Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

In fact, Lin Yueru had already seen Xuanfeng standing by the roadside through the bus window as soon as the bus came to a complete stop.

She wanted to wave and greet Xuanfeng, but Xuanfeng was completely focused on the strange bus and his gaze was fixed on it. He didn't notice her in the back row at all and just stepped onto the bus.

Xuanfeng was stunned to see that the person sitting in the back was Lin Yueru. He quickly walked to the empty seat next to her and sat down, lowering his voice and asking in shock, "What are you doing in this car?"

Lin Yueru's face showed a bitter and helpless expression. She slumped her shoulders and sighed softly, "Sigh, I haven't been on the bus for long either."

"Did you also see the news about the missing No. 14 bus in the Xuanmen chat group and come here to try your luck and investigate?" Xuanfeng asked in a low voice.

"That's right." Lin Yueru nodded gently.

Before setting off for the outskirts of the city, she had planned to contact Xuanfeng immediately or go directly to Shen Jingshu if she encountered any danger. Unfortunately, her phone died shortly after she arrived at this deserted road.

She boarded the No. 14 bus in a daze, and gradually realized that there was something strange about the carriage. She hurriedly took out her phone to call for help, but the screen was completely black and she could no longer turn it on.

Throughout the journey, she repeatedly told the driver that she wanted to get off midway, but the seemingly honest and kind driver always replied in the same way that the bus could not stop arbitrarily until the stop, refusing her request time and time again.

The bus kept going back and forth on this suburban road, and along the way, not a single passerby could be seen.

What terrified Lin Yueru even more was that she could clearly see that she was the only living person in the entire car.

Scattered across the remaining seats were a dozen or so shadowy figures, men, women, and children, including a woman holding a child in her arms—all wandering ghosts. But the bus driver seemed only to see the living, oblivious to the horde of spirits.

After listening to Lin Yueru's account, Xuanfeng's heart sank. He immediately reached into his backpack, took out a small bottle of cow tears, and dripped two drops into his eyes.

The cold liquid seeped into his eyelids, and he looked up again to scan the entire carriage.

Under the dim, flickering headlights, just as Lin Yueru had said, a dozen ghosts of various shapes sat quietly in their seats. Some stared blankly ahead, while others hung their heads in a daze, their bodies surrounded by a faint, cold, black aura.

A chill ran down Xuanfeng's spine; he knew this matter was far more troublesome than he had anticipated.

Lin Yueru quickly leaned closer, her voice low and trembling slightly: "Where's your phone? Check if there's a signal. Quickly call Junior Martial Aunt and ask her to come and rescue us! I've tried to get out of the car many times, but the driver refuses to stop. I even tried to escape through the window, but it was locked tight and I couldn't open it no matter how hard I tried. There's no way to get out."

Xuanfeng immediately took out his phone. The screen lit up, but the signal bars were empty, indicating there was no signal at all.

Outside the bus, the fog grew thicker and thicker, as if the entire bus was trapped in a closed-loop illusion, endlessly looping along this road.

In the driver's seat, the honest-looking driver kept his eyes on the road ahead, gripping the steering wheel, muttering to himself about wanting to get home early to have dinner with his wife and children, seemingly oblivious to the danger lurking inside the car.

Xuanfeng held the phone and dialed repeatedly, changing the angle constantly. He tried countless times until a faint, almost negligible signal finally appeared in the upper corner of the screen.

He didn't dare delay and immediately dialed Shen Jingshu's number, quickly recounting everything that had happened in the carriage.

Upon receiving the distress call, Shen Jingshu's expression suddenly turned serious. After giving a brief reply, she quickly set off for the outskirts of the city.

When she went downstairs, she had already booked a ride-hailing service on her phone. By the time she walked quickly to the school gate, the ride-hailing car was already waiting by the roadside.

The driver was a young man, and upon seeing the strikingly beautiful Shen Jingshu, he couldn't help but offer some advice.

"Hey beautiful, I see your destination is that bus stop on the outskirts of the city. Let me tell you something, that road's been really weird lately. Yesterday I heard a No. 14 bus just vanished into thin air halfway there. What are you doing there, a young lady like you, in the middle of the night?"

Shen Jingshu replied calmly, "I have a friend waiting for me over there."

"Are you going alone?" The driver was a little worried and quickly explained, "Don't overthink it. I don't have any bad intentions. I'm just worried that you're young and beautiful. It's easy for something to happen to you in this deserted place late at night."

Thank you for your concern.

The driver shook his head with a sigh: "Alright. But your friend is really brave. Did he go on an adventure? Young people these days always love seeking thrills. When I was in college, I was fearless too. It wasn't until I entered the workforce and learned my lesson that I realized how reckless I was."

The driver wanted to say a few more words, but Shen Jingshu didn't respond.

She quickly made hand gestures to divine the fortune of her trip that evening. Once the divination result was determined, the weight on her heart eased slightly.

The carriage remained quiet for the rest of the journey, with no further conversations.

The car sped along and finally arrived at the suburban bus stop.

Shen Jingshu got out of the car and settled the fare online. The ride-hailing driver was still worried and leaned out to look around at the empty wilderness, not seeing a single person.

"Miss, I don't see your friend. How about I wait here a little longer? You can call them over, and I'll give you both a ride back to the city. It'll be hard to get a taxi here later."

"No need, Master. They haven't arrived yet. You should go first."

"Then you must be very careful."

The driver gave repeated instructions before starting the car and gradually driving away, the headlights disappearing into the night.

After the ride-hailing car left completely, Shen Jingshu didn't rush to call Xuanfeng. Instead, she stood quietly on the bus stop, scrolling through her phone absentmindedly, waiting patiently.

More than ten minutes passed quietly.

On the distant highway, a thick white fog slowly spread out, and an old, worn-out bus was slowly making its way towards the bus stop through the layers of fog. The faded sign on the front of the bus clearly read—Route 14.

Inside the carriage, Xuanfeng and Lin Yueru's hearts were constantly in their throats.

Having been trapped on the bus for some time, the two had already figured out the operating pattern of this strange bus. Approximately every ten minutes, the bus would return to the bus stop, and if there were no people waiting at the stop, the driver would not open the doors and would simply drive away.

During the entire hour that they were trapped, the car had already made six round trips back and forth.

On their seventh trip back, through the hazy white fog, they finally saw the figure they had been longing for.

Standing by the bus stop was a young girl in a white dress, her hair tied up in a neat ponytail, a small bag slung across her shoulder, quietly standing in the night. It was Shen Jingshu.

The bus gradually slowed down and came to a smooth stop at the bus stop.

The driver turned to look out the window, his face still bearing that same honest and warm expression, and his greeting was almost exactly the same as when he had greeted Xuanfeng:

"Miss, hurry up and get on the bus, this is the last bus. After I get everyone to the final stop, I can go home. My wife and kids are waiting for me to have dinner."

Shen Jingshu raised her eyes and glanced indifferently at the middle-aged man in the driver's seat.

The driver's forehead was shrouded in a thick, dark aura, and his body was surrounded by wisps of cold, sinister energy, indicating that he had been deeply tainted by illusions and evil spirits.