Before she even saw the bus, Nan Yue heard the sound of a vehicle driving.
The vehicle seemed to appear out of thin air, whistling toward her with the sharp sound of the wind.
Nan Yue tilted her head and pulled her body back just as the bus sped past her, missing her by a hair before slowly pulling into the stop.
Nan Yue: "..."
Confirmed. This mission wasn't just hard, it's a real jerk.
Nan Yue ran to the bus door and swiped her payment, taking a moment to look at the driver.
He was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, appearing listless and weary.
The man lifted his eyelids to glance at Nan Yue before looking away.
"New passengers, move further inside. Don't block the others."
Nan Yue turned around and realized that Lu Li and Pu Kun were right behind her.
She moved aside to let them in, and the three of them boarded the bus together.
There was another woman on the bus, sitting near the front and knitting, but she didn't react to their presence.
"That woman was here yesterday too," Lu Li whispered a reminder to Nan Yue.
Nan Yue took a few more glances at the woman.
The woman looked exhausted, her legs seemingly problematic, and she was so thin she didn't look like a normal person.
The items in her hands didn't look like she was knitting a sweater, but rather as if she were making some kind of handicraft.
"This bus just loops back and forth. Gu Xiang Kai already tried it yesterday. Even if you get off, another bus will eventually come. We plan to go take a look today."
Lu Li had the lead about the little girl possibly dying at South Lake, while Pu Kun was terrified by the woman who had knocked on his door all night.
Although Pu Kun knew that improving his relationship with her might lead to attacks from other forces, that woman was truly frightening if he didn't stay on her good side.
"More importantly, that woman mentioned those unfinished buildings."
Nan Yue and Lu Li looked toward Pu Kun.
Pu Kun licked his lips. "She keeps trying to get into my room, muttering nonsense about how 'he' is coming back soon and that it will be too late once his building is finished."
"There aren't any other buildings around here, so I thought I'd go check it out."
Nan Yue pondered for a moment. "Then I'll go check out the small woods."
But before that, Nan Yue wanted to ride the loop once to see if the bus really just went back and forth on the same road.
Lu Li and Pu Kun seemed to have the same idea, or perhaps they lacked the courage to act alone.
It wasn't until the third time they passed South Lake that Lu Li finally summoned the courage to get off.
The unfinished building was further down the line, and Nan Yue got off the bus ahead of Pu Kun.
Pu Kun stood on the bus watching her go, feeling strangely as if he were seeing her off to a funeral.
Once the bus drove away, Nan Yue was left entirely alone.
The small woods were dark and gloomy, with no sound of wind, silent as a graveyard.
Nan Yue checked her phone. It was just after eleven in the morning.
She had eaten a full breakfast, so she wasn't in a hurry to get back for lunch.
While waiting for the bus, she had calculated that it seemed to run once an hour.
They had boarded at nine and completed two loops, so the timing was exactly right.
It got dark early here, around five o'clock, so Nan Yue needed to leave by four at the latest.
Having finished her calculations, Nan Yue didn't hesitate and turned to walk into the small woods.
Gu Xiang Kai had been the one to scout the path, but he hadn't dared to stay for long.
With Gu Xiang Kai's experience as a baseline, Nan Yue could afford to stay a bit longer.
The woods were vast with a deep canopy, making it feel as if night had already fallen while walking inside.
Furthermore, the branches all looked remarkably similar, making it very easy to get lost.
This was why Gu Xiang Kai hadn't ventured deeper.
However, Nan Yue had a natural talent for navigation.
She could spot minute differences and construct a map of the path she had walked in her mind.
After walking for half an hour, Nan Yue realized she seemed to be going in circles.
She looked at a curved branch on the right that looked like an octopus.
She was certain she wasn't lost, but rather that there was something wrong with these woods.
Was it a ghost loop?
Normally, a person would panic in this situation.
Being alone without any companions and encountering a ghost loop in the woods would be terrifying for anyone.
But Nan Yue wasn't afraid. She even felt a sense of ease in her heart.
She hadn't felt fear since entering the mission, which made her feel very comfortable.
She didn't seem worried about not being able to get out, nor did she care that she had been walking in the ghost loop for over two hours.
She even began humming a tuneless melody.
After passing that curved branch for the fourth time, she finally reached a new location.
It was a patch of relatively flat land where no trees grew, and there was a massive rock nearby.
Nan Yue's sharp eyes immediately spotted a blackened mark on the rock.
Nan Yue fell into thought for a moment, then reached out to touch it and brought her fingers to her nose.
It smelled like blood.
Her gaze shifted to that overly flat patch of land.
Ground that flat looked like a perfect place to bury something.
Nan Yue assessed the time.
Today was already the third day. She sighed, abandoning the idea of coming back tomorrow with digging tools.
She snapped off a thick branch and began to dig.
Fortunately, whoever hid the items hadn't buried them too deep.
Perhaps they assumed no one would ever come to this eerie-looking forest.
It didn't take long for Nan Yue's digging to strike something.
Nan Yue paused, threw away the branch, and knelt down to start clearing the dirt with her hands.
Slowly, the corpse of a pale woman appeared before her.
Nan Yue stopped her movements.
She looked at the woman lying quietly in the dirt.
Her clothes were tattered and worn, and on the slightly decaying body, she could still vaguely see bruises.
Not to mention the startling red mark circling her neck.
Nan Yue lowered her eyes. She already knew what had happened here.
After a moment's hesitation, she buried the woman back under the soil.
It was already one o'clock, so she didn't stay any longer and began walking out.
She encountered the ghost loop again on her way out.
The time kept slipping away, as if trying to make anyone caught inside feel anxious, but Nan Yue remained calm.
She was busy counting how many ghost loops she encountered.
By the time she stepped out of the woods, it was just a few minutes before three o'clock.
Nan Yue stood by the roadside waiting for the bus, murmuring to herself.
"Four ghost loops both coming and going..."
The injuries on that dead woman were exactly the same as the nightmare Luo Feifei described last night and the bruises on her body today.
And the four ghost loops were far too coincidental given that Zhao Ming lived on the fourth floor.
Nan Yue couldn't help but think more deeply about it. This clue was actually meant for Luo Feifei.
What Luo Feifei encountered last night might not have been an attack, but a warning.
The dead woman was warning Luo Feifei about the consequences of continuing to associate with Zhao Ming.
Of course, as time passed, this warning would eventually turn into an attack by a vengeful spirit.
Nan Yue frowned as she looked at her phone, which had no signal at all.
She wasn't worried about being unable to return, but rather about being unable to warn Luo Feifei.
Yesterday, Luo Feifei and Zhao Ming had agreed to watch a movie together today.
Nan Yue's estimation was correct. Shortly after four, the bus stopped in front of her.
This trip was likely the latest bus they could take.
The sky was gradually darkening. If she hadn't made it onto this bus, it would have been dangerous.
Rate on N.U.
