Inside the bus, Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan had already reached the front. The former knocked on the partition twice, as if knocking on a door, and asked, "Driver, how long will it take?"
"It's almost there." A middle-aged man's slightly rough voice came from the partition.
"How long will it take?" Zhang Yuan asked.
"About five minutes." The driver coughed. "Don't move around in the car. The mountain road is difficult to drive on. I slowed down for your safety. If you move around like this, you might bump into something. I don't have the money to compensate..."
As he spoke, he coughed twice more violently. Then a small clicking sound was heard from behind the partition, and a pungent smell of smoke spread.
It was the driver who started smoking.
Most of the gray smoke escaped from the window, but a small amount still came into the car.
Wang Yang was not used to the smell of smoke, so he quickly waved his hand in front of his nose and frowned to signal Zhang Yuan that he should stay away.
Zhang Yuan nodded and turned to follow him back to the back of the bus, but the next moment he stopped, stepped onto the higher step next to him, and knelt with one foot on the chair above.
The chairs here are higher because they have steps underneath. If you sit on them and stretch your neck, you can see the driver behind the partition.
Zhang Yuan stretched his neck, and what came into view was a black back of the head with a white whorl of hair. The hair around the whorl of hair was slightly thinner.
"Is there something wrong?" He was looking at it when the driver suddenly turned his head slowly. His square face met Zhang Yuan's gaze, and his lips moved.
Zhang Yuan met his dead fish eyes and felt a chill run down his spine. He shook his head repeatedly and managed a kind smile, "It's okay, Master. It's okay. Drive, drive, and pay attention to what's ahead. Look at the road, look at the road."
The driver stared at him for a while. Zhang Yuan smiled and kept signaling him to look at the road. Only then did the other party slowly turn his head back.
"I've been driving this road for over 30 years and I can do it with my eyes closed."
"No matter how familiar the driver is with the road, he still has to watch the road carefully. This is the traffic rule. Safety comes first, hehe, haha..." Zhang Yuan swallowed his saliva, hurriedly got off the chair, grabbed a few poles and hurried back to the crowd. Only then did he feel much more at ease.
"What's wrong?" Qiongzhi saw that he looked unhappy and glanced towards the driver's seat.
"The driver just turned around and stared at me." Zhang Yuan lowered his voice, afraid the driver would hear him talking behind his back: "He didn't even look at the road. I was afraid he would drive us into a ravine!"
"No more?" Qiongzhi asked.
Zhang Yuan's eyes widened as he looked at him. "What do you mean it's gone? What else do you want? He was staring at me just now, and I wanted to call the police!"
"I just feel something is wrong." Qiongzhi patted his shoulder: "Don't you feel like something is missing?"
"What?" Zhang Yuan scratched his hair and looked inside the car. There were five people and a driver, so there was no one missing.
"It's not raining." Zhong Le said from the side. The blue bus stop sign and the waiting guide could be seen through the front window of the car, but it was not raining outside like in the short film.
“It’s true.”
Zhang Yuan and Wang Yang looked out the window and then noticed this problem.
"It's time to get off the bus." Wu Zheng from behind reminded.
The bus stopped steadily in front of the bus stop. The driver honked the horn twice. The horn was so loud that it broke the silence in the mountains and forests, and made the guide next to the bus stop cover his ears with his hands.
Their guide was a man who looked to be in his thirties. He was wearing a black T-shirt, gray shorts, and flip-flops. He had a stubble around his mouth and looked a little unkempt.
"It's Guide Lin, right?" Wu Zheng was the person responsible for contacting the guide. Although the mobile phone in his backpack had no signal, the album contained screenshots of the guide's personal information, and his contact information was also in his address book.
"Yes, I'm Lin San." The man nodded, glanced at them, and said, "Welcome to Jinshui Village!"
"Actually, we're not just here for fun." Wu Zheng waved his hand. "You know that, right?"
Lin San nodded. "I know, I know. Experiencing folk culture, right? Nowadays, university studies are so rich and varied! I'm not bragging, but if you want to experience folk culture, you've come to the right place by coming to our village!"
Lin San led them inside. "Our Jinshui Village has preserved many traditional customs that you've definitely never seen. It's... the day after tomorrow! The day after tomorrow, our village will have a blessing ceremony. You can help out tomorrow. You can all come and watch, and you'll receive the mountain god's blessing."
When talking about the mountain god, Lin San's eyes showed admiration, and he clasped his hands together and bowed devoutly in front of his chest.
"Apart from the blessing ceremony, does the village have any other folk customs? Can you introduce them to us?" Zhong Le asked with a smile.
Seeing that it was a beautiful woman talking to him, Lin San smacked his lips and wanted to say something, but he opened his mouth and quickly closed it. After a long while, he squeezed out a sentence: "I don't have much culture and can't describe it. You will understand after you experience it yourself."
Seeing this, everyone stopped asking questions. It was obvious that Lin San would not reveal too much information to them.
As they were talking, they had already walked out of the path and into the village.
"It's Xiao San!" The villagers in the village were wearing colorful special clothes. They were originally doing their work. When they saw Lin San leading people into the village, they immediately looked up and greeted him. They also took things out of their front pockets and stuffed them into the five of them: "You are tourists, right? Welcome, welcome, welcome!"
"Thank you." Qiongzhi took the thing they stuffed into her hand. It was square and wrapped in a layer of paper.
"This is lard candy." Lin San said, "They are all made by our family. They are delicious."
Qiongzhi nodded and put the candy into her pocket without any intention of eating it.
Lin San didn't care and led them inside to a house with beautiful peacock paintings on the walls. The roof was arched in the shape of a "J" and engraved with a sun pattern.
"This is a small hotel in our village that is specially used for tourists. It's cleaned every day and everything is freshly replaced, so don't worry! If you need anything, just ask Aunt Lin, she's in charge here."
Lin San led them into the yard of the house. The Aunt Lin he mentioned was hanging clothes in the yard. When she heard his voice, she turned around with a smile, and the light in her eyes became even brighter when she saw the five people following Lin San.
"Oh my! The guests we've been waiting for are finally here, and they're all so pretty! Hello, hello, I'm Aunt Lin."
She stretched out her hand as if wanting to shake hands with a few people, but then realized that her hand was wet, so she shyly withdrew it and wiped it on her clothes: "Sorry, my hands are wet. Come on, come in, I'll show you the room!"
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