Forces of TemptationCh3 - Three People Become Ghosts

The time limit for Nan Zhou to think couldn’t exceed five seconds. More than five seconds was enough to arouse everyone’s suspicions. Nan Zhou sorted out the currently known information and could draw the following judgments:

This was an intercity bus in C City. The destination of the vehicle was unknown. The places it passed by were unknown. The GPS was turned off and there was no way to predict the driving route. vfwEaZ

…He had four seconds left.

There was a small map of C City on the advertising box in front of the first row of seats. A corner of the map was covered by several missing persons notices. The location happened to be Longtan District with the school logo of the 2nd High School on it.

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This was the source of inspiration for one of Nan Zhou’s lies. However, the locations of residential areas weren’t marked on it. In other words, if asked where he got on the bus, he couldn’t completely make it up.

Nan Zhou’s eyes quickly shifted to the driver’s seat in front of him. n16cAp

…There were three seconds left.

It was clearly written on the badge that the driver of this car should be a woman called Shen Qiuyan. However, beside the shelf where a water cup was placed, there was a brand-new plastic sealed work permit. The strap was tangled together with the handle of the water cup.

From the information glimpsed, he could see that the person driving today had the surname She or Yu and it was a man. Why change drivers? Did drivers change shifts normally?

…Two seconds.

Wrong. Out of the four people who had spoken so far, none of them said they got on the bus from a normal bus stop. They all started from their respective residential areas and even said ‘phase 1’, ‘phase 2’, ‘area for foreigners’ and ‘ordinary residential area.’

So this was a bus that ran on an unusual route.

The sudden replacement of a new driver and a bus that moved abnormally. Moreover, all the passengers in the bus seemed to be heading to a specific location. Therefore, the bus was likely to be requisitioned to perform a rescue mission. The ‘volunteers’ mentioned by Li Yinhang could confirm his guess.

…Only one second left. j0p hE

So why were there so few people in the bus? It was still daytime and it stood to reason that now was the best time to carry out a rescue mission. If the bus wasn’t crowded during the day then it wouldn’t match the current density of people.

What did this mean? It meant these people probably weren’t the first to be rescued. Therefore, the place where Nan Zhou should’ve got on the bus was obvious.

…Time was up.

Nan Zhou retracted his gaze and looked at everyone. He bluntly said, “I was the first to get on the bus.” Q5GS7n

Zhao Guanglu was the first to object. “No, I didn’t see you when I got in the bus.”

The moment the atmosphere froze, Nan Zhou gave an answer to the question. “I secretly came up.”

Everyone, “……?”

“I was taken to a shelter but my mother wasn’t there.” ulzkUB

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“P vlvc’a xcbk ktfgf rtf kjr. P jrxfv atf nbiecaffgr yea atfgf kjr cb gfreia.”

“P kjr kbgglfv jybea tfg rb P tlv lc atlr yer qjgxfv ja atf vbbg rlcmf ijra cluta. P tlv ecvfg atf rfja jcv kjcafv ab olcv tfg.”

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“Ufgtjqr P kbeiv ufa bea tjiokjs bg ub ab atf batfg rtfiafgr.”

“I was very sleepy and fell asleep. I only woke up after the bus had been driving for a long time.” 0DbJKF

“My head hurt a bit. When I came out quietly, I slept against the window for a while…”

He spoke slowly but in a very orderly manner. It made people feel that he hadn’t fully woken up yet. During his speech, Nan Zhou also raised his sleeves to make sure that everyone could see the dust on it from when he had just bent down to look for the bracelet.

Everyone made an ‘oh’ sound in their hearts. The gap under the bus seats was indeed enough to hide a person of this size. If someone didn’t look carefully, they might not find anyone hiding under the seat.

Someone asked, ”At this time, you didn’t stay in the cocoon room obediently and dared to run out?” R0Tw2n

Nan Zhou silently noted that the shelter was called a ‘cocoon room.’ At the same time, he gently cleaned the dust from his sleeves and replied slowly, “Yes, not everyone has relatives. This feeling of worry can’t be understood by everyone.”

“……” The questioner was choked up and rolled his eyes.

It had to be said that Nan Zhou’s reasons were sufficient and there was nothing to refute. The problem was that Nan Zhou had a weird temperament.

He had black hair and black eyes. Apart from the out-of-season clothes, there were no extra accessories on his body. The corners of his eyes were red from sleepiness and he had a dull, wooden beauty. However, the teardrop mole directly under his left eye gave him a charm and coolness that he shouldn’t have. On the contrary, it also made him seem a bit strange. 0ETjqB

The sunlight outside the window next to him was so strong that it was almost white but he still had an incompatible sense of rejection with the sun. This temperament made people feel uncomfortable.

Someone continued to question him. “That mushroom was so close to you. Why weren’t you afraid?”

“It is because I thought I was dreaming at first,” Nan Zhou said. “Then I woke up later and found that it wasn’t too scary.”

Everyone, “……” dlnY1h

They had to say that the mushroom itself wasn’t really scary. The distance between the mushroom and the first row was also too far. He did have reason not to be afraid.

Then it was the last question.

“How can you prove your words are true?”

Moreover, the question was buy one, get one free. “Why are you dressed like this in summer?” K3wbGu

Rather than talking, Nan Zhou loosened his cuffs to show the evidence he prepared. A small squirrel-colored animal probed his head out of his sleeves. It was a sugar glider.

Nan Zhou introduced him. “I will introduce you. He is called Nanji Star.” (Nanji= south pole)

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The moment he saw the apple on the other side of the seat, Nanji Star’s dark eyes lit up. He opened the membranes and flew out. His two front paws gripped the apple tightly as he moved his buttocks to gather energy. He was trying to move the apple to the sleeve to eat it for himself.

Nan Zhou held the apple to stop his moment, a bit unhappy. “It’s mine.” vgMc1e

The little animal puffed up his cheeks and stared at Nan Zhou in an aggrieved manner. Nan Zhou was unmoved. Nanji Star maintained this pitiful posture while snatching the apple in one bite and sliding back along Nan Zhou’s open cuffs with the apple in his mouth.

Nan Zhou, “……”

Facts proved that human judgment was affected by some non-objective factors. For example, just now, everyone’s vigilance toward Nan Zhou was greatly reduced. It wasn’t just because of the question ‘will ghosts bring pets?’ It was that the fluctuations in his expression the moment the apple was stolen made him look more alive.

The person who was stunned by Nan Zhou just now pointed at him unwillingly. “Didn’t you say that you are a teacher?” 5VSXec

Nan Zhou held the apple in his hand and nodded. “Yes.”

The person asked sharply, “You are allowed to keep such hair as a teacher?”

Nan Zhou nodded again. “Yes, I’m an art teacher. What’s the problem?”

Everyone, ‘…Fuck.’ WA5hsn

Suddenly, they all had a reasonable understanding of this person’s strange temperament.

‘He turned out to be an artist. I see.’

Nan Zhou calmly looked at the people who had already started the next self-introductions, observing each face that was either nervous or forcing themselves to be calm. Then his gaze turned to the Ukrainian mixed-raced man and his gaze paused slightly.

Jiang Fang leaned against the bus seat and didn’t seem to be looking at him. However, Nan Zhou knew this person was looking at him. He was looking at Nan Zhou’s reflection in the side window glass. Jiang Fang was making a smile that wasn’t a smile and it was too gentle to judge his true emotions. CaJp2y

Nan Zhou remained silent as if completely unaware of it and naturally turned his attention to the other people. Nan Zhou’s presentation and explanation had taken more time so the introduction of everyone had progressed slowly.

There were 15 rows of seats with 61 seats. From the back to the front, the situation was as follows:

The man sitting on the left in the second to last row was the architect Zhao Guanglu.

The person in the second to last row to the right was the nameless man who tried to jump out the window and was killed for violating the rules. The only information that could be determined at present was that ‘he was an ordinary person.’ pgs 6c

On the left side in the fourth row from the back was Li Yinhang, the hapless bank service worker.

In the fifth row from the back was Jiang Fang who was sitting in front of Li Yinhang.

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The back door of the double-door bus opened near the fifth row from the back.

Moving forward, a man called Liu Rongrui sat in the sixth row from the back. He was the one who was dumbfounded by Nan Zhou just now. He said he had no food and eventually plucked up his courage to leave his house. After walking for a long time, he didn’t find a supermarket that was still open. In the end, he heard there was food to eat at the shelter so he got onto the bus with two volunteers, one old and one young. As he said this, his face was full of regret that said ‘If I knew, I would’ve starved to death rather than board this bus.’ jbUv6g

The seventh row was vacant.

The eighth row from the back, which was also the eighth row from the front, was somewhat special. There were two people, a man and a woman. The woman sitting on the left was called Sun Ruowei and the man sitting on the right was Lin Xiangjun. Both of them came from Longquan Community and exchanged a few words after getting on the bus. It could be said that they were the ones that could best testify for each other on this bus. However, they could also be ghost companions who lied together.

The seventh row from the front was vacant.

On the left in the sixth row from the front was a man called Qin Yadong. He got onto the bus from Xingfu Street. He had waved from the side of the road and got on the bus. TWOPZv

In the fifth row right in front of Qin Yadong was a fat man close to 100 kg. According to him, he got on the bus at Xingfu Park on Gongren Street. Qin Yadong could testify for him because he adjusted the back of his chair when he got in, directly pressing against Qin Yadong’s thigh. However, the man didn’t appreciate it very much. He said he was asleep and didn’t notice who was behind him.

On the right side of the fourth row from the front was a nervous young man. He looked at everyone nervously and bit on his fingertips as he said he was a student of C University called Wu Yukai. When someone asked, “Didn’t we pass by C University,” he shouted back, “Nonsense!” The reaction was too intense. It wasn’t known if it was because he had a guilty conscience or simply because he didn’t like being questioned in this situation.

In the third row from the front was Xie Yangyang. She was a foreign company employee who got on the bus with Jiang Fang at Donghua Community. She was the first to scream and she was still shaking now.

The front was Nan Zhou whom everyone knew as Lou Yan. LPbG3q

Just as Xie Yangyang stammered and introduced herself, the bus was suddenly swept up in an endless darkness. The bus passing through the tunnel without warning silently announced a fact to everyone.

The first round was a blank ballot. There were five more rounds…

Now there were only five rounds left.

After seeing light again, everyone simultaneously stared at the huge mushroom in the back row. The soft and slender mycelium had wrapped around the entire seat it was on and the colorful cap swayed regularly with the shaking of the vehicle. ktHlX1

…It was as if there was life.

The atmosphere in the car became visibly anxious and tense.

The author has something to say:

What everyone is thinking now— EALjDb

Li Yihang: My unlucky name.

Jiang Fang: My cute wife.

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Nan Zhou: My poor apple.

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