Free Web NovelThat night, the sky was overcast, and a bone-chilling cold wind with a hint of dampness blew. It looked like the first snow after Hua City entered winter was about to fall.
On such a cold night, Ding Yue sat alone on the bench at the bus stop at 13 Yuntai Road, Hua City New District, staring blankly at the paper scraps dancing in the wind on the empty street.
He was sulking with his girlfriend, and egged on by his childhood friends, he mustered the courage to come here to wait for the last bus of the Route 101.
Recently, his girlfriend had become obsessed with urban legend videos on a certain platform, getting very close to a guy who specialized in filming urban legend exploration short videos, so close that Ding Yue felt like he was being cuckolded.
But how could he just let go of a girlfriend he had been with for so many years?
A few days ago, he called some childhood friends, treated them to drinks, and asked for advice on how to salvage the relationship.
After an analysis by a certain friend who had never been in a relationship but had watched countless romantic shows and considered himself an expert on love, they reached a conclusion.
They believed it was because the first-person perspective filming style of the urban legend short videos was very immersive, the content was thrilling and exciting, and combined with the fact that the only person who ever appeared in those videos was that small online celebrity, this made Ding Yue's girlfriend find a false sense of security in the small online celebrity.
Although Ding Yue wasn't sure if his childhood friends' explanation was the real situation, at least this explanation made him feel much better.
And the idea they gave Ding Yue was for him to imitate that small online celebrity, film some urban legend short videos, and then show them to his girlfriend.
After hearing his childhood friends' suggestion, Ding Yue immediately decided it was a terrible idea, because when he was young, he had actually seen urban legend.
This was also one of the reasons why he strongly prevented his girlfriend from getting too close to that small online celebrity who filmed urban legend short videos.
However, people in love are often irrational and easily fall into extremism and madness.
In the end, he still came, arriving at the place where he first saw urban legend.
Earlier today, his girlfriend insisted on attending the fan meeting organized by that small online celebrity, and even planned to stay overnight with a group of people in a place frequented by urban legend.
Because of this, he had a big fight with his girlfriend, stormed out, and driven by anger, he unknowingly walked here, to the place where his old family home used to be.
When Ding Yue used to live nearby, he was only twelve or thirteen years old. The urban renovation project in Hua City hadn't started yet, and Hua City New District was still a cluster of dilapidated old houses. His family lived in a red brick house near the street, and he was often woken up at night by the noise from passing vehicles.
To this day, he has forgotten many things, but he still clearly remembers the night he saw urban legend.
That day, he was woken up by a loud bus horn. When he woke up, he glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table; it was exactly 2:30 AM.
At that time, no matter the route, the latest bus in Hua City departed at no later than eleven o'clock at night. Logically, there shouldn't be any buses on the street past two in the morning.
Filled with doubt and annoyance from being woken up, young Ding Yue got out of bed, went to the window, and looked towards the bus stop not far from his house on the street side, where he saw an unbelievable scene.
Under the late autumn night sky, a few wisps of white mist drifted on the cold, quiet street. An old Route 101 bus was parked in front of the bus stop. There was no one on the platform, and the lights inside the bus were off.
But inside that old bus compartment, people were packed shoulder to shoulder, even more crowded than during morning and evening rush hours, yet they didn't make a single sound, just stood silently in the darkness.
When Ding Yue first saw this scene, he didn't associate it with urban legend incidents. He just grumbled and went back to bed, turned on his MP3 player, put on his headphones, and soon fell into a deep sleep with the music.
This incident was just a small interlude in his life, something that should have been forgotten long ago, until he unintentionally saw a highly popular discussion thread on a certain forum when he was in college. Only then were his dusty memories reawakened and gradually became clear.
The first post that caught his attention was one introducing various bus urban legend incidents. Bored, he clicked into it and skimmed through it. Various bizarre and strange legends failed to stir his emotions, until he saw the urban legend incident related to Hua City's Route 101.
That post said that the last bus of Hua City's Route 101 departing at eleven o'clock was not actually the real last bus.
Every night at exactly two o'clock, there would be an unknown last bus on Route 101, quietly driving out of the starting station under the cover of darkness, and heading all the way to a station that didn't exist on any sign.
In addition to a simple introduction, that post also included a link recording the detailed process of the urban legend incident.
When Ding Yue saw the post about the Route 101 urban legend incident and recalled his childhood experience, he already felt a chill down his spine. And after reading the post linked, he couldn't sleep for several days.
The linked post was published very early, and judging from the time, it was roughly the same time Ding Yue witnessed the strange bus appearing late at night.
The poster was a man named Wang. After getting drunk in the early morning, he walked in a daze to the bus stop where Route 101 passed and successfully got on the bus.
He usually took this route to go home. freeweɓnøvel.com
After getting on the bus and traveling for about twenty minutes, the man was blown by the cold wind from outside the window, and his drunkenness gradually dissipated. When he came to his senses and checked the time, he was shocked and terrified to find that he had actually boarded a bus that should have stopped running past two in the morning.
The bus compartment was very quiet. The lights were off, and there were no other passengers. It was pitch black. The man sitting in the back row wasn't even sure if there was anyone in the driver's seat.
The man, feeling confused and terrified, posted online for help, hoping to get assistance from netizens. However, perhaps because it was too late, he didn't receive many useful responses.
The man's second post was over an hour later.
He claimed that after passing through a tunnel he had never seen before, he arrived at a station that didn't exist on any sign. He found that not only was the station empty, but the street outside after exiting was also deserted, and his phone's location tracking was completely useless.
He tried to call his family and the police for help, but after his family and the police questioned him in detail about the situation, it was treated as a prank, because that station simply did not exist in Hua City.
As time got later and later, with no sign of the sky getting lighter, the man kept chatting with the netizens who were gradually gathering under his post, as if this could slightly alleviate his fear.
Shortly after four in the morning, he posted, saying that the sounds of gongs and suonas were coming from nearby, and a group of people whose faces he couldn't see appeared on the street in the distance, carrying white paper lanterns and something very large as they moved forward.
Although the man deliberately avoided mentioning the word "coffin," upon seeing his post, netizens immediately realized that something was wrong and told him to quickly follow along and leave the vicinity of the station.
Following the netizens' advice, the man bravely walked through the dark tunnel and indeed encountered other people. The other party kindly offered to give him a free ride.
After being tossed around for a while, the man was too tired. Ignoring the netizens' warnings, he got into the stranger's car.
At 4:40 AM, the man posted again.
He said, "The driver is driving the car up the mountain. I tried to stop him, but he won't listen to me when I talk to him. What should I do? I'm going crazy!"
"My name is Wang XX, my ID number is 5104xxxxxxxxxx0912. If I disappear or die, please report this person to the police 【Image】【Image】."
The phone cameras of that era didn't have high resolution, and the light in the car was dim. The photos the man took were blurry and inexplicably eerie.
Glancing over the photos without paying close attention, one felt that the driver, whose profile was captured, had a pale, greenish face, dull, lifeless eyes that were turned towards the corner at an exaggerated angle, and a stiff, upward-curving mouth, as if sneering.
That gaze seemed to be looking at the man in the back seat, and also at every netizen behind the screen, which terrified many people at the time.
"This driver is not a living person! I just pushed him and found his body was cold and hard, like a stone! No, I can't do this anymore, I'm going to jump out of the car and escape!"
At 4:44 AM, the man left his last post. From then on, he never appeared on the forum again.
People nowadays are good at forgetting.
That post, which was eerie in every detail, was quickly forgotten after being popular for a while. Enthusiastic netizens had reported the man named Wang to the police, but there was no follow-up.
And now is an era of entertainment to death.
When Ding Yue scrolled to the end of that post, while people sighed about the man's experience, their words also carried a bit of mockery.
In the end, only the phrase "burn incense" remained.
However, after Ding Yue read that old post, whose appearance time was very subtle, he quickly associated it with the strange scene he had seen on a certain night when he was young, and was surprised that the memory was so clear when it was reawakened, as if it had happened just yesterday.
That memory tormented him for a long time. He was once worried that he would be picked up by a strange bus on some night, and it wasn't until several months later that he barely recovered.
----
Now, sitting on this deserted midnight platform, the memories of his youth and the content of those two posts surged in Ding Yue's mind. His body temperature also seemed to gradually drop along with the chill rising from the bottom of his heart.
"Hiss—!"
Ding Yue lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, then threw it on the ground and fiercely stamped it out.
After waiting for a long time, the legendary last bus of Route 101, said to travel through the city in the early morning, did not appear, and he was ready to leave.
Maybe he should go find her and see what they are doing?
Thinking this, Ding Yue took out his phone and sent a message to his girlfriend.
Ding Yue: "Honey, how's it going over there? Are you done? If you are, I'll come pick you up."
More than ten minutes later.
Honey: "【Image】【Image】 It's pretty good. They said it's best not to use phones when exploring spirits. I won't talk to you anymore for now."
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Ding Yue looked at the picture of the hotel corridor sent by his girlfriend in her message, and his brows furrowed.
Although a large part of the urban legend incidents in Hua City occur in hotels, his girlfriend and that internet celebrity didn't go anywhere else but a hotel where urban legend were happening. This made him feel as if something was suddenly blocking his heart, which was very awkward.
Just as he picked up his phone, preparing to question his girlfriend about why she went to a hotel with that little internet celebrity, a "creak-creak" sound suddenly came from the other end of the street.
Following the direction of the sound, a rusty No. 101 bus, as if it had driven out of memory, swayed and stopped in front of Ding Yue.
Hiss—!
The bus door opened, and the driver in the driver's seat stared straight ahead motionlessly, waiting quietly, as if waiting for Ding Yue to get on the bus.
Looking at the empty and dark carriage, Ding Yue gritted his teeth fiercely, took a few photos and sent them to his girlfriend, and then, as if in a fit of pique, jumped onto the bus.
Ding Yue: "Then have fun, I'm also going to play a urban legend game with someone else! 【Pic】【Pic】"
On the other side, in a large bed room in a certain hotel, Ding Yue's girlfriend and the man lying next to her saw the paper bus in the photo and were instantly scared pale.
Afterwards, they tried to contact Ding Yue, but couldn't reach him no matter what.
----
It started snowing lightly at some point in the sky, and tiny snowflakes fell on the glass, melting into strings of water drops.
The buildings on both sides were no longer clearly visible, appearing especially strange. The streetlights were also out, and the surroundings were pitch black. The No. 101 bus Ding Yue was on was like a small boat floating on a black ocean, not knowing where the wind and waves would take it.
He sat in his seat, his face pale.
I really shouldn't have gotten on this bus, just for that unfaithful woman!
Damn it, if I die, I won't let her off even as a ghost!
Ding Yue, who had calmed down slightly, thought fiercely in his heart, gripping the handrail tightly with both hands until his knuckles turned white.
He clearly remembered that after the No. 101 bus left the front of his old house, there were at least a dozen more stops, but the bus had been driving for almost an hour now, and no stops had appeared, nor had it stopped even once.
He tried calling out a few times, asking the driver to stop, but got no response at all.
He didn't dare to rush into the driver's cabin to force the driver to stop, because on the floor of the seat next to him, a pair of strange high heels blocked his way.
They were a pair of brand new red high heels with very thin and long heels, yet they showed no sign of tipping over on this bumpy and shaking bus.
Ding Yue didn't know when the high heels appeared, perhaps in the few minutes he accidentally fell asleep. In short, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the pair of shoes, quietly placed on the floor of the seat beside him.
This scene made his fading anger turn into fear, and for a moment, he didn't dare to act rashly.
He just stayed in a stalemate with those high heels, feeling more chilling and oppressive, as if something was beside him, as if a woman was sitting in that empty seat.
He didn't know how long passed, and just as Ding Yue felt his mind was about to break down, the bus suddenly stopped.
He didn't have time to think or confirm what was outside the window, so he quickly got up, preparing to get off the bus. However, just before he moved, the sight before his eyes made his legs go weak and he collapsed back onto the seat.
The pair of high heels moved before him, walking towards the open door with elegant steps, as if being worn by an invisible person.
Tap—tap—tap—!
The light sound of the thin heels hitting the ground seemed to strike Ding Yue's nerves with every tap. He watched helplessly as the pair of high heels walked away, gradually disappearing into the dark carriage, and it was a long time before he came back to his senses, remembered to get off the bus, and scrambled towards the door.
Arriving at the door, Ding Yue was stunned again by the sight outside.
He saw that outside the door was a desolate wasteland overgrown with weeds. Some paper money, wet with snowmelt, hung on the bushes, bending the branches. In the distance, a cluster of tall buildings he had never seen before stood, without any lights, looking like a field of gravestones from afar.
Just as Ding Yue stood blankly at the door, hesitating whether to get off, a woman entered his sight.
Snowflakes were falling outside. A woman in a red raincoat stood alone in the center of the bus stop. Snowflakes fell on her head, melting into water drops that slid down the brim of her hood, wetting her hair, and then dripped onto the ground like fresh blood, staining the ground red.
She wore a mask on her face, only revealing a pair of eyes, but even so, looking at those eyes would still make one feel that she must be a beauty.
But how could a beautiful Miss suddenly appear in a place like this? Ding Yue thought, his heart growing more uneasy.
Hiss—!
The moment the woman appeared in front of the door, the driver immediately closed it, as if not wanting her to get on, and then suddenly accelerated and drove forward.
Due to inertia, Ding Yue stumbled and fell to the ground, feeling dizzy. He climbed up after a while, and his pupils contracted violently as his peripheral vision swept across the window.
Due to the high speed, the scenery outside the window became blurred, but the woman in the red raincoat was chasing the bus relentlessly as if flying. Behind her, a dark red blood mist surged, constantly condensing into various hideous and terrifying shapes.
Her slender fingertips scratched the exterior of the bus, accompanied by a grating sound that made one's teeth ache and dazzling sparks flying. A patch of foul-smelling black blood actually sprayed from the bus body.
Then.
The woman took off the mask on her face, opened her red lips slightly, and let out a twisted, grotesque shriek.
That shriek was like the dying wails of hundreds of people, filled with extremely negative emotions.
Ding Yue only listened for less than a second, but he felt his whole body turn cold, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. His body, mind, soul, will, and spirit were all trembling and chilling non-stop.
The pain was like an ice-cold steel rod being plunged into his brain and violently stirred, spreading from his head to his whole body. His consciousness felt like it was being peeled away from his body and flying towards the woman.
His vision gradually blurred.
A few seconds later, his body went limp and he fell to the ground. Hot, sticky, sweet-smelling liquid continuously surged out of his mouth and nose. The second before «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» losing consciousness, he heard a conversation with unclear meaning.
"Liche Jiang, you were the one who attacked me a few days ago, weren't you? Do you really think you can stop my Night Parade of One Hundred Demons?" A woman's voice said coldly.
"Twilight Woman, you're going too far! I've been turning a blind eye to what you've been doing, don't look for some groundless excuses." A rough low growl came from the driver's cabin.
"Moreover, do you really think you can succeed? The true Night Parade of One Hundred Demons isn't just a group of urban legend gathering at night to rampage and occupy territory."
"Heh, I know what you want to say." The woman sneered, "Unifying the hundred demons, making them follow, parading on a moonless night, their aura connected to the earth's veins – that is the true Night Parade of One Hundred Demons."
"But nowadays, how many urban legend can do that? I only need to do the superficial work!"
"And now, what I need to do is hunt!"
...
After that, Ding Yue heard a series of violent explosions that he had never imagined before, as if two terrifying giant monsters were fighting to the death in a place he couldn't see.
Then, he felt something crawl out of his pants pocket where he had his phone. It seemed to be some kind of cold bug. The bug crawled all the way up to his face, next to his ear, and asked a question like a devil's whisper.
"Kid, in this situation, you're probably not going to live. How about we make a deal while your life force hasn't dissipated?"
A deal? What deal?
Ding Yue wanted to ask, but couldn't open his mouth. However, the source of the voice seemed to know what he was thinking and continued, "Sacrifice ten years of your lifespan to me, and I'll help you fulfill your dying wish."
...
After a long silence, Ding Yue difficultly squeezed out a "Good" from between his teeth.
"Alright, deal made. I'll have someone teach your ex-girlfriend and her current hookup a lesson."
Whether it was the phrase "ex-girlfriend and current hookup" that stimulated Ding Yue, or if his injuries were too severe and he was dying, as soon as the little bug finished speaking, his body convulsed violently.
He then felt something being drawn out of his body, and immediately lost consciousness completely, losing his breath within ten seconds.
In the darkness, a Xiao Bai bug crawled onto Ding Yue's forehead, looked at the two figures fighting outside the carriage, and sighed softly.
"Ah! They're really fighting intensely! Looking for Li Kui and killing Li Gui, just because he has the special ability to create explosions, he got targeted. Liche Jiang is really unlucky."
"I wonder how Wang Bu Liu Xing will handle this matter in the end."
"I hope she can handle it perfectly and not die. We're all urban legend with similar fates. I'm still hoping to observe her choices as a reference to avoid pitfalls on my future path!"
After finishing his monologue, the Xiao Bai bug slowly crawled over Ding Yue's corpse, drilled into his phone, and disappeared.
