[Jinjiang Exclusive] Talents are plentiful in Panyuan Town
Panduo City Bus Terminal, 3pm.
A girl in a light green T-shirt put away the umbrella in her hand, walked up the metal steps and got on the long-distance bus to the town.
"Girl, where are you going?"
"Panyuan Town. Master, how much does it cost to get there?"
The driver sitting in the driver's seat squinted his eyes, thought about the route, and then gave a number.
"Twelve pieces. About an hour."
The girl who was already sitting on the chair heard this and repeated in confusion: "Almost...how much is it? Master, I have something urgent to do, can you drive a little faster?"
The driver was happy.
"Little girl, do you rarely take a bus? Long-distance buses like ours depend on who gets on. If there are fewer people getting on and off at stops along the way, the bus will go faster," he smacked his lips. "If we go slowly, it will take about an hour or so. If we go faster, I'm not kidding. We can get there in 45 minutes."
The girl nodded and said, "If there are not many people, please drive faster."
She readily scanned the code to pay the money, then sat quietly in the car seat waiting for the car to depart.
At this point, many passengers came in from outside the station and got on the bus. After more than ten minutes, the driver finally started the bus.
But as soon as the bus started, the old passengers on this route were a little surprised. One middle-aged man smiled and joked, "Lao Li, what's wrong with you today? You're driving so fast right after the start? We're just in the city, be careful not to get caught by the speed camera ahead!"
The driver responded cheerfully: "Don't worry, I know what's going on. I'm watching the watch. There's a girl in a hurry. I'll try to drive faster!"
Fortunately, the passengers on this train were all young and strong, so they were not made to feel uncomfortable by the sudden push on their backs.
The long-distance bus set off on time, and Luo Shiqin put on headphones and looked down at the video.
A few hours ago, she received a call from her best friend Xu Wenwen while sending her pen pal to the plane. She thought the other party called to congratulate her on her upcoming successful graduation, but unexpectedly, Luo Shiqin only heard half of her best friend's panicked words.
It took less than two seconds from the time the call was connected to the time it was hung up, and Xu Wenwen only left behind voice messages that seemed to indicate that he was kidnapped.
Considering that her best friend was working as a subject teacher and class teacher in a rural middle school during this period, Luo Shiqin called the police first. The police immediately told her that they would contact the local police to investigate and confirm, and if there was any news about Xu Wenwen, they would ask her to call her immediately to let her know that he was safe.
But after hanging up the phone, Luo Shiqin stood there with a frown.
Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she opened the calendar on her phone.
On the calendar that came with the phone, there were many blue dots scattered under the numbers - those were the marks that Luo Shiqin later made for the date when she first saw the Book of Abnormal Life.
Today, ten days have passed since the "full text" of "Bury Me at 21" was completed.
If the book of strange lives that Luo Shiqin had read had any pattern, then these few days were indeed days when "accidents might happen."
She sighed, a rare look of worry on her face.
She didn't know when it started, but she gradually got used to the shock that the Book of Unusual Life brought her.
This is not a good thing.
If there really is a life book above her head that she cannot see, or even a mutated life book, this gradual habit is already a precursor to some major plot/climax.
I hope she's just overthinking it.
The long-distance car ride to Panyuan Town rushed forward with an unstoppable momentum, but it was so subtle that people could hardly feel any bumps.
Luo Shiqin lowered her head again to watch the video her best friend posted on WeChat Moments.
Xu Wenwen is the head teacher of the sophomores at Panyuan Middle School. She took over a group of freshmen right after graduation, and through the adjustment between them, she brought a group of children to the second year of high school.
Although Xu Wenwen was full of resentment towards the parents of the school students in the summer when he just graduated and took over, and would occasionally complain to his best friends in private chats, Luo Shiqin could understand very well. After all, college students who need to find jobs after graduation have just gone through the natural disaster-like polishing of society and started to feel lucky to have escaped the torture of graduation thesis, but before they could rest for long, they were squeezed out of their energy by work.
After a year of teaching, Xu Wenwen has mastered the art of switching off accounts and how to officially respond to questions from both parents and the school. She even learned how to use the system's built-in emoticons after only three days of work.
As a professional teacher, Xu Wenwen has become very skilled in separating his work self from his non-work self.
The circle of friends of this account that Luo Shiqin was browsing included all of Xu Wenwen's experiences from the time he first started teaching at the school to the school's weekly test results not long ago.
She really likes posting on Moments.
Especially complaints.
Luo Shiqin was sure that if she suddenly started to complain regardless of the occasion one day, she would most likely be assimilated by her.
That’s getting off topic.
On the mobile phone, Xu Wenwen's most recent circle of friends was posted yesterday, and the content was implicitly showing off that thanks to her efforts, the individual subject performance of the second-year high school class she taught had improved by leaps and bounds.
There seemed to be nothing wrong with this circle of friends - or rather, there was nothing wrong with all the circles of friends related to Panyuan Town Middle School that Xu Wenwen updated on this account.
But this is very strange.
Who in the town of Panyuan would be willing to kidnap a young teacher?
She knows Xu Wenwen. Although many of her friends call her a complainer, she is still very reliable. She has strong teaching ability and her common sense and awareness of prevention are also ahead of her peers.
Moreover, the most important point for Luo Shiqin personally is that
Xu Wenwen's intuition is very powerful.
Yes, this is not a fantasy setting. In real life, Xu Wenwen has a very strong intuition.
Including but not limited to lotteries and blind-shot games, even when scandals of celebrities were exposed in the entertainment industry, Xu Wenwen, who was not a fan of celebrities at all, could spot at a glance several other players whose reputations were at risk of collapse.
Sometimes her friends would ask her in disbelief whether she had any connections in the entertainment industry, otherwise how could she point out so many unreliable stars in advance.
Xu Wenwen’s answer is——
"Isn't it obvious at a glance?"
She even acted more incredulous than the others.
"So who is chasing after this celebrity with those sneaky eyes who looks like a legal star?"
Xu Wenwen casually clicked on a person's face on the TV screen, which earned him a scream from his friend: "No way! I just became a fan!"
Luo Shiqin, who witnessed the tragedy, said: …
It's really outrageous.
In real life, there are actually people whose intuition is this good.
But what is even more outrageous is that Xu Wenwen herself does not believe the rumors about her spread by her friends.
"It's definitely a rumor," she said, firmly denying the rumor. "If I were so lucky, I would buy a lottery ticket right away."
Luo Shiqin was silent at that time: "Do you still remember the last time you participated in the lottery and won?"
Xu Wenwen's eyes widened. "Are you talking about the time when I was the last person to win a prize but the organizer didn't have any prizes to give out, so they gave me a redemption voucher and asked me to go to the front desk to get it, but the voucher was lost during the redemption process? That's also called luck?"
Luo Shiqin: …
Lucky indeed.
Because a week later, it was revealed that there was a raffle scam at the event, and it happened to be the one that Xu Wenwen was accidentally dragged to by a passerby handing out flyers.
There were more than a hundred people in the venue, but Xu Wenwen was the only one who was not cheated and kept his wallet because he lost his lottery ticket.
Isn't this a kind of luck?
If someone with bad intentions towards Xu Wenwen appears around her, the first person to discover it will never be anyone else, but Xu Wenwen herself.
Therefore, through this setting that the legitimate police would never believe, it can be ruled out to a large extent that the crime was committed by an acquaintance.
But if it was a stranger who committed the crime...why did Xu Wenwen call Luo Shiqin instead of the local police station?
Luo Shiqin didn't have such incredible strength a year ago. No matter how reliable she was in the eyes of her best friend at that time, she couldn't fly dozens of kilometers to Xu Wenwen in an instant and get kicked by the kidnappers.
and,
“I feel like I’ve been kidnapped”
Although the conversation between the two was forced to end very quickly due to some irresistible factors, the main point of Xu Wenwen's sentence had already emerged.
The key word is “seemingly”.
If the person who kidnapped Xu Wenwen was a stranger, she would be certain that the other party was against her the moment she realized she was attacked or trapped, instead of using the word "seems".
Moreover, why didn't the kidnapper search the person first to eliminate all possibilities of escape? He even left Xu Wenwen his cell phone number and the time of making phone calls.
The whole incident felt so strange to Luo Shiqin that after she subconsciously called the police at the airport, she decided to go to the town where her best friend worked to find out what was going on.
Besides, it might be related to the Book of Extraordinary Life.
Luo Shiqin pulled out a photo of herself and her best friend from her phone. The girls in the photo had different styles, but they all exuded youthful vitality, and the smiles on their faces were brighter than the hottest sun.
This time, Luo Shiqin couldn't see any traces of the book of life in the photo.
She raised her hand and touched her throat thoughtfully.
Could it be that... the previous blow to its throat made it angry? ?
Luo Shiqin: …
Never mind. It just feels weird and disgusting.
She turned her eyes away from the light white stain reflected on the black screen of her mobile phone and looked out the car window.
The car has been driving for nearly twenty minutes now, and the surrounding environment has changed from neatly landscaped gardens to wildly growing bamboo branches.
Luo Shiqin was getting closer and closer to her destination.
But now it's still at least another 25 minutes' drive.
Luo Shiqin, who had not had a good rest in the past two days, yawned, raised her hand to set an alarm for herself on her mobile phone for ten minutes, then checked her belongings again, put them close to her body, and closed her eyes tiredly.
It's just a short nap, so it should be fine...
With some barely noticeable jolts, Luo Shiqin fell into a deep sleep.
"Boom boom boom boom~"
Ten minutes later, the alarm bell rang.
The girl sitting by the window moved her eyelids and finally woke up from her brief sleep.
But when she opened her eyes, she found something strange.
It should take at least 25 minutes to get to Panyuan Town, but they had already arrived. The long-distance bus was parked safely by the roadside, and it seemed that there was no one else in the car except her.
Luo Shiqin frowned and looked out.
Outside the window, there was a welcome message written on a tall sign not far away.
【Welcome to Panyuan Town! 】
Getting used to the new keyboard~