Chapter 5 Taxi
Tu Lanxun was awakened by the sun. It was a sunny morning, and the sunlight streamed in directly onto the sofa bed. She opened her eyes and saw her phone read 7 o'clock.
The second floor of the convenience store was incredibly bright, dispelling all the gloom, as if the supernatural events of last night had never happened. She rubbed her eyes and woke up for a while, regaining her awareness of her surroundings, only to find that the lights on the second floor were off.
It's strange. I slept with the lights on last night.
Tu Lanxun didn't want to dwell on it. She stood up and went to the window. The street outside Penglai Building was still empty, not a single car or person passing by, only the occasional sales bill whizzing by. It was bleak. She remembered where she was and was forcibly brought back to reality.
The sense of security brought by daylight vanished, and she slowly made her way downstairs. The thought that ghosts couldn't appear during the day had barely entered her mind when the male ghost on the first floor extinguished it.
"Good morning." Tu Lanxun closed his mouth, realized what he had said, and felt that he had not fully woken up yet.
Ghost N sat on a chair near the wall, in the coolest corner of the convenience store, where sunlight couldn't reach. He raised his eyes, then lowered them again, continuing to read.
It was obvious that there was only one reason why he appeared here, to imprison her.
Being swept by a shattered eyeball early in the morning was a really bad feeling. Tu Lanxun endured the numbness in his calf, picked up a toothbrush and towel from the shelf, turned around and went into the bathroom to wash up.
The faucet was gurgling, and the cracks on the mirror were still clear. Tu Lanxun closed the door while going to the bathroom and tried to send a text message with his mobile phone. There was only the number 1, but it was sent successfully and the signal was normal.
She carefully glanced at the crack in the door, confirmed that it was locked, and dialed the alarm number. After dialing, the beeps continued, searching for a connection in the void.
Tu Lanxun's heart was pounding and she kept praying, "Please answer it, please answer it." She turned the water flow to the maximum to drown out the ringing of the phone.
Silently, the call interface showed 0:00, and quickly jumped to 0:01, and the alarm call was connected!
"...Hello?" She whispered, holding the phone to her lips.
The operator on the other end was silent. Tu Lanxun repeated it. Finally, there was a rustling sound before the operator spoke.
"Come out when you're done washing." It was not the operator. The male voice was cold and pleasant. There was no doubt that it was the male ghost N.
There was no emotion in his voice, only a hint of sarcasm, as if to confirm her folly in trying to escape from the clutches of supernatural forces by playing tricks.
Tu Lanxun quickly hung up the phone, her heart pounding in her ears and a bone-chilling chill running up her spine. She dried her face with a towel, practiced her smile twice in front of the broken mirror, and then walked out as if nothing had happened.
The male ghost N still maintained that posture, sitting in that dark corner, as if doing nothing, but Tu Lanxun felt an invisible silk bundle at his throat, and the other end of the silk was in N's hand.
Breakfast still needed to be eaten. N didn't say another word. Tu Lanxun went to look through the shelves as usual. This time, she wasn't in the mood to make instant noodles. She only found two bags of sandwich bread, one with strawberry jam and the other with mayonnaise and ham. There were also two cartons of milk.
She placed the mayonnaise sandwich and a carton of milk on the shelf closest to N. Although it was called the closest, it was still eight feet away from N. She smiled and slightly averted her eyes, feeling guilty. "Let's have breakfast first."
Tu Lanxun took her share and escaped behind the cashier's table. As she chewed the sweet and soft food in her mouth, she suddenly felt a little regretful. Could this be her final meal?
If I had known earlier, I would have taken a few more items to make it more filling.
Tu Lanxun drank milk and sent a photo to Tao Si to check in. Tao Si seemed disappointed that she was still alive and replied with a period. Tu Lanxun wanted to take a day off, which was a legitimate reason, and N should not stop him.
Just as she was thinking about how to secretly embed the acrostic poem "I beg you to call the police to save me" in a sentence, N suddenly stood up. Her hand trembled and she directly sent the message asking for leave.
"Let's go." N's eyes fell on her, as if he saw through her intentions.
It was clearly not yet eight o'clock, but Tu Lanxun followed obediently and noticed that the mayonnaise sandwich and milk were still intact in their original places, untouched.
Standing close to N, she could only immediately sense the height difference. Tu Lanxun was 165cm tall, neither tall nor short, but her eyebrows barely reached N's shoulders. She exuded a physical chill, the cool, grassy scent growing stronger, and she sensed a less than pleasant feeling.
Or rather, he was in a bad mood. Tu Lanxun was not sure whether the call to the police had angered him.
The phone automatically popped up a map navigation, and as if an invisible hand had clicked on it, it jumped to the coordinates of the city funeral home, which was seven kilometers away from the convenience store.
Because the development zone was abandoned, the subway was only half-dug, and the related bus lines were also suspended, Tu Lanxun finally understood why N had left home so early. Because it was a 30-minute walk from here to the junction of the development zone and the city.
The moment N stepped out of the store, he disappeared. Tu Lanxun stood alone in the sun and locked the store door - in fact, it didn't matter whether it was locked or not, there was no one here, and walked in the direction of the map navigation.
She was incredibly unlucky. She met no one along the way, and finally, as she reached the edge of the development zone, she saw some people in the distance. A small bun shop was steaming, and a taxi was parked nearby. The bus stop she was heading to was not far from the bun shop.
The bus might be a good option. Passing through the city center, it would have more passengers. In a crowded car, she might have a chance to call for help, scream, or feign a heart attack. No matter how powerful N was, he couldn't wipe out dozens of people at once, right? Someone would always call the police.
However, when passing the bun shop, N's voice drilled directly into my ears, "Don't go forward, get in that taxi."
Tu Lanxun stopped with difficulty. A bus was slowly approaching in the distance. Her heart sank and her feet were bound by the sudden sense of oppression. If she dared to run, her neck would be strangled in the next second. She could only watch the bus drive away.
The taxi driver was sitting in a small shop eating steamed buns. He was almost done when he saw Tu Lanxun waiting nearby. He opened his mouth and smelled celery. "Little girl, do you want a taxi?"
Tu Lanxun nodded. The driver chewed the last half of the garlic, wiped his mouth, walked towards the taxi, and talked to her, "Where are you going? You are still in school, right? Oh, I just remembered that you are from the development zone?" The taxi driver's eyes suddenly became alert. Tu Lanxun hoped that he would be afraid of her and leave her behind, so that she would have to take the bus.
But he took a few looks at her, probably thinking that the young girl was not a threat, so he turned his gaze to the old residential building in the other direction. He probably thought that Tu Lanxun was out for exercise and was walking around in circles, so he opened the car door.
"Let's go to the city funeral home." Tu Lanxun stood there for two seconds, then finally gave up and sat in the passenger seat of the car.
It's closer to the driver, easier to contact, and more likely to be seen by traffic cameras.
The driver glanced at her. From the edge of the haunted development to the funeral home, it was a long journey of bad luck. Fortunately, he was very familiar with her and couldn't help but talk to her. "You're from here? You look quite young. Are you attending university in this city?"
"I'm studying at Lu University, and I don't have any classes in my senior year." Tu Lanxun left as much personal information as possible.
"Oh, you're about to graduate. There's less than a year left. Have you found a job yet?" The driver took a box of chewing gum from behind the gear lever, chewed one himself, and asked Tu Lanxun if she wanted one, but she politely declined.
The taxi grumbled about the smell of grass leaves. Tu Lanxun knew that it came from the invisible third passenger. Perhaps N was sitting in the back at the moment, looking at her with a cold gaze.
As they were talking, the taxi had already entered the main city area. There was some traffic during the morning rush hour. The taxi was originally heading straight ahead when it was cut off by an SUV that suddenly changed lanes. The inertia of the sudden brakes caused Tu Lanxun to swing forward, and the driver almost spit out his bun. "Stupid!"
However, the SUV was unkind and turned straight forward. Its driving skills were so poor that it actually scraped the front of the taxi, making a "crunching" sound as the paint was worn out.
The taxi driver got angry and unbuckled his seat belt, ready to get out of the car to argue, as if he would not give up until the traffic police came.
What a great opportunity! Tu Lanxun thought to himself, the bigger the commotion, the better.
The driver of the SUV must have been a novice. He hit them and then reversed without caring about the lives of others. With a tailspin, he hit two cars in the next lane. The road was filled with the sound of horns.
Now is the time to get off!
But at this moment, the taxi driver stopped, slowly pressed the seat belt buckle back, restarted the ignition, put his hand on the gear lever, and looked straight ahead.
Tu Lanxun sensed something was amiss. The reversing SUV had just made way for a taxi, and the accident had gathered several people. With a determined heart, she reached for the car door like lightning and wrenched it open...
"Click." The car doors and windows were automatically locked by the central control, and she couldn't open them.
Ever since leaving the convenience store, Tu Lanxun had always felt that someone was staring at her from the void, making her hair itch, but now that feeling of being watched had disappeared.
Instead, there was another sense of incongruity. The driver had stopped talking half a minute ago, and his hands were on the steering wheel in a posture he had never had before, with a sense of control. His gaze also changed, staring indifferently at the road ahead.
There is absolutely no mistake, there is another person in his body at this moment.
N glanced at Tu Lanxun from the driver's body, said nothing, and lightly stepped on the accelerator with the tip of his shoe. The car suddenly accelerated and drove out through the gap in front, leaving the noise behind.
His driving skills are very good, even better than those of taxi drivers. He keeps his hands steady on the steering wheel and never has to slow down or brake. He weaves freely through the morning rush hour traffic and even brushes past red lights along the way.
Like an arrow that turns.
The thrill of it made Tu Lanxun's scalp tighten. This was no longer dangerous driving, but a pure stunt.
Tu Lanxun's mind raced uncontrollably. Was N a ghost from a strange game? What had he done in his lifetime? Her mother had three drivers before, but none of them had such terrible driving skills.
"You're here." The taxi driver's words interrupted her distracting thoughts.
Before I knew it, there were more and more funeral supply stores on the street. The city funeral home in the distance was a large park with a solemn white roof and gray-green stone walls, which made people feel suffocated.
This is the end of countless lives, and also the end of her journey.
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