CH 94.1

【It was raining. Guo An, who was suffering from arthritis, frowned.

His knees were beginning to ache again.

No one thought it would rain today because the sky was so sunny just now.

“Lao Guo, here… Drink some warm water,” his wife, Yu Xiaoshan, gave him a cup of warm water. Her concern made Guo An felt a lot better.

“Thank you, Xiaoshan——”

Crash——

Guo An’s voice came to halt. The bus suddenly stopped and shook violently, as if it bumped into something.

“AAAAAHHH!!!”

“What happened?”

“Driver, can you drive or not?!”

All of the passengers screamed and hissed at the driver. Because the bus stopped suddenly, everyone became angry, but the driver remained silent in his seat.

Bzzt, bzzt—— an electric voice appeared.

[Hello everyone, welcome to the Bus of Hell.]

The television’s screen, hanging in the bus, became static. Then, a simple clown image appeared on it.

“What is that?” asked one of the passengers. The clown image made people become uncomfortable.

[This journey is designed especially for all passengers on the bus. Every sinner need to get off the bus one by one, while the innocents would get off at the Hell Terminal.]

The icy, mechanical male voice didn’t answer any question and continued to explain [Next stop——the old rental house. Please choose the sinner who will get off the bus.]

Listening to the weird announcement, the crowd felt confused and scared at the same time.

“F*ck, what the h*ll? What a good tour! Why don’t you speak, driver?!” an eccentric-looking young man screamed as he looked at his frightened little sister. The youth stood up and walked towards the driver’s seat.

He was going to settle accounts with the driver.

However, when he reached the driver’s seat, the seemingly arrogant youth stopped stiffly.

He stared at the driver’s rotten body with bloodshot eyes, screaming, “AAAAARRGHH!!! GHOST!!!”】

—— From《Bus of Hell》

After taking the rose from the clown, Zhou Yu’s smile became brighter, just like a little sun; even his eccentric hair colour could not hide his unique charm, “Thanks, Buddy! Great tricks!”

Having said that, Zhou Yu couldn’t help but applause again. He really thought that this magic trick was amazing. He couldn’t find where the clown hid the rose, it just suddenly appear.

When the clown saw Zhou Yu took the rose, he bowed and thanked him again.

Once the clown bowed, Zhou Yu saw a vase full of rose not far behind the clown —— a rose seemed to be missing.

Well, even this kind of trick is still magical.

Zhou Yu blinked, he abruptly thought that this clown who had been trying to do magic tricks was very cute.

Staring at the clown in front of him, he casually asked, “Are you a hotel staff?”

The clown’s ghastly mask shook to the side, then nodded up and down, making people confused.

Zhou Yu speculated the answer in his heart, staring sadly at the clown and cheering, “Jiayou[1]! Bro, don’t worry! As long as you work hard, you’ll be hired sooner or later. I’m also the same. You see, I’m too thin to work on the construction site, so they don’t want to hire me. But, I continued to move the bricks for a day, so the supervisor was moved and hired me.”

“Later, the supervisor enrolled me on a vocational class[2] that allowed me to learn some skills and got hired by a factory. Every effort will be paid off, Bro! I believe you can do it!”

Although he was fired by the factory later, Zhou Yu consciously concealed this.

Because for the other, what he needed now was a “chicken soup”[3], not negativity.

Besides, although he was currently unemployed, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t find a job in the future.

Zhou Yu believed that his learning ability was very strong. He could study hard and find a good job.

And…

Glancing at the silent clown, Zhou Yu sadness intensified.

This buddy seemed to be unwilling to speak. From his friendly attitude, it didn’t look like he didn’t want to talk to him, so there was only one possibility —— this friendly brother was mute.

He was desperately wanted to be a magician in this hotel but got discriminated against because of his disability and unskilled tricks.

Zhou Yu was touched by his own imagination, his eyes redden. In order to prevent the clown saw the sympathy in his eyes and thus hurting his self-esteem, Zhou Yu looked away and tried to ease himself.

This clown had worked so hard, how could he have the heart to pour cold water on him?[4]

The clown looked at the youth’s reddening eyes. He tilted his head as if he didn’t understand why the youth became sad.

But he was certain that this boy was very likeable.

That’s also not correct. The youth was perfectly to his liking.

As long as the youth smiled, he felt that his heart, which was no longer beating, began to warm up; even his mood became pleasant.

Zhou Yu finally calmed down and smiled warmly, “Anyway, jiayou, Buddy!”

Then, Zhou Yu patted the clown’s shoulder, wanting to comfort his new friend. 

The clown stood straight, wanting to avoid Zhou Yu who was tiptoeing to pat his shoulder. But in the end, the clown let the youth patted him.

“The bus comes! The bus comes!”

As soon as the bus stopped, the crowd in the lobby left the hotel and entered the bus.

Tn

[1] : “加油!”, translated as jiayou. This is a Chinese encouragement sentence, its translation can be varied, but in this one, it’s “Fighting!” But I just keep it in Chinese la~

[2] : “成人补习班”, translated as a vocational class. Literally, it’s adult remedial class lol, but it doesn’t make sense, so I change it.

[3] : “鸡汤”, translated as a “chicken soup” …But that’s not what the author means, the “chicken soup” in here means a cure-all, a mysterious-but-effective way to solve problems.

[4] : “他怎么可能忍心给他泼冷水”, translated as how could he have the heart to pour cold water on him. Not literally pouring cold water at the clown, but more like criticizing someone so much that people lose their enthusiasm.