Chapter 16 Clay Figures

Seeing the old lady turn hostile so quickly, and mentioning the red-clothed woman and the others, Jiang Cheng roughly understood how they had died.

"Old woman," Jiang Cheng stroked his chin, putting on a reliable demeanor. "Perhaps we didn't explain ourselves clearly. I mean, we can help you find her, but we need you to provide more clues. This will improve efficiency and allow you to reunite with your granddaughter sooner."

Hearing Jiang Cheng's words, the old lady's emotions finally stabilized. She nodded and said, "It seems I misunderstood you."

Then she reached out, her hand trembling, and opened the cloth bag on her walking stick. The moment the bag opened, something rolled out, circling on the ground before landing at Huai Yi's feet.

"Old woman, no need, I'll do it," Huai Yi said enthusiastically, immediately bending down to pick it up, as if trying to make a good impression on the old lady.

But after picking up the object, Huai Yi's expression began to change dramatically, from initial bewilderment to slowly growing fear.

It was a clay figure, made from scraps of cloth and colored mud, crudely crafted.

But what truly terrified Huai Yi was that he recognized this clay figure. It had a sack sewn from scraps of cloth on its back, the stitches crooked and awkward, and a scarf around its neck.

This was the writer!

The writer who had been telling them stories just an hour ago had turned into this ghostly figure.

Huai Yi swallowed hard and slowly raised his head. The next moment, a horrifying scene flashed into his mind like lightning.

The old lady's cloth bag was half-open, filled with densely packed clay figures of all kinds. He quickly found the remaining people among them.

The old lady noticed Huai Yi standing there dumbfounded with the clay figure in his hand, and said casually, "Young man, if you like that little toy, you can have it. This old woman has plenty more."

Huai Yi's mouth twitched at this. "Take it to play with?"

"We can't accept gifts for nothing. We haven't done anything yet, how can we accept such a valuable gift from you?" Jiang Cheng said righteously, glancing at Huai Yi. "Return it to the old woman."

Seeing Huai Yi return the clay figure as if it were a hot potato, the old lady didn't seem to mind.

Her gnarled hand rummaged through the cloth bag and finally pulled out something that looked like a hairpin.

Upon closer inspection, it was a leaf-shaped brooch.

"This is my granddaughter's brooch. Because I sold it to her, she always cherished it," the old lady said, her eyes softening as she spoke of her granddaughter. "If you can find her, give her this brooch, and she'll know you were sent by me."

Jiang Cheng slowly stood up, took a few steps forward, and politely accepted the brooch. It was just an ordinary brooch, but in the old lady's eyes, it was incredibly precious.

At this point, Jiang Cheng and the others were no longer as afraid of the old lady as they had been at first. Initially, they hadn't understood her purpose or origin.

Now they understood that the entire bus was a supernatural event, and the old lady was an NPC assigning them a task.

If they obeyed and completed the task of helping the old lady find her granddaughter, they would be safe. Otherwise... the bag of clay figures would be their fate.

Having figured this out, Jiang Cheng turned his attention to the bus.

It seemed that this bus was different from all the supernatural events he had experienced before.

This wasn't a single supernatural event, but rather a combination of multiple events.

Whether it was the old lady, the man reading the newspaper, or the ghost bride, they were all essentially individual supernatural events.

Jiang Cheng couldn't be sure how many such events were on the bus.

He had a feeling that the secrets hidden on this bus were far more than just these.

And the truly terrifying things were still lurking in the depths of the fog, yet to appear.

Losing the brooch seemed to drain the old lady's energy. She wilted, looking as if she had aged 20 years in an instant, making people feel sorry for her.

Now that the mission was clear, the next step was to confirm the location.

Putting away the brooch, Jiang Cheng looked up at the old lady and said softly, "Old woman, where is your granddaughter's university? How do we get there?"

"You don't need to worry about that. My granddaughter's university is right next to a bus stop along the route. You'll see it when you get off," the old lady said, looking up at the space above Jiang Cheng and the others. "Get ready, the next stop is it."

"The next stop..." Fatty mimicked her, following the old woman's gaze and noticing a faint red light glowing through a layer of gray mist overhead.

"It's the bus route map," Huai Yi said. His position was better than Fatty's, so he could see more clearly.

"Can you see which stops are on it?" Jiang Cheng asked quietly.

Huai Yi shook his head. "I can't see clearly, it's blocked by the mist."

Just as he spoke, the bus screeched to a halt and slowly stopped. Then, the door creaked open.

Outside was also a blanket of mist.

It seemed they wouldn't be able to see the outside scenery without stepping out.

"You've arrived, get off the bus," the old lady said, standing up and nodding at them. "I'm counting on you. You must find my granddaughter."

Jiang Cheng was the last to get off. Before leaving the bus, he glanced back at the route map, where the mist had cleared slightly, revealing a winding route.

On the route, there were small black circles.

As Jiang Cheng understood it, each circle represented a stop along the route, and the winding path extended into the mist, as if implying a one-way journey.

As Jiang Cheng stepped out of the bus, a wide but slightly dilapidated school gate appeared before him. On the gate were golden characters: Jiangtan University.

However, much of the gold on the characters had worn off, and coupled with the dilapidated state of the gate, it gave off a sense of desolation.

This bus had taken them directly to their destination. How considerate.

"Jiangtan University..." Huai Yi smacked his lips and commented, "This name has a heavy Yin energy. It has both 'Jiang' (river) and 'Tan' (deep pool), all water."

Just as they were about to move forward, a voice suddenly caught their attention. "Hey, brothers over there?"

Looking in the direction of the voice, about 30 meters away to their right, they saw a group of people approaching.

Five people, three men and two women, dressed in various styles, but clearly from the same era as them.

"Are they teammates?" Huai Yi asked, surprised.