"Is it because it's raining outside and some passenger sat down here with wet clothes?" Xiao Gu reached out and touched the backrest. It didn't feel like rainwater—it felt strange, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "I think I'll just move to a different seat."
The bus was running smoothly. The scenery on both sides was racing past in reverse, yet he didn't feel a single bump.
Standing up, Xiao Gu scanned his surroundings. There were very few passengers on this last bus of the night—only six, including himself.
The three rows on the left side were empty. In the fourth row sat an old woman, her gaze fixed on the window outside, as though something weighed on her mind.
In the fourth row on the right sat a woman, head bowed, playing on her phone.
She looked to be around thirty, dressed very fashionably—an office worker from one of the nearby companies, most likely, who had worked overtime until now and was taking the last bus home.
Xiao Gu himself was sitting in the middle of the bus. Behind him sat a woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, cradling a child of three or four in her arms.
The woman's figure was seriously out of shape—equally wide from top to bottom—and her face was pockmarked. But the child in her arms was fair and delicate-looking, bearing no resemblance to her at all.
Glancing further back, a student sat in the very last row. He had a backpack slung over his shoulders and his jacket was damp from the rain, as though he had just come from cram school.
"Students really have it rough these days." Xiao Gu was about to look away when the male student in the last row suddenly raised his head and their eyes met. But the student quickly averted his gaze.
"Why is his face completely devoid of color? And he's trembling—is he sick?"
Xiao Gu had looked over every passenger on the bus and hadn't noticed anything particularly strange.
He moved to a different seat, settling near the rear door.
Playing a mad killer in a haunted house was physical labor. It required running back and forth, and sometimes, to create a surprise, he had to follow the boss's orders, take a longer route, and use hidden passages to cut off visitors from the front.
After a full day of this, Xiao Gu was exhausted.
He leaned back against the seat. Drowsiness crept over him, and his eyelids grew heavy.
Just as Xiao Gu was about to drift off, something lightly tapped the back of his head.
He turned to look and saw a small wad of paper on the floor. "Did that student throw it?"
Xiao Gu picked up the paper ball. He had assumed it was some kind of prank, but recalling the student's expression a moment ago, a sense of unease settled in his heart.
Holding the note, Xiao Gu turned to look back. The student was hunched low in the last row, head down, as though he hadn't been the one who threw the note at all.
Without saying anything, Xiao Gu unfolded the paper. In hasty handwriting from a ballpoint pen, a single line was scrawled across it—Don't fall asleep. Be careful not to miss your stop.
A perfectly ordinary warning. Xiao Gu knew it was well-intentioned. He tucked the note away and gave the boy in the last row a small smile, saying softly, "It's fine. I'm getting off at the terminal."
He had deliberately lowered his voice, but since the bus had been completely silent with no one else speaking, his words came out much louder than he intended.
The moment the word "terminal" left his lips, the bus gave a slight, sudden lurch. Gu Feiyu glanced toward the driver's cabin and realized the driver was watching him through the rearview mirror.
The driver was wearing the uniform of the Jiujiang Transit Company. His jacket was somewhat worn and shabby. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and his entire face was drenched in sweat. He looked terrified.
Both hands clamped white-knuckled on the steering wheel, the driver—just like the student—avoided Xiao Gu's eyes.
"What is he afraid of?" Xiao Gu felt a prickle of confusion. The way the driver had looked at him just now was strange, as though he was trying to convey some kind of message.