Artifact Report

Chapter 457 Mai Minghe's Special Seat

Whether it was a coincidence or not, Ashley's voice came on right at the same time as the car radio, making it impossible to hear the broadcast for a moment.

After restarting the car radio, Mak Ming-ho had already listened to it once before, so he could subconsciously understand what it was saying.

"This vehicle will be restarting. The vehicle may be unstable after starting. Please do not get up or move around until the ride becomes stable. New passengers, please take your seats as soon as possible."

The young woman in the raincoat seemed to treat it as just a regular broadcast and didn't pay any attention to it.

Her entire attention was drawn to Ashley's flashing badge.

"Very good,"

The young woman breathed a sigh of relief. She walked a few steps to Ashley's side, gripped the handrail tightly, and said, "I don't know what happened tonight... I thought I was going crazy. I... I saw... never mind, that doesn't matter."

"Are you crazy?"

The man who got into the car with her was still standing at a distance, and he sneered when he heard this. "Just because I'm going the same way as you, does that mean I'm following you? Do you think you're some kind of goddess? There are so many puddles on the road, can't you take a look at yourself and see what you look like?"

The young woman glared at him, not daring to argue further, and only said to Ashley, "Puddle! Yes, it was a puddle... Wait, let me start from the beginning. I looked back several times on the road just now, and I could always see him following me at a distance. I don't know what's wrong tonight, I can't see anyone on the road, just him and me. I was very scared, so I sped up and turned several corners, but he still followed me, I couldn't shake him off..."

Seeing that the man was about to speak again, Ashley interrupted, "Don't interrupt. Speak one at a time."

The man muttered a few more words before finally plopping down in his seat.

It should have been a safe, ordinary seat; because two pregnant men on the bus, who were not pregnant, looked at him but neither of them moved.

The man seemed to only then notice the attire of the three male pregnant women in the car. He looked them up and down, then decided to say nothing.

Looking at everything before him, Mai Minghe felt as if everyone was behind a pane of glass; both the sounds and the view were muffled and blurry.

Aside from the punishment and fate she was about to suffer, she couldn't think of anything else for the time being.

“I didn’t dare go home, I was afraid of leading him there. On the street, I might run into other people… After I crossed the street, I looked back and saw him on the other side, trying to follow me. Just then, a tanker truck came roaring by, completely ignoring the red light.”

Is that Knight's tanker truck?
“I immediately realized this was an opportunity. When the tanker truck stopped him, I took off running, rushed into a side road, and hid behind a car.”

The man clicked his tongue loudly.

“I heard the tanker truck drive away, so I looked out. It rained heavily all night, and I saw his reflection in a puddle at the intersection… His shadow was looking around, searching for me. No matter how much he tried to deny it, it was no use; I saw him looking for me.”

Even under the lights and with a policeman beside her, the young woman's voice trembled, whether from lingering fear or anger, it was hard to tell.

"He soon followed me into the alley. I knew that if I hid any longer, I would definitely be caught, and the alley was so dark... I jumped up and ran. I didn't dare to look back, but I could hear him closely following behind me, getting closer and closer..."

She wiped away her tears and said, "I was running away, and when I suddenly came to my senses, I realized that I didn't know when I got on the bus. I must have been too scared to remember how I got on the bus."

As the young woman spoke, she glanced around, seemingly realizing that something seemed amiss in the car.

No wonder, besides the stalker, there were three men in maternity dresses and a woman with a blank, vacant look in her eyes... Mai Minghe smiled bitterly to himself.

The young woman was about to speak when her eyes suddenly froze.

She stared at a seat behind Mai Minghe; for a moment, an overwhelming sense of doubt and confusion seemed to act as a melting agent, gradually shrinking and dispersing her features until they were completely blank.

“…‘Special seat for those being followed’?” she murmured. “What is this… what is this?”

what?
Mai Minghe was startled and finally snapped out of her daze. She quickly turned around and saw that there was indeed a sign on the chair behind her that read "Reserved Seat for Those Being Followed".

Ashley looked at it, thought for a moment, and smiled.

“It’s a new facility to protect those in need,” she said almost kindly. “You can sit there first, and I’ll handle the questioning of the man.”

Mai Minghe felt as if his mind had been suddenly gripped tightly.

"Wait, don't sit!" she snapped, stopping the young woman in her tracks. "Go find a place to sit where there are no signs."

Ashley gave her a cold look.

"Why can't I sit behind you?" The young woman misunderstood and frowned.

Mai Minghe wanted to explain, but his mind was still a jumbled mess, and he didn't know where to begin. His mouth was tied in knots: "No, it's not about what happened after that. I—this bus isn't as simple as you think—"

Logically speaking, the person being followed should sit in the "seat reserved for those being followed".

However, they are trapped in a nest.

If we act according to the surface logic, what's the difference between that and following the residents' orders?
Whether the outcome of this operation will be good or bad is currently impossible to determine due to a lack of information.

The safest approach is to forgo the priority seat with its uncertain consequences and sit in a regular seat that is 100% safe.

However, where should one begin with this whole line of thinking, and how should one explain it to an ordinary person who doesn't even know what a nest is?

Just as Mai Minghe was getting more and more anxious to explain and his words became increasingly incoherent, Ashley shook his head at the young woman.

“There’s nothing I can do,” she said in a low voice, as if confiding in a young woman, “You’re bound to encounter a madman if you take the bus, right? Just sit down, it’s okay, every seat is a seat.” “Yes,” the young woman smiled, but her eyes still held a hint of nervousness and helplessness. “It really is like that…”

As she spoke, she stepped to the "priority seat for those being followed"—her footsteps made a splashing sound, and before Mai Minghe could react, she was already sitting down.

Mai Minghe turned around and looked down at the ground.

The young woman was also looking down at her feet.

"It's raining today..."

In the puddles on the bus floor, the blurry, dim reflection of a young woman stared at someone outside the water, her mouth opening and closing. "My raincoat's wet too... but why is there so much water here?"

No one answered her.

The young woman was still looking down at the puddles on the bus that shouldn't be there.

Her rational mind didn't understand what had happened, but her intuition and instincts had already given her the answer—she wiped her face blankly, as if only then realizing that she was constantly shedding tears.

"What...what's going on?"

She looked at Ashley for help, but he turned his face away. "Why is there someone in the puddle...?"

The puddle at the young woman's feet should have only reflected her own image; but for some reason, another face was floating above her reflection.

Almost at the same time, both Mak Ming-ho and the young woman raised their heads.

The face of the man who had been following her appeared on the roof of the bus, leaning down at the young woman like a snake dangling from a tree.

His expression changed completely; he was now fixated on the young woman, his cheek muscles twitching uncontrollably, and his mouth was half-open, as if he were still panting heavily.

Amid the young woman's uncontrollable screams, Mai Minghe turned his head in a daze.

The man's body was still sitting in the ordinary seat at the front of the bus, but where his face should have been was empty, leaving only a bald back of his head.

He seemed to have suddenly learned spatial teleportation—while others sat at one end of the bus, he was able to gradually stick his face, ears, and head out from the roof at the other end, getting closer and closer to the young woman.

In just a few breaths, most of his body was sticking out of the car roof, hanging upside down, pressed against the young woman's back.

With each breath he exhaled, the wisps of hair around the young woman's ear fluttered in the wind.

The features on that face seemed to have been transformed into a Picasso painting; every element was there, but their positions had changed, as if all to better fit the young woman. One eye was pressed against her temple, while the other sat on her collarbone, peering into her collar.

He pressed his nose deep into the hair at her temples, taking deep breaths one after another.

Mai Minghe didn't want to look at his mouth a second time.

On a regular seat at one end of the bus, only a pair of legs, now without a buttock, floated idly in front of the seat.

The young woman had long since fallen silent and remained motionless.

She stared blankly ahead, her face still streaked with tears.

Mai Minghe reached out with trembling hands, trying to pry open the eyes on her collarbone.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ashley was watching her quietly.

Mai Minghe's hand froze in mid-air, and after a few seconds, it finally withdrew little by little.

"The bus has resumed a smooth ride. Passengers who need to get up and move around may do so safely. Please pay attention to the announcements."

As soon as the announcement ended, Ashley jumped up from his seat.

She strode to the other end of the bus, stood in front of the two lonely legs, and kicked them hard, sending them flying. The legs fell to the ground with a thud and swayed twice as the bus jolted.

...as if they were just umbrellas left behind by passengers.

Ashley tentatively sat down in the seat—a few seconds passed, and nothing happened.

Mai Minghe gasped.

If she had any lingering hope or confusion before, seeing Ashley's actions now made everything clear to her.

"You...you didn't expect that either? That's why you lured her to sit down..."

Ashley glanced at her.

“You’re such a good person,” she said flatly, her tone unreadable, neither sarcasm nor sincerity. “Even when you’re in deep trouble yourself, you still care about the safety of others.”

That sentence was practically a signal to bring the car radio to life; the moment Ashley finished speaking, the radio started playing.

"Passenger Mak Ming Ho, please proceed to the drop-off gate to receive your punishment."

(End of this chapter)