Chapter 370: The Ghost Stop (1/2)

”What? You want to get on the bus?” I hesitated.

After a round of voting, everyone except for me agreed to get on the bus. I was forced to submit to the majority.

We ran towards the stop sign in front. But when the bus passed us, we found that it wasn’t moving as slow as we had previously assumed so catching the bus on foot proved difficult. Seeing Bingxin struggle to run in her sandals, Dali seized the opportunity and said, ”I'll carry you!”

However, Bingxin removed both sandals and held them in her hand. ”It's alright. I’ll run barefoot.”

What if she steps on glass or sharp gravel? I couldn’t bear to watch her get hurt so I bent over and offered, ”Climb up!”

After a few seconds of hesitating, she threw herself onto my back and asked me in a low whisper, ”Am I heavy?”

”Lighter than Xiaotao!” I answered.

”You naughty boy!” she tugged my ear.

We reached the stop sign where the bus came to a halt. The bus doors opened with a loud creak and we filed in immediately.

Zhou Yang stretched his neck out curiously, observing the empty bus. ”Why isn’t there a conductor?”

”Maybe they take our souls for the ticket fee!” Dali uttered gloomily.

Zhou Yang glared at him, ”Stop messing around. Do you think it’s funny?”

”How are you a paranormal investigator if you’re so afraid?” mocked Dali. “Even I'm embarrassed for you!”

Watching Dali tit for tat, Bingxin and I exchanged a smile. The four of us found seats in the back row and Zhou Yang started taking photos of everything.

”Make sure we’re not in the photo or I'll sue you for violating my rights,” I warned.

”Why would I take your photo?” grinned Zhou Yang. “It’s not like you’re good-looking! I’m taking photos of these two beautiful ladies.”

”Song Yang-gege, smash his cell phone!” Bingxin frowned.

As soon as I stood up to get to work, Zhou Yang hid his cellphone behind him. ”Geez, why are you such a downer? Can't I make a joke?”

Zhou Yang ran to the front and sat away from us, as if he wanted to speak to the driver but couldn’t muster up the courage to face the disconcerting man. As the bus traveled down the street, I observed our surroundings and surmised, ”It's no big deal. It's just an ordinary bus.”

In the back row, Dali suddenly let out a scream that made my eardrums ache.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Dali pointed out the window, tongue-tied and faltering, ”Dude, look at the shadows!”

At first, all we saw outside was the dark tarmac but when the bus drove past a wall, the reflection that appeared horrified us. There were silhouettes of people sitting next to the windows.

While Dali, Luo Youyou and Zhou Yang reacted with the same horror, I remained indifferent. So what if there were ghosts?

”But here’s what I don't understand,” I interjected. “Some supernatural novels say that ghosts have no shadows but others write that photographs are able to capture images of supernatural beings naked to the human eye. Is there a definite answer to this? Someone give me a goddamn conclusion!”

”Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean you can babble nonsense!” Zhou Yang rebuked. “There are people on the bus—we just can’t see them.”

”An invisible object has the characteristic of allowing light to pass through. If that’s the case, how can it have a shadow?” I retorted.

Zhou Yang endeavored to reason, ”Ghosts exist in another dimension, and those shadows are projected from that dimension.”

”Oh, so you’re referring to a four-dimensional space. Would you please explain what that is?” I quipped.

Zhou Yang was rendered speechless. ”Then how do you explain the shadows?”