Forces Of Temptation

Ch3 - Three People Become Ghosts

The time limit for Nan Zhou to think couldn't exceed five seconds. More than five seconds was enough to arouse everyone's suspicions. Nan Zhou sorted out the currently known information and could draw the following judgments:

This was an intercity bus in C City. The destination of the vehicle was unknown. The places it passed by were unknown. The GPS was turned off and there was no way to predict the driving route.

...He had four seconds left.

There was a small map of C City on the advertising box in front of the first row of seats. A corner of the map was covered by several missing persons notices. The location happened to be Longtan District with the school logo of the 2nd High School on it.

This was the source of inspiration for one of Nan Zhou's lies. However, the locations of residential areas weren't marked on it. In other words, if asked where he got on the bus, he couldn't completely make it up.

Nan Zhou's eyes quickly shifted to the driver's seat in front of him.

...There were three seconds left.

It was clearly written on the badge that the driver of this car should be a woman called Shen Qiuyan. However, beside the shelf where a water cup was placed, there was a brand-new plastic sealed work permit. The strap was tangled together with the handle of the water cup.

From the information glimpsed, he could see that the person driving today had the surname She or Yu and it was a man. Why change drivers? Did drivers change shifts normally?

...Two seconds.

Wrong. Out of the four people who had spoken so far, none of them said they got on the bus from a normal bus stop. They all started from their respective residential areas and even said 'phase 1', 'phase 2', 'area for foreigners' and 'ordinary residential area.'

So this was a bus that ran on an unusual route.

The sudden replacement of a new driver and a bus that moved abnormally. Moreover, all the passengers in the bus seemed to be heading to a specific location. Therefore, the bus was likely to be requisitioned to perform a rescue mission. The 'volunteers' mentioned by Li Yinhang could confirm his guess.

...Only one second left.

So why were there so few people in the bus? It was still daytime and it stood to reason that now was the best time to carry out a rescue mission. If the bus wasn't crowded during the day then it wouldn't match the current density of people.

What did this mean? It meant these people probably weren't the first to be rescued. Therefore, the place where Nan Zhou should've got on the bus was obvious.

...Time was up.

Nan Zhou retracted his gaze and looked at everyone. He bluntly said, "I was the first to get on the bus."

Zhao Guanglu was the first to object. "No, I didn't see you when I got in the bus."

The moment the atmosphere froze, Nan Zhou gave an answer to the question. "I secretly came up."

Everyone, "......?"

"I was taken to a shelter but my mother wasn't there."

"I didn't know where she was. I asked the volunteers but there was no result."

"I was worried about her so I hid in this bus parked at the door since last night. I hid under the seat and wanted to find her."

"Perhaps I would get out halfway or go to the other shelters."
"I was very sleepy and fell asleep. I only woke up after the bus had been driving for a long time."