93: Chapter 93 Chen Shi and Chen Jue

The time on Chen Shi's phone was already thirteen minutes slow.

He knew it himself.

This wasn't the first time.

Since half a month ago, every time news of the Night Bus spread in the Jiangbei Old District, the time on his phone would lag a little further behind.

At first it was two minutes, then five, and later it became thirteen minutes.

The repair shop said the motherboard was fine, the carrier said the network time was normal, and he had changed to a new phone, swapped the SIM card, and even turned off all automatic time synchronization settings.

It was useless.

As long as he approached certain old bus stops at night, the time would slow down.

"I said early on that something wasn't right about this." Chen Shi's voice was a bit dry, yet he was still trying to remain calm. "I've replied to posts on the Time-Space Apostle forum and sent photos. It's not a ghost story; there's a real discrepancy."

"Stop bringing up those posts to me!" Chen Jue, whose shoulder was being pressed down by Zhao Ye, had red eyes. "Can't you just stay away from these things? You record every day, you investigate every day, but what have you found? That they're calling your name?"

Chen Shi's face turned even paler from his younger brother's shout, but he didn't retort.

One look at these two brothers and it was obvious this wasn't their first argument.

Chen Shi was on the thin side, wore glasses, and was clutching an old voice recorder; Chen Jue had broader shoulders, a hot temper, and even while being held down by Zhao Ye, he was still craning his neck stubbornly.

Zhao Ye found it annoying to watch.

"Are you done arguing?"

Chen Jue said angrily, "What's it to you?"

Zhao Ye looked down at him, his tone harsh: "It's my business now. Take one more step forward, and it'll be a matter of carrying a corpse."

Lin Zhao hurried over to stand between the two. He spoke more gently than Zhao Ye, but his hand never left his makeshift short baton.

"Don't move for now. Your brother staying put is the best-case scenario."

Chen Jue was panting, still unconvinced.

Shen Qinghe walked up to Chen Shi, not letting him look at the bus stop sign.

"When did it start slowing down?"

"The first time was when I filmed the Xiqiao bus stop sign lighting up on its own." Chen Shi swallowed hard. "I thought it was an electrical issue, so I took a video. Later, someone said in a post that if people waiting for the bus noticed the time was off, they must not wait for the next one. But I was just passing by that day; I didn't get on the bus."

"And after that?"

"After that, every time the Night Bus appeared, I would receive a text message with no sender."

Chen Shi handed the phone to her.

There was a line of text on the screen.

[You have missed the previous bus.]

Shen Qinghe didn't touch the phone with her hand, only letting Bai Ya copy the content remotely. Bai Ya quickly relayed back in the channel: The text message had no real number; it looked as if it had been forced out from between the phone's local memo and notification bar, not belonging to normal communication.

When Chen Jue saw that line of text, his expression changed too.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Chen Shi was silent for a few seconds.

"If I told you, what would you do?"

Chen Jue opened his mouth, but couldn't say it.

Because the answer was obvious. He would have rushed over, just like he did just now.

The name on the bus stop sign suddenly flickered.

The shadow under Chen Shi's feet was stretched long by the streetlamp, stretching until it almost touched the base of the bus stop sign. The fate-illuminating bronze bell by Shen Qinghe's ear vibrated slightly. It wasn't a complete bell toll, just a rhythm that was about to close.

"Don't look at the name," she said to Chen Shi, "and don't admit that you missed the bus."

Chen Shi gave a bitter smile: "Can you even not admit that?"

Zhao Ye interjected: "An anomaly is like a debt collector; just don't engage."

This was cruder than any explanation, yet unexpectedly useful. Chen Shi's shoulders relaxed slightly.

Chen Jue was still staring at the bus stop sign. His expression changed from anger to unwillingness, as if he finally realized that rushing over just now wasn't saving someone, but almost dragging his brother and himself in together.

But he still wouldn't admit defeat.

"Then what are you planning to do? Just watch?"

"First, let's make it unable to call out the name." Shen Qinghe said.

Bai Ya marked the remnants behind the bus stop sign through the Grey Net. Lin Zhao took Chen Jue and retreated behind the warning line, while Li Xi pulled Chen Shi to the entrance of a pharmacy and handed him a bottle of mineral water.

Chen Shi's fingers were still trembling; he tried to twist the cap twice but couldn't open it.

Li Xi didn't laugh at him; she just twisted it open and handed it back.

"If you're scared, say you're scared. Don't learn from them and put on a front."

Chen Shi glanced at Zhao Ye, then at Shen Qinghe, and whispered: "Are they scared too?"

Li Xi rolled her eyes: "Duh. It's just that they're busier when they're scared."

This sentence almost made Chen Shi laugh, but he didn't manage to.

The bus stop sign suddenly made a soft sound.

The [Chen Shi] on the screen disappeared and turned into another line of text.

[Passenger confirmation failed.]

Zhao Ye had just let out half a breath of relief, but the headlights didn't recede.

The bus stopped at the edge of the rain and mist; there was no one inside the windows, only a row of pitch-black seats.

The next second, all the windows lit up simultaneously.

A row of names appeared on the glass.

Chen Shi.

Chen Jue.

The youth.

Li Xi.

Chen Shi said the first time he recorded the Night Bus was because a neighbor's child went missing. That night, everyone said the child was playful and the parents hadn't watched them closely enough. Only Chen Shi saw the temporary bus stop sign at the entrance of the residential complex light up for three minutes, and the route that lit up was an old bus line that had long been canceled.

He posted the photos on the forum and was scolded by people for clout-chasing. Chen Jue had scolded him too.

"I thought you were crazy back then," Chen Jue said in a low voice.

Chen Shi glanced at him: "You think so now too."

Chen Jue was stubborn: "I just think you don't value your life now."

Neither of them looked at each other while speaking, as if whoever looked first would lose. Li Xi, listening from the side, got a headache and couldn't help but interject: "Can you two brothers wait until the Ghost Bus gets off work to argue?"

Chen Jue opened his mouth to retort, but seeing her holding onto an elderly person who had been affected by the headlights, he swallowed his words back.

Shen Qinghe took this scene in. She discovered that although Chen Jue was impulsive, he wasn't bad. He would talk back, get anxious, and make mistakes, but when he saw someone who truly needed help, his body was more honest than his mouth.

People like this couldn't be thrown directly into the core of a mission, but they shouldn't be dismissed as a source of risk either.

Lin Zhao saw it too. When he pulled Chen Jue back, he didn't use words like "you can't do it" to provoke him, only saying: "If you really want to help, just keep an eye on your brother's phone time. Every time it changes, call me."

Chen Jue was brimming with anger, but hearing this, he finally had something he could do. He snatched Chen Shi's backup phone and stared at the screen, as if he wanted to stare those thirteen minutes back.

After seeing this, Zhao Ye said to Lin Zhao in a low voice: "You're quite good at coaxing kids."

Lin Zhao was expressionless: "I used to manage a platoon of new recruits."

Zhao Ye was silent for a moment: "That's indeed about the same."

After finishing the water, Chen Shi finally handed the voice recorder to Bai Ya. He said it contained environmental sounds from three bus stop anomalies. When Bai Ya took it, he didn't immediately praise him, only asking: "Did you back it up?" Chen Shi nodded. Chen Jue muttered from the side: "He even backs up his tabs at the convenience store." Chen Shi pushed up his glasses and ignored him. Bai Ya, however, smiled; this kind of clumsy but stubborn habit of recording was exactly the kind of real-world Materials the Grey Net lacked most.

Bai Ya's voice turned cold in the channel.

"It has started expanding the list."