The distribution of seats was roughly like this: There were three seats per row. There were only two people in the front row â the tall woman and the very tightly bundled person that seemed to be a man.
So Fu Mingchen referred to them as âTall Womanâ and âTight Man.â
Fu Mingchenâs impression of âTight Manâ was that he was tightly wrapped up and very weird. The âTall Girlâ⌠maybe because she got onto the bus behind Fu Mingchen, he didnât remember what she looked like. He just remembered that when he got up to change seats, he inadvertently saw the other person wearing black formal clothes with a pair of red high heels.
They were a bit of a dazzling shade of red, so even though he only saw them out of the corner of his eye, they still left an impression on Fu Mingchen.
While Fu Mingchen sat a few rows behind those two, Qiu Qiu sat in the third row and Liu Qi in the fourth row. After rotating their seats, the two were smiling and chatting face-to-face.
Fu Mingchen himself sat in the fifth row with a male colleague. The passenger in the same row was a lone passenger who looked good but was wearing sunglasses in the compartment.
There were three elderly people sitting in the row behind them. Only one was male. They didnât make loud noises, nor did they eat smelly food. They were just gently discussing the nightmare world that young people were paying attention to recently, and occasionally sighed with the younger family. It sounded like they were in-laws, maybe.
There were originally only two seats in the last row, but there was a family of three there. The young parents sat together without speaking. Their expressions were somewhat complicated. Their four or five year old son sat in the specially prepared childâs seat on the bus. The chair looked more comfortable than an adultâs seat. The little boy was happily nestled in it and playing on the tablet, taking pictures of his parents from time to time, completely unaffected by the strange atmosphere around his parents.
The little boy sat on the extra childâs chair, which is why there was a seat vacant in the first row.
The male colleague sitting next to Fu Mingchen shared a good relationship with him. After all, there were only so many people in their small marketing department. As long as they worked together, they could always chat togeher.
The other party may have seen Fu Mingchen looking toward the front from time to time, and quietly approached his seat, then patted him. He lowered his voice and said, âA-Chen, are you still thinking about Qiu Meiren?â
The seats in the compartment were very far apart, so they didnât have to worry about being heard from the front as long as they lowered their voices.
Fu Mingchen just sat there without saying a word, then pretended to shut his eyes to rest.
His colleague patted him again. âDonât pretend to be stupid. Since our first experience in the nightmare world, your face has been ugly as if someone owes you money. Those songbirds surrounding Liu Qi didnât notice, but all of us guys could see it.â
Without waiting for Fu Mingchen to answer, his colleague said, âDonât be unwilling. After all, Manager Liu is the bossâs son. He is now a veteran trainer that we canât measure up to at all, and knows to many things about the nightmare world. How could we match?â
Fu Mingchen still didnât open his eyes, but the scene where he first met Qiu Qiu appeared in his mind.
The reason why Fu Mingchen considered Qiu Qiu the goddess of secret love wasnât just because she was the flower of the marketing department. It was also because when Qiu Qiu first joined the company, Fu Mingchen was already an intern there, and they were considered seniors and juniors among the interns.
At that time, the old man in the marketing department let Fu Mingchen give Qiu Qiu a tour to familiarize herself with the department. Qiu Qiu, who had just graduated at the time, didnât even know how to apply make-up. At most, she could only put on lipstick. She walked at Fu Mingchenâs side everyday, serving tea and water, and getting advice from a âsenior.â
Thatâs how Fu Mingchen fell.
But Qiu Qiu wasnât enthusiastic to just him, but also to everyone else in the marketing department. She flew around like a bee doing this and that all day, and in the end was more positive than Fu Mingchen.
Fu Mingchen watched the beautiful little bee with a plain face put on professional attire, dye her wavy hair, and refine her make-up as her appearance became colder. He no longer remembered how long itâs been since Qiu Qiu has called the others âsenior.â
He didnât know when it started. Qiu Qiu would only speak to him when she wanted him to do something, then coldly call him âXiao Fu.â
She became the Flower of Gaoling, but Fu Mingchen had already lost sight of everyone.
Despite that, Fu Mingchen tried his best to be perfect. With a certified crush, Fu Mingchen would be happy for a long time as long as Qiu Qiu politely smiled and nodded after he finished his assignment.
If possible, Fu Mingchen would rather Qiu Qiu always be the a Flower of Gaoling instead of sitting in front of Liu Qi as she was now, speaking with a bright smile and twirling her hair.
Fu Mingchen opened his eyes and muttered softly: âHow could you be so willing?â
The colleague became interested when he heard Fu Mingchen speak, and continued to respond to him: âWhat can you do if youâre not willing? Nobody in the company cares, and no one in the nightmare does, either. Letâs accept your fate.â
Fu Mingchen was unconvinced. âIf you treat the nightmare world like a game, but itâs a game rich second gens canât spend money on, then people who enter the nightmare world late really donât have a chance to catch up?â
With that, Fu Mingchen pinched the back of his hand, feeling that he needed to calm down and not blurt everything out.
The colleague also looked strange. âIâve experienced the nightmare world 9 times. Can you use your head to catch up?â
The colleagueâs words were like a knife to Fu Mingchenâs chest. He didnât want to shut his eyes or look at the men and women talking and laughing in front of him. He simply observed the young man sitting to his right.
The young manâs skin appeared cold and white in the light, and Fu Mingchen flicked his eyes toward the otherâs face for a while.
After forcing himself to look away, Fu Mingchen told himself that his skin would indeed appear whiter when wearing sunglasses.
Then Fu Mingchen saw a black and white backpack next to the seat. The style was somewhat outdated, it wasnât particularly attractive, and there was no logo on it.
If itâs a name-brand backpack, it would normally be marked with a logo in an obvious spot. Fu Mingchen had done some research on brands because of his work, so at a glance, he felt that the backpack next to him was ordinary, like he had bought it online.
On the other hand, the pair of light brown sunglasses had such an obvious logo on their frames. It was probably a famous brand that cost 700 or 800 yuan, in a style that could be seen everywhere in the mall.
As a result Fu Mingchen felt that the neighbors he encountered on this journey were the kind of petty bourgeois families who were relatively rich but not too rich â those who could afford famous brands, but didnât have the habit of being surrounded by those famous brands. There may not be too many people poisoned by famous brands in this environment.
Or so Fu Mingchen thought, but he was a little envious.
His family background wasnât very good. Although the income from his job wasnât bad, his colleagues and the people around him who came and went from the company building all loved parties and famous brands. As a result, Fu Mingchen, who had been reluctantly following their footsteps, felt very tired. He didnât have any money left to travel alone.
Even if Fu Mingchen was covered in famous brands now, the balance in his bank account may not even be as good as the young man next to him who was traveling alone.
Maybe he was staring at his neighbor for too long, but Fu Mingchen suddenly found that the other person had turned his head and smiled at him.
It was a very polite smile, but it didnât seem very warm.
Fu Mingchen turned his head away and didnât dare look back for a while, embarrassed. When Fu Mingchen noticed more motion from his right side, he looked out of the corner of his eye to see his neighbor had walked to the back and was heading to the second floor of the bus.
The young man going up the stairs was naturally Su Zimo.
Originally he only wanted to return to Shoushan slowly while relaxing, but he didnât expect that while he was sitting on the bus, Ghost Umbrella would tell him it was very ghostly.
It may be the trainers, or it may be a ghost tool with a trainer.
Having been in contact with malicious spirits for a long time, except for people like Su Zimo who doesnât know heâs special, people, objects, and even food will become inevitably contaminated with ghostly essence.
[The ghost essence in this world is getting heavier.]
After arriving on the second floor of the bus, the ghost umbrella looked up through the glass barrier and spoke while staring up at the gloomy sky.
But Su Zimo did not answer.
He didnât know why, but ever since he left An Yu Yi Yu, Su Zimo hadnât said a single word to Ghost UmbrellaâŚ