There are now twelve passengers, five of whom are female and seven are male.
Mei Nan glanced at the four rooms. "You five girls can take two rooms, and we'll take the remaining two. Arrange yourselves."
Tang Tang naturally wanted to share a room with Ning Wei. They chose the smallest room.
Zhu Yilian, Yuanyuan, and another girl named Wang Jingyun stayed next door.
As for the remaining two rooms, the seven men could arrange them however they pleased.
The five girls entered the rooms first. The beds here were all made of wood that they had chopped from the mountain themselves, so their quality was not great.
The quilts were thick enough, so they wouldn't have to squeeze together at night.
A middle-aged woman soon arrived with a large basin of noodles. A man who looked honest and simple followed behind her.
"Come and eat, everyone. It's too late now to prepare fancy dishes. We'll definitely slaughter a chicken to treat you well tomorrow."
The middle-aged woman was very talkative. She called everyone to eat noodles, and like a cafeteria lady, she filled each bowl to the brim. There was exactly one bowl per person.
Everyone held their warm bowls, and the chill dissipated.
The middle-aged woman had no intention of leaving. Instead, she took a stool from a room and sat down by herself.
As everyone ate their noodles, they listened to her talk.
When the noodles were finished, she was still chattering away. Only when several girls started yawning did she get up to leave.
After she left, everyone sat around the table to discuss the next steps.
Zhu Yilian frowned and said, "From what she said, it sounds like she doesn't plan to let us leave tomorrow."
"After all the trouble to get you in, how could they let you leave so easily?" Tang Tang whispered.
"This time, there's no guide, and no one has said how we can get a ticket to leave here," Mei Nan said with some worry.
Soon, it was Ning Wei's turn to speak. She only said four words: "Improvise."
Everyone had been hoping she would offer a clear path, but instead, she said something useless.
This meeting ended in complete failure, and everyone returned to their rooms to sleep.
After entering the room, Ning Wei suggested pushing the two beds together, which Tang Tang was very happy about.
The two girls moved the wooden beds, rearranged the quilts, and then snuggled into bed.
Ning Wei's eyes darted around for a moment. Then, she leaned closer to the drowsy Tang Tang and began to inquire about something she had been curious about.
"In the zoo, Fu Chengwei disappeared on the second day. Why did he suddenly appear on the bus?"
Tang Tang's eyes were so heavy she could barely open them, but her mind was still clear.
"Fu Chengwei isn't on the bus. Wasn't he taken away by the zoo director long ago?"
Ning Wei's expression changed. "The most handsome man among the passengers, do you know his name?"
She asked in a different way. Tang Tang shook her head. "I don't know."
"Then do you know when he appeared?"
Tang Tang rubbed her eyes. "Ning Wei, you're so strange. Of course, he got on the bus with us. Are you so tired that you've gone silly? How can you not remember this?"
Ning Wei was truly dumbfounded. She tucked Tang Tang in, then opened her own eyes and began to sort out her thoughts.
Based on her conversation with Tang Tang, it seemed only she thought the extra person was Fu Chengwei.
But that didn't seem right either. She had only subconsciously assumed the extra person was Fu Chengwei. However, after observing him for a while longer, she could be sure he wasn't Fu Chengwei.
The more Ning Wei thought, the more her head ached. This suddenly appearing person was too mysterious.
Since she couldn't figure it out, she decided not to think about it anymore and buried herself in the covers to sleep.
In the middle of the night, someone blew air into her ear, disturbing her dream. She opened her eyes, her gaze clear.
Tang Tang was still fast asleep. Ning Wei agilely got out of bed and chased after them.
The ghost that had blown on her fled, but Ning Wei was no pushover. She was determined to chase after it and give it a good beating.
Just as Ning Wei ran out, a person lying on an old tree outside the courtyard, his gaze dim and unreadable, followed.
The ghost ran out of the village, and Ning Wei followed closely behind.
As she chased, she paid attention to the village. The village at night was eerily quiet, not even a dog barked.
More importantly, she had run out of the village like this, yet no one had come out to stop her.
The ghost disappeared when it reached a cluster of graves. Ning Wei did not leave but instead scrutinized all the tombstones.
There were thirty women's names here, but only one man's tombstone. And this man's tombstone was in the very center, as if he were surrounded by thirty women.
Ning Wei couldn't help but mutter, "What, is this opening a graveyard harem?"
She thought no one would hear her, but as soon as she finished speaking, a man's low chuckle came from not far away.
"Who!" Ning Wei immediately looked around vigilantly, holding a stone she had picked up near the graves.
A person's foot appeared from behind a tree. Ning Wei threw the stone in her hand forcefully.
"Missed," the person emerged completely, a look of triumph on his face.
"Ah!" In the next second, he was proven wrong, because Ning Wei had another small stone in her hand at some point, which hit the man squarely on the head.
"Are you a person or a ghost?" Seeing the newcomer clearly, Ning Wei decided to take this opportunity to find out.
"What do you think?" The man deliberately made his voice ethereal, like a ghost's.
Ning Wei looked at him speechlessly. "You're not Fu Chengwei. What are you trying to do by blending into our group?"
"I never said I was Fu Chengwei."
The man exchanged words with Ning Wei, playing a game of cat and mouse, refusing to say who he really was.
Since the cold-blowing ghost had already run off, and Ning Wei didn't have a strange hobby of chatting in graveyards, she turned to leave.
The man kept a two-meter distance from her, and they returned to the village, one after the other.
Before Ning Wei went inside, she heard him softly say, "My name is Li Ye."
That name was truly dark, just like this person, full of a mysterious and chuunibyou aura.
After Ning Wei closed the door, Li Ye returned to the tree.
The night was cool, and the breeze carried a chill. But he lay on a thick branch as if he were numb.
Ning Wei wouldn't believe he was human. He was skilled enough to sneak onto the bus, evading the driver and conductor's eyes.
However, there was also a possibility. It was precisely because he wasn't human that the driver and conductor turned a blind eye and let him on board.
"He's not a spy, is he?" Ning Wei's thoughts became more chaotic, and she couldn't help but speak aloud.
Tang Tang was sleeping so soundly. Ning Wei had come and gone, and spoken in low tones, yet she showed no signs of waking up.