I’m Actually a Bigshot

Chapter 5: Ghost Bus

At sunset, a tour bus carrying around fifty passengers drove along a bumpy mountain road surrounded by endless wilderness and low hills, with an occasional crow flying across the sky, leaving behind sounds of desolation.

There were no lights, no sounds, no talking, no laughter, no babies crying.
Combined with the dreary weather outside, everything seemed a little lifeless.

No one knew where the bus had come from, no one knew where it was going.

No one knew if the passengers on the bus were even alive or dead.

The bus was full of ‘people’, but the last four rows of the bus were empty, with only five odd passengers who seemed somewhat at odds with the gloomy, lifeless feeling.
There were three in the last row, and a man and a woman sitting together in the penultimate row in a slightly intimate manner.

“Okay, don’t be angry.” The one sitting next to the short-tempered man who was smoking, was a young, clean-looking girl with a soft, southern, watery tone, “We’ve been through two horror worlds already, we can handle anything that comes up.”

 With that, the girl turned her head and said to Su Qingxing, who was sitting behind her, “Don’t mind him, he’s just a bit hot-headed.
My name is Chen Fangfang, and his name is Liu Hai, and he is considered a senior in this ‘World of Endless Terror’.
You guys are newbies, so you must be careful.”

“In a terrifying world like this one, where anyone but the teammates you met at the beginning can be a ghost and anywhere can be dangerous enough to get someone killed, the best thing to do is to stay together.”

 “You’re the only one who talks too much!” The smoking man named Liu Hai glared at Chen Fangfang, while the latter shrank back in slight fear, the relationship between the two did not seem to be as equal as it had appeared.

Su Qingxing did not speak, as the role he played in this world was that of a quiet mute.
Such a role without a presence or any threat could facilitate Su Qingxing to better observe all the trialists around him.

Su Qingxing introduced himself using brush strokes1 and also learned that the old man sitting on his right was called Chen Xiongbing, who claimed to be an ordinary eighty-two year old man with a full family of children, grandchildren and several great-grandchildren who were living a successful life.

However, judging from his facial features, Mr.
Chen looked at most sixty or seventy years old and seemed very calm and spirited.

 The last newcomer was a young woman sitting in the middle of the last row, wearing a somewhat transparent white nightgown, who was now holding the low collar of her top with one hand and tugging down the hem of her skirt with the other, looking both nervous and embarrassed.

 “Aren’t you Xu…… Xu…… Xu Yun? That singer who appeared on TV before? That innocent little diva?” After taking a closer look at the woman in the nightgown, Liu Hai’s expression and eyes changed, similar to the expression a hungry person would show when seeing a roast suckling pig.

 “You, you’ve mistaken me for the wrong person.” The woman in the nightgown turned her head sideways, not looking at Liu Hai’s deadly stare.

“Don’t cover up, big star.” Liu Hai pushed away Chen Fangfang from beside him and stepped forward to sit with Xu Yun in the front row, smiling lecherously, “You’ll follow me later, and I’ll definitely let you get out of here…..
safely.”

“Squeak~~~”

“Bang!”

The sudden emergency brake caught the people in the car by surprise, and everyone, including Su Qingxing, hit the back of the seat in front of them and couldn’t help but cry out in pain.

In terms of racial traits2, Su Qingxing was a “mage” who could attack and defend, but his physique and reflexes are also a mess.
The only thing he could do was to hold on to Old Man Chen, who was barely supported by his crutches, as soon as he hit himself painfully.

“Ah!”

No one was worse off than Xu Yun, sitting in the middle of the last row, who plunged straight forward head first without being stopped, the lower half of her body in full view as the hem of her skirt lifted.

 Xu Yun hurriedly pulled her skirt down, but accidentally revealed a part of her chest, making Liu Hai’s eyes glaze over as he sat next to her, unable to move his gaze away.

Just as Xu Yun was anxious and angry, with tears falling from her eyes, an inky blue school blazer with a white trim suddenly covered her shoulders.

“Ah, ah ah ……” Su Qingxing just squatted behind Xu Yun, gesturing for her to put the jacket on.

“It’s really in the way.” Su Qingxing heard Liu Hai next to him mumble through clenched teeth.

After the emergency brakes were applied, the tour bus began to start slowly once again.

But this time, there was a big change within the bus.

The roof was lit up on both sides and there were whispers of other passengers, and Su Qingxing even heard the cries of babies, music and the sound of games being played.

Although the high back of the seats prevented Su Qingxing from seeing the passengers in front of him, the whole interior of the bus seemed to have suddenly come to life and no longer seemed lifeless.

“It’s starting.” Even Liu Hai’s expression turned serious.

“What’s going on?” As a newcomer, old man Chen had already shown a calmness beyond his usual level, but he was still somewhat unable to understand the situation inside the bus.

 Su Qingxing, who was helping Xu Yun get up, also showed a puzzled expression.

“When a horror world starts, we are given a period of time to prepare.” Chen Fangfang explained softly, “During this time, we can get to know the situation and introduce ourselves, and there won’t be any dangerous situations.”

“But after this time passes, the real horror will come.” Liu Hai stared at the passengers, whose faces could not be seen, sitting at the front of the bus, “And no one knows what way it will be.”

“It looks pretty normal now.” When Old Man Chen finished, Su Qingxing nodded as well.

 “I want to go back!!!” Just at this moment, Xu Yun, whom Su Qingxing was supporting, suddenly pushed him away, tugged firmly on the school blazer and rushed forward along the aisle of the bus, “Driver, driver! Please take me back to Hukai City, I can give you a lot of money! Or you can just bring me to a nearby station!”

At first, no matter how loudly Xu Yun shouted, the other passengers on the bus seemed to be deaf to everything and continued to go about their business.

But when Xu Yun ran to the fifth row from the bottom, the lights in the bus went out instantly!

 “Snap, snap ……”

In the gloomy bus compartment that had turned dark in an instant, a small leather ball suddenly rolled down from one of the rows of seats, jumping several times before landing at Xu Yun’s feet.

Xu Yun, who was frozen because the lights suddenly went out, subconsciously looked at the white, small leather ball with the design of a cartoon pig on it.

When Su Qingxing fixed his eyes on it, he saw the little white ball rolling around Xu Yun’s feet a few times before turning into a pale head belonging to a small child!

“Sister?” The bulging eyeballs, the pale, greenish skin, the corners of the bloodied mouth suddenly grinned with a creepy smile, “Did you see my head?”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Xu Yun’s piercing scream instantly rang out in the carriage.

Su Qingxing immediately dragged Xu Yun back to her seat in the fourth-to-the-last row.

The lights came back on.

The ordinary, calm, lively sounds of the carriage reappeared.

 The head, which had turned into a leather ball, disappeared as if it had never appeared in the first place.

 “It seems that as long as we move around in the last four rows, we are safe for the time being.” Liu Hai got up from his seat and looked at the other passengers in the carriage, “But as soon as we leave the last four rows, the ghost will appear.”

 “If we keep sitting in the car, can we leave once the car reaches its destination?” Old Mr Chen’s voice was steady, but the hand holding the cane trembled slightly, and Su Qingxing, who was helping Xu Yun back to her seat, happened to notice this.

“It can’t be that simple.” Liu Hai retorted with a frown, “Although it looks safe now, if we really stay here all the time, I’m afraid there’s no way we’d be able to get off this bus alive.”

“Squeak~~~”

As soon as Liu Hai’s words left his mouth, the bus braked sharply once again, only this time, everyone was a little more prepared and not at all as wretched as they had been at the beginning.

“Ah!” Su Qingxing suddenly heard something moving, so he immediately stretched out his finger towards the door of the bus and made a sound, hoping that everyone would look towards the direction he was pointing.

 Immediately afterwards, there was a creaking sound and the tour bus not only came to a complete stop, but also opened its doors!

 The door was open!

 That’s the only way out of the bus!

 “It’s the station!” Chen Fangfang looked through the window, “Liu Hai, it’s the station!”

 Everyone looked out of the window, and sure enough, under the dark night, a very ordinary-looking bus stop was sitting on the side of the road.
To Chen Fangfang and the others, the lights from street lamps and vending machines felt as warm as home!

 “The bus won’t stop for no reason, nor will it appear at the station for no reason…” Liu Hai muttered to himself, and then gave Chen Fangfang a fierce look, “Fangfang, go ahead and take a look, Maybe this is our chance to get off, hurry up!”

“I… I’m not going!” Chen Fangfang shrank back into the seat, her eyes a little scared, “You saw what just happened, obviously so many scapegoats here …… so many people, why should I be the one to go.”

“Hmph.” Liu Hai snorted coldly and looked directly in Su Qingxing’s direction, “Kid, I see you’re quite resourceful, why don’t you……”

It’s normal for unexpected things to happen from time to time.
Before Liu Hai could finish his sentence, the bus suddenly moved slightly, as if it was about to depart!

“It’s too late, everyone run, close your fucking eyes if you’re scared!”

Seeing that the bus was about to start up again, Liu Hai, who couldn’t care less about trying and finding someone to experiment with, was the first to get up from his seat and rush out, followed by Chen Fangfang.

At the same time, the lights in the bus started flashing like an old horror movie!

“Ah!” Su Qingxing immediately told Xu Yun and Chen Lao to get up and gestured anxiously for them to follow Liu Hai and Chen Fangfang’s lead.

Xu Yun was still in a daze, but seeing that Liu Hai and Chen Fangfang had already started to walk ahead, she finally closed her eyes and grit her teeth as she rushed out.

“Run, child, don’t wait for me!” Old Mr.
Chen also struggled to get up with his cane, but his figure was still a bit wobbly, “These old bones are no good, after sitting for a long time, I can’t get up or stand steady and run, if only I’d been younger……”

“Son, you go first alone! Go!”

Su Qingxing ignored Mr.
Chen’s urging, and supported the old man’s body, walking forward step by step under the flickering lights of the bus.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” The fearful screams of Xu Yun and the others came from the front of the carriage, but the footsteps continued to run outwards without stopping.

When Su Qingxing assisted Old Mr. Chen3 to the fifth row from the bottom, it quickly became clear what Xu Yun and the others were so afraid of……

Although the carriage was full of passengers sitting at the front, those passengers……

    ………were actually all kinds of paper-dolls people used at funerals!

The ghastly white paper-dolls sat under the flickering lights, the exaggerated makeup sending a chill down everybody’s spines, and worse, each paper-doll seemed to be smiling.

“Hee hee hee hee hee ……”

“Hee Hee Hee Hee…..”

The further they went, the louder this terrible laughter got, drilling deeper and deeper into their brains!

It was unclear if it was because the door to the bus was open, but the head that had just turned into a leather ball didn’t appear again, so the paper-dolls just sat peacefully in their places, their painted eyes staring intently at everyone who walked past the aisle……

“Hee hee hee hee hee ……”

“Mute4, leave the old man alone! Hurry the fuck down, at least you’ll survive!” Liu Hai’s voice came from the outside of the bus, apparently having gotten off unharmed.

Old Mr Chen also kept waving his cane, telling Su Qingxing to get off the bus quickly.
He even wanted to beat up this stubborn child who refused to stop holding on to him.

“It’s okay.” As the bus door creaked shut, Su Qingxing suddenly smiled at Mr.
Chen, “It’s okay to stay on the bus.”

 The tour bus had already started moving, and Su Qingxing could even see Liu Hai cursing at the bus at the station outside, and Xu Yun, who was clutching his school blazer with her hands, was also looking at the departing bus with some concern.

“Qingxing, you……” Hearing Su Qingxing suddenly speak up, old man Chen also froze in his tracks, not even considering whether the still laughing paper-dolls around them would attack suddenly.

 “Dead soul number MS8001, Chen Xiongbing.
Date of death 11 May 2018, experienced sudden discomfort during morning exercise, resulting in the end of his life.” Su Qingxing read out Old Man Chen’s information and looked at the old man who was leaning on his cane while still standing straight, “Left a killing karma in life, hmm…… was it during that war over sixty years ago?”

Old Mr.
Chen froze for a while, then knocked on the carriage floor with his cane and said with emotion, “Su Qingxing, you’re really hiding too deep!”

The lights in the tour bus turned bright, no longer flickering, and all the paper-dolls sat properly in their seats, their brows lowered and eyes downcast in obedience.

Footnotes:

1. Chinese characters are written using strokes, traditionally, brush strokes.

2.
The phrase used here is 种族 zhǒng zúrace; ethnicity 特性tè xìng property; characteristic.

3.
For some reason, the author had written Zhang instead of Chen, which is most probably a typo

4.
哑巴 yǎ ba mute; muted; a dumb person; to be dumb.
Should i keep it as mute or should I change it to dumb/dumbo?