While waiting for the red light, the driver took out his cell phone and sent a voice message to their group chat.

He had just sent Chen Ge to Huaihua Lane and listened to ghost stories along the way, so he was now extremely nervous.

"The car is equipped with a driving recorder, a positioning system, and guardrails, so nothing should happen." The driver was very thoughtful. When sending the voice message, he deliberately spoke very loudly so that the passengers in the back seat could hear it clearly.

"It's been a bit chaotic these past few nights, so you need to be more careful."

"OK."

The green light came on, and the driver put his phone aside and started the taxi.

The scenery on both sides was rapidly receding, and there were fewer and fewer vehicles on the road.

The driver secretly glanced at the passenger in the back seat through the rearview mirror. The passenger was not very tall and was wearing a black sweatshirt with a light red shirt underneath.

The man hurried into the car, told where he was going, and never spoke again.

What's even more strange is that after he entered the car, he did not take off the hood of his sweatshirt on his head, and because of the angle, only half of his face could be seen clearly.

"Brother, we are more particular about night buses, and we usually don't go to that place." The driver was unsure and started to talk nonsense: "But since I let you get on the bus, I will definitely not charge you more. However, I can only take you to the vicinity, and you need to walk 100 or 200 meters inside by yourself. Is that okay with you?"

This was the case when he gave Chen Ge a ride for the first time. He was very timid and started planning his departure route before he even got to the destination. As soon as the passenger got off the car, he turned around and ran away.

"No, I'm just going to get something. My home is in the city." The man raised his head. There was nothing wrong with his voice. "You left me alone at the entrance of the crematorium. How can I get a taxi when I get my things? How can there be a taxi going to the crematorium to pick up passengers at night?"

The driver, Lao Zhang, thought about it and felt that what the passenger said made sense.

"You send me there and then send me back. That's two round trip fares. Isn't that better than driving back with an empty truck?"

After hearing what the passenger said, Lao Zhang was a little tempted. Why not earn some extra money?

If it were in the past, he would definitely agree immediately. The main reason was that after driving Chen Ge, he had a psychological trauma and became cautious in everything he did. "Okay, but I'll wait for you at the intersection. Come back to me after you get your things."

"Okay, as long as you don't mind wasting our time." The male passenger in the back seat put his hands in his pockets, looking very easy to talk to.

"There's nothing unusual about this guy except that he always wears a hat. He seems much more reliable than the guy who went on a date to the abandoned campus."

Lao Zhang muttered to himself, thinking that there were so many taxis running at night in Jiujiang, he couldn't possibly encounter all kinds of strange things, right?

The probability of encountering that psychopath twice in a row is already low enough, and it should be a turn of events if you think about it.

He thought of all kinds of reasons to comfort himself, but his hands holding the steering wheel still broke out in sweat.

The car drove very fast and it took only ten minutes to get out of the old town and head towards the crematorium in the suburbs.

There were fewer and fewer people on both sides, and the lights of the shop signs could no longer be seen. Only Lao Zhang's taxi was speeding on the road.

“It’s almost there.”

The driver kept glancing at the passenger through the rearview mirror. The passenger sat quietly in his seat and didn't seem to move at all during the entire journey.

"Please drive a little further forward. You don't have to send me to the door. Just drive a little closer." The passenger in the back seat spoke in a very soft voice, and it felt like he was inhaling while speaking.

There was no light to be seen within nearly a hundred meters. This place was particularly quiet today. The taxi moved slowly on the concrete road, like a moving black coffin.

"Let's stop here." The night wind blew in through the car window. Lao Zhang gripped the steering wheel with both hands, feeling a little uneasy.

"Okay, give me two minutes."

"Car fare!"

"I'll give it to you when I come back." The passenger in the back seat said lightly, and there seemed to be some change in his voice.

“You are…”

Lao Zhang wanted to get out of the car and argue with the other party. He was afraid that the passenger would escape. However, when he thought about leaving the car and going outside, he backed off: "What the hell, going to the crematorium in the middle of the night to look for something, is he working here?"

The driver looked at the time. It was already 11:56, almost 12 o'clock.

"I meet guests like this every day, always going to strange places, so I don't have to worry about traffic jams." He watched the passenger walk away quickly and thought that the man walked awkwardly, as if he was not used to walking.

The passengers entered the crematorium through a small door. Lao Zhang sat alone in the car. He rolled up all the windows. The enclosed space made him feel safer.

"Too slow." Just over ten seconds later, Lao Zhang couldn't sit still anymore: "Did I meet a scammer? Does this guy not want to pay for the ride?"

He pondered for a moment, and his expression slowly changed, as if he realized something very bad: "It seems that the passenger going to Huaihua Lane also got off the bus without paying!"

Chen Ge was going to Huaihua Lane at that time. When he was still fifty or sixty meters away from the entrance of the lane, Lao Zhang started urging him to get out of the car, and finally refused to drive forward no matter what.

When Chen Ge got out of the car reluctantly and wanted to pay the fare, Lao Zhang had already driven more than ten meters away.

Afraid of hitting himself in the face, Lao Zhang looked distressed: "I took over for an hour, didn't make a penny, and even spent a few dollars on gas. Forget it, just consider it as a way to avoid disaster. As long as I don't meet him again in the future, I will even pay for his car fare."

Lao Zhang was upset and turned on the music in the car, but the more he listened, the more anxious he became.

Outside was the crematorium, pitch black and very quiet. At this time, if there was a sound in the car, it felt like something in the darkness was staring at us.

Before the song was even finished, he turned off the music again, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and looked around.

"Why haven't you come out yet?" It would be midnight in another minute. The driver felt something was wrong and thought something was going to happen.

He picked up the broken talisman paper that had fallen on the ground, bowed his head, and stuffed it into his pocket.

Coincidentally, when he lowered his head, his eyes happened to sweep across the cushion where the passenger had once sat.

There was a not-too-obvious bloodstain on the white mat.

"Has it happened before? I don't think I saw it when I picked up the car."

Lao Zhang turned his head to look at the back seat and suddenly remembered that the passenger was dressed very differently, wearing a sweatshirt on the outside and a light red shirt underneath.

"The red color of that shirt isn't very even, could it be..."

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Someone knocked on the car window, and a passenger walked out of the crematorium at some point, holding a package covered with black cloth in his hand.

Old Zhang was frightened and quickly looked away.

"We've found it, let's go back the same way." The passenger's tone was completely different from before, as if something had changed.

The driver looked at the black package in the passenger's hand through the rearview mirror and rubbed his hands on his clothes. His palms were already soaked with sweat.