1: Chapter 1 Dark Shadows Outside the Window

"Is Ding Qing not here yet?"

"He's almost here!"

"Teacher, I'm here!" A figure squeezed onto the bus. "Sorry everyone, the road was a bit congested, so I'm late!"

The boy who squeezed onto the bus looked eighteen or nineteen, with a sharp, short haircut and a bronze complexion that exuded a lean, masculine Qi.

As he spoke, Ding Qing tossed his backpack onto a seat and sat down under the somewhat dissatisfied gaze of the lead teacher.

"Brother Qing, where did you go?" Wang Yang asked in a low voice from the side.

Wang Yang was Ding Qing's childhood friend.

The two of them were as close as brothers.

"Don't mention it. I didn't sleep well all night, and my alarm didn't go off."

Ding Qing was tall and well-built, standing a full 1.9 meters tall, more than a head taller than the lead teacher.

He was well-known at school for his fiery temper.

The bus began to start slowly.

Ding Qing took out his earphones, put them on, and played a Cantonese song.

This time, they had been invited to participate in a reality TV show.

He heard that a few third-tier starlets would be there.

Calling it an invitation was just a polite way of saying someone used their 'money power' to get them to fill out the numbers.

"The notice was sent out last week, yet you still made everyone wait so long. Student Ding, you'll need to fix that procrastination once you leave school."

An ill-timed, sarcastic jeer rang out from the seat behind him, dripping with Yin and Yang.

"You talk too much!"

Ding Qing retorted without even turning his head.

"Zhou Qinghai, if you say one more word, I'll beat your mouth crooked once we arrive."

As someone living a second life, he never indulged anyone.

He didn't care if you were male or female.

Moreover, in this peaceful modern world, he had a Golden Finger.

As long as he faced an enemy head-on, he could obtain varying amounts of points.

These points could be used to deduce and upgrade various martial arts.

Once he developed enough to no longer fear firearms, he could do whatever he wanted.

The sound of teeth grinding came from behind, followed by the movement of someone trying to stand up but being held back.

The conflict between the two had been going on for more than a day or two.

He couldn't be bothered to deal with this wealthy Young Master, who could no longer provide any points.

"I'm going to sleep for a bit. Wake me up when we get there."

Ding Qing curled his lip in disdain, gave Wang Yang a quick instruction, and leaned back against the seat to close his eyes.

He had practiced the Iron Cloth Shirt hard all night and hadn't slept well.

Their destination was a summer resort in the suburbs, a journey of two or three hours, which was enough for him to nap.

The bus cabin was quite quiet.

Aside from girls whispering softly, only the sound of the wind blowing through the window remained.

...

"..."

"It's raining outside. Everyone, close your windows and fasten your seatbelts!"

In a daze, he didn't know how much time had passed.

When Ding Qing heard the voice and opened his eyes, it was gray and raining outside.

The rain pitter-pattered, and bean-sized raindrops smashed against the glass, blurring and sliding down.

The atmosphere in the bus was no longer as relaxed as before.

The bus had left the highway and was traveling along a mountain road.

Due to the heavy rain, the trees on the mountain looked shadowy and somewhat strange.

As the bus climbed halfway up the mountain, the surroundings gradually became a vast expanse of white. It was unclear if the rain had intensified or if fog had rolled in.

"Ah! There's someone outside the window! Look, everyone, there was someone outside the window just now!"

A startled scream rang out.

It broke the silence inside the bus.

And this shout truly startled everyone who was looking out the window.

"What do you mean, someone outside the window?"

"You scared me! What are you screaming about!?"

The student next to that girl was indeed quite frightened and complained.

"I really saw it..."

"Then why make such a fuss? If there's someone, there's someone. What's so strange about that?"

The two began to argue, drawing everyone's attention to them.

Ding Qing glanced over and closed his eyes again.

"Alright, alright, everyone stop arguing. Go back to your seats!"

"It's raining and foggy now; maybe you just saw wrong."

The lead teacher shouted. Seeing nothing outside the window, he returned to the driver's side.

After that commotion, more voices filled the bus.

Everyone was discussing whether she had seen wrong, or if it was normal for people to be on the mountain.

It was a bit noisy.

Ding Qing was no longer sleepy. He yawned and glanced at Wang Yang next to him.

Seeing him staring at his phone reading a novel, he nudged him with his elbow. "What are you looking at? You're so absorbed."

"You know Black Mountain Old Ghost, right? He recently started a new book, and it's so exciting... Ho—Holy shit!!!"

Wang Yang suddenly stood up and cried out in alarm.

"Brother Qing, look! There's someone outside the window!"

The flesh on the back of Ding Qing's neck tightened, and goosebumps instantly covered his entire body.

He whipped his head around!

However, that one look gave him an instant jolt.

Outside, the heavy rain and fog were thick, making it hard to see anything distant clearly.

But a dark shadow stood outside the window, looking at him with an indifferent gaze. The shadow flickered in and out of view behind the curtain of rain, yet it remained perfectly parallel to the bus window.

There really is one?!

Even though they were on a mountain, the bus speed wasn't low.

The most ridiculous part was that the shadow seemed to be hanging outside the window, ignoring the moving bus and staring at the two of them motionlessly.

"Holy shit! There really is someone outside the window!"

"There's a ghost! Aahhh!"

Everyone else in the bus had clearly heard Wang Yang's voice.

Startled cries rose one after another, causing the driver to slam on the brakes.

For a moment, everything was in chaos, and the students who had been standing rolled all over the floor.

Ding Qing's body lunged forward with the momentum, but he braced his feet to stabilize himself and reached out to pull Wang Yang up.

Outside was a vast expanse of white, and the rain had stopped at some point.

And that shadow from just now was gone.

Disappeared?

Before Ding Qing could think further, another scream rang out in the cabin.

"Where's Wang Chuchu? She was clearly sitting right next to me just now!"

"Hey! I saw her sitting there just a moment ago, where is she?"

"Teacher, Wang Chuchu is gone..."

"Xun Gaoming is gone too!"

After several successive shouts, the lead teacher, who had been dazed by the fall, squeezed through the crowd while holding his forehead with one hand.

"Students, listen to me. Everyone, go back to your original seats. Don't crowd together!"

The lead teacher looked somewhat gruesome. He must have hit his forehead somewhere, as blood had already stained half of his face red.

Once everyone had returned to their seats,

They began to count heads.

At this point, everyone realized something was wrong.

Of the original club group of twenty-four people, only fifteen remained.

The girl who first spotted someone outside the window was also gone.

"What's going on?"

"Where are Wang Shanshan and Yang Ting?"

"That's not right. I remember they all got on the bus?!"

"The bus doors haven't opened; living people can't just vanish into thin air, can they?"

Upon inquiry, the students sitting next to those who vanished had no memory of when they had disappeared.

It was as if they had never gotten on the bus at all!

But everyone remembered clearly that when the head count was taken during boarding, there were twenty-three people.

Since Ding Qing arrived last, there was no way they could have misremembered.

They confirmed it again and again!

The lead teacher was sweating with anxiety.

To have nine students vanish into thin air during a trip—this was a disaster!

"Don't panic, everyone. Sit in pairs, and don't look out the window. Old Zhang and I will call the police first."

The lead teacher offered a few words of comfort.

The 'Old Zhang' he mentioned was the driver, who was sent by the inviting party to pick them up.

Now that something like this had happened on the road, they definitely had to contact the other party.

Ding Qing nudged Wang Yang, making him startle unexpectedly.

"Brother Qing, why did you scare me?" Wang Yang said, speechless.

With this kind of thing happening, he couldn't help but think of plots from his books.

"Stop talking nonsense. Are you sure the people who vanished all got on the bus?"

Ding Qing took off his earphones and pointed at the camera on the bus ceiling.

Wang Yang immediately understood.

He hadn't forgotten that this reality show was mainly about pranking people.

They said they were here to fill the numbers, but perhaps the show had already started the moment they got on the bus.

It was just a common trick in these kinds of reality shows.