……etc.
Su Yun looked up. Wasn't this the customer who had been standing in his shop for a long time?
The customer, carrying the box of self-heating rice he had given him, walked straight towards him and even smiled at him.
Perhaps he was taking something back to eat and just happened to get on this bus...
Thinking this through, Su Yun relaxed a little. At the same time, the guest pressed down on the back of his chair and sat down behind him.
The car started again, and apart from the sound of it moving, there was basically no other movement inside the carriage. Su Yun was a little tired, and with her head resting against the window, she felt drowsy and wanted to sleep.
Little did he know that behind him, the guest's mind was racing, and every single second was agonizing.
Lu Mingran remembered that Mr. Hu and the little girl would be boarding the train in two stops. The best way, of course, was to drag Su Yun off the train immediately and prevent him from seeing Mr. Hu.
However, according to the book's description of the car, those special passengers would only reveal themselves when the car drove near the Lingyun Department Store, which was filled with yin energy.
At this moment, Su Yun was completely unaware of anything amiss. Fortunately, the distance between the two stops was quite long, allowing Lu Mingran to subtly remind him.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingran tapped the back of her chair.
Still half asleep, Su Yun turned his head at the sound, only realizing a moment later that it came from directly behind him. He turned to the side and was almost startled by Lu Mingran's intense gaze.
But Lu Mingran's attitude was still very good, and her words seemed to be deliberately trying to get closer to him.
"Hey buddy, do you take the bus home at this time every night? I don't mean anything by it, I just feel sorry for you, it must be tough."
"Well, it's work, there's no way around it." Su Yun was smart enough to know not to reveal too much about himself to strangers. He gave a vague answer and turned around, thinking the conversation could end there, but the guest suddenly asked him a question:
Are you scared?
Lu Mingran's tone was somewhat sinister when she said this, as if ants had suddenly crawled onto the back of Su Yun's neck, causing a tingling sensation that startled Su Yun, who immediately turned her head.
This time, Su Yun's expression wasn't as pleasant, but he quickly composed himself and put on his usual gentle smile:
"Afraid? What's there for a man like me to be afraid of? I'm used to walking at night."
Su Yun then turned the tables and asked the guest, "What, are you afraid... afraid of ghosts at night?"
When Su Yun mentioned the word "ghost," her voice sounded somewhat strange.
Before going to university, he was very reluctant to talk about the word "ghost" because when he was a child, he always said that he could see strange aunts, and that he would be surrounded and beaten by children and locked in an abandoned warehouse, which left him with a lot of psychological trauma.
As he grew older, Su Yun learned to disguise himself, and when others discussed similar topics, he would laugh and chime in with a few words. For example, right now, he was comforting Lu Mingran, saying:
"It's okay. Look, there are so many people with you in this car. What's there to be afraid of?"
Although there were supposedly many people, there were actually only a handful. Each of them sat with their heads down and their backs to Su Yun and the other person, looking perfectly normal.
Seeing that they had already passed one stop, Lu Mingran couldn't hold back any longer and pressed on, "Do you really think that taking a bus is safe?"
"I heard that ten years ago, when a No. 371 bus stopped at Lingyun Department Store, a man with long hair got on."
Su Yun's smile froze for a moment as she looked at him:
"Then what?"
Lu Mingran was always willing to help, and read him the background story from the book:
"As soon as the car door closed, the man pulled a machete from his bag and slashed at the driver's neck."
"The car was out of control and started to veer off course."
At that moment, the car tilted slightly.
But Lu Mingran was completely oblivious and continued:
"The passengers screamed, and in the chaos, the man grabbed whoever he could and brandished a knife. He beheaded two female students, cut open the stomach of an old woman, and..."
Lu Mingran couldn't continue speaking.
He suddenly felt very cold. Goosebumps instantly rose on his skin exposed to the air beneath his short-sleeved shirt.
Why is it suddenly so cold?
Lu Mingran, who was focused on talking to Su Yun, finally stopped and slowly raised her face.
...
All the passengers in front of him turned their heads 180 degrees and looked at him.
————————————————————————
"……ah!"
Lu Mingran woke up gasping for breath, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.
At this moment, the system reminded him: "Time has been reset."
"What was reset?"
"If you wish, the system can play the videotape of you being torn apart by a vengeful ghost."
Lu Mingran: "..." Then forget it.
It was only then that Lu Mingran realized that one of the principles in this world was that one should never reveal how a ghost died in front of him.
By the time the system tried to warn him, he was already courting disaster.
"Huff..." Lu Mingran kept panting, trying to calm her violently heaving chest.
In front of him, Su Yun sat upright, at a point in time when they weren't chatting. After a while, Su Yun even opened a game and started playing a match-3 puzzle game.
Chapter 3 Want to become a Grandmaster? No way (3)
Lu Mingran knew that the system had made a mistake by not reminding him in time, so it nervously reset the time. If he made any more mistakes now, the system wouldn't help him anymore.
Thinking about it carefully, he realized he had acted impulsively. Su Yun had looked at him with distrust and impatience before, so even if he could finish telling the story safely, Su Yun probably wouldn't believe him.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingran adjusted his strategy. He tapped the back of Su Yun's chair again, and this time, when Su Yun turned around, he waved the self-heating rice in his hand and smiled:
"Thank you, sir."
The meaning behind that smile was clear: I know this isn't a prize; you're helping me.
Su Yun felt a little embarrassed when he was thanked and praised. He was always ordinary, the kind of person who would be easily lost in a crowd, and few people paid attention to him. So, being suddenly noticed made his ears burn.
Lu Mingran pressed her advantage, saying:
"My name is Lu Mingran. Ming means tomorrow and Ran means rising. My mother gave me this name because she wanted me to always be able to see the rising sun tomorrow."
Heaven can bear witness, Lu Mingran's mother never said such a thing. The meaning of the name was something Lu Mingran made up himself, using it to mock himself: having already fallen from the balcony, he probably really wouldn't see the sun rise the next day.
But what if the task is completed? Perhaps then the opportunity will arise.
"Su Yun, my name is Su Yun."
Sure enough, Su Yun lowered her guard a little: "When I was little, I used to misspell words, writing 'Yun' as 'shao', which made my mother so angry that she hit the back of my hand with the iron spoon in the house."
Mentioning her mother, Su Yun, who had recently lost her, felt a lump in her throat. She forced a smile and said, "Because I misspelled a word, I even got a nickname: Little Spoon."
It seems that everyone in the book who is close to the male protagonist calls him that.
Lu Mingran nodded thoughtfully and began chatting casually with Su Yun. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the stop where the two people had boarded the train.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lu Mingran saw that the first one to come up was the young female student. She had a fair complexion and was carrying a pink schoolbag with a small bell on it. She looked like a little girl who was carefully loved by her family.
Then, a black cane was brought in from outside.
After tapping the ground with his cane, the man holding the cane slowly walked up. He was wearing a faded blue jacket that had been washed many times. Although he was in his forties, he was thin and upright with a straight back, and his legs did not appear to be lame.
But he gripped his cane tightly in his right hand, and every two steps he would tap the cane on the floor of the carriage, walking over rhythmically and sitting down to their left.
This was Mr. Hu. From his very first appearance, every detail of his being told he was no ordinary, greasy middle-aged man. Lu Mingran couldn't help but steal glances at him, so much so that she didn't even notice Su Yun turning around.
When Lu Mingran looked at Su Yun again, she saw that the man's body had stiffened.
The guests and scenery in front of Lu Mingran all seemed normal, but Lu Mingran knew that Su Yun was definitely not seeing things the way he did; he was enduring a fear that was unique to him.
Time ticked by, and Lu Mingran stared intently at Su Yun's every move.
Finally, Su Yun got up; he needed to go and call the girl first!
Without delay, Lu Mingran immediately stretched out her right hand and used all her strength to shove Su Yun down, causing Su Yun to fall hard onto her seat.
The "snap" sound echoed crisply in the carriage.
The commotion completely baffled Su Yun. He turned around in disbelief, his large eyes filled with confusion.
"Excuse me……"
Lu Mingran pointed to her phone and chuckled, "I got excited playing games."
"Oh... okay."
Su Yun turned around with some doubt, but was startled by the passengers and was about to get up again.
"Smack!"
This time, Lu Mingran used both hands.
Su Yun felt as if his skeleton had fallen apart.
Slowly, slowly, Su Yun turned her neck.
Lu Mingran smiled innocently: "I lost, I'm a little excited."
However, Su Yun's ambiguous smile told him, "I'm not a child anymore, don't lie to me."
"All right……"
Lu Mingran withdrew her hand, winked at him with superb acting skills, and involuntarily said in a high-pitched voice:
"I think you're about to get off the bus, and I'm reluctant to see you go."
"Stay with me a little longer, okay?"
To be honest, even Lu Mingran herself found that tone disgusting, let alone Su Yun. Yet Su Yun simply hummed in response and turned away.
Did playing the victim work?
Lu Mingran breathed a sigh of relief. Little did he know, Su Yun was plotting something.
Soon, Su Yun moved his shoulders and raised one arm.