The moment Feng Yan stepped onto the bus, his foot seemed to sink into a layer of invisible shadow, and a chill instantly spread through his entire body. Just then, the doors slowly closed with a mechanical creak that carried an eerie rhythm, as though announcing some kind of "end"-or the "beginning" of something even more terrifying.
He struggled to steady himself and looked up into the bus, only to discover that everything before him had changed.
The brightly lit, seemingly ordinary interior he had seen from outside was now shrouded in a dim yellow glow, as though covered by a layer of shadow. That murky light seeped faintly from the ceiling, casting mottled shadows like countless mocking ghost faces twisting and dancing across the floor.
Nearly all of the thirty-odd seats were occupied, but this was not the scene Feng Yan had seen moments earlier.
The elderly woman, the burly man, the office worker, and the three college students who had boarded before him now stood blankly in the middle of the bus, as though frozen in place. None of them had chosen a seat. Instead, they stood there mechanically like a flock of trapped lambs, looking around in bewilderment.
What truly sent a chill down Feng Yan's spine, however, were the "passengers" who had already been sitting on the bus.
Unlike the "normal passengers" Feng Yan had seen from outside, these people sat quietly-or perhaps weakly-in their respective seats, their bowed heads casting deep shadows beneath the dim lights.
But just as Feng Yan, afraid to look any longer, was about to avert his gaze, they all raised their heads.
Their eyes were rigid and hollow as they looked up. Yet once they noticed the newcomers inside the bus, their gazes settled in perfect unison on Feng Yan