Outside the Hall, the fog seemed to grow thicker, and the temperature dropped even further.
The stone floor under the eaves was covered with a thin, transparent layer of ice, and stepping on it produced a faint crunching sound; the raindrops falling from the sky were, at some point, mixed with tiny ice pellets, gradually forming freezing rain.
Xu Wanli hurriedly opened the bus's luggage compartment and dragged his snakeskin bag back into the vehicle.
But even after rummaging through his red-and-white striped snakeskin bag, he only found three long-sleeved shirts and one black down jacket; there were no thermal pants at all.
Xu Wanli was a bit bewildered.
How... how did he get through winters before?
Oh, that's not right.
There was no winter in Guangzhou and Shen City before.
That down jacket was also something he bought on a whim when he returned to Qinglai for the New Year.
Helplessly, Xu Wanli could only put on all three long-sleeved shirts, then the down jacket to resist the sub-zero cold outside, but he still felt it wasn't enough, so he put on two more pairs of cotton socks, feeling his body and limbs slowly regain warmth, only then satisfied as he zipped up his luggage bag.
“Hello, would you mind waiting a moment before closing the luggage compartment?”
A soft, gentle voice came from behind him.
Turning around, he saw two girls huddled under one umbrella.
One was Yu Sihan, wearing a mask and with a very curvy figure, and the other was her roommate and best friend, Lin Xiaoling.
It was Yu Sihan who spoke.
Originally, she was a little afraid of Xu Wanli, but after seeing him brave the heavy rain to rescue the truck driver, she was no longer afraid and even developed a slight fondness for him.
This fondness was not the kind between a man and a Woman.
Rather, it was a subconscious fondness that arises when someone steps up to do something one cannot or dares not do oneself.
“We’re also passengers on the bus,” Yu Sihan said proactively.
The clothes they were wearing were insufficient to withstand the sudden severe cold; earlier, considering that the bus driver was unconscious and couldn't open the luggage compartment, they had thought of just enduring it and waiting for the driver to wake up to get the keys for the luggage compartment.
But then Xu Wanli directly searched for the keys.
This made them very pleasantly surprised, and they followed along.
“The small blue button on the bottom right of the dashboard.”
Xu Wanli handed the keys to them and turned to go to the Service Area restroom.
Normally, when luggage is checked in at a bus station, the ticket seller gives the person checking luggage a number, and upon reaching the destination, the driver opens the luggage compartment, allowing passengers to retrieve their luggage using the number, to prevent anyone from taking the wrong bag or stealing one.
The current situation was special; no one knew if the driver would wake up.
So, they simply retrieved their luggage independently.
...
Back in the Hall.
Everyone was looking down at their phones, occasionally exchanging a few words.
As for the bus driver, who was lying on his side on the table, a few careful Women had simply bandaged his external wounds and covered him with two thick coats, but no one bothered him further.
Now that the highway was blocked, even if someone was willing to risk carrying the bus driver to the toll station, it would be very difficult to flag down a vehicle going to a city hospital.
Most importantly, outside, a strong wind was blowing, heavy rain was falling, and the temperature had dropped below zero; these people might not even be able to walk dozens of kilometers, let alone carry a severely injured person.
If the bus driver died halfway, they might even be held accountable.
Under these various concerns, they tacitly pretended not to know.
“Hmm?”
“Where am I?”
The bus driver, lying on his side, groggily opened his eyes.
He looked around blankly, and it took him a full half-minute to remember being hit by a car.
Just as he was about to get up and check his body, a sharp scream came from beside him.
“Ah!!!”
A Woman, who was facing the bus driver, suddenly stood up, slammed her phone onto the table, pointed at the bus driver’s bloodless face, and stammered incoherently, “He... he’s awake! He’s awake!”
“Awake?”
Hearing this, everyone turned to look at the bus driver.
When they saw the bus driver’s drooping eyelids, they silently breathed a sigh of relief.
The guilt that had arisen from not wanting to risk taking the bus driver to the hospital immediately diminished significantly.
One by one, they gathered around him, showing great concern as they asked about his well-being.
“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
“Do you want some water?”
“Are you cold? Do you need another coat?”
“Can you hear me?”
“...”
The bus driver stared blankly at the enthusiastic crowd, seemingly not understanding what was happening.
He remained silent, expressionless, for a while.
He raised his head, looked at the slightly familiar faces around him, and weakly said, “It seems we won’t be able to get off the highway tonight. Could you all tell everyone about the overtime fee when you get back and ask them to split the cost?”
What?
Everyone looked at each other blankly, thinking they had misheard.
Overtime fee?
At a time like this, you’re talking to me about an overtime fee?
Staying overnight at a Service Area, the overtime fee would at most be a few hundred yuan; a few hundred yuan isn’t a small amount, but it’s not enough to disregard one’s own life, is it?
Moreover, the situation outside was special; it wasn't certain that an overtime fee would even need to be paid.
“Don’t you feel any pain?” a slightly plump girl asked weakly.
Brother, you have a branch an inch and a half thick stuck in you!
An inch and a half wide.
It’s wider than her boyfriend’s...
Anyway, just looking at it made her feel unbearable.
“Pain?”
The bus driver was a bit confused.
Following everyone’s gaze, he lowered his head, and the tip of a branch, embedded with flesh, came into view.
Immediately, his pupils contracted violently.
A look of extreme horror appeared on his pale face; he reached out to touch the branch but was too afraid to move recklessly.
“Ah!!!”
He didn't feel any pain.
But the visual impact far exceeded his psychological tolerance.
Besides the branch he saw with his own eyes, he could also clearly feel the foreign sensation of the branch lodged inside his body.
This made him extremely frightened and uneasy.
“Don’t move!”
“Don’t worry, you’re fine!”
“Just lie still, don’t move!”
“Take a deep breath, feeling pain is normal, relax!”
“...”
Several men held down the bus driver, fearing he might accidentally pass away.
The bus driver looked at them, his eyes filled with terror.
“Did you give me anesthesia?”
“No.”
A young man blurted out candidly.
“Where would a Service Area get anesthesia?”
“Then... why don’t I feel any pain at all...?”
The bus driver mumbled to himself, the focus in his eyes gradually scattering.
He would rather be in agonizing pain right now, to the point of fainting, than feel nothing at all, like a corpse. No, the scene before him might not be real, but a hallucination from his unconsciousness, a fictitious, non-existent world.
Only this could explain everything.
“That’s right, this definitely isn’t real, it isn’t real...”
“...”
The bus driver closed his eyes, muttering to himself.
His complexion slowly calmed, and his breathing gradually steadied.
“He... fell asleep?”
The group looked at each other.
This scene was strangely eerie.
“...”
Xu Wanli, passing by, heard the conversation and inexplicably thought of the Woman who had been on the same bus.
He looked around the Hall.
The Woman and her family had left at some unknown time.
He vaguely felt that something wasn’t right, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t pinpoint what was off. He patted his head and quickened his steps to distance himself from the crowd.
Xu Wanli didn’t particularly like crowded places.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought of returning to his old home in Qinglai to drive a truck and sell scattered goods in the mountains.