12 Chapter 12
◎This generation of drivers is not of good quality◎
Amidst the shouts, the announcement sounded again, "Please be careful when opening the door. Get out! of the car! Please! Go! Okay!"
The last few words were spoken word by word, and Xia Zihan inexplicably heard a sound of gnashing of teeth.
"I'm not deaf, why are you shouting?"
Ye Ping'an rubbed his ears. "You didn't stop along the way and kept opening doors randomly, causing passengers to oversleep. Expect complaints. The last bus didn't continue the loop line, and you didn't let people get off at the terminal. You're planning to charge two fares, or just to generate revenue for your bus hotel? You don't even care about maintaining a good environment when soliciting passengers. No wonder you can't get a new bus."
Do you really want the passengers to get off? Is there anyone else on the bus?
Now, except for a few strange passengers with paralyzed faces at the end, all the passengers who were awake when they got on the bus are all pale and asleep with their heads down, just like the last row when they got on the bus.
Should we ask those things that we can’t tell whether they are human or ghost to get off the bus?
Xia Zihan's scalp was numb. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Get off the bus! Don't sleep!"
Xia Zihan didn't know what happened when he fainted, nor could he figure out whether he had encountered a ghost or not, but he just followed Boss Ye.
After shouting twice but no one moved, Ye Pingan sighed and shook his head, "Ever since the invention of the car, oxen and horses have been working overtime everywhere. Fortunately, I work for myself."
She patted the delivery driver closest to the back door and said, "I just heard on the news a few days ago that a delivery driver got into an accident due to fatigue. Did he return his car to the station or did it break down? Why is he still taking the bus to deliver food?"
"Don't sleep, the order is overdue!"
The delivery girl was a middle-aged woman. There were large brown stains on the hem of her yellow rider's uniform, and the takeout box at her feet was also stained with mottled brown and black stains. The box was bulging, but one corner was dented, which showed that there had been an accident while delivering the food.
When she heard the word "timeout", she shuddered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry——"
The delivery man barely opened his eyes as he instinctively grabbed the box and ran out. His limbs were noticeably stiff, and he stumbled a few steps before reaching the door, the box in his arms barely swaying.
Ye Pingan helped her up and introduced her enthusiastically: "Are you awake? Come over for a midnight snack after your meal is delivered nearby!"
The passengers who were sleeping with their heads down woke up drowsily, their pale and lifeless faces gradually changing. "Are we at the station? I'm so hungry..."
"Are you really hungry? Eating when you're hungry is only natural."
Ye Pingan smiled broadly as he pushed the delivery man down the bus, not forgetting to greet the passengers who were standing up one after another behind him, "Come on, come on, get off one by one. My restaurant is not far from the station. We have a long-standing tradition and are absolutely reliable."
I went out this afternoon and the store was closed. Customers who pay a few dollars are still customers! A lot of people means a lot of money!
"We've been driving for a long time, how come it's dark now..."
The passengers stood up unsteadily, their heads half lowered, as if they were not fully awake yet, and just subconsciously followed the instructions.
huff--huff--
The bus began to rumble with a heavy exhaust, the lights flickered again, and the doors slowly closed.
Xia Zihan's ankle suddenly felt cold, as if something was holding it tightly, causing even the joints between the bones to ache from the cold.
She tried to lower her head, and in the dim light she could only see black slime surging in the gaps between the carriages, like hands trying to wrap around the passengers who stood up and drag them back to their seats.
The dim light outside the rear door gradually dimmed as the door closed. The box in the hands of the delivery man, who had already walked to the steps to get off the car, was squeezed and deformed, making a creaking sound, as if his bones were being crushed.
"Driver! Didn't you see someone getting off the bus? You closed the door and squeezed people in as soon as they got in, and now you're in such a hurry to get out." Ye Ping'an rolled his eyes, reached out his hand, grabbed the door and pulled it back.
Crunch——
It was like rusty doors and windows being forced open, the door axles made noises, and large amounts of dust fell.
"The quality of the drivers this generation is terrible. Have you passed your annual driver's license inspection? Do you understand the road regulations? The bus doors are so rusted that they're breaking down and starting to close automatically. How can you still drive on the road?"
The slowly closing car door clanged back to the open position. Ye Pingan withdrew his hand and patted the delivery man who was standing there in a daze. "We agreed to eat at my restaurant!"
The delivery man nodded in confusion, got out of the car carrying the box, and his figure disappeared in the dim light.
Ye Ping'an was all smiles as he counted the passengers who slowly approached, his abacus clacking. "One, two, three, not bad, not bad. I can still get some business when I go out. What should I sell for late-night snacks?"
Seeing that there were still people sitting there, Ye Pingan knocked on the back railing, his eyes filled with the sincerity of soliciting business, "Aren't you going to get off?"
The passengers who were sleeping with their heads down in the back seat shuddered, and the get-off announcement sounded again.
"Oh, so you and the driver are together."
Ye Pingan suddenly realized, "The scam in the car is also the same, right?"
She turned around and walked to the front seat. "Driver, your car is dirty and violates traffic rules. You even let friends and family scare me. I've suffered serious psychological damage. You need to do something about this, right? You look familiar to me. How about getting off the car for dinner and we can talk it over?"
Wherever Ye Ping'an walked, the surging black water disappeared.
The chill of the tarsal bones disappeared from her ankles, and Xia Zihan instantly leaped up, clinging tightly to Ye Ping'an. The passengers, whose pace had been halted by the black water, began to move slowly again, getting off the bus one by one, their figures disappearing into the hazy light.
Black slime on the ground bubbled up and rolled into a distorted face, exactly the same as the driver's outline reflected in the rearview mirror.
The driver's fat face was drooping, and he was huddled in the driver's seat, trembling slightly, staring intently at Ye Ping'an. The buttons around the dashboard, which was blocked by his body, kept popping up and down, but the car didn't respond at all.
Xia Zihan followed Ye Ping'an closely to the front row and saw that there was someone sitting in the first row.
The woman holding the puppet sat upright, her eyes closed, as if she were still asleep. She was emaciated, her skin clinging to her like dry bark, and her eye sockets were so sunken that you could almost see the shape of her bones.
Xia Zihan was so scared that she almost screamed.
When I got on the bus, the woman in the first row didn't look like this. Did she become a mummy from dehydration?!
As she noticed the first row, a delicate child's voice suddenly rang in her ears, counting in a methodical manner.
"One, two, three, blockhead."
The voice was very close, as if someone was speaking next to my ear.
Xia Zihan looked over his shoulder in horror, remembering the strange situation and realizing it was too late to stop.
The puppet, sitting in the woman's arms, tilted its head back, its face awash in a mess of paint lines forming a wide smile. Although it had no eyes, Xia Zihan could clearly sense the cold gaze fixed on her.
Children's voices began to snicker, "You moved! You moved! Got you!"
Xia Zihan's entire body stiffened, his hands and feet like uncontrollable marionettes, lifting little by little to touch the puppet. The smile on the puppet's face grew wider, almost reaching behind its round head.
Xia Zihan seemed to know why the woman became shriveled, but she would rather not know.
A hand reached out from the side and poked the puppet first.
Xia Zihan’s eyes went dark.
It’s over, Boss Ye was also controlled.
"Hey, I've never seen a puppet music box before. Aren't custom-made ones expensive?"
Ye Ping'an poked the puppet with interest, then smiled broadly as he grasped the woman's withered arm. "The customer doesn't look well. Ask about dietary supplements. Our herbal remedies are only 999 each! It's just a short walk from the car!"
Xia Zihan: ...Boss Ye, why do you change the price every day? Is this the time to sell medicinal food?!
Hey, no, the puppet is silent! She can move again!
The puppet was poked and tilted, making a sound of wooden collision like all ordinary puppets, and fell into the woman's arms with a crash.
The woman holding the puppet was shaken by the pressure, and the mobile phone she was holding tightly in her palm almost fell out, revealing half of the screen covered with black water.
She subconsciously clutched her phone, looked up dazedly, and said in a voice so soft it sounded like a whisper, "Get off...?"
"Something strange has happened to the hearse... Have our colleagues who are tracking us arrived?" She murmured, stumbling to her feet and pulling at Ye Ping'an, but her skinny hand didn't move at all.
"Follow me and get out of the car!"
She shouted with all her strength, and Xia Zihan finally heard what she said.
The woman's eyes were hazy, as if she couldn't see the road at all. She didn't realize that she hadn't taken the person away, and she just rushed towards the car door based on her memory.
"Vehicle start, next stop..."
"Next stop—"
The broadcast started rapidly, repeating too frequently. The dull voices overlapped and transformed into a sharp roar, but it was unable to announce the next station.
The car door that was opened did not move, with no sign of closing at all, as if it was completely broken and stuck.
"Hey?" Ye Ping'an looked at the people running out with a serious expression.
What made Boss Ye show this expression?
Xia Zihan was just beginning to feel uneasy when Ye Pingan turned around and asked, "Since the guests are so kind, isn't 9999 a bit too low for a medicinal meal?"
Xia Zihan: ...
The noisy broadcast filled the entire carriage. The once crowded bus was now more than half empty, and the echo sounded even louder.
Ye Pingan patted the backrest of the driver's seat. "Master, driving so loudly at night is disturbing the neighbors. Let's go, let's talk about compensation after dinner. Don't worry, I am a law-abiding citizen. I will follow the regulations and pay whatever compensation is due."
The broadcast suddenly stopped. The driver, squeezed in the driver's seat, seemed to have become fatter, and his clothes were bulging with fat.
Click, click.
He didn't move his body, but turned his head slowly, his joints rubbing against each other with an eerie, teeth-grinding sound. His eyeballs, peeking out from the corner of his eyes, were cloudy and bulging, covered in bloodshot, and ready to fall out at any moment.
There was a foul smell in the carriage, and the ground was black and strangely soft, like walking on a swamp, and it was a bit sticky.
The chill crept up from the soles of his feet, and Xia Zihan finally saw clearly that the driver's skull was deeply sunken, and he didn't look like a living person at all.
She wanted to cover Ye Ping'an's mouth, kneel down and beg her to stop talking and leave quickly.
Ye Pingan fanned himself and kicked the mop head in disgust, kicking it to the side of the driver's seat. "I told you before, Master, you should clean up as soon as you park!"
The seaweed-like black silk thread on the mop head looked like it had been chewed by a dog, with pieces missing here and there, tattered and sticky with unknown mucus. It was lifted and rolled on the ground, getting stuck with more black water.
The driver paused, turned his head 90 degrees and stared at Ye Ping'an, then stiffly took out a clip from under the driver's seat.
The binder clip held a wad of bills, but it wasn't neatly arranged, more like it was stuffed in haphazardly.
"Direct compensation? Master is really sensible." Ye Ping'an smiled and took it without waiting for him to stretch out his hand.
"...It's all change?" Ye Ping'an counted the money and clicked his tongue. "Never mind, with their compensation, it's almost enough. Give me 25 yuan as the registration fee."
After counting the 25 yuan, only a pitiful one-yuan note was left in the stack of money.
Ye Pingan thoughtfully picked it up and stuffed it back into the driver's seat. He kept asking, "Are you really not coming to eat? We accept QR code scanning!"
laugh--
The front door of the car also opened.
Outside the dirty front window that hadn't been dusted for a long time, two beams of headlights were shaking, and dark shadows seemed to be twisting and wriggling around. However, the outline of the two-story building in the dim light outside the door became clearer and clearer.
Ye Ping'an waved his hand, "Okay, then don't send me off. Come in and sit down next time after get off work."
Xia Zihan followed Ye Pingan down the stairs, stepped out of the car, and saw the glittering golden shop sign. Looking further, he could see several food stalls still standing on the food street.
The bustling voices blew in with the night wind, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Safe!
Ye Ping'an was half a step slower than her. As soon as he got out of the car, the door behind him closed with a friction sound almost at the same time.
“…Where’s the customer I just pulled in!?”
Ye Ping'an looked at the empty intersection and his smile froze.
She retracted the foot that was sticking out of the car door, and the closing door suddenly got stuck.
Ye Ping'an turned his head, looked at the driver, and then looked at the passengers in the back seat who refused to get off the car.
She grinned, revealing her small white teeth. "How about we have a meal?"
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