Everything seemed to have deceptively returned to calm, but no one expected that this female student would be beaten to death by a pickpocket gang. A few days later, she became an inconspicuous news item in the corner of a newspaper.
When people saw this news, some would shake their heads, lamenting the coldness of the world, while others felt pity for the girl. But no matter what, it couldn’t bring back such a vibrant life.
Those who had personally experienced the incident might feel a trace of shame and unease deep in their hearts, and at the same time, find excuses for their selfishness and indifference.
In short, just as people thought this matter would fade away with time, a few days later, another bizarre event occurred.
This No. 14 bus, at the same time, collided head-on with an oncoming train, resulting in the deaths of all passengers. Police investigation revealed that the passengers in the crash were all participants in the pickpocketing incident!
And that day happened to be the seventh day after the girl’s death, the traditional "head-seven" day!
Some said it was merely a coincidence, while others claimed it was the vengeful spirit of the wronged girl exacting revenge from beyond. Otherwise, how could the dozen or so people on the bus have eerily gathered together again to board that same death bus? Others speculated that just before the accident, the girl’s resentful spirit must have suddenly appeared, "confusing" the bus driver, leading to the tragedy where no one survived. Regardless, this series of events was selected by the Ghost Story Radio Station, becoming a tale of a vengeful ghost killing on stage.
On this bus route, no matter what the participants did, the same scene would eventually play out: a girl named Zhao Heyue standing up to identify the pickpockets on the bus, repeating the scene before her death.
The way to break the cycle was to help and support Zhao Heyue, and follow her request to drive the bus to the police station. In this branch of the story, all the ghosts on the bus would be ordered to get off for investigation. After they disembarked, the driver would take the empty bus back to where it started, continue along the route, and no more ghosts would board afterward.
Wu Li had vaguely sensed this, but he was startled by the sight of a short, legless young man and forgot his original intention.
Missing the chance to enter another storyline meant triggering the killing mechanism. No matter what he did, it was too late to change anything.
So the truth of this bus was that the wronged girl turned into a vengeful ghost, terrorizing the driver, causing the bus to collide with a truck, killing all passengers, and thus manifesting a ghost bus.
This was the ghost story of the No. 14 bus.
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At this point, of the five bus routes and ten participants, only the 404 and 711 routes were still traveling through the darkness.
Since the red-clad pregnant woman got off, nothing strange seemed to have happened on the 711 bus operated by Li Yan and Yu Feng. The number of passengers remained steady at seven or eight.
Although these passengers appeared normal, considering his earlier deduction, Li Yan’s heart was still filled with unease.
If his deduction was correct, and there were no living people among the passengers, then the only way to meet the requirement that "ghosts cannot outnumber people on the bus" was to enter the final stop with an empty bus.
But that was easier said than done!
If the ghosts acted on their own, he could think of countermeasures based on their actions. And according to Li Yan’s speculation, every time a ghost triggered an event, there was always a solution. If handled correctly, the event could be resolved, and the ghost would voluntarily get off.
But if these ordinary passengers were also ghosts...
If these passengers were ghosts, it made things trickier. One of the rules was that he couldn’t refuse passengers. Forcing them to get off might count as refusal, potentially triggering the killing judgment in the task!
Now... what should he do?
While pondering countermeasures, Li Yan carefully drove the bus, occasionally glancing at the rearview mirror and keeping an eye on the road conditions.
From his four experiences with ghost stories, hints could appear at any time, any place. A moment of negligence could lead to irreversible consequences.
Though Li Yan didn’t speak, his mind was highly focused.
On the dark street, there wasn’t a single person or car. This eerie scene was actually quite normal in a ghost story, because this might not be a real world at all—just a stage created by the Ghost Story Radio Station to tell its tale, or perhaps a small parallel space.
Here, unnecessary and redundant elements were erased by an invisible hand, leaving only the parts relevant to the story. This, while often confronting participants with bizarre scenes, actually made it easier to find clues if you thought about it from another angle.
Just then, Li Yan noticed a man in a peaked cap standing by the roadside not far ahead. The brim of his cap was pulled low, completely obscuring his face. Li Yan could barely make out that the man was carrying something that looked like a plastic bucket.
At first, Li Yan thought the man would hail the bus. Of course, after reading the manual, he had no intention of stopping. But the man made no move, not even lifting his head. He just stood silently by the roadside, waiting for the bus to pass by.
As the bus drove past, the sound of children laughing and playing came from afar, accompanied by crackling noises, like the sound of firecrackers.
In the dead of night, and not during the New Year, why would children be setting off firecrackers? Li Yan’s heart tightened. Every unusual detail could be a hint in the story, or a sign of a ghost’s deadly trap.
The man in the peaked cap, the children’s laughter, the sound of firecrackers.
What did all this mean in the context of this story?
Just as Li Yan was deep in thought, a bus stop suddenly appeared by the roadside ahead. An old woman in a floral jacket, carrying a bamboo basket, slowly entered the bus through the front door. After fumbling with her handkerchief to pull out a coin and drop it into the fare box, she took out a photo and slowly walked toward another passenger...