Her 2,000-yuan journey, more expensive than two round-trip flights, began as a quirky challenge and later became a meditation on life. "Big-city life felt like I was spinning like a top, always about work, but on buses, I saw people I'd never notice in the workplace, who enjoy their slow-paced lives," Zhou says.

She mapped a route through small towns and rural landscapes rarely seen from high-speed trains or planes. At one stop, two strangers, an elderly man and woman, bonded over deciphering bus routes, sharing stories of their lives and hometowns. "These raw, unscripted moments are vanishing in our app-dominated world," she says.