The woman's face grew larger and larger in Xiao Gu's eyes. He had never seen such grotesque features—his mind went completely blank.
"Get out!" At the critical moment,
"Run! Forget everything else!"
He seized the jacket and yanked it free. As he stumbled backward, he saw that the woman called Huang Ling was still sitting frozen in her seat.
The phone in her palm was broadcasting her husband's shouts, but Huang Ling herself seemed to have been frightened witless. She couldn't even manage a scream.
"This one should be human too."
The bus lurched. Water began seeping into the sealed compartment from somewhere unseen. Three hunched figures rose from their seats, hair spilling from their mouths, eyes rolled back, arms twitching violently as they clawed toward Xiao Gu.
There was no time to reach the rear door. Xiao Gu steeled himself and decisively changed his escape route. He lunged toward the bus's front door. When he passed Huang Ling, he didn't hesitate for a second—he grabbed the woman's wrist.
"Come with me!"
The front and rear doors were starting to close. The terrified driver kept his eyes locked on the road, his foot drifting to the accelerator.
He seemed to have seen something absolutely horrifying, and he slammed his foot down.
The bus shook even more violently. At the very last instant before the doors sealed shut, Xiao Gu dragged Huang Ling through the front door of Bus 104.
The two of them tumbled into the mud, and the downpour drenched them in an instant.
Beside them, Bus 104—its doors now fully closed—suddenly accelerated.
Only a single streetlight on this stretch of road was still lit. It was nearly impossible to see the road through the rain. The bus barreled straight ahead and quickly vanished into the darkness.
"It didn't turn. I'm pretty sure there's a river straight ahead."
Before Xiao Gu could help Huang Ling up, Chen Ge's voice came through the earpiece: "Xiao Gu! Are you alright?!"
Hearing the worry in Chen Ge's voice, a small warmth flowed through Xiao Gu's chest. "Just scraped a little. I'm off the bus."
As he was saying this, Xiao Gu was about to push himself up when he suddenly felt an itch on the back of his neck. He turned his head to see strands of black hair, soaked with rain, draping down and landing right on his skin.
Slowly tilting his head back, Xiao Gu looked up at the Red Raincoat Woman standing behind him, the corner of his eye twitching. "Boss… what do I do next?"
"Have you seen my child?"
A pair of woman's hands seized Xiao Gu by the shoulders. Despite his strong build, Xiao Gu was lifted off the ground by those gaunt, skeletal hands.
Her hair fell forward. Through the gaps in the black strands, the Red Raincoat Woman's bloodshot eyes stared straight at Xiao Gu.
She seemed to sense her child's scent on him, and she grew increasingly frantic.
"You've seen my child?"
"You must have seen my child!"
Her mouth gaped wide, the black hair parting—and only now did Xiao Gu see that the woman's mouth had been sewn shut with silk thread!
She screamed, the corners of her lips splitting open, the threads snapping one by one!
Agony shot through both shoulders. Xiao Gu was frozen in shock. The sight before him was beyond what any ordinary person could endure. If it hadn't been for Chen Ge's training, he would have been scared unconscious on the spot.