Tang Ning was scrutinizing the task list assigned to him by the "Urban Legends" production team. The show, known for investigating paranormal events to frighten guests, had invited Tang Ning as a guest to boost his exposure.
Despite Tang Ning's intense fear of anything related to horror or the supernatural, he reluctantly signed the contract.
Looking at the task list provided by the production team, Tang Ning furrowed his brow.
【Midnight, alone, take the last bus from the Golden Pine Bus Stop】
This episode's paranormal investigation focused on a ghost bus. According to urban legend, a young person boarded the last bus, fell asleep, and woke up near a desolate graveyard with a lake nearby. In the lake, there was a crashed bus emitting a pungent odor. The young person insisted they had taken that bus.
At this moment, Tang Ning stood at the deserted Golden Pine Bus Stop surrounded by cameras. The station was eerily quiet, with only him waiting. The production team members were hidden somewhere unknown.
Feeling bored waiting alone, Tang Ning decided to play a game.
He opened his phone and discovered a new game app. The app had a refined card design with a gold-bordered black background. The frame featured creepy elements like white skeleton hands and a ghostly face. The words "Card Game" were written in blood-red letters, exuding a bizarre and decadent beauty.
Tang Ning assumed his assistant had downloaded the game for him.
Tang Ning had no other hobbies besides gaming. Despite being mediocre at it, he spent a lot on in-game purchases, finding solace in the joy of spending money. However, his assistant had never downloaded such a game with horror elements before.
After a moment of hesitation, Tang Ning, with a curious mindset, opened the game. The game displayed a lengthy agreement filled with words like "ghost," "death," and "player." Tired of reading, Tang Ning lazily scrolled down and chose to accept.
【Please draw your card】
A completely black card appeared on the phone screen. It prompted him to click to draw, resembling an ordinary card game.
Tang Ning clicked to draw, and the card flipped over. It had a dark gold border, a red background, and depicted a beautiful woman in a deep slumber on a bed of over twenty duck-down blankets. The princess appeared as if trapped in a nightmare, with a tiny pea hidden at the bottom of the high-piled bedding.
【Congratulations! You've obtained the "Pea Princess Card"】
【Pea Princess Card 1: Your delicate body can sense a tiny pea even through twenty duck-down blankets】
【Pea Princess Card 2: A prince is searching for a true princess, and your delicate nature will surely attract him】
Tang Ning found the art on this card quite appealing.
【Enter the game?】
【Yes】【Yes】
Seeing these two options, Tang Ning couldn't help but chuckle. The game seemed cheeky, not giving him a chance to refuse.
With that thought, Tang Ning happily clicked 【Yes】.
At the moment his fingertips touched the screen, a distant bus approached. The bus had a somewhat outdated appearance, dim headlights, and almost no sound as it started moving. It had an eerie feel as it approached in the night. Tang Ning hadn't expected the production team to find such a outdated bus, and to his surprise, this worn-out bus was actually functioning. He glanced at the time-it was exactly midnight.
The game screen on his phone seemed to freeze. On a pitch-black background, bloody red words appeared: "System is loading." Regardless of how much he tapped, nothing changed.
Tang Ning pocketed his phone and boarded the bus that had stopped in front of him.
The bus's headlights were dim, and as soon as Tang Ning got on, he felt a chill, as if the air conditioning was set to an extremely low temperature. He hadn't expected such a powerful air conditioner in this old bus.
Tang Ning habitually looked for cameras, but the production team had hidden them well. Despite scanning the surroundings, he couldn't find any. However, he observed the other five passengers on the bus. Most of them kept their heads low, not using their phones, motionless. They appeared to be dedicated extras. One passenger, wearing a duckbill cap and a mask, looked up at Tang Ning.
In that moment of being observed, Tang Ning's scalp inexplicably tingled, creating a strange sensation, as if he was being hunted by a predator.
Feeling uneasy, Tang Ning quickly averted his gaze.
Initially, Tang Ning had planned to sit in the single seat by the window in the front row. However, the atmosphere created by the extras behind him made him feel that if he sat in the front, they would all lift their heads and stare at him collectively in the next second.
This thought sent shivers down Tang Ning's spine. He thought the air conditioning should be turned up a bit.
But mentioning adjusting the air conditioning might make him seem fussy and delicate, possibly leading to criticism.
Speaking of being delicate, whether it was Tang Ning's imagination or not, he felt that the once soft fabric of his clothes had become rough to the point of unbearable. Every inch of his skin protested against the fabric enveloping his body.
Especially his protest against the disposable underwear he bought for convenience.
It seemed to have left red marks along the edges.
Tang Ning, unable to bear the discomfort, walked to the window seat at the back of the bus. The seats were cushioned, and though the lighting was dim, Tang Ning could vaguely see brownish stains on the cotton padding.
As Tang Ning sat down and took out his phone to watch some silly videos to lighten his mood, he found his phone had no signal.
Tang Ning had to reluctantly put down his phone and look up. As he did, he noticed a child had appeared beside the ticket machine at some point.
It was a genuinely small child, perhaps only two or three years old. The dim light made it hard to distinguish if it was a boy or a girl, but the child's face appeared somewhat bluish.
Tang Ning thought the production team was really making a mess-how could they bring a child for the show, especially on a bus? What if the child couldn't stand steady and fell?
Wait, Tang Ning suddenly realized that this rundown bus was moving steadily-not on a concrete road but floating lightly, as if lifted by something, remarkably stable.
This realization made Tang Ning feel a bit uneasy. Before he could contemplate it further, all the bus lights suddenly went out, plunging the bus into complete darkness.
Tang Ning's heart skipped a beat at this abrupt darkness, but he tried to calm himself. He knew the production team had employed similar tactics before. The female guest had been scared out of her wits, screaming uncontrollably, only for the lights to be cruelly turned back on three seconds later.
He silently counted to three in his mind.
The bus lights gradually lit up one by one, as if the previous darkness was just a temporary malfunction with the lights.
At this point, the extras should have let out screams, creating a terrifying atmosphere.
Tang Ning desperately wished the passengers would scream as he expected, yearning to hear any sound. From the moment he boarded, this bus had been eerily silent.
However, all passengers remained silent, unchanged, just like at the beginning.
The only exception was the child who had initially stood by the ticket machine. Somehow, the child was now standing beside the single seat by the window in the front row-the seat Tang Ning had originally intended to occupy.
The child wore a blue embroidered Hanfu and black shoes, its feet seemingly merging with the shadows.
The child's eyes were entirely black, large pupils staring fixedly at Tang Ning. Tang Ning's scalp tingled, how could he describe that gaze?
Completely incompatible with the most commonly used "innocent," it instead exuded a chilling cruelty.
In the next moment, the bus lights went out again, and darkness surged like a tide.
Three.
In Tang Ning's mind, those pitch-black eyes kept appearing. He had a strange sensation of being firmly observed by the other, even in the darkness.
Two.
Staring firmly, staring firmly.
One.
The bus lights illuminated again. In the dim light, Tang Ning saw the child, who had been originally in the first row, suddenly appear in the fourth row!
In the recent darkness, the child had moved three seats towards Tang Ning, and those black eyes continued to stare at him without blinking.
Tang Ning dared not make eye contact with those eyes. He anxiously looked down, and then, Tang Ning's heart seemed to stop.
Because he suddenly noticed that the child wasn't wearing a Hanfu; it was wearing a blue embroidered burial gown.
A burial gown meant for the deceased.
The bus lights went out again.
Panic and darkness engulfed Tang Ning. Unconsciously, his legs started to tremble. He hadn't paid attention to how many rows were in the bus, but in the first two instances of lights out, the child had already moved to the middle of the bus, only three or four rows away from his current seat. So, in the next illumination, the child should appear near him.
Thinking that the child in burial clothes would appear beside him, Tang Ning felt like an invisible hand was choking his heart, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Tang Ning grabbed his phone, and with a speed he had never experienced before, he turned on the flashlight. The piercing light pierced the darkness, seemingly hurting the eyes of the child in the darkness. A wailing cry echoed in the compartment. The cry instantly stretched Tang Ning's nerves to the extreme. His hand holding the phone trembled slightly, and the beam of light scattered chaotically.
No matter how Tang Ning scanned with the flashlight, he couldn't illuminate the figure of the child. Yet, the wailing of the child continued, coming from all directions, sometimes distant and then suddenly near, as if right next to Tang Ning's ear!
Where?!
Where?!!
Tang Ning widened his eyes. When the bus lights illuminated again, the crying vanished, and everything seemed to be just Tang Ning's imagination. However, Tang Ning didn't feel a sense of relief because he knew that with every light outage, that eerie presence would draw closer-
"Mama." A strange-toned child's voice echoed.
Stiffly lowering his head, Tang Ning followed the source of the sound and saw the child standing at his feet.
It had a pale face covered in dense corpse spots, and under the intense light of the flashlight, it's completely black eyes reflected no light.
Tang Ning was on the verge of suffocation. Then, he noticed something even more terrifying-
The child wasn't wearing black shoes.
Beneath the empty pant legs, there was nothing!
It had no feet!
Tang Ning's inner self was screaming madly, but he couldn't make a sound. He wanted to stand up and run, but in the extreme fear, he had no strength in his body. In the next moment, the bus lights went out again, and darkness once again engulfed the compartment.
The child's crying transformed into eerie laughter, its icy hand pressing on Tang Ning's thigh as if weighing a ton. It agilely crawled onto Tang Ning, swiftly moving from the thigh to his waist.
Every touch of the small hand sent a piercing pain, as if flesh and skin were being peeled away.
Tang Ning had never imagined experiencing something so terrifying. He shook with pain, the overwhelming fear making him sour from throat to stomach. His limbs were powerless, and he tried to pull the ghostly child off him, but he was immobilized, like being held down by a ghost. His phone slipped from his hand, losing its light on impact.
The world within sight plunged back into darkness.
The cold little hand continued its ascent from his waist, moving upward. Just as those small hands were about to reach Tang Ning's neck, a long and powerful hand lifted the ghostly child as if it were a small chick. The previously giggling ghost child, encountering something terrifying, opened its mouth to an unimaginable size, emitting an extremely frightened wailing cry.
When the hand released it, the ghost child trembled on the seat.
All these changes happened in a short three seconds. Tang Ning hadn't even managed to escape from the scene of the ghostly child's attack when the lights came back on.
Dazedly lifting his eyes, Tang Ning saw the man who saved him removing his mask and duckbill cap, revealing an extremely handsome face.
The man possessed both Western bone structure and Eastern features, exuding classical charm. His eyes, deeply set and captivating, were an uncommon pure black. Perhaps due to the dim lighting in the bus, the eyes, shrouded in the shadow of the brow, seemed mysteriously dangerous.
His slender phoenix eyes curved, and the young man smiled slightly at Tang Ning.
He was already flawlessly handsome, and every angle of his smile seemed carefully designed, maximizing the advantages of his face, creating an involuntary fondness in people.
All the oppressive feelings dissipated, as if the tension and unease from the eye contact just now were mere illusions for Tang Ning.
The handsome young man sat next to the still-stunned Tang Ning. His voice, deep and gentle, was magnetic. "Xiao Ning, are you still mad at me?"
Tang Ning didn't know this man and didn't understand why he said such things. His mind was blank, and his trembling hand grabbed the man's clothes. "There's... there's a ghost..."
Confused, the young man asked, "What?"
"A ghost baby." Tang Ning's eyes reddened, his fingertips trembling, as if he was about to cry the next moment.
"Are you talking about this cloth doll?" The young man pointed to a place beside Tang Ning.
A cloth doll?
Tang Ning turned stiffly, seeing an old, tattered cloth doll lying quietly beside him. It was a very worn-out doll, lacking legs, and two black buttons served as its eyes, staring straight at him.
In an instant, the fear of being stared at by the ghost child came rushing back. Tang Ning, as if losing all strength, collapsed onto the young man. He breathed shakily, his chest rising and falling continuously. The thin shirt was already soaked with cold sweat, outlining the slender and clear contours of his shoulder blades, like a butterfly caught in a net.
Mo Yunchu lowered his eyes, seeing Tang Ning's delicate neck. A faint fragrance wafted into his nostrils, and the sweat intensified the scent.
So fragrant.
"I don't want to record the program anymore!" Tang Ning grabbed Mo Yunchu's clothes, his eyes filled with tears as he looked up at him. Right now, he just wanted to go home, to end this nightmare.
Mo Yunchu gently said, "I'm sorry, Xiao Ning. I know you're still angry. I shouldn't have missed our date for the program. I promise there won't be a next time, okay?"
The fingertips, slightly calloused, gently brushed from the corner of Tang Ning's eye, wiping away the teardrops.
Tang Ning couldn't understand what this person was saying. His tear-filled eyes were confused and lost. "What?"
Mo Yunchu looked at Tang Ning, his gaze tender at this moment. "I love you, Xiao Ning."
[Ding-System loading complete]
What sound is that?
[Since taking that mysterious bus, Tang Ning's life has undergone a dramatic change.]
A cold male voice reported in Tang Ning's mind:
[A ghostly child appears in his life like a shadow. Only when encountering his boyfriend Mo Yunchu does the ghostly child temporarily subside. However, Mo Yunchu is a famous star who can't be with him all the time.]
[Newbie Mode: Ghostly Child]
[Difficulty: Grade E]
[Main Quest: Survive! The player must survive for seven days to complete the game!]
[Advanced Quest: Seal the Ghostly Child! The player can finish the game early by sealing the ghostly child.]
[Game Start]