"Where did these high heels come from?" Chen Ge picked up the shoes, putting on an air of someone who had just discovered them.
Hearing Chen Ge's words, the driver Tang Jun glanced back through the rearview mirror, cold sweat streaming down his face. His boss really wasn't like ordinary people.
No person with a sound mind would willingly approach the supernatural under any circumstances, but his boss was different — the kind who knew the mountain had a tiger yet charged straight toward it, and not just toward the mountain but directly into the tiger's den, never stopping to consider the consequences.
Tang Jun wanted to try to talk some sense into him but didn't know how to begin, so he shut his mouth and kept his eyes on the road.
No one in the car could answer Chen Ge's question. They all stared at him as though he were a lunatic.
"What is this guy trying to do?" The doctor had wrapped a scarf around his face, leaving only his eyes visible. With the situation unclear and his own survival far from guaranteed, he naturally wasn't going to step forward to help Chen Ge.
The family of three who had just boarded sat with the wife and child heads down, neither saying a word, while the husband wore a dark, gloomy smile, looking as though he was enjoying the show.
There was also a drunk in the car. He had been the first to board and had collapsed onto his seat the moment he got on, passing out into a stupor from which he still hadn't awakened.
The Smiling Man had also fixed his gaze on Chen Ge — and as it happened, Chen Ge was staring right back at him at that very moment.
"You're the closest to this seat. You must know who left these shoes here, right?" The blood-red high heel in his hand sent an indescribable, strange sensation through his palm — like stroking a piece of bloody human skin. Holding the shoe in one hand, Chen Ge tottered over toward the Smiling Man.
"Has this guy lost his mind? Provoking one wasn't enough — now he's going to anger two at the same time? Does he still not believe that ghosts exist? Does he think what I told him last time was a lie?" The doctor's composure was beginning to crack. He had already made it explicitly clear to Chen Ge that the Smiling Man had killed an entire bus full of people, yet Chen Ge had still walked right up to taunt him. The doctor couldn't understand it.
Holding the high heel, Chen Ge stopped beside the Smiling Man and dangled the blood-red shoe back and forth before his eyes.
"You seem a bit tense." Chen Ge casually placed the high heel on the Smiling Man's thigh. "A pair of such beautiful high heels — I'm sure their owner must be quite gorgeous, don't you think?"
The Smiling Man slowly raised his head, maintaining his grin, but his voice was stiff and mechanical as he forced out four words: "Get it away from me."
A person's voice reveals something of their character, and there was not a trace of amusement in the Smiling Man's tone. He likely hadn't spoken in a very long time — each word came with a pause before the next.
"Do you dislike these shoes? Why? They're clearly a beautiful pair." Chen Ge tensed his legs, ready to spring backward at any moment.
To an outsider, Chen Ge was playing with fire — or, more accurately, courting death. They had no idea where Chen Ge's confidence came from, nor did they understand the purpose behind what he was doing.
The Route 104 bus was nearly at Liwan Town, and Chen Ge didn't have much time left. The passengers on the bus could become useful allies if handled well, but if things went wrong, he'd find himself besieged on all sides.
He didn't want to have to watch his back against these passengers while also dealing with the Shadow, so he had decided to test their reactions first.
Using the red high heel to probe the Smiling Man had been Chen Ge's spur-of-the-moment decision.
The red high heel had originally been sitting right in the center of the bus stop. Chen Ge had no idea how it had gotten onto the bus — all he knew was that it had later appeared inside, claiming the first seat in the first row.
At first, Chen Ge hadn't thought much of it, but then the Smiling Man's strange behavior upon boarding had caught his attention.