The Old South City Route had been out of service for five years.
The area had once been part of the old town. Half of it had been demolished, but development had stalled, leaving the rest vacant. Few people came here at night. Several streetlights were broken, and the roadside shops closed early.
Seven people had disappeared here over the past three days.
They had one obvious thing in common.
They had all caught a night bus after midnight.
Its license plate could not be traced.
Its route did not exist.
The surveillance cameras had captured only a blurry silhouette of the bus, as though it had appeared out of nowhere and vanished the same way.
The Seventh Team had previously sent two people to stake out the area, but they had only glimpsed its taillights once. They had failed to catch it and had nearly been swept into an anomalous space.
It was already 1:40 a.m. when Lu Wenchuan parked by the roadside.
He looked toward the passenger seat.
Xu Zhihan was leaning against the seat back, his eyes half closed and his complexion poor.
"Wake up. We're here."
Xu Zhihan opened his eyes and immediately frowned. "The perfume in your car smells awful."
Lu Wenchuan blinked. "I didn't use any perfume."
Xu Zhihan looked at him.
Realization dawned on Lu Wenchuan. He picked up a small hanging ornament from the back seat and tossed it straight into the storage compartment.
"One of the team members put it there."
Xu Zhihan briefly closed his eyes. "Terrible taste."
Lu Wenchuan nodded. "I'll dock his bonus when we get back."
Xu Zhihan opened the door and got out.
A cold wind blew against him, and he gave a quiet cough.
Lu Wenchuan picked up his coat and was about to offer it when Xu Zhihan looked over.
"No."
Lu Wenchuan raised an eyebrow. "I haven't said anything yet."
"You were going to."
"How do you know?"
"You're annoying."
Lu Wenchuan took the coat back with a chuckle. "Fine. Freeze, then."
Xu Zhihan ignored him, his gaze settling on the deserted bus stop sign.
The routes on the sign had long since been discontinued. Its surface was rusty, with several torn advertisements pasted underneath. No one was nearby. There was only the sound of wind blowing through the intersection.
But Xu Zhihan heard something else.
The sound of wheels.
Far away.
And many people speaking in low voices.
Their voices mingled, the words indistinct, but carried a damp chill that set his nerves on edge.
Xu Zhihan asked, "Were there any children among the missing?"
Lu Wenchuan checked the information. "One high school student, seventeen. The rest were adults."
Xu Zhihan watched the intersection. "There are more than seven people on the bus."
Lu Wenchuan's expression shifted slightly.
"You saw them?"
"Heard them."
Lu Wenchuan put away his phone and drew a short blade.
"Then let's wait for the bus."
Xu Zhihan glanced at his blade. "Do you always bring a knife?"
"Comes with the job."
"I thought you'd ram it with your car."
Lu Wenchuan laughed. "My car's pretty expensive."
Xu Zhihan said flatly, "Your life isn't?"
That left Lu Wenchuan momentarily speechless, before his smile deepened.
"You really do care about me."
Xu Zhihan looked at him, his eyes cold.
Lu Wenchuan immediately corrected himself. "Forget I said anything."
At 1:55 a.m., the fog at the intersection began to thicken.
A team member's voice came through Lu Wenchuan's earpiece.
"Captain, we've detected anomalous fluctuations approaching your position."
Lu Wenchuan pressed his earpiece. "Everyone stay back. Wait for my signal."
"Copy."
Xu Zhihan stood beside the bus stop sign, his face even paler beneath the streetlight.
He watched headlights slowly brighten in the fog.
An old bus drove toward them from the intersection.
Its body was green, its windows dark. Mud covered the license plate, obscuring the number. The electronic display at the front flickered, showing a line of text.
Last bus.
Lu Wenchuan stood beside Xu Zhihan, lowering his voice. "That's the one."
Xu Zhihan murmured an acknowledgment.
The bus stopped in front of them.
The doors opened, and the driver's hoarse voice came from inside.
"Getting on?"
Lu Wenchuan looked at Xu Zhihan.
Xu Zhihan stepped aboard.
Lu Wenchuan followed behind him and said quietly, "You really aren't scared."
Xu Zhihan climbed the steps, his tone cool. "Another pointless question."
Lu Wenchuan chuckled and boarded as well.
The doors closed behind them.
The bus was dark inside, lit only by a few dim yellow lights. Many people occupied the seats.
An elderly person with their head lowered.
A student in a school uniform.
A woman clutching a bag.
A man reeking of alcohol.
All of them sat with their heads lowered, utterly motionless.
An ordinary person would have found the sight eerie.
Xu Zhihan, however, saw black energy coiled around every one of them.
Some were spirits of the dead.
Some were still alive, but their souls had already been trapped.
Lu Wenchuan sensed something wrong as well and tightened his grip on his blade. "How many are alive?"
Xu Zhihan swept his gaze over them. "Three."
Lu Wenchuan asked quietly, "The missing people?"
"Yes."
Xu Zhihan walked farther into the bus.
The things in the seats finally moved.
They raised their heads and looked at the two new passengers.
First, at Lu Wenchuan.
The sinister energy inside the bus stirred noticeably, and several dead spirits showed expressions of greed.
Half of Lu Wenchuan's lifeline had been severed. To these things, he smelled delicious.
Lu Wenchuan noticed and sneered. "What are you staring at? Keep looking and I'll gouge your eyes out."
Xu Zhihan paused.
"Do they have eyes?"
Lu Wenchuan hesitated. "I'm making a point."
Xu Zhihan said, "Childish."
The dead spirits inside the bus then looked at Xu Zhihan.
The next second, every last one of them froze.
The elderly figure with their head lowered abruptly shrank back into their seat.
The student in uniform covered their mouth.
The woman clutching her bag began trembling, her entire spectral form shaking.
In the very back row, a man with half his face rotted away slid straight off his seat and knelt on the floor, not daring to lift his head.
Lu Wenchuan raised an eyebrow at the sight.
"You're pretty popular."
Xu Zhihan said coolly, "They're afraid of dying."
Lu Wenchuan looked at the bus full of spirits who had already died once and fell silent for a moment.
"That sounds pretty strange."
Xu Zhihan ignored him.
He walked to the middle of the bus, his gaze settling on a high school student.
The student was alive.
Their soul was still there, merely bound by black energy. Their eyes were vacant, as though they were asleep.
Xu Zhihan raised his hand. Just as he touched the student between the eyebrows, the bus announcement suddenly sounded.
"Passengers, please remain seated."
"No one may get off before this bus reaches its final stop."
The driver's voice echoed through the bus, carrying a bloody stench.
Lu Wenchuan looked toward the front.
A driver in an old uniform sat behind the wheel.
He did not turn around, but his neck slowly twisted halfway around.
His face still pointed forward, while a mouth split open on the back of his head.
The mouth stretched wide and laughed.
"Once you're aboard, don't even think about leaving."
Lu Wenchuan raised his blade.
But Xu Zhihan spoke before he could act.
"Shut up."
The bus instantly fell silent.
The announcement stopped.
The mouth on the back of the driver's head froze, as though forcibly clamped shut.
Lu Wenchuan looked at Xu Zhihan.
Xu Zhihan's face was pale, but his tone remained flat.
"Too noisy."
The driver's body began to shake.
Not with anger.
With fear.
The dead spirits that had been stirring inside the bus all shrank back into their seats. None dared look at Xu Zhihan again.
Lu Wenchuan suddenly felt that this mission might not turn out quite as he had imagined.
Xu Zhihan stood in the middle of the bus, looking down at the black route map gradually emerging beneath his feet.
On the route map, the final stop was marked with a name.
Place of No Return.
Xu Zhihan's gaze grew a little colder.
"Drive to the final stop."
The mouth on the back of the driver's head struggled to move. "You... who exactly are you?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him, his voice very soft.
"You don't deserve to ask."
The bus jolted violently and started moving again.
Outside the windows, the streetlights went out one by one.
At the back of the bus, the three trapped living passengers finally reacted, their fingers twitching slightly.
Lu Wenchuan stood beside Xu Zhihan and lowered his voice. "You're going to fight your way straight to the final stop?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him. "What, you want to get off halfway?"
Lu Wenchuan smiled.
"That works too."
He tightened his grip on the short blade, and Thunderlight lit up along it.
"Then let's see what's waiting at the end of the line."