Chapter 366

Chapter 366

◎Not Yet Learned to Live Alone◎

Hearing a noise behind her, Sheng Siyuan instinctively turned and saw the young man who’d boarded after her.

She had seen many ghosts on this bus before—the ghosts were always pale with vacant, lifeless eyes, and the living and dead were unmistakably different. So at first glance, she assumed Ji Nanxing was a living person who had taken the wrong bus.

Without thinking, Sheng Siyuan warned him, “You need to get off now. This isn’t a bus for the living.”

Ji Nanxing raised an eyebrow. “If you know this is a bus for the dead, why are you, a living person, riding it?”

Sheng Siyuan froze. In that moment of hesitation, the bus doors clanged shut and the vehicle began to move.

The driver slowly turned his head, his hollow gaze fixed on them. Snapping out of her daze, Sheng Siyuan quickly pulled a stack of gold foil from her bag and shoved it into the fare box. Ignoring Ji Nanxing, she walked straight to the back and took a seat.

Ji Nanxing followed, but as he passed, the driver’s eyes locked onto him. With a flick of his fingers, Ji Nanxing sent a wisp of Yin energy toward him. The driver’s eyes lit up as he inhaled twice, then closed his eyes contentedly.

With his fare “paid,” Ji Nanxing also made his way to the back and found an empty seat.

There weren’t many ghosts on the bus—only five or six. They sat quietly, each minding their own business. Unlike when Sheng Siyuan had passed by unnoticed, as Ji Nanxing moved down the aisle, the ghosts’ heads slowly turned, their cold, scrutinizing gazes fixed on him.

In the dim, rust-stained interior of the bus, the expressionless faces and chilling stares would’ve made most people’s skin crawl. But Ji Nanxing not only sat down—he ignored them entirely.

Seeing that he wasn’t afraid, the ghosts exchanged glances before slowly turning away. An eerie silence hung over the entire bus.

Wrapped in cold, dense fog, the ghost bus resumed its journey, inching along the road. Outside the windows, the scenery was unlike that of the living world—not overtly terrifying, but heavy with lifeless stillness.

It was still the same city, yet quiet as the grave.

After sitting quietly for a while, Sheng Siyuan suddenly spoke. “Today my manager told me my proposal was approved. My bonus’ll be at least twenty grand, and my apartment will be ready by the end of the month. But it’s summer now, and renovations will be too hot. I think I’ll wait until after summer to start. That’ll give me more time to save up.”

She turned to look at the ghost beside her.

“I’ve already seen the apartment. It’s only about forty square meters, but there aren’t many load-bearing walls inside. A lot of it can be knocked down. I want to put a carved, transparent partition between the living room and bedroom. Since I’ll be living alone, it’ll open up the space.”

Thinking of her soon-to-be-delivered home, Sheng Siyuan’s smile brightened slightly. “I want to get a cat. You never let me before—said I couldn’t keep them alive. I know you weren’t really worried about that. You were afraid I’d get attached, only to have to say goodbye one day. But it’s okay. At least they’d be with me for over a decade. I want a little tabby. Would that be okay?”

Her eyes begged for even the slightest response. But the ghost didn’t respond, only staring silently out the window, motionless.

Sheng Siyuan watched for a long moment before continuing. “I learned how to make stuffed peppers. I could never get the heat right before—either the meat inside was undercooked or the peppers burned. But today, I nailed it. You always said I’d never learn to cook, but look at me now.”

“I also bought an oven. I wanna try making grilled fish this weekend. You used to say I never learned proper meals, just fooled around with random recipes. I still don’t like cooking proper meals. I just want to make whatever I feel like. Once the oven arrives, I can make lamb chops, egg tarts, little bread rolls. If I make too much, I can share with my coworkers.”

She tried to smile, to make her life sound easy. But she couldn’t keep it up. Living alone wasn’t easy at all.

When she spoke again, her voice trembled. “Mom, cooking is so hard. You never finished teaching me. I’m still scared when oil splatters out of the pan. The ribs never soften no matter how long I boil them. And your braised pork knuckles with soybeans—I can’t get yours right. Did you leave out some secret ingredient?”

“There’s so much you didn’t teach me. You never told me to wrap white shoes in paper towels when drying them, or they’d turn yellow. I ruined so many pairs before I figured it out. You never showed me how to get oil stains out of clothes. Some of mine are still stained no matter what.”

“You never taught me how to live alone, Mom. How am I supposed to do this by myself?”

“I always make too much food and can’t finish it. There’s no one to talk to at home. I used to need complete silence to sleep, but now I need the TV on.”

“Why couldn’t you wait a little longer? Until I grew up more, until I learned how to live alone. I haven’t learned yet—how could you go like this?”

“Mom, I miss you so much. I really, really miss you. Look at me, please. Just look at me one more time… please?”

Sheng Siyuan looked at the person beside her who kept staring out the window without turning back, unable to hold back her soft sobs any longer. Her mother was right there—she could still see her—but they were now separated by the veil of life and death, unable to go home together ever again.

A single icy tear fell, landing in Ji Nanxing’s palm. It was a ghost’s tear.

Sheng Siyuan, weeping softly, didn’t know that her mother was crying too.

A *ding-dong* sounded as the phantom bus slowed down. The eerily silent surroundings faded with the dispersing mist, and the familiar noises of the city returned. With a creak, it stopped by the roadside and opened its doors.

Sheng Siyuan knew it was time to get off. After one last reluctant glance at her mother, she reluctantly stepped off the bus with her bag.

The moment the living girl disembarked, all the lingering ghosts swiveled their gazes toward Ji Nanxing.

Ji Nanxing rose from his seat and walked over to Sheng Siyuan’s mother. “Your clinging binds her, just as she binds you.”

Only then did Sheng’s mother, who had been too afraid to look at her daughter, turn her head. First, she looked at her daughter, who had already stepped off the bus, her gaze following her until the bus moved too far to see. Then, she turned to Ji Nanxing.

Ji Nanxing said, “I won’t waste breath on ‘for her sake’ or ‘for yours.’ You should know that by blurring the line between life and death like this, if something irreversible happens, you won’t be able to bear the consequences.”

After speaking, Ji Nanxing walked to the door. “Open it.”

The ghost driver let out a creepy chuckle but showed no intention of stopping.

Ji Nanxing shook a golden bell, and the talisman’s power instantly reverberated through the cramped bus. “Will you open it yourself, or shall I do it for you?”

The ghost driver stopped laughing and immediately halted the bus, opening the door.

Once Ji Nanxing stepped off, the previously slow-moving ghost bus peeled away like it couldn’t get out fast enough.

With only ghosts left inside, the lingering ghosts, previously still in their seats, now gathered around Sheng Siyuan’s mother.

“That kid earlier—your daughter’s boyfriend?”

“I think what he said makes sense. You’re so reluctant to let go of your daughter, and she’s the same with you. But sooner or later, you’ll have to move on to reincarnation. What will she do then?”

“Not to mention, the rhino horn incense on Siyuan is getting fainter. She probably doesn’t have much left—she won’t be able to see you many more times.”

“Ah, your daughter is already so sensible. Mine is abroad and doesn’t even come back for Qingming Festival—just pays someone to burn offerings for me. What was even the point of raising her?”

Sheng’s mother lowered her eyes. “I can’t bear to let go.”

She couldn’t bear the thought of her daughter being alone. What if someone hurts her? What if she’s kicked out of her rented place? What if her boss gives her a hard time? What if she doesn’t have enough money to live?

Seeing her once made her greedy for a second time, yet when she did see her, she couldn’t bear to look at her for too long—afraid that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to leave.

Hearing her daughter talk about her life, she wanted so badly to speak to her, to call her name again, to answer just once more when she called out “Mom.”

But she couldn’t.

Each time, she swore it’d be the last. She couldn’t respond to her daughter—she had to make her understand that she was dead, that ghosts were different from the living. Maybe if her daughter accepted the difference, she’d move on.

But she kept holding on, and her daughter kept coming back. Neither could break free.

After getting off the bus, Sheng Siyuan stood in place for a long time. Those daily ten minutes were her only lifeline now. But the rhino horn incense was running out. What would she do when it was all gone?

Weary and turning toward home, she noticed a dark figure backlit by the streetlight’s glow. Recognizing the person who had followed her onto the bus earlier, she frowned slightly and sped up.

But the figure, who had been some distance away, suddenly materialized right before her.

Sheng Siyuan recoiled, then spun and bolted blindly. Ji Nanxing hesitated, baffled, but quickly took off after her.

Sheng Siyuan screamed in fear, frantically digging through her bag before pulling out all the spirit money. "Stop following me! I have nothing else—just these. Take them all!"

Ji Nanxing glanced at the ghost-offering foil in her hand and said, "You're afraid of me, but not the ghost bus? There were so many ghosts on it, yet you weren’t scared. I’m just one guy, and you're freaking out this badly?"

Sheng Siyuan trembled as she replied, "It’s not the same! That was my mom. Even if she became a ghost, she’s still my mom. How could I ever be afraid of her?"

Ji Nanxing: "Not all the other ghosts on that bus were your relatives, were they?"

Sheng Siyuan: "But my mom was there. If they tried to hurt me, even as a ghost, she would protect me."

So as long as her mom was present, she wasn’t afraid. But now that her mom was gone, this ghost—no matter how good-looking he was or how alive his complexion seemed—still terrified her.

Ji Nanxing chuckled. "I’m not a ghost. I’m a Taoist priest—I hunt ghosts. You used rhino horn incense to summon the ghost bus, blurring the line between the living and the dead for the sake of a departed loved one. Now, I’ll give you two choices."

"I don’t know how you got your hands on that rhino horn incense, but there can’t be much left. Even for Taoists like me, getting more takes serious luck. Chances are you won’t find any more to see your mom again. So I won’t interfere—once your incense runs out, that’s it. You can use what’s left to see your mom a few more times. But burning this incense to see ghosts harms your own vitality and lifespan. Though I doubt you care, or think the cost is worth it. I won’t bother lecturing you."

"Second option: give me what’s left of the rhino horn incense, and I’ll set up a real meeting with your mom—not like on the bus where she couldn’t respond. I’ll give you one night to talk, to say your goodbyes properly."

Ji Nanxing: "I’ll send you a message later. You have until tomorrow before dark to give me your answer."

With that, Ji Nanxing vanished again. Sheng Siyuan stood there, frozen, for what felt like forever, clutching a handful of spirit money.