Route 104 Last Bus · Chat

Night fell, and the city sank slowly into darkness like a weary beast. The neon lights of the business district went out one by one, the cooking fumes of the urban village dispersed, and the streetlights of the old town blurred into hazy halos of yellow light in the damp air. The clock tower of the railway station square struck eleven. On the empty platform, only a few indistinct figures wandered. The sound of an engine came from afar—low, stubborn, like some ancient summons. The Route 104 bus drove out from the shadows of the parking lot, the night wind brushing some of the dust off its body, revealing the faded green beneath. It passed through the sleeping streets, rolled over puddles of standing water, and slowly came to a stop at the starting station. The emergency lights cast two pools of dim yellow light inside the carriage, illuminating four men in different postures. Lao Zhou gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles thick and coarse, his gaze pinned on the emptiness ahead, as if staring at a road only he could see. Chen Mo sat in the very front row, back straight, suit jacket folded on the seat beside him. He tilted his head slightly toward the front door, as if sizing something up or probing into it. Zhou Wenyuan leaned against the window with his head turned, seemingly lost in thought, yet a refined smile still lingered at the corners of his mouth. Lin Xiao sprawled in the third row from the back, an oddly swollen briefcase occupying the seat next to him, the blue glow of his laptop screen making his face look pale. Zhao Tiezhu sat in the middle-rear section, hands resting on his thighs, also looking toward the door, impatience and restlessness written on his face. The carriage was filled with a mingled smell of strong tea, hair gel, and the leftover aroma of rice from insulated lunch boxes. No one spoke—only the tremor of the engine and the jolt of the wheels rolling over the rails, the kind of bump that plunged the whole bus into darkness, as if a dark beast had opened its maw, ready to devour every passerby who came near. The bus sat at the starting station for a full two minutes. Lao Zhou stubbed out his cigarette and swept a glance through the carriage in the rearview mirror. Then, the pneumatic rod let out a sigh, and the doors slid slowly open to both sides, revealing the carriage's fairly tidy interior and a strange atmosphere that faintly gave off a sense of something wrong. Lao Zhou's hoarse voice slowly rang out: "Starting station—anyone outside want to get on?"