Compared to the intercity bus, the coach running from Xinhong County to Humiao Town looked especially rundown.
The vehicle carried that particular stale smell unique to automobiles, enough to make one wrinkle their nose.
The interior was cramped, the leather seats worn out, and as it drove, the windows often let out a series of clattering groans, as if they were ready to fall apart at any moment.
There were not many passengers. Xue Yuantong and Jiang Ning sat in the second-to-last row.
The seat in front of them had sunk in somewhat and reclined far back, but Xue Yuantong was small, so it did not affect her.
The thirty-kilometer trip cost six yuan.
Xue Yuantong said quietly, "The coaches are contracted by one boss. He has quite a few of them, specifically running between the county town and the township."
"During the first year of middle school, when I went home, the coach only charged five yuan. Later, the price went up to seven, but lots of people in town protested, so the boss dropped it to six."
Jiang Ning said nothing. Guyang County had coaches like these too, equally shabby, and even their colors and models seemed to be the same.
He remembered that in 2019, private coaches running to the various townships within Yuzhou City had been ordered to stop operating, after which buses were used uniformly.
The coach headed out of the county town. Whenever it passed a bus stop along the way, the ticket seller stood at the door and shouted for passengers.
Yet even as they were about to leave the county town, the coach still was not full. Then came an absurd maneuver: before leaving the county town, the coach turned back in and circled around the route it had just taken...
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