Transtor: der Transtions
--------
He gnced out the window. The sunlight was a bit gring, but he khat acc to his previous calcutions, there were only three hours of daylight left, and now half of that time had already passed.
Onight falls again, the world they were in would eernal darkness.
"Time is running out. We'll split up to search," Jiang g turned his head to look around. "Fan Li, you're on your own. Fatty, you're with me. Move as quickly as possible, and pay special attention to anything like keys. There might be clues behind that iron door ohird floor, but I’ve already tried. Without the key, we 't open it with the tools we have."
"Alright."
The two groups wasted no time and spread out.
Jiang g's group, having ara person, was responsible for searg the rger first floor, while the sed floor was left to Fan Li.
It didn’t take long for the search to yield results. Jiang g found a rope in an inspicuous er beside the stairs. The rope was tied at a er of the sed-floor hallway he stairs, with the other end dangling down to the ground.
Jiang g ran up the stairs and found the other end of the rope tied to a spot on the sed flht where he and Fatty had hidden the night before. But there hadn’t been any rope there at that time.
Hearing the two of them ing upstairs, Fan Li came out of the study. "What's up?"
Jiang g poi the rope.
After a moment, they returned downstairs and followed the rope's dest, heading towards the other side of the living room. The door to the small room where firewood was stored was ajar and opened with a push.
Fan Li's expression suddenly ged. "Yesterday, I tied this door hah a rope to the nail beside the door. How did the rope disappear?"
Fatty, with his sharp eyes, walked into the room and found a piece of rope behind a stack of firewood.
The rope had been cut into two pieces, with the cut edges a.
Fan Li took the rope a it with his hands. Looking up, he firmed, "It was cut with a knife or something simir."
Behind the small firewood ste room, there was another door, but the firewood in front of it had been moved aside, leaving a clear spabsp;
Jiang g walked over and gave the door a push, but it didn’t budge.
He peered through the gss window on the door, looking outside. It was the back of the vil.
There weren’t many fallen leaves on the ground, but si had rained earlier, the water hadn’t dried yet, and the ground was still damp with mud.
Clear tire tracks were visible in the muddy ground.
"It was left by that big bus," Fatty said in surprise.
The strahing was, there was no road around here where a bus could drive in—it was all forest.
But that didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was that they now knew how Sister Nuan and the others had left.
Fatty, imitating Jiang g, shook the door hard, but it didn’t show any sign of opening.
"Stop shaking it," Jiang g said. "You won't get it open."
Fatty stopped shaking the door but still asked, "If this door 't be opened, how did they leave?"
Fan Li, standing behind them, suddenly spoke, "It's time."
"Time?"
"Yes," Fan Li looked at Fatty, who was fused, and nodded. "The timing isn't right. Only at a specific time does the bus appear, and then the door be opened."
"3:07 a.m.," Jiang g said.
Fan Li looked at him in surprise, then nodded. "You figured it out too."
"What are you two talking about?" Fatty blinked. "What's 3:07?"
"Remember when Xie Yu died?" Jiang g said. "I checked my watch at that moment, and it showed 3:07 a.m."
The chubby man asked in surprise, "But in this world, isn't the time shown by the watches inaccurate?"
Fan Li tinued, "It's inaccurate, but at a certain specific time, it bees accurate again. On the night Xie Yu died, I heard a strange sound and g the time," he took out a pocket watch from his pocket and waved it in front of the chubby man. "It also showed 3:07."
"But not long ago, I had just checked the time, and it showed exactly 6:00. This means that all timekeeping devices suddenly synized to 3:07 at a certain moment."
The chubby man's eyes suddenly widened, and as if something struck him, he looked toward Jiang g. "So st night iudy, you were waiting for the watch to show 3:07! Because that's when the ghost would appear!"
Jiang g's face showed ion, but the chubby man tinued, "The ghost didn't e to us at that time, so you went to test and find Sister Nuan, and after you realized she was still alive at first gnce, you told her that Fan Li was already..."
He suddenly stopped speaking.
After all, Fan Li was standing there, pletely intact.
The rest of the events were simple. The three returo the living room. Jiang g sat on the sofa, Fan Li stayed by the firepce warming up, while the chubby man was still deep in thought.
Fan Li mentiohat he had ted six tire tracks in the ground behind the vil, meaning the bus had e three times, and they had spely three nights in the vil.
The sky had turned pletely dark. Fan Li clutched the pocket watch, gng at the time from time to time.
No one knew how long it had beehe chubby man, whose mind was swirling and who was on the verge of dozing off, suddenly heard Jiang g say, "Time's up!"
Fan Li stood up at the same time and put the pocket watch bato his pocket.
They all headed toward the ste room in the er of the living room. On the way, Jiang g and Fan Li were very cautious; after all, it was the final moment of the mission, and no one knew if the ghost would suddenly appear.
As they ehe firewood ste room, a light suddenly flickered on the open ground behind the vil.
A rge bus drove over from the distand slowly came to a stop about 20 meters from the vil.
Fan Li took a deep breath, pced his hand on the door in front of him, aly pushed it open.
The door opened.
The chubby man was so overwhelmed with emotion that he almost cried.
Fan Li was the first to walk out, followed by the chubby man, and then Jiang g.
Having spent their time in the warm vil, they weren't aced to the cold outside.
Fan Li raised the colr of his leather jacket, Jiang g tightened his coat, and the chubby man hugged himself to keep warm.
The bus door slowly opened, and the three of them walked toward it.
Onboard were the same people: the couple, and the mother and child, all sitting quietly in their seats.
The tuide, who had introduced herself as Ms. Zheng, stood in the bus, just as enthusiastic as before. "Sorry to keep you waiting, passengers! Now, we're heading home."
Home—a word so entig that the chubby man could barely resist jumping onto the bus, but a discordant voice stopped him.
"Step back!"
The chubby man turo see Fan Li staring at them with a sinister look, the sharp boning knife in his hand gleaming uhe moonlight.
"I said, step back!" Fan Li, his face full of menace, waved the k the couple, f them to step bad clear the bus door.
Fan Li was the first to run onto the bus.
Just as the chubby man was about to pull Jiang g onto the bus, he noticed that Jiang g hadn’t moved.
The chubby man looked at him in fusion.
Jiang g’s gaze slowly swept across the bus before finally log onto Ms. Zheng’s face.
"Passenger, don’t you want to go home?" Ms. Zheng smiled sweetly, slightly bowing, revealing a beautiful rose tattoo on her slender wrist. "If you're te, you won’t be able to go back."
(End of the Chapter)
---What happened ?
Read ahead on Patreon.
Currently up to 65 as of 27Sep24.
Just visit my p atreon: Pa treon./derTL
If you are tent with the free chapters, you show your appreciation by joining me for as low as 1. You read this and other series (more ing iure) on my Pa treon.
AND PLEASE LEAVE SOME REVIEWS, NEED MORE REVIEWS