"Doctor." Fatty spoke, his face pale, his eyes fixed on the stairs, clearly having heard the knocking as well.

The knocking was unhurried, as if the person had plenty of patience, but after listening for a while, it carried an indescribable stiffness.

It was as if what was knocking wasn't a person, but a withered, gaunt corpse.

"Huai Yi," Jiang Cheng said softly into his phone, "My downstairs door is knocking too."

"What?"

"Don't panic, listen to me." Jiang Cheng said, "I'll go downstairs to open the door. Don't hang up the phone, don't move around, wait for my news."

"Okay... okay, Jiang-ge, be careful." Huai Yi seemed to be frightened silly, shrinking on the bed and trembling, his brain somewhat crashed. As long as he didn't have to open the door, he would do anything.

Jiang Cheng turned his head and glanced at Fatty. "You stay upstairs. Don't come down unless I call you." He paused, then continued, "If there's no movement downstairs for a minute, jump out the window and go the way I took you last time, to find Lin Wan'er."

Just as he was about to continue instructing him, Fatty stepped forward and walked down the stairs.

Jiang Cheng followed behind Fatty, and the two of them arrived at the door together. Fatty's expression was firm, and he nodded to Jiang Cheng, indicating that he was ready.

Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng yanked the door open.

The outside was empty. Only two small scraps of paper were in the air, spinning as they fell to the ground.

As if a hand had been holding them just a second before.

"Is this... a ticket?" Fatty stared at the scraps of paper that Jiang Cheng picked up and asked softly.

Jiang Cheng stared at the scraps of paper in his hand. The paper felt hard to the touch, and the edges were jagged. The words on it were blurred, as if they had been soaked in water.

After confirming that there was nothing else outside, Jiang Cheng closed the door and told Huai Yi over the phone what had happened on his end.

About a minute later, Huai Yi also reported that the knocking disappeared the moment he opened the door. He found an old ticket with illegible writing outside, just like their situation.

Three people, three old tickets. This reminded Jiang Cheng of the people he met at the bus stop.

No, the ghosts.

They were all dead, and the cause of their death was receiving a ticket of unknown origin.

This wasn't a ticket at all, it was more like a death warrant.

But for some reason, the fear he felt toward that bus lessened a lot. He gradually shifted his gaze to Fatty at his side.

From this Fatty's face, he could see the tension before a fierce battle, but he couldn't find the helplessness and fear he had once felt.

About an hour later, the door was knocked on again.

It was Huai Yi.

He was carrying a large backpack and a laptop bag. It seemed he was prepared to stay for a long time.

After all, the ticket had already been delivered. It wouldn't be long before they met that bus again.

Fatty stepped forward to take the bag from Huai Yi and helped him settle in.

According to Jiang Cheng's plan, everyone would sleep upstairs at night.

Fatty comforted Huai Yi, telling him not to be afraid, that he would sleep on the sofa at night, and he could sleep on the floor next to him.

"Have you settled everything you wanted to do?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Huai Yi took a deep breath and said regretfully, "It was a bit rushed. I entrusted the rest to a friend."

Nodding, Jiang Cheng didn't ask any further questions.

The three tickets were each kept by the person who received them. Just as Fatty was wondering if he and the doctor would get the wrong tickets, Jiang Cheng patted him on the shoulder, signaling him not to worry. Judging from the style of the tickets, they dated back at least several decades, and there was no concept of real-name registration back then.

"Real-name registration..." Huai Yi moved his lips, wanting to ask Jiang Cheng if he was serious. It just didn't sound reliable.

But then he thought about it. He was the weakest one here, so he should just shut up.

So another person joined their boring life. The three of them ate and lived together. At first, Huai Yi was a bit reserved, after all, this wasn't a nightmare, it was the real world. But later, seeing that Jiang Cheng and Fatty weren't anything special, he simply relaxed.

At the same time, Huai Yi was responsible for collecting information from the outside through his channels and telling it to Jiang Cheng and Fatty.

During this time, Lin Wan'er seemed to have disappeared, with no news at all.

Along with Lin Wan'er, Wu, who was inside Jiang Cheng's body, had also disappeared.

Ever since leaving that courtyard, Wu had been missing. Jiang Cheng guessed it should be related to the scroll Lin Wan'er gave him.

Intuition told him that the scroll was also a door, and a very special door at that. Wu's agreement to Lin Wan'er's deal wasn't entirely out of fear, the scroll was also very attractive to Wu.

At night, when he was alone, he tried to call Wu out, wanting to ask him face to face, but Wu always avoided him, as if he had done something shameful behind his back.

During this time, Jiang Cheng and Fatty were in good condition, but Huai Yi was always thinking about the strange bus, and he often couldn't sleep soundly at night.

Once, Fatty woke up groggily and wanted to go to the bathroom. As soon as he got up, he saw Huai Yi sitting on the ground a meter away from him, with his eyes wide open and without making a sound, scaring Fatty so much that he almost fell off the sofa.

The next morning, he complained to the doctor, saying that this kid Huai Yi wasn't learning to be good, not sleeping in the middle of the night, and pretending to be a ghost to scare him.

Huai Yi said with a sad face, how dare I scare you, Brother Fugui? I also want to have a good sleep, but I easily overthink things as soon as it gets dark.

...

The peaceful life didn't last long. Finally, one night, Huai Yi had a rare good sleep. The clock on the wall ticked away, and everything seemed normal.

But gradually, the second hand seemed to be hindered in some way, and it moved slower and slower, until finally, with a "tick," it stopped.

The next second, the three of them woke up almost simultaneously.

Going down the stairs, opening the door, a fog had risen outside at some point, and the visibility was very poor, only about 4 or 5 meters.

All the nearby lights were off, and the surroundings were quiet.

A light appeared in the fog, not the white kind, but a hazy, yellowish light, like the eyes of a monster.

The moment he saw the light, Jiang Cheng knew what it was.

It was that bus!

It's here again...

Clenching the ticket, the three of them walked into the fog under Jiang Cheng's lead, heading towards the bus.

It was the same as before, they could only see the front half of the bus, and the entire area behind the bus was shrouded in darkness.

Unlike the grey fog, behind the bus was endless darkness, the kind of feeling that was like dragging an entire piece of darkness forward.

Jiang Cheng suddenly had a bold idea, perhaps... there was another world hidden in this boundless darkness.

"Creak—"

The door slowly opened, and the noise it made was like ripples, traveling far in the silent night.

Huai Yi couldn't help but clench his fists, his heart rate also accelerating.

A hand reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "Stick close to me." Jiang Cheng took a step and was the first to board the bus.