The double-decker bus's engine let out a dull wheeze like a broken bellows, thick exhaust mingling with the smell of the sea as it spread through the cemetery.
The doors slowly opened with a creak.
Pale fluorescent light spilled from the bus, illuminating the scene inside.
The bus was packed with passengers. They wore old clothes from the seventies and eighties, their faces bluish-white as if coated in lime. Their eye sockets held nothing but whites, without a trace of pupils.
The moment the doors opened, every "passenger" turned their heads in perfect unison toward the outside.
Their dead-silent gazes fixed relentlessly on the living people outside.
"Gulp."
Fat Bo swallowed hard, staggering several steps back before collapsing onto the ground.
A conductor in a blue uniform stood beside the door.
On closer inspection, it was not a human at all, but an extraordinarily lifelike paper effigy.
Two exaggerated red circles were painted on its pale paper face. Its stiff lips opened and closed, producing a hoarse rasp like sandpaper scraping together.
"Board the bus. Time's up."
The paper effigy held an old-fashioned ticket puncher and clicked it once.
The sound seemed to be a signal.
On the black, unmarked stele beside them, the faintly visible names instantly became clear and began flashing with an eerie red glow.
There were not only the names of those reckless young people.
A Hao.
Jin Maiji.
Meng Chao.
Another name had unexpectedly appeared—Li Guoqiang.
"Why is my name there?" Jin Maiji clutched Meng Chao's arm tightly, his voice trembling like leaves in a winter wind. "I didn't copy anything just now! I didn't even touch a pen!"
Meng Chao forced himself to remain calm and patted Jin Maiji's hand.
"Brother, calm down. Think carefully. Did you borrow something from the underworld before and