Chapter 85: Chapter 83: The Second Late-Night Bus

No matter what the young security guard said, the reply was always the same four words: "We must see her."

The young security guard’s initial fear had gradually given way to numbness, while people in the live stream chat were so frightened by the atmosphere they had to turn on their lights several times.

[Doctor Wen, what on earth is going on?]

[I’m guessing this is all scripted. After all, Doctor Wen has never streamed this late at night. Since today’s an exception, this has to be part of the script!]

[The commenter above has a sharp mind, props to you! What a relief! That almost gave me a heart attack!]

"Ask for proof."

Wen Ying only spoke three words, but they exploded like a bombshell in the young security guard’s mind.

"Sir, Ma’am, I can help you find your daughter, but do you have some kind of token? Otherwise, how will she know to trust me?"

The young security guard asked, figuring it was worth a shot. To his surprise, the couple—who had previously only spoken those four words—pulled a photograph from some unseen pocket. It was old and crumpled, clearly having been carried around and thumbed over hundreds of times.

The photo was held out to the young security guard, who quickly took it. He looked down at the picture of a happy family of three.

The parents in the photo bore a striking resemblance to the couple standing before him. The little girl was adorable, nestled in her mother’s arms with a wide smile.

"Sir, Ma’am... you want me to go see how your daughter is doing for you, right?"

The young security guard wasn’t an idiot. Once his head cleared, he understood what they wanted.

The viewers in the live stream couldn’t possibly understand what he was feeling. Whenever the couple drew near, he felt an icy chill seep into the air around him, as if everything was freezing over.

The young security guard wanted to ask if they were still alive, or how they had died, but he was too scared to even get the words out.

’What if I bring up a painful memory and make them angry?’

"Sir, Ma’am, don’t worry. I’ll definitely go see how your daughter is doing! You can count on me!"

Seemingly satisfied with his promise, the woman reached out and placed a bill in the young security guard’s hand.

The young security guard didn’t dare refuse, tightly gripping the joss paper.

The couple stared at him for a moment before returning to the seats they had taken when they first boarded.

His back drenched in a cold sweat, the young security guard finally let out a breath of relief and sagged against his seat.

"Patient, a promise is a promise. You have to do what you said, or they’ll be back for you."

The young security guard stared bitterly at the photo. ’The world is a vast sea of people. How could it possibly be easy to find one little girl?’

’If it were that easy, families wouldn’t spend over a decade searching for their abducted children and still find nothing.’

The young security guard went to put the money in his pocket, but just as his hand neared the opening—

[OMG! Wasn’t that real money a second ago? How did it turn into joss paper????]

[Doctor Wen, this is just a special effect for the script, right?]

Wen Ying just smiled without saying a word.

[It’s definitely a special effect! Otherwise, the stream would have been banned for sure! And Doctor Wen would’ve been hauled in for questioning by now!] 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

The young security guard’s hand, still clutching the joss paper, began to tremble again. If he’d been clinging to any sliver of hope that this was all a prank, it was now completely shattered.

He shakily stuffed the joss paper into his pocket. He couldn’t for the life of him understand why this was happening to him.

’Was it because the heavens thought he was too much of a slacker?’

’Good-for-nothing, lazy, no ambition, just wasting his youth and his life? Is this some kind of severe punishment for that?’

The young security guard decided that if he got through this, he would quit and find a soul-crushing, competitive sales job!

He just prayed the heavens would cut him some slack this one time.

"Patient, you can get off the bus now."

At Wen Ying’s words, the young security guard looked outside at the pitch-black darkness. The bus was in the middle of nowhere. ’She wants me to get off here?’

But he mustered his courage.

"Driver, I want to get off!"

SCREECH!

The bus ground to a halt and the doors hissed open. The young security guard scrambled off the bus as fast as his legs could carry him.

He had the distinct, unnerving feeling that as he got off, the couple and even the bus driver were all staring at him, a gaze so intense it made his scalp crawl.

The moment he was clear, the bus drove off.

The young security guard collapsed onto the ground. Just as he started to catch his breath, he suddenly heard the sound of an approaching bus in the distance. He froze.

’Where did a second bus come from?’

But the bus pulled to a stop right beside him. "Xiao Zhang! What are you doing sitting on the ground by yourself?"

It was the bus driver. The headlights were so bright that the young security guard couldn’t open his eyes. Only when he heard the familiar voice did he manage to look up.

Suddenly, the young security guard realized he couldn’t recall the previous bus driver’s face at all. ’What did he even look like?’

The young security guard scrambled to his feet, ready to board, but then he hesitated. He was terrified. ’What if this is another one-way trip to hell?’

"What’s wrong, Xiao Zhang? Why weren’t you at the usual stop today, kid? We waited a good five minutes for you!"

The voice belonged to a passenger—a security guard from the neighboring factory whom the young guard knew well. It was a familiar voice.

He immediately climbed aboard.

"I think I drank too much. I don’t even know how I ended up here," the young security guard said with a wry smile.

"What are you doing drinking so much this late at night? What if something had happened to you? You’re still just a kid! Don’t drink after work again, you hear?"

The young security guard looked around at the other passengers. Seeing one familiar face after another finally put him at ease.

"Hey, Zhang, how many buses run this route at night?"

"Just one. It’s always just been the one. Why the sudden question?"

The young security guard shook his head. "I was a little out of it from the drinks. I think I saw another bus pass by, so I tried to chase it, but I couldn’t catch up."

"What!?" several people on the bus exclaimed in unison.

After Zhang Xin repeated himself, they all looked at each other in confusion. "There’s only this one bus on this route. The driver, Old Li, has been doing this run for nearly ten years. Go on, ask him if you don’t believe us."

The driver must have overheard their conversation. "That’s right," he called out. "I’ve been driving this route for ten years, and there’s definitely only one bus that runs at night. Xiao Zhang, you must have been seeing things, right?"

Zhang Xin nodded. "I guess I must have. But I could have sworn I saw a couple on the bus, too."

"You were definitely seeing things!"

That is, until Zhang Xin pulled the photograph from his pocket. "Someone dropped this on the bus, so I picked it up."

"Huh... they don’t look familiar. Are they from around here?"

Suddenly, Grandma Zhang, who had been quiet the whole time, looked at the photo and spoke up. "This looks like the couple who used to live next door to me. The daughter is the same, too, but..."

Grandma Zhang seemed to hesitate, her words trailing off.

"’But what,’ Grandma Zhang? You can’t just leave us hanging like that!"

"That couple... sigh... Such a tragedy. They’re already dead!"

Everyone froze when they heard that, a strange, creepy feeling washing over them.

How could dead people just show up here?

But as Grandma Zhang recalled the incident, she couldn’t help but exclaim, "It was such a sin! Tell me, how can there be people in this world who are so evil?"