“Young lady, there’s been another accident on the southern city road. It’ll probably be blocked for a while. There’s another route though it’s a bit longer. If you’re okay with it, I’ll take that way without extra charge. What do you think?”
The ride-hailing driver appeared to be a middle-aged man in his fifties, speaking cheerfully to Shi Qing.
After briefly checking the alternate route shown on the driver’s phone, Shi Qing nodded in agreement.
She had taken this road several times before and was familiar with it. The driver wasn’t lying either – the southern city road frequently had accidents that caused long traffic jams.
“Alright then, I’ll take the alternate route.”
The driver quickly changed routes. Shi Qing finally put away her phone, only to notice upon looking up that there was actually someone sitting in the passenger seat.
Huh…
Was this ride-hailing driver carrying more than just her? She remembered there being no one in the passenger seat when she got in.
And the car hadn’t stopped midway either.
Shi Qing: “…”
“Driver, you don’t seem like a professional taxi driver. Are you doing this as a side job after work?”
Shi Qing pretended not to see the ‘person’ in the passenger seat and struck up a conversation with the driver.
“Hahaha, you’re quite observant, young lady. I’ve retired, you see, and my children are all overseas. I had nothing to do during my free time, so I bought this car to drive around. Occasionally, my wife and I go on road trips…”
The driver, Shen Guoqiang, was very talkative. He had been doing this for a year, though he spent most of his time traveling to various places with his wife.
Throughout the journey, the ‘person’ in the passenger seat remained rigidly still. Through the rearview mirror, Shi Qing caught glimpses of his face with her peripheral vision.
It could hardly be called a face anymore – a bluish-white complexion pieced together haphazardly, strangely fused together by dark blood clots, as if dozens of long blood-red centipedes were crawling across it.
A pair of pale eyes stared fixedly ahead, as if unable to hear their conversation.
After chatting with Shen Guoqiang, Shi Qing gathered some information.
His car was a second-hand vehicle with excellent performance, recommended by a friend.
It hadn’t had any problems since he bought it, especially the air conditioning – the cooling effect was very good in summer, though the heating wasn’t great in winter, remaining chilly for a long time.
Hearing this, Shi Qing chuckled dryly.
There was nothing wrong with the air conditioning – the problem was the thing sitting in the passenger seat.
But Shi Qing had no intention of intervening. She wasn’t some ghost hunter who wanted to capture every ghost she saw, and this ghost clearly meant no harm to anyone.
“Master Shen, please stop at that mobile phone shop ahead. I need to buy something and will be back quickly. I’ll cover any extra cost.”
Suihua had been pestering her at home to buy a mobile phone. She wondered what a ghost would even do with a phone.
Within less than ten minutes of entering the phone shop, Shi Qing emerged carrying a new phone.
But just as she got back in the car and the driver was about to depart, a man in a suit quickly opened the passenger door and shouted at the driver: “Driver, to ×× Hospital! My wife’s about to give birth, hurry…”
“Well, sir, I already have a passenger in my car…”
The driver sounded helpless. The hospital wasn’t on the way to Shi Qing’s destination.
Only then did the man notice Shi Qing in the back seat, his face immediately filling with anxiety.”I’m sorry, young lady, my wife is about to give birth. Could you let me go first? Or you could find another car? I’ll cover your fare, how about that?”
As he spoke, the man pulled out a hundred-yuan bill and handed it over.
Shi Qing widened her eyes slightly, her smile somewhat stiff.
“No need, I’m not in a hurry. Let’s take you first.”
The man’s plop into the seat didn’t just land him in the passenger seat—he was sitting right on the male Ghost’s lap.
At that moment, the male Ghost was frantically licking the man’s head and neck, its eyes glowing red.
Faint traces of vital energy were being sucked away by the Ghost, though not enough to cause any real harm.
“Driver, did you turn on the AC? Why does it feel so chilly?”
The man reached up to rub his neck, feeling as though a draft was blowing against the back of his head and neck.
“Not at all.”
It was only late April—far from time to use air conditioning.
Shi Qing pressed her lips together and silently pulled out her phone, immersing herself in it.
She needed to start reflecting.
Why had she been seeing unclean things so frequently lately?
The drive to the hospital would take over twenty minutes. After calling his wife, the man soon struck up a conversation with the driver.
He was in sales, surnamed Zhang, dealing in everything from houses to used cars.
As he chatted, Mr. Zhang glanced around the car. “Driver, your car reminds me of one I saw before—same model. But I didn’t dare sell that one…”
Perhaps because his wife was due, Mr. Zhang was overly anxious, rambling on disjointedly.
“…That car had at least three ‘soul rings,’ injured over a dozen people. Luckily, it ended up crashing into a river, or the casualties would’ve been worse…”
There were five people in the car at the time—apparently, the brakes failed. Three died, two were rescued. After the car was fished out and patched up, it was secretly slipped back into the used car market.
When he took on that car, he specially brought a big black dog along. That dog refused to even get in the car—how could he dare sell it?
He’d handled accident cars before, but never one that scared a black dog from even approaching.
“Heh, this one was recommended by a friend. It runs well, doesn’t seem like it’s been in any major accidents. Besides, I bought it just a year ago. What you’re talking about happened two or three years back…”
Shen Guoqiang chuckled and waved a hand, brushing it off.
But Shi Qing noticed the male Ghost seemed to have gone mad, violently tearing at Mr. Zhang’s already thinning hair.
“Who am I?! Who am I? Tell me, who am I—”
The Ghost’s eyes streamed with Blood Tears as it screamed the questions.
Yet Mr. Zhang heard nothing, only feeling an inexplicable headache.
“My head hurts so much! Who am I? It hurts, ah—don’t fall off, don’t fall off! I can’t piece it together, I really can’t, wuwuwu…”
The Ghost covered its face, chunks of rotting flesh dropping off. Panicked, it scrambled to pick them up and stick them back on.
Despite the horrifying scene, Shi Qing found it oddly peculiar.
“Mr. Zhang, we’re here.”
They soon reached the hospital. Mr. Zhang hurried out of the car and dashed inside.
Seeing him leave, the Ghost rushed after him but was yanked back forcefully after just a few steps.”Don’t go! Tell me who I am, who am I—”
He couldn’t leave this car. No matter how desperately he screamed, Mr. Zhang couldn’t hear him.
The car started moving again. The male ghost curled up in the passenger seat, helpless, heartbroken, and filled with grievance…
Shi Qing felt that his true nature probably wasn’t evil. Generally speaking, when ghosts have prolonged contact with humans, humans would become contaminated with ghost energy, gradually weakening their physical condition.
But looking at Shen Guoqiang’s condition, he showed no signs of such problems. This indicated that the male ghost had restrained his ghost energy, not letting it affect him.
Shi Qing took out his phone and searched for the car accident Mr. Zhang had mentioned. The details matched what he had said—five people in the vehicle, three died, while the other two recovered completely after treatment and were discharged from the hospital.
Among the three fatalities, the cause of death was drowning. The male ghost’s current appearance reflected how he looked at the moment of death, clearly showing he wasn’t any of those three victims.
“Master Shen, were you and that friend of yours very close…”