4: Chapter 4 Inside and Outside Reversed

The bus door closed behind him with a "hiss" and locked, instantly cutting off the faint light and voices from inside.

Cold, damp, and smelling of decaying vegetation, the thick fog surged forward like a living thing, instantly enveloping Ding Qing, Zhang Han, and Old Zhang the driver.

Visibility was compressed to the absolute limit.

Just a few steps away was a vast expanse of white.

Even the massive silhouette of the bus became blurred and indistinct.

"Old Zhang, hurry up and check!" Ding Qing barked in a low voice.

His voice sounded exceptionally clear in the deathly silent fog, even carrying a hint of an echo.

His nerves were like a fully drawn bowstring, his muscles tensed, and his senses heightened to the maximum as he warily scanned the swirling white surroundings.

The rain had stopped completely at some point.

All that remained was a suffocating silence.

But within this silence, something even more hair-raising gradually seeped in.

Sound.

It wasn't the sound of rain, wind, or the howl of a beast.

It was an extremely faint, intermittent whisper, as if someone were leaning against his ear, breathing indistinguishable syllables.

Sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, now far, now near, it was unsettling and sent chills down his spine.

"Damn it... what the hell is talking..."

Zhang Han's face was deathly pale, and his body trembled slightly; the face Ding Qing had just slapped swollen seemed not to hurt anymore under the weight of his fear.

He tightly gripped a wrench he had scavenged from the toolbox, his knuckles white and his eyes darting around in terror.

Yet he forced himself to stay grounded, not daring to look up into the depths of the fog.

"Shut up! Get to work! Remember what I said: only look at the bus, keep your head down!"

Ding Qing warned sternly, his voice carrying an unquestionable pressure that forcibly suppressed Zhang Han's fear and the interference from the whispers.

He stood sideways a few steps in front of the bus, his back to the front of the bus, facing the direction the thick fog was surging from.

He took a defensive stance.

Ding Qing's gaze was as sharp as a hawk's as he scanned the surroundings.

Old Zhang, the driver, was so terrified his calves were cramping, and he kept muttering to himself.

"Amitabha... Immortals protect me... God protect me..."

His hands shook so much he could barely hold his tools.

Yet he still forced himself to open the engine hood and tremblingly began to check the wiring and the engine.

Minutes and seconds ticked by.

Under the shroud of the thick fog and the erosion of the eerie whispers, time seemed to stretch.

Every second was agonizingly long.

Zhang Han barely managed to crouch beside Old Zhang, handing him tools as instructed.

But his eyes couldn't help but wander, his attention pulled by the omnipresent whispers.

Old Zhang's inspection proceeded very slowly.

"Strange... this wire isn't broken... the fuse isn't blown either..."

"Old Zhang, hurry up! I feel like something is wrong!"

Ding Qing felt something was off and couldn't help but urge him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he subconsciously glanced at the window beside him.

It was the glass on the side of the driver's cabin.

In that single glance!

His heart felt as if it were being violently squeezed by an icy hand!

On the inside of the window, pressed against the glass, a blurry dark shadow stood there!

The shadow's outline was distorted and unstable, like smoke soaked in dark ink, its edges constantly writhing, barely resembling a human form.

It just quietly "stood" inside the bus.

Its position was exactly next to the driver's seat that Old Zhang had vacated.

What made Ding Qing's scalp tingle even more was that Wang Yang, who was sitting in the front of the carriage on guard duty, was completely oblivious to the dark shadow in front of him.

What about the others inside the bus?

Ding Qing's gaze anxiously swept across the other windows.

The students still in their seats, including Teacher Huang with his bloodied forehead.

At this moment, they all seemed to have been paused.

They either hung their heads or stared blankly ahead, their eyes hollow and expressions numb, completely ignoring the terrifying dark shadow right next to them!

Everyone was like a puppet whose Soul had been snatched away.

"Wang Yang, get away from there!!!"

Ding Qing lunged toward the window and, with all his strength, clenched his fist and slammed it hard against the sturdy glass.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The dull thuds were exceptionally jarring in the deathly silent fog.

The window vibrated violently, letting out an overwhelmed groan.

However, the people inside the bus did not react at all!

Wang Yang remained sitting where he was.

Teacher Huang and the students beside him didn't even blink, as if the loud noise, enough to shatter the glass, was just distant background noise.

The dark shadow even swayed slightly, as if silently mocking Ding Qing's futile efforts.

"Look inside! There's something in the bus!! Look at the window, quick!"

Ding Qing turned and roared at Zhang Han and Old Zhang, who were crouching by the front of the bus, his voice cracking from extreme shock, anger, and anxiety.

Zhang Han and Old Zhang were startled by his roar and subconsciously looked up at the window next to the driver's cabin, following his pointing finger.

At the moment they looked up, Ding Qing clearly saw the outline of the dark shadow inside the bus suddenly turn around!

Although it had no distinct facial features, a cold, malicious gaze pierced through the glass.

It accurately locked onto Zhang Han and Old Zhang, who were looking up.

"Don't look at it!!!"

Ding Qing's warning exploded like a thunderclap, but it was already too late!

Zhang Han let out an extremely short gasp, his eyes instantly widening to their limit.

The dark shadow inside the bus was reflected in his pupils, which were then instantly clouded over with a deathly gray.

His entire body seemed frozen.

He remained in a looking-up posture, stiffened in place.

The wrench in his hand fell to the ground with a "clang."

Old Zhang the driver's reaction was even more bizarre.

His face first showed extreme terror, which was then quickly replaced by a vacant hollowness.

He looked at the dark shadow inside the window, then at the stiff Zhang Han beside him, his gaze becoming confused.

As if he were trying hard to remember something.

Or as if something were rapidly draining from his mind.

His lips trembled, "Zhang... Zhang-what was it? ...Who... who was next to me...?"

At the same time as Old Zhang's dazed whispering, the dark shadow inside the bus lunged toward the window glass, as if trying to break through!

Outside the bus, Zhang Han's body convulsed violently, a carbon copy of when Zhou Qinghai disappeared.

The outline of his body began to blur.

Starting from his feet, he rapidly turned into wisps of grayish-white mist.

Thread after thread.

Pulled by an invisible force, he pierced through the closed window glass and merged into the writhing dark shadow inside the bus.

What made Ding Qing even more shocked and angry was that after Zhang Han completely disappeared, the daze on Old Zhang's face deepened.

He looked confusedly at the spot where Zhang Han had disappeared, then at the wrench on the ground.

He scratched his head, his eyes clouded.

"Was I... was I the only one repairing the bus just now? ...Strange... I feel like I've forgotten something..."

He had completely forgotten about Zhang Han's existence!

After "devouring" Zhang Han, the outline of the dark shadow inside the bus seemed to solidify slightly.

It no longer stood in place but slowly and noiselessly "floated" toward the depths of the carriage.

To this, the students sitting idly, including Wang Yang at the very front, remained completely unaware.

Outside the bus, the thick fog swirled, and the whispers continued.

Only Ding Qing remained, standing in front of the bus with his back to the white mist that could swallow existence, facing this bus that had turned into a terrifying cage, isolated from the outside.

Ding Qing's face was so dark it could drip ink, and dark blue-green veins began to faintly emerge under his bronze-colored skin.

His fists were tightly clenched, his knuckles making a cracking sound.

Ding Qing stared fixedly at the terrifying dark shadow inside the bus that was slowly moving toward Wang Yang, his eyes like those of a Vicious Beast about to pounce on its prey.