CH 448

Bus Route 32, a normal, unassuming bus. No accident had happened on this route for more than 10 years, it was even selected by the public transport company as the bus route with the highest customer satisfaction. But such a normal bus became slightly different that night. It drove out from the bus stop but it was stuck in darkness like it was surrounded by a black mist.

“The vehicle is starting, please sit properly, the next station, the next station, the next station…” The broadcast kept repeating but other than Han Fei, no one realized there was anything out of place.

“If anyone strange gets up at the next station, we’ll descend immediately, understood?”

“But why?” Lee Hu was confused. Since Han Fei whispered, he whispered back. “This is the last bus of this route. If we descend halfway, how are we supposed to get back home?”

“When there’s a will, there’s a way.” The broadcast echoed in Han Fei’s right ear. The bus appeared to have no destination because its next stop could be death. There was no traffic on the road because it was already midnight. Only bus 32 traveled down the road. The driver was used to this. He started to accelerate to reach home early.

“Is there anyone who needs to descend at the next stop? If there’s none, I’m not going to stop!” The driver shouted without even turning his head around. No one answered but then the driver added, “Granny, you need to speak up, I can’t hear you.”

Hearing that, Lee Long looked around in curiosity. He did find an old woman sitting at the corner of the last room. She was hugging a swaddled baby who was soundly asleep. ‘Was she on the bus earlier?’ Lee Long couldn’t be sure. He was too tired to pay much attention. Lee Long shook his head and prepared to close his eyes to rest when the driver said, “The rest of you want to stop too? Why are so many people going to River Hospital? You people don’t look so good, is it food poisoning?”

The inside of the bus was silent. Lee Long and Lee Hu shared a look. They had no idea who the driver was talking to. Lee Hu nudged Han Fei and whispered, “Is there something wrong with the driver? There are only a few of us on the bus…” He glanced to the side as he began and the rest of his words got stuck in his throat.

Numerous passengers had appeared inside the bus. Some of them were playing on their phones, others were resting. They were all acting normally. However their faces were pale and there were blotches of mold on their skin.

“When did they get on the bus?” Lee Hu’s brain was numb. He turned to ask his big brother but he noticed Lee Long’s face was strangely ashen. Perhaps it was the lights or Lee Long was overly tired, Lee Long looked dead like a body at the morgue.

Holding Han Fei by his shoulders, Lee Hu wanted to tell Han Fei about his brother but he soon discovered something even more abnormal.

Han Fei’s left hand grabbed his left eye like he was trying to pull his eyeball out. “The fuck, what is wrong with you people?” The bus moved faster and the inside of the bus became colder. The driver didn’t seem to notice any problem. He grumbled, “Has the AC broken down?”

Finally the next stop appeared down the distance. The silhouette of a hospital could be seen in the dark. This private hospital was built alongside the river. It started as an old people’s home for the rich but due to unknown reasons, it became a private hospital.

“We’ll get down at this stop!” Before the bus even reached the stop, Lee Hu already started to urge. He nudged Lee Long with his plastered arm. “Brother, please don’t scare me!”

“Are you crazy?” Lee Long was confused. “You’re the one scaring me! Plus, you need to pipe down, can’t you see that everyone is sleeping?”

“Brother….” Lee Hu studied his brother’s face. If not for his broken arms, he would grab Lee Long’s hands to touch his own face. “Your face seems to be bleeding black fog.”

“What nonsense.”

Seeing as Lee Long ignored him, Lee Hu turned to shake Han Fei’s shoulder. “Brother, let’s get down the bus, something’s not right here.”

“My mood points are dipping drastically, something very special is going to get on the bus at the next bus stop.” Han Fei held his bloodshot left eye as he stared at the windshield. Using the lights inside the bus, he saw the reflection of a young man on the windshield. The young man’s head, arms, and chest were all bandaged. He was extremely weak and blood was dyeing the bandage red.

‘Is that the altar owner? How did he manage to leave western city in that state?’ Not one shred of kindness and purity could be seen on the young man’s reflection anymore. His unharmed eye was filled with pain and resentment. His teeth were broken. It was hard to imagine what kind of energy had kept him going. Perhaps it was the love for his mother or the hatred for his father.

Han Fei’s left eye pulsed with pain as the bus arrived at River Hospital’s stop. The wounded young man in the reflection collapsed to the ground. Then Han Fei saw something stranger. Through the windshield, he saw a young woman in a nurse’s outfit jump down from the roof of River Hospital. Her body slammed into the wall of the building and blood splattered everywhere. In the end, she landed on the giant signboard of River Hospital and blood turned her white nurse outfit red.

The broadcast echoed nonstop. The nurse appeared to hear the broadcast. Her twisted frame slowly stood up. Teetering on a broken skeleton, she moved towards the bus stop. With each of her steps, the nurse would leave behind a bloody footprint. Han Fei’s left eye saw her slowly approach the bus stop.

When the bus entered the station, the woman materialized at the bus stop.

“We need to leave now!” Han Fei stood up as the front and back doors of the bus opened.

“Something really is getting on the bus?” Lee Hu was already tense. When he heard Han Fei, he quickly helped his big brother get up. Since the brothers were injured, they moved slowly. As they left their seats, Han Fei saw the nurse get on the bus. Lee Hu held his breath and Han Fei gripped his hands with anxiety. However, as the woman got on the bus, she morphed into a completely different person.

She was wearing a clean shirt and holding a bag. The bag carried a nurse’s outfit. She looked 1 or 2 years younger than Han Fei. She exuded a comforting presence. The light landed on the young man and she saw Han Fei who was near the back door. For some reason, she smiled at Han Fei. She wasn’t unusually pretty but she made Han Fei feel at ease. When she smiled, it was like a light at the end of the tunnel.

After paying her fare, the woman carried her bag and walked to Han Fei’s side. “Is anyone sitting beside you?”

This was the first time Han Fei heard such a mellifluous voice in the memory world. It was like she was singing. Shaking his head, Han Fei turned to the Lee Brothers, the two also didn’t know what to do. ‘Aren’t we supposed to get down from the bus?’

“Then I hope you don’t mind me sitting beside you.” The woman sat down. Han Fei studied the girl quietly. He realized the girl didn’t exist in his left eye but only his right eye. The bus started again and the temperature slowly recovered. Even the lights became brighter.

Han Fei felt like there were some secrets on this woman but he had too little info to make any speculation.

“How did you injure your leg?” The woman noticed Han Fei’s bleeding leg. “This kind of bandaging won’t stop the bleeding. It only causes the wound to break open again!” Squatting down, the woman placed her bag on the seat. She then pulled out some clean bandage and medical supplies from the bag and helped Han Fei clean the wounds on his leg and arms. Han Fei studied the woman quietly. He didn’t stop her.

To survive in the cryptic world, Han Fei had studied many first aid skills. He noticed the nurse wasn’t that good at it, her skills were barely passable.

“Okay, this should be fine now.” The woman looked at her work with satisfaction. She tied back her bag and sat back down. As the bus continued to move forward, the lights slowly dimmed and the temperature dipped. Suddenly Han Fei felt a nudge on his left shoulder. The woman leaned against him like they were a couple.

With a frown, Han Fei silently reached into his pocket to grab Rest in Peace. But at that moment, the woman silently passed her phone to Han Fei. The screen read—Do you need me to call the police for you? Those two behind you don’t look like good people, are you being threatened by them?

They were leaning so close that Lee Long and Lee Hu couldn’t see the light from the phone screen.

‘This woman seems to have misunderstood something.’ Han Fei didn’t explain. He was more curious about the woman’s identity and how she fitted into the altar owner’s memory. Plus why did she transform so completely after she got on the bus?

As Han Fei studied the woman, he realized the nurse looked a little bit like the altar owner’s mother.

“Can you tell me your name?”

“Lin Lu.” The nurse’s finger tapped on the screen—If it’s inconvenient for you to speak, then you can blink at me. Blink rapidly, I will call the police.

Han Fei wasn’t reading the messages anymore because after the woman gave him her name, another notification came into Han Fei’s mind.

“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve triggered a random mission—Wish 3.

“Wish 3—Love: I have never felt love before, there is not a piece of my memory that is worth preserving.

“Mission requirement: Find the right time, right location and right method to kill Lin Lu.”

Han Fei stared at Lin Lu’s face. ‘Kill?’ Han Fei’s eyes moved to the windshield. The reflection showed a man covered in wounds and blood. He collapsed on the seat but no one dared to come help him. ‘How cruel is the world?’

Han Fei slowly pushed Lin Lu away. He took out his phone. “Thank you for your concern but you seem to have misunderstood something. I accidentally caused the wounds on myself and the two behind us are my friends.”

Lin Lu clearly didn’t believe Han Fei. Then again, it was hard for a normal person to buy the story that an accident would cause injuries as serious as Han Fei’s. She kept making eye contact at Han Fei, offering to help.

“You should get down when it’s your stop, you shouldn’t mind others business.” When Han Fei said that, he realized the landlady had told him something similar yesterday. Lin Lu seemed to realize something and stopped talking to Han Fei. The bus continued to move. When the bus reached the next stop, Lin Lu nudged Han Fei and slipped a paper note into his pocket before she got down. This stop was the Third People Hospital. After Lin Lu left, the temperature inside the bus dipped again. All the passengers felt like carcasses. No one spoke.

Han Fei reached into his pocket and saw the contact number on the paper note. His right eye saw an unknown number but his left eye saw his own number.

‘Before Lin Lu’s appearance, the bus didn’t seem like it would reach the next stop. This is a representation of the altar owner’s mindset. He knew he was dying so he couldn’t ever reach the next stop.

‘Bus 32 was filled with the silent dead. They ignored the heavily-injured altar owner, their heartlessness was heart-piercingly cold.

‘The constant temperature drop inside the vehicle should represent the altar owner’s body temperature. He was edging towards death, this was a bus heading towards death.

‘But everything changed after Lin Lu got on the bus. The temperature slowly rose back to normal. But is Lin Lu even real?

‘The woman who jumped from River Hospital slowly made her way to the bus stop and ascended the bus as Lin Lu.

‘Perhaps Lin Lu was just the altar owner’s imagination. After he witnessed the nurse’s death, his desperate desire for survival had cultivated this white angel within his mind.’