The bus driver, having learned from experience, immediately reached for the door-close button the moment he saw Yi Ke approaching, but he was still a step too late.
Clang, clang! With crisp sounds, the rule coins were dropped into the farebox.
Yi Ke, holding a folded wheelchair in one hand and Zhuang Ningyu in the other, effortlessly placed him in the “Priority Seat for the Elderly, Weak, Sick, Disabled, and Pregnant.”
The entire set of movements was as smooth as flowing water, leaving no room for anyone to refuse. The driver turned around, livid, and roared, “How is it you two again? Can’t you see the rules posted here? This bus is restricted to underage children and their mothers!”
“I saw them.” Zhuang Ningyu pointed a finger at Yi Ke and explained good-naturedly, “Underage child,” then pointed to himself, “and his mother.”
Yi Ke, with a straight face, spread his hands. “Perfectly compliant with the rules.”
The driver’s eyes slowly widened, perhaps never expecting someone in the world to be so shameless. Did they think he was blind?
But Zhuang Ningyu remained calm. “If you refuse to take us, I’ll file a complaint with the transportation department that your company discriminates against special needs individuals with cognitive impairments.”
The driver’s burly frame shuddered upon hearing this.
He didn’t actually know what “special needs individuals with cognitive impairments” meant, but he knew that discriminating against passengers would lead to a pay cut. So, he earnestly explained, “It’s not discrimination, no discrimination at all. I mean our service is limited to biological, uh, and legally recognized… you two don’t fall under…”
Before he could finish, the 1.8-meter-plus “underage child” in front of him had already begun to nestle his head into his “mother’s” embrace.
This terrible and bizarre scene clearly terrified the driver. He had always been simple and honest and had truly never witnessed such a spectacle.
He was speechless for a long time, his hands trembling even as he fastened his seatbelt.
After taking deep breaths for a long while, he tremblingly stepped on the gas and drove off into the distance.
Zhuang Ningyu patted the head nestled in his lap away. “Sit back!”
Yi Ke didn’t sit. He held onto the handrail and stood in the aisle, his body swaying slightly with the vehicle’s movement.
As long as he wasn’t causing trouble, Zhuang Ningyu couldn’t be bothered whether he sat or stood.
He turned his head to look out the window. The familiar white mist had enveloped them again, layer by layer, like an ever-thickening soul, gathering and not dispersing, until it completely submerged this small world.
The last time the two of them had taken the bus, it was to test if the monster driver would be provoked by noise, so the entire journey was accompanied by death metal rock. The clamorous sound scattered in the moving vehicle and the wind, like an apocalyptic escape in a movie, dangerous and thrilling. But this time, the world suddenly became quiet, with only the intermittent announcement mixed with a “hissing” static sound: “Ladies and… hiss hiss… gentlemen, welcome aboard Bus 155, this bus… hiss hiss… please… hiss hiss…, the starting station is Taoli Community… hiss hiss hiss… the terminal station is Taoli Intersection… hiss hiss… a civilized bus environment requires the joint participation of you and me.”
A single sentence was chopped into countless broken phrases, occasionally punctuated by an ear-splitting screech, making the already eerie vehicle even more so. This trip yielded no results.
After the mist outside dissipated, what appeared before their eyes was still the Spring Breeze Supermarket. The monster driver parked the bus steadily, opened the back door, and didn’t even turn his head, perhaps afraid of seeing the giant minor and his male mother again.
Yi Ke looked at Zhuang Ningyu, asking with his eyes for the next plan.
Zhuang Ningyu leaned back against the bus seat, looking as if he had no intention of leaving his orange plastic throne.
So, Yi Ke didn’t move either.
The two of them, one standing and one sitting, let the withered yellow leaves swirl and blow into the wide-open bus doors.
Finally, the monster driver couldn’t take it anymore. His small eyes darted around a few times, first cautiously observing the central rearview mirror.
After confirming that these two special individuals weren’t engaging in any untoward behavior, he turned around to remind them, “We’ve reached the station. Get off.”
“We’re taking another ride,” Zhuang Ningyu said.
The moment he finished speaking, Yi Ke had already walked over to the driver’s seat. With a flick of his fingers, clang, clang, clang! New fare coins dropped into the box.
The monster driver’s throat worked a few times, probably wanting to curse, but then he remembered the “Ten ‘Dos’ and Ten ‘Don’ts’ for Civilized Service of Bus Drivers.” So, he swallowed his curses back down in time.
He said as politely as he could, “This is a loop bus. No matter how many times you ride it, the route is the same.”
“We know,” Zhuang Ningyu said, rubbing his hands together. “But it’s really cold outside. It’s warm on the bus.”
The monster driver was speechless. He couldn’t refute this reason. The rules didn’t say you couldn’t ride the bus repeatedly, and besides, the passengers hadn’t ridden for free; the two of them had just bought new tickets.
After a deadlocked and long confrontation, the monster driver silently turned his body forward and closed the rear door.
The next departure time was soon approaching, and Bus 155 was once again wrapped in the mist.
The two of them spent several hours just riding around on the bus, to the point where the other members of the action team were all peering out the window. Zhong Mu asked, puzzled, “Captain Ye, what are Brother Zhuang and Xiao Yi doing?”
“I don’t know, they didn’t report in,” Ye Jiaoyue answered. “But they must have made a new discovery. Just wait, Ningyu usually doesn’t make mistakes.”
“Brother Zhuang is really nice to Xiao Yi, taking him on every mission.” Zhong Mu rested her chin on her hands. “Captain Ye, why did I get a mentor like Brother Lu when I first joined?”
“Gossiping behind his back, be careful your mentor doesn’t hear you,” Ye Jiaoyue handed her a glass of water, then asked, “How’s Xiao Cong?”
“Same as always, his breathing is weak, and he’s in a deep sleep.” Zhong Mu sighed when the topic turned to the child. “He keeps calling for his mommy.”
No mother could bear to see her child suffer like this. The fact that she hadn’t appeared yet meant she must be imprisoned somewhere.
“Ding-dong! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard 155…” The same monotonous announcement. Zhuang Ningyu stared at the Patek Philippe on his wrist.
His own watch had been torn off and smashed to pieces by Xiao Cong earlier, so now he had no choice but to borrow one from Yi Ke’s arm.
The mechanical watch kept accurate time and wasn’t affected by the magnetic field of the white mist. As the minute hand slowly moved forward one notch, Zhuang Ningyu lifted his eyelids and, sure enough, met the driver’s eyes in the central rearview mirror again.
It was just a brief exchange of glances, and nothing else happened. The driver’s expression was normal, and the bus continued to drive steadily.
Yi Ke asked, “You’ve been timing it?”
“After the bus leaves the station, every time it reaches this point, the driver always glances back. It’s about fifteen minutes after departure,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “What do you think he’s looking at?”
Yi Ke hesitated slightly. “To see if we’re misbehaving on his bus?”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. “When a bus driver glances back, there’s only one possibility. He’s checking if any passengers want to get off at the next stop.”
But they were at least ten minutes away from the terminal station. Yi Ke looked around the empty bus, his gaze finally landing on the red STOP button on the railing. He suddenly realized, “You mean the 155 community bus, besides the known starting station of Taoli Community and the terminal station of Taoli Intersection, has a hidden third stop in between?”
As his words fell, the world seemed to become noisy for a moment, then returned to silence.
The bus announcement started again. This time, there was no more piercing static from the speaker. Instead, it was replaced by a clear and sweet female voice:
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard Bus 155. This is a request-stop bus. If you need to get off at a stop, please press the bell to signal. The starting station is Taoli Community, and the terminal station is Taoli Intersection. A civilized bus environment requires the joint participation of you and me.”
Zhuang Ningyu reached out and pressed the red button hard.
With a ding, the green light in front of the driver lit up. He promptly stepped on the brakes, and for the first time, the bus stopped in the thick white mist.
Yi Ke pushed Zhuang Ningyu and got off the bus from the back door.
The wind was bone-chilling, blowing away the cold mist. A lone bus stop sign stood by the roadside, rusted and broken, covered in sand and grime.
Yi Ke casually picked up a tree branch from the ground, wanting to scrape off the mud caked on the words. But before the branch could even reach it, the long-neglected signpost wobbled and, with a clang, fell apart and smashed to the ground.
The mud was shaken off, and in the dust, the mottled four characters “Meiman Jiyuan” were revealed.
And at almost the same time, both of their phone screens lit up.
—Welcome to Meiman Jiayuan!
As the new year approaches, theft cases have been frequent throughout the city. The community has specially hired the Guardian Security Company to provide security services for the neighborhood. All property owners are required to comply with the occupancy rules.
- Non-residents are prohibited from entering the community.
- There are more than 50 security patrol officers in the community, working in shifts day and night.
- Each apartment building in the community has a separate access control system, requiring a key card for entry.
- Good neighborly relations will help you integrate into the new environment as soon as possible.
- All property owners must cooperate with security work, improve the living environment, build a safe community together, and share a beautiful life.
- All violators will be permanently detained by the patrol officers.
Below was a 400-number, the work hotline for the Guardian Security Company.
The entrance to Meiman Jiayuan was not far away. A towering tree was growing lushly. However, since the rules mentioned “non-residents are prohibited from entering,” rushing in would definitely not be a good idea. Yi Ke first pushed Zhuang Ningyu to a bench by the street. “Xiao Cong’s biological mother lives in this community?”
“Most likely.” Zhuang Ningyu tried to contact Ye Jiaoyue. The signal was poor, but at least they weren’t completely cut off from the main team. Through the intermittent static, the captain’s voice was also choppy. “Do you need me to… send more people… over?”
“Not for now. We’ll check the situation here first and stay in touch.”
“Okay, I’ll get the relevant information… sorted out… and send it over as soon as possible… you and Xiao Yi be careful.”
“One more thing,” Zhuang Ningyu reminded, “Check out this ‘Guardian’ security company.” Cheng Ye’s wife, Feng Ting, was currently the public relations manager of Shengsheng Group, and Shengsheng Group happened to be in the security industry. The two might be related.
The investigation team was very efficient. In less than fifteen minutes, they had sent over the preliminary sorted files.
Guardian Security Company, strictly speaking, should be considered the predecessor of Shengsheng Group. The founders were the same group of people. Although it was now deregistered, they had been mutually investing and connected for the past few years, so they were indeed inextricably linked.
As for Meiman Jiayuan, it was built more than forty years ago and was originally a government family compound, considered a high-end residence. Later, with the development of the city, the old residents gradually moved away, and it slowly became a mixed-occupancy rental housing complex, often appearing in social news.
Nineteen years ago, due to an earthquake, the entire community was judged to be a dangerous building. The government issued a document requiring its unified demolition, and then the entire piece of land was rebuilt into a greenway park.
As for Bus 155, its initial stops were indeed only Taoli Community and Taoli Intersection. Later, due to the strong demands of the residents of Meiman Jiayuan, a stop was temporarily added. This matter was only communicated in an internal meeting of the bus company, and there was no formal document. A few years later, with the overall demolition of Meiman Jiayuan, Bus 155 logically resumed its two-stop service. The former “Meiman Jiayuan Station” thus disappeared into the annals of time, disappeared from the records.
“How could they miss such crucial information?” In the Taoli Community office, Qian Yue was righteously commenting while flipping through the new files. “Isn’t your Order Maintenance Department known for its meticulous operations?”
Zhong Mu was at a loss for words for a moment. Although she felt he had a point, it was a matter of departmental dignity, and she absolutely could not back down from this moral high ground. So, she retorted, “The new station was discovered by Brother Zhuang, and he’s also considered part of the Order Maintenance Department, so we are still meticulous.”
Qian Yue disagreed. How could our boss be considered part of your Order Maintenance Department?
Zhong Mu slapped the file on his head. “Get to work!”
Qian Yue’s head was buzzing from the knock. He turned to the department’s meal group chat and cried a river of wide noodles, I want to come to Meiman Jiayuan too.
Zhuang Ningyu had no time to deal with him for the moment.
Behind the bench on the street was a dilapidated wall. He and Yi Ke were currently hiding there. Through the cracks, they could see a team of monsters walking towards them. Their appearance was very similar to normal human males, wearing uniform black uniforms and holding riot gear. They should be the “security patrol officers” mentioned in the rules.
Yi Ke watched the monsters walk away. “Their existence is to prevent someone from taking Xiao Cong’s mother away?”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “We need to find her as soon as possible.”
Meiman Jiayuan had a total of five apartment buildings, each with five floors and two households per floor. In other words, there would be at most fifty households here.
The community had only one main gate. A burly and fierce monster gatekeeper sat in the guardhouse, carefully checking the credentials of everyone who entered.
“Non-residents are strictly forbidden from entering the community,” Yi Ke analyzed. “So we need to buy a house first.”
Zhuang Ningyu gestured with his chin. “There’s a notice board not far away.”
Yi Ke pushed him over. The notice board was covered with all kinds of small ads: locksmiths, cleaners, clinics, masons… layered on top of each other, tattered by the wind, looking particularly desolate. Yi Ke searched for a while and said regretfully, “There are no ads for houses for sale.”
Zhuang Ningyu stared at him for three seconds, realizing that the other person wasn’t acting. He was genuinely pondering the question of “how to become a resident without buying a house.”
Yi Ke was puzzled. “Why are you staring at me?”
Zhuang Ningyu asked him, “Besides buying a house, can you think of a second way to become a compliant resident?”
Yi Ke answered crisply, “A sham marriage with a property owner.”
Zhuang Ningyu was stunned by this way of thinking that was both detached from and fiercely engaged with the ways of the world. He didn’t know where to start his lecture for a long time. After a long silence, he reached out, tore a small ad from the notice board, and slapped it into his arms with a smack.
Yi Ke unfolded it, bewildered, and saw two large black words—
FOR RENT!
Zhuang Ningyu said admiringly, “You can even think of a sham marriage, but you can’t think of renting?”
Yi Ke spread his hands. “Because I have a relative who recently got into a sham marriage to fight for an inheritance, and I’ve really never rented a house before.” No theory, all practice.
Zhuang Ningyu held out his hand. “Give me your wallet.”
Yi Ke did not fail his “rich” persona. The thickness of the rule coins in his wallet looked like it could afford a long-term lease here for three to five years.
But in fact, the money was specially approved by Ye Jiaoyue, because the whole team knew that Captain Zhuang loved to run around, Captain Zhuang loved to lose money, and Captain Zhuang took Xiao Yi everywhere he went.
So, it was very reasonable to have Xiao Yi carry a huge sum of money for emergencies, and now it had indeed come in handy.
There were many vacant houses in Meiman Jiayuan. In less than an hour, Zhuang Ningyu took the keys from a smiling landlady, successfully entered the community, and became a compliant resident of Unit 502 of Building One. The house was a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom, and no elevator. The iron door of the opposite unit was tightly locked, and a bag of un-disposed garbage was placed at the entrance. According to the landlady, a respectable couple lived in 501, both with jobs, definitely not some messy socialites.
Like Taoli Community, Meiman Jiayuan also had a small supermarket. The monster owner was dozing behind the counter, and the goods on the shelves were sufficient for daily needs.
At dusk, a warm yellow light lit up in the kitchen. Beef noodles were simmering in the pot, and the aroma of food filled the entire room, effectively dispelling the cold brought by the dark night.
“You’ve been standing there all this time, have you found anything?” Yi Ke placed two bowls of noodles on the dining table.
“I was originally planning to have you look for Xiao Cong’s mother after dark, but now it seems a bit tricky.” Zhuang Ningyu moved a couple of steps while holding onto the window frame and sat back down in the wheelchair. Yi Ke wiped his hands clean and also walked to the window to look down.
The entire community was filled with moving figures, all of them patrol officers. They were holding high-power flashlights, constantly shining them in all directions of the community, searching for any possible violators.
“Don’t worry about them, let’s eat first.” Yi Ke pushed him to wash his hands. The old-style community had a small and narrow bathroom, with only a thin slit of a window high on the wall for ventilation. A dim light was hanging just outside the window of 502. Suddenly, a strange black shadow descended upside down, flashing by in an instant, like a monkey landing on all fours.
Yi Ke was caught off guard. “What the hell was that?”
“A patrol officer,” Zhuang Ningyu turned on the faucet and carefully washed the foam off his hands. “I just discovered that some of them can run on vertical walls without any tools. In other words, the security measures here are three-dimensional, with no blind spots.”
Yi Ke shook his head. “Sounds like a mutated product from a garbage dump. Gross.”
But Zhuang Ningyu’s appetite was not affected. After all, in previous operations, he had seen even more mutated products.
The two returned to the dining table. Yi Ke’s cooking skills were very good, and the beef noodles smelled delicious. Zhuang Ningyu sat in his chair, wondering why the other person hadn’t pulled any new tricks tonight. But when he looked down, all the white radish slices in his bowl had been cut into heart shapes.
“…”
He really wanted to go on a hunger strike.
