The Bus Is Leaving, the Bus Is Leaving

The road outside the school gate ran east to west.

The directions they planned to take were exactly opposite.

Bian Guanyue looked puzzled and, quite unusually, said a long string of words: "Are we waiting for the bus here? Whenever I come back from Hibiscus City, I always go to the city first, then take a coach to County East Bus Station."

Chen Guiliang explained, "The school is in the northeast of the county town, while East Bus Station is in the southeast. If we take the route you mentioned, we'd need to catch a bus here, cross the entire county town, then transfer to a coach. Once we got to the city, we'd have to cross half the urban area before reaching the computer repair shop."

"Oh." Bian Guanyue did not ask any further questions.

Everything Chen Guiliang said was true. He just had not told her the whole truth.

The route Bian Guanyue often took consisted of city roads and provincial highways, so it was definitely much faster.

The route Chen Guiliang chose, however, was nothing but bumpy county roads.

There was no way it could be fast!

The two routes were about the same distance, but the county road took more than three times as long as the provincial highway because rural buses often stopped along the way.

In her confusion, Bian Guanyue boarded a rural coach.

The bus was so dilapidated that she temporarily forgot her sadness...

Half the windows were broken. Some could not be opened or closed properly, while others were missing entire panes of glass. Many were shattered and held together with clear tape.

The seats were the kind of side-by-side benches made from iron pipe frames, fitted with artificial leather cushions and backrests.

After so many years of use, the leather cushions and backrests were covered in holes of all sizes. Some even had their foam stuffing torn out, and a few seats were nothing more than bare iron frames.

There were rural buses in better condition, but those nicer buses did not run the full route. They only traveled the stretches with the most passengers.

"Can this thing even run properly?" Bian Guanyue stared in disbelief.

Chen Guiliang said with a chuckle, "This bus isn't much younger than your parents. Four or five years ago, there was even a huge natural gas tank mounted on the roof."

"Doesn't the bus company scrap it?"

Chen Guiliang pointed at the driver and conductor. "It was scrapped. Then it was sold cheaply to them to run along the rural roads. They're not part of the bus company, just self-employed contractors running rural routes."

As they spoke, the female conductor grew impatient. "Where are you going? Hurry up and buy your tickets!"

Chen Guiliang took out eleven yuan. "Two people, to the Train Station."

It was afternoon, and this was a rural route. There were pitifully few passengers.

Aside from Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue, there were only two farmers returning from the county town to their villages.

Just as Chen Guiliang was about to find a decent seat, the driver stomped on the accelerator like he was rushing to a funeral.

Bian Guanyue had a backpack on her back and a laptop in her arms. She had not even steadied herself when she lurched toward the rear of the bus.

Chen Guiliang hurriedly caught her, nearly falling over with her.

Fortunately, he had been prepared. His other hand grabbed the backrest of a nearby seat.

To prove that his intentions were aboveboard, Chen Guiliang cursed loudly, "Are you trying to kill someone? Why are you driving so fast? Can't you see people are still standing?"

The driver did not respond.

But the female conductor was a real tigress. "Sit down if you're riding! If you're not, get a refund and get the hell off!"

"I'm reporting you!" Chen Guiliang immediately snapped back.

Bian Guanyue freed herself from his arms and tugged at his sleeve. "Forget it. Don't argue."

Only then did Chen Guiliang shut up and lead Bian Guanyue to pick their seats.

They chose two seats that looked slightly less worn. Bian Guanyue sat by the window, while Chen Guiliang took the aisle seat.

Not long after they sat down, the driver slammed on the brakes again.

There was a huge pothole ahead, and he intended to slow down and go around it.

Bian Guanyue was completely unprepared and pitched forward involuntarily. Just as she lurched out, the driver sharply turned the wheel to avoid the pothole, flinging her into Chen Guiliang beside her.

"Exciting, right?" Chen Guiliang grinned.

Bian Guanyue had no mind for anything else. She quickly shielded the laptop in her arms. She was afraid that before the bus even reached the city, the computer would be smashed to pieces.

Before they had gone much farther, the bus slowed to a crawl.

But the jolting suddenly became much worse. Her butt barely landed on the seat before she was bounced into the air again.

Bian Guanyue had completely forgotten her sadness. She hugged the laptop tightly with one hand and gripped the rusty iron bar on the seat in front with the other, complaining in frustration, "Why hasn't such a terrible road been repaired?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It used to be even worse. There wasn't even a concrete road. On rainy days, there'd be huge puddles, and since the windows were missing glass, passengers by the windows would get splashed with mud. When I was in middle school, they finally paved it with concrete, but it was crushed up in only half a year. The ruined concrete road was bumpier than the old gravel road."

Seeing the smile on Chen Guiliang's face, Bian Guanyue swallowed a bellyful of irritation.

She seriously suspected that Chen Guiliang had done this on purpose!

If she had known the roads here were so awful, Bian Guanyue would definitely have taken the other route.

As the bus swayed from side to side and bounced up and down, their bodies bumped into each other from time to time.

Bian Guanyue said nothing, sitting there with her full attention fixed on keeping herself steady, as if she were fighting a war.

Seeing her like this, Chen Guiliang did not say anything either, lest he annoy her further.

A full hour passed before the bus reached a somewhat larger market town.

Then it stopped and did not move again.

The female conductor held the ticket box in one hand and grabbed the bus door with the other, leaning half her body out as she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Train Station, Train Station, leaving soon! Train Station, Train Station..."

Seven or eight passengers boarded one after another. There was clearly no one else outside, yet the conductor kept shouting.

Bian Guanyue asked, "How long will we stop?"

Chen Guiliang thought carefully. "Usually more than ten minutes. When there are especially few passengers, I've seen it stop for over forty minutes. You could take a nap and wake up, and it still wouldn't have left."

Bian Guanyue had eaten only a few bites at noon, then had a huge argument with her mother. After that, she had cried quietly for a long time before spending an hour battling wits with the bus. Now that it had stopped, her tension eased and she began to feel sleepy.

"Hold this for me." Bian Guanyue handed him the laptop.

Chen Guiliang reached out and took it.

Bian Guanyue pulled an MP3 player from her backpack and put in her earbuds, preparing to listen to music.

After listening for only a few lines, she felt that this was not right.

Chen Guiliang had even skipped his afternoon classes to take her to the city to repair her computer. How could she rest by listening to music alone while leaving Chen Guiliang out?

"You listen." Bian Guanyue held out the MP3 player.

Chen Guiliang accepted it without ceremony. After figuring out the left and right earbuds, he immediately put one in his own ear and brought the other toward Bian Guanyue's ear.

Startled, Bian Guanyue recoiled toward the window. She was not used to being so close to someone.

"Put it on. Listening to music together won't get you pregnant," Chen Guiliang said in an unquestionable tone.

Bian Guanyue had already tucked her head halfway out the window, but Chen Guiliang's hand followed her with the earbud.

With nowhere to hide and too embarrassed to get angry, she could only reluctantly share the earphones with Chen Guiliang.

"Get some sleep."

Chen Guiliang stopped while he was ahead. He looked at the MP3 player, skipped through several songs, then leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as though dozing.

Bian Guanyue looked at the laptop in his arms. Several times, she wanted to ask for it back, but after thinking it over, she felt there was no need.

She really was exhausted, so Bian Guanyue closed her eyes as well.

"Love From Zero, testing how rational two people can be."

"Only when we turn over the words we first wrote do we realize how deeply we loved each other at the beginning..."

Stefanie Sun's "Love From Zero" played through the earbuds, and Bian Guanyue's pretty face inexplicably turned red.

It was her first time sharing earbuds with someone of the opposite sex, and they happened to be listening to such suggestive lyrics.

Wasn't that too much of a coincidence?

Chen Guiliang also thought it was quite a coincidence. He had only skipped through four songs before landing on it.

Bian Guanyue opened her eyes and secretly glanced at Chen Guiliang, who seemed to be sleeping beside her. From the side, he looked somewhat more handsome, and his thin cheeks did not seem quite so sunken.

I would never like him. This guy specializes in deceiving people, and he even has that junior girl wrapped around his finger!

Bian Guanyue closed her eyes again to rest, but she did not take out the earbud and continued listening to Stefanie Sun's song.

Time passed second by second.

The female conductor's throat had clearly been tempered by experience. Even now, she kept shouting, "We're leaving! The bus is leaving! Anyone who isn't on yet, hurry up and get on!"

No one responded. She had been shouting for more than ten minutes for nothing.

The female conductor shut the door angrily and yelled at the driver, "Hurry up and go! What the hell are you just sitting there for?"

The driver was most likely her husband, and he had spent his whole life traversing Shu Road Mountain.

Without a word, the driver suddenly stomped on the accelerator.

One passenger fell backward, the back of his head smacking against an iron bar on the seatback. He immediately cursed, "Can't you drive, you bastard?"

"What the hell are you yelling for?" the female conductor fired back at once, and the bus filled with the sound of people cursing at each other.

They all had fiery tempers, and filthy words poured from their mouths.

Bian Guanyue was half asleep and half awake. She had no idea the driver had suddenly started moving, and she too fell backward.

But instead of hitting the rusty iron bar on the seatback, she landed against Chen Guiliang's palm. Her helpful deskmate had used his hand to shield her.

Startled awake, Bian Guanyue understood what had happened and quickly turned to look at Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang withdrew his hand and smiled. "No need to thank me. Helping others without asking for anything in return is what we Red Scarves should do."

Bian Guanyue did not know whether to laugh or cry. She turned her face toward the window, but the corners of her lips curled up slightly.

Not long after leaving the town, the bus went crazy again.

Bian Guanyue was completely unable to sleep now. Since Chen Guiliang was holding the computer for her, she could grip the iron bar on the seat in front with both hands this time.

After they finally got through the bumpy stretch, Bian Guanyue had barely let down her guard when the bus made a sharp turn and flung her sideways, sending her crashing hard into Chen Guiliang.

Bian Guanyue could not take it anymore and finally voiced the question in her heart. "Did you do this on purpose?"

Chen Guiliang looked utterly innocent. "The driver is driving. What does that have to do with me?"

"You deliberately chose this route!"

"I always take this route. I'm not familiar with the road by East Bus Station," Chen Guiliang refused to admit anything.

As they spoke, the driver slammed on the brakes again. Someone was waving by the roadside.

There were no bus stops on rural roads. The bus could stop anywhere to pick people up.

"Ah!"

"Driver, slow down!"

Bian Guanyue slammed into the iron bar on the seat in front of her, leaving a red mark on her forehead.

She was about to lose her mind.

Chen Guiliang took pleasure in her misfortune and nearly laughed out loud.

The usually aloof ice-cold beauty, who normally only spoke two or three words at a time, had become so lively and outgoing. She even knew to greet the driver on her own now.

The bus had only traveled halfway through its route so far. It was guaranteed to leave Bian Guanyue with a memory she would never forget.

It was a roundabout version of the suspension bridge effect. Chen Guiliang had not read all those books for nothing.