because not long ago, a woman in red, who appeared to be pregnant, had boarded Li Yan's bus. Shortly after getting on, she began shouting that her stomach hurt and strongly demanded that Li Yan drive to the hospital. Although the college student named Yu Feng looked reluctant and wanted to agree several times, Li Yan coldly refused him with icy stares. Just as Yu Feng, furious, stood up to accuse Li Yan of being heartless for prioritizing the mission, the woman in red suddenly gushed a large amount of blood from between her legs. In the blood, there was no fetus—only a mass of indistinct flesh.
This sudden turn of events nearly scared Yu Feng into collapsing on the ground. At that moment, the woman in red, expressionless, picked up the bloody mass from the floor, shot Li Yan a vicious glare, and then got off the bus at the station.
"See? If you had helped that woman, she might have pinned the blame on you for giving birth to that monstrous lump of flesh. If you had driven to the hospital as she demanded—let alone whether there even is a hospital—deviating from the bus route, do you think the radio station would judge us as violating the rules and trigger a dead end?"
Hearing Li Yan's explanation, cold sweat finally poured from Yu Feng's forehead, and he secretly regretted almost being fooled by the woman.
"So, she was…"
"Shh. Don't say it. Don't say that word." Li Yan shook his head and gently stopped Yu Feng. This college student, being new to such formal missions, indeed lacked experience. Li Yan had no intention of blaming him; he just shook his head lightly and repeatedly urged him not to act rashly without his instructions.
"Brother Li, don't worry. I won't make such a foolish mistake again." Yu Feng nodded. After experiencing this, he understood that formal missions were vastly different from the novice script. Every detail could harbor deadly traps.
Although they seemed to have avoided the ghost's trap, there was one thing Li Yan didn't directly mention for fear of panicking Yu Feng: the other passengers on the bus.
Besides the woman in red, there were three other passengers on this bus. Yet, faced with a pregnant woman in agony, they remained as indifferent as Li Yan himself. Wasn't that behavior equally unnatural?
Unnatural meant… there was a problem!
That was why Li Yan chose to take the risk of calling Chen Mo to exchange experiences. After learning about Chen Mo's situation and the similarly odd passengers on his bus, Li Yan reached a chilling conclusion. That was…
Ten participants, five routes—could it be that all the passengers boarding on every route were ghosts?
If that were true, this story mission would be terrifying. One of the mission prompts required that when the bus reached the terminal, the number of ghosts on board must not exceed the number of humans. But if no living humans ever boarded…
If no living humans ever boarded…
What were they supposed to do?
"Li Yan? Huh?"
After calling out a few times, he realized the call had been hung up. Chen Mo thought about it with some confusion, then reached out to close the bus door.
At this stop, two more passengers boarded—two young men who immediately started playing on their phones, completely absorbed.
On another route, Li Yan was also holding his phone, his expression growing extremely grave. The idea that no living humans had boarded was just his worst-case inference based on what had happened on two bus lines. Since he wasn't sure, he hadn't voiced his guess over the phone.
"Let's see… This mission feels unusually difficult somehow…"
With a sigh, he reached out to close the door. The 711 bus he was driving, like a sickly old man, gasped and wobbled back onto the road.
Meanwhile, in the darkness-shrouded suburbs of the city, another bus—Route 14, operated by Zhao Yang and Wu Li—clattered and creaked as it slowly moved forward.
On this route, Zhao Yang was assigned the role of bus driver, while Wu Li, unfortunately, had the duty of ticket seller.
Being on the same route as this murder suspect had already plunged Zhao Yang's mood to rock bottom. Wu Li was not only a big, burly man but also had a very unfriendly look in his eyes. In Zhao Yang's view, he was nothing but trouble!
Despite his deep disgust for the man, Zhao Yang dared not show any dissatisfaction on his face, restrained by the curse of the "murder suspect" label. Wu Li, infuriatingly, kept barking orders at him from time to time, making Zhao Yang grind his teeth in anger while he continued driving nervously.
Though he had cursed Wu Li a hundred times in his mind, Zhao Yang was still a careful person. Shortly after departure, he found the manual in the hidden compartment. After reading it, he silently congratulated himself for not violating any of the driving and riding rules.
But what really gave him a headache was Wu Li…
After bossing him around for a while, Wu Li seemed bored and started scanning the bus with his eyes. His gaze soon landed on a "target."
A pretty, quiet-looking girl with long hair was sitting silently in the last row of the bus, holding a book and reading with great interest.
Seeing this girl, Wu Li's eyes lit up. He couldn't help smacking his lips, a sinister expression spreading across his face.
"Not as good as that bitch on the radio, but still, this innocent type is nice to look at."
"Fuck it. I'm gonna die anyway. Might as well have some fun before I go."
Thinking this, Wu Li moved his feet, a lecherous grin on his face, and walked toward the girl in the back row.
Thanks to Snowy Rain Realm, Nian Nian is a Meow, and ertesdrtg for their tips. Thank you all. Please give me your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets if you have any. I'm counting on you.