Seeing the bus still not opening its doors, the female teacher's tone became more and more hurried, "Classmates, it's going to be dark soon, please hurry and get off the bus!"
"Yeah, driver, why won't you open the door?" The passengers became anxious when they heard this, all starting to press the driver to open the door in a cacophony of voices. Seeing the driver remain indifferent, some even threatened to file a complaint against him.
"Everyone, listen to me, this driver might have some mental issues! I was just sitting behind him, and all the way he was mumbling some driver's code to himself. I don't think he's going to open the doors for us!" A girl couldn't help speaking up, and then she shouted towards the passengers at the door, "Big brother, please open the door. If we keep waiting like this, it'll get dark!"
"Yeah, hurry up and open the door! Don't waste time! I've heard that this school gets pretty creepy after dark." The passengers each urged on with increasing anxiety.
Lin Yi and Wei Liang were seated towards the rear, watching the aisle packed with big and small bags, they simply could not get out so they settled down in their seats to wait.
During the wait, Lin Yi pressed his face against the bus window and watched outside. Although their voices were urgent, their figures in the mist didn't move at all, just like statues.
After waiting for quite a while, Wei Liang couldn't help but frown, muttering in confusion, "There's something off about this driver. Last time I came here, that driver opened the door as soon as we arrived. Why is this one like a block of wood?"
At that moment, a passenger near the driver's seat took advantage of the driver's attention being focused on the female teacher, saw his chance at the door open button, quickly stretched his hand out, and pressed it.
"Tsshh—"
The bus doors opened outward in response, and the faint mist surged into the bus like waves, quickly enveloping the interior as if shrouded by clouds and fog.
"Go! Get off!" As the first passenger rushed off the bus, many of those who had been waiting followed suit and charged off the vehicle.
The driver immediately reacted and closed the bus doors in time, but several passengers had already gotten off, watching those who walked straight towards the female teacher after entering the school gate, he still rolled down his window and shouted, "Hey! Make sure they have their breastpins!"
Some of the passengers suddenly stopped in their tracks, then retreated back to the bus entrance. Just as the driver was about to speak, the person flipped the driver off, "Asshole!"
Then they headed straight back into the mist without looking back.
The driver's face soured, and he hammered the steering wheel hard: "Damn bitch! A bunch of ignorant fools courting death!"
"Breastpins?" Lin Yi was slightly startled, then immediately remembered the second rule of the student code—apart from students, all staff members within the campus must wear specific uniforms and carry breastpins, be wary of people without breastpins and do not believe any words they say.
"Don't get off until I see clearly!" the driver said, gnashing his teeth, "Don't worry about time, as long as you don't enter the school, you don't have to abide by the rules. Those few, I always feel there's something not quite right about them. In this thick fog, at worst, you spend the night on the bus and go to the school tomorrow."
"Driver, are you an idiot, really believing those strange things?" A girl wearing a sailor uniform with a pink cartoon cat hair clip and blowing bubble gum retorted with hands on her hips and a face full of disdain, "That stuff is just pretentious, gimmicky eye-catching nonsense. It's already 2023, how can people still believe in that?"
Upon hearing this, the driver couldn't help but retort: "Girl, you're here and you don't believe in the student code? You haven't memorized it, have you?"
The girl weighed the small booklet in her hand, shook her head, and smiled, "Driver, those rules are so vague, there's nothing to see, at most I'll just walk with everyone. With so many people walking together, it's got to be safe, right?"
At this, the driver could only sigh in exasperation, "Good words can't persuade the damned, girl. You're quite bold."
The girl was about to say something to disdain the driver further, but voices from those who'd gotten off earlier came through the fog, "Driver, they've got breastpins, no problem here!"
"Got breastpins?" The driver muttered to himself, still frowning. After pondering for a moment, he asked again, "The fog is so thick; did you really see clearly? Did you see the number?"
"Driver, don't be so paranoid!" The girl grumbled, chewing her gum, and impatiently moved to the door with her bag slung over one shoulder, "That's enough, you can open the door now, driver!"
Occasionally, pressing voices also came through the mist, and under pressure, the driver reluctantly began to open the bus doors slowly.
The remaining passengers started to get off one after another, but the driver did not forget to remind them to look closely.
Lin Yi went to the last row and patted his roommate, "Maozi, Wei Sang, Young Master Tian, Kuai Kuai, wake up, we're getting off!"
Wei Liang shouted at the bus door, "Old Lin, hurry up, you're the last one!"
"You go ahead, we'll be right there," Mao Feiyang, still sleepy, yawned and waved his hand.
Lin Yi hesitated for a moment, then quickly got off the bus: "Liangzi, wait for me, I'm coming!"
After Lin Yi disembarked, the driver looked back at the rear seats with a hint of doubt, then thought of something and silently withdrew his gaze.
The mountain mist was thick, and as Lin Yi and his companions walked on the ground, each step created ripples as if they were stepping on smoke rings.
Entering the school gate, Lin Yi suddenly had a sense that the world was slipping away from him, as if the ground behind him stretched out in an instant, infinitely extended.
He turned his head back, and that eerie sense of spatial elongation instantly disappeared. The nearby bus was still faintly visible through the fog, but for a moment, he couldn't tell whether it was blue or some other color. He quickly shook his head, focused his eyes, and confirmed that it was still the blue bus.