Chapter 54: The Last Stop

At this stop, despite half the bus being filled with Fierce Ghosts, not a single passenger chose to get off.

Gao Tian was the first to step off the bus.

Su Jiu's legs gave out. The moment she stood up, she dropped to her knees in the aisle with a heavy thud, like she was kowtowing for the New Year.

By the time she struggled back to her feet, Gao Tian had already walked off the bus. Su Jiu followed him, the second to disembark.

Outside the station lay a bluestone sidewalk shaded by two rows of trees. A short distance away stood a brand-new campus. A gleaming new signboard bearing the name Pagoda Primary School hung above the main gate. Deeper inside, countless students chased a soccer ball across a field, while teachers strolled along the paths in twos and threes.

Overall, the school appeared relatively new, and the scene inside looked entirely normal.

Had he not been through so much already, Gao Tian could have walked past Pagoda Primary School on a normal street without ever sensing anything wrong with the place.

Not long after the two living humans stepped off, the doors of Bus 444 creaked shut behind them. The vehicle lurched and rolled away, heading toward its next stop.

Once Gao Tian and Su Jiu finished clocking in and returned to the station, all they had to do was hold their Gray Ticket Stubs and wait for the next Supernatural Bus to take them back to reality.

The wait would be less than ten minutes.

According to the requirements of the Green Text Mission, clocking in at the school gate was all they needed to do.

He hoped there would be no unexpected twists this time. Just clock in and leave. Surely that wouldn't stir up any trouble.

Gao Tian led the way with Su Jiu trailing behind him. The two of them followed the sidewalk toward Pagoda Primary School at the end of the street.

As they approached, the crisp, innocent laughter of young children grew clearer:

"Big brother, come inside and play!"

"An adult. Another adult is here."

"Great, we have a new teacher!"

"Big brother, what do you teach? P.E.?"

"Be careful, big sister! This whole area is dangerous. There are weird things everywhere. Hurry up and hide inside Pagoda Primary School! It's super safe here, and nobody has to go to class. We live such happy lives every day."

...

The voices of countless students washed out from the buildings like a tide. Chattering over one another, they urged Gao Tian and Su Jiu to enter the campus.

Gao Tian came to a halt a good distance from the school gate.

This distance was probably far enough. It met the clock-in requirements for the Green Text Mission.

The iron gates were pulled wide open. Through the main entrance, silhouettes of students could be seen across the field, the basketball court, and the flag-raising podium. Though Gao Tian could only make out their rough outlines, they seemed to be acting normally. Some fought over a ball, while others strolled along the running track.

Inside the buildings, heads could be seen in almost every classroom. The shadowy figures of children sat motionless at their desks, staring intently at the blackboards. They remained so focused that they didn't even react when flies landed on their heads.

Behind him, Su Jiu's breathing grew heavy with tension.

Had she not been cowering behind Gao Tian like a frightened chick, nothing could have forced her to approach this eerie school alone.

She wouldn't have even dared to look at it.

Standing ten meters from the gates, Gao Tian reached into his pocket, pulled out Jiang Yang's Wedding Ring, and placed it on the ground. Facing the campus, he offered a respectful bow.

He wondered if Jiang Yang's girlfriend, still inside Pagoda Primary School, could reach it from this distance.

He had done his best.

He truly didn't dare take another step forward.

Even half a step more might cross into whatever ominous territory belonged to Pagoda Primary School.

He had visited Pagoda Primary School, and he had delivered the ring. The mission was a success.

Now, all they had to do was head back to the station and wait for the next Bus 444.

He turned around, signaling for Su Jiu to leave with him and heading back toward the station.

The two of them didn't break into a dead sprint, afraid that overly dramatic movements might agitate whatever lurked inside Pagoda Primary School. Instead, they kept quiet and walked with long, rapid strides, moving as quickly and steadily as possible.

Behind them, the tender voices of the invisible children grew anxious, pleading with even greater fervor for them to stay:

"Hey, big brother, where are you going?"

"It's really dangerous outside! You can't just run around."

"Are you going to abandon us?"

"We're so happy in school every day, having so much fun, but you won't come in and play with us!"

...

As the two retreated further from Pagoda Primary School, the children's voices began to fade.

Gao Tian understood now. Those "children's voices" were confined to the school grounds. They couldn't cross the gates, or else they would have already swarmed out and dragged him inside the moment he stopped to clock in.

These "children" were certainly bizarre. Gao Tian had encountered many ghosts, but he had never seen any act so enthusiastically.

Why did they want living humans to enter Pagoda Primary School so badly? Just to fill the school with more ghosts and make it livelier?

He recalled Shen Nian's warning: Pagoda Primary School might be expanding.

Still, as long as he didn't voluntarily walk back inside, those things were powerless against him.

They could only rage helplessly from behind the gates.

Lost in thought, he and Su Jiu covered over a hundred meters, putting a solid distance between themselves and Pagoda Primary School. Even Gao Tian felt they were basically out of danger.

Just then, a faint, eerie female voice drifted over from what felt like a great distance:

"Are you Jiang Yang's roommate? Is Jiang Yang... doing well?"

Gao Tian didn't break his stride, but his heart skipped a beat.

That voice...

Su Jiu was the only other human around. Where was this voice coming from?

From Pagoda Primary School?

But that didn't make sense either. Su Jiu hadn't reacted at all, which meant only he could hear the voice; she couldn't.

Knowing Su Jiu's personality, if an eerie female voice had suddenly whispered in her ear, she wouldn't have been able to hide her terror.

Was it because he had done something Su Jiu hadn't? Yes. He had left the engagement ring by the school gates. Perhaps that act had formed some sort of connection with Jiang Yang's girlfriend.

The woman's voice lingered, murmuring as if to herself:

"I really like this Wedding Ring. Right after we graduated, Jiang Yang and I saw it at the mall. We just didn't have the money back then. We couldn't afford it.

"I never expected him to remember after all these years. He still bought it for me."

It really was Jiang Yang's fiancée.

Gao Tian pretended not to hear her and kept power-walking toward the station. Jiang Yang's fiancée had been trapped in Pagoda Primary School for a long time; she was as dead as could be. Her voice was the voice of a Fierce Ghost. Answering her would not end well.

He just needed to keep his head down and act like he hadn't heard a thing.

The station was just ahead. Once the next bus arrived, none of the twisted horrors of the Inner World would have anything to do with him.

Seeing that Gao Tian refused to answer, the woman's voice didn't grow angry. Instead, she offered gentle praise:

"You are cautious, and very calm. That is a good trait. It's a trait shared by those who live long lives.

"It has been a long time since anyone from the Apartment came here. I just never expected that Jiang Yang still hadn't forgotten me.

"I am deeply moved, but this was entirely unnecessary. When you go back, please pass on a message for me.

"Tell him to forget me, and live his own life well.

"Otherwise, I traded my life to save a Jiang Yang who will be unhappy for the rest of his days. That was never my intention."

Gao Tian couldn't be bothered to care about what this woman was trying to express.

He cared far more about whether he could survive his third mission than he did about her romance with Jiang Yang.

Just as he was about to reach the station ahead, the faint voice drifted over once more. But this time, her placid tone shifted, displaying emotion for the first time. Her pace quickened with a sense of regret:

"Do you have a Black Card, new tenant of the Living Apartment?"

At first, Gao Tian didn't understand what she meant.

The female voice urged him on:

"If you have one, use it quickly. Otherwise, it will be too late.

"Never mind. It is already too late..."

With those words, the haunting female voice abruptly vanished from Gao Tian's ear. It was as if she felt he was already a lost cause and couldn't be bothered to waste another breath on him.

Gao Tian instinctively felt that something was wrong.

Strange. Hadn't this woman been so chatty just a moment ago?

Why had she suddenly stopped pestering him with nonsense?

Anomalies meant danger. Subconsciously, he glanced back over his shoulder at Su Jiu.

Seeing Gao Tian suddenly turn back to look at her, Su Jiu faltered, unsure of what was wrong:

"Brother Tian, what is it?"

Gao Tian's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

He saw that from the direction of the Pagoda Primary School gates, countless child-sized gray footprints were rapidly multiplying across the pavement, scrambling frantically in their direction.

There were dozens of them. None had a physical body—only pairs of phantom footprints rapidly closing the distance.

It looked as though a horde of barefoot children were sprinting wildly down the street.

Shit. The things inside Pagoda Primary School chased us out!

Fuck! Who said clocking in at the gate was perfectly safe?

The things inside Pagoda Primary School could break through the campus boundary! They could leave the school!

"Run!"

There was no time to explain. Gao Tian grabbed Su Jiu's arm and sprinted frantically toward the station.

Forget pretending to be calm. He just needed to run as far as he could.

The station was only a few steps away. Gao Tian could only hope that whatever was chasing them had a strict limit on how far it could wander from the school.

Behind him, Su Jiu was completely docile. She didn't ask what was wrong. The moment he ordered her to run, she broke into a sprint without a single question. Her body felt incredibly light. Dragging her along, Gao Tian met almost no resistance.

He finally charged into the waiting shelter. Panting, Gao Tian let out a breath. It had to be at least a little safer here.

Only then did he have the time to turn around and look at Su Jiu, whom he had been dragging along.

What he saw was a single, pale, severed arm.

It had left a trail of blood the entire way.

The real Su Jiu had been caught by those foul things long ago and dragged back into Pagoda Primary School. In his sheer panic, Gao Tian had merely grabbed her severed arm and sprinted all this way. With his mind solely focused on survival, he hadn't even realized what he was holding.

Gao Tian looked out into the street. Along the path back to Pagoda Primary School, the gray footprints were still rapidly closing in on the waiting shelter. They were in relentless pursuit, showing no signs of retreating back to the campus.

In the blink of an eye, the waiting shelter would be overrun.

"What the hell are they..."

They were like invisible children, leaving tiny gray footprints wherever they stepped.

At that exact moment, triggered by Su Jiu's death, Gao Tian's Black Tie activated once more. His Fortune spiked.

In the distant gray fog, two pale-yellow headlights pierced the gloom, growing larger by the second.

Normally arriving after a seven-minute interval, the next Bus 444 appeared in less than five.

It was early.