When the passenger got back into the car, it was exactly midnight. He hugged the black package and kept his head hidden under the hood of his jacket. The color of his shirt seemed to have become deeper. Olâ Zhang forced himself to not look at the mirror, but his gaze kept wandering toward it.
âHow come it feels like a different person has returned,â Olâ Zhang muttered softly to himself as he clicked the warning page on his phone open.
âGoing back to Huai Hua Street?â
âYes.â
âDo you live there? There are normally elders who live at Jiujiangâs old streets, so itâs rare for someone your age to reside there.â
âNo, Iâm not staying there.â The passengerâs tone was weird. He answered with short phrases, and they sounded dark.
âListening to your accent, are you a Jiujiang local? Lately, it has been rather unpeaceful at night, so Iâd suggest you go home instead of running about.â Olâ Zhang did not want to return to that damn street; he was afraid of running into yet another weird customer. âWhere is your home? How about I just drive you home?â
âMy home?â The passenger lowered his head even more to focus on the black package on his lap and did not add anything else. Since the man did not elaborate, Olâ Zhang was too embarrassed to press. He turned the taxi around, back toward the city.
The atmosphere got even more depressed after the car started moving. Sitting inside the same space with the passenger, Olâ Zhang felt weirdly congested. He opened the car windows. As the night breeze entered the taxi, Olâ Zhang felt more refreshed. He turned to look at the passenger.
No matter how the car bounced about, the passenger kept his upper body in the same fixed position. The man had probably been in a hurry earlier because the t-shirt looked wrinkled, like he did not have time to change it. The uppermost buttons were undone, and there was an inconspicuous strangulation mark.
Was he assaulted inside the crematorium? Wait, those looks like marks left behind from a hanging!
Olâ Zhang was even more nervous. Half of his attention was focused on the passenger; he was afraid that something might happen once he pulled his gaze away.
His pupils shook, and Olâ Zhangâs heart was racing. He was worried that his action would be discovered, but he was even more worried that the passenger might do something insane. He stepped on the gas because that was the best solution. As long as he got back to the city with crowds around, he should be safe.
The car windows were open. The wind blew into the car, and Olâ Zhang kept his gaze on the backseat. The passenger seemed to be frozen, but the black cloth around the item on his lap lifted up at a corner. The cloth slid away to reveal the packageâs real identity.
His blood rushed to the brain, and Olâ Zhangâs heart raced. It was a ceremonial urn! The thing that the man had taken from the crematorium was an urn!
His arms started to shake, and his fingers curled inward like he was suffering from an involuntary spasm. A chill climbed his spine.
The passenger did not seem to notice that the urn had been revealed. The taxi continued to fly down the road. With the wind doing its work, the other half of the cloth had been lifted off as well.
Now, Olâ Zhang had a closer look. The black cloth was holding a black urn, and there was a picture on top of the urn. The driver slowed down as he turned his focus on the picture. He could not get a good look, but the chin and lips of the man in the picture had similarities to those of the passenger inside the car.
He went to the crematorium to retrieve his own urn in the middle of the night?
Olâ Zhang did not dare to finish his thought. His body was shaking. He kept one hand on the steering wheel while his other sought out his phone to call the police. However, when his hand touched the phone, he glanced behind out of habit, and a pair of bloodshot eyes were looking back at him!
The passenger, who had kept his head lowered, had raised his faceâa face that was similar to the picture on the urn, just a little bit whiter. Olâ Zhangâs skin crawled. Thanks to his years of driving experience, he managed to keep hold of the car or else they would have been in an accident already.
The taxi continued to move. They would enter the city in the next few minutes, but Olâ Zhangâs situation was getting worse. The passenger kept his eyes on the rear-view mirror, so whenever Olâ Zhang tried to look in the mirror, a pair of eyes would be staring at him.
The breeze had blown the black cloth away, so the passenger sat in the back, completely unmoving, holding his own urn in his lap.
âWhat is he thinkingâ˝â
There were no other cars on the road, and Olâ Zhangâs heart was burning. He had an illusion that he was driving the wrong way. This was not the road heading to the city but deeper into the countryside.
âWhat should I doâ˝â He had called the police and sent out a SOS message in the chatgroup, but there was no one around to help him. Whenever he raised his eyes to the mirror, Olâ Zhang felt as if the eyes had gotten closer to him.
He gripped the steering wheel tightly as the temperature in the car dropped. He was leaning against the chair, but it did not feel soft at all.
His phone that he had dropped to the side started to vibrate. Someone was calling him, but Olâ Zhang did not dare answer.
âHey.â The passenger suddenly spoke, and it caused Olâ Zhang to shiver.
Two seconds later, he said, âY⌠Yes?â
âSomeone is calling you.â
Olâ Zhang looked at his phone. The app to call the police with one touch had disappeared, and in its place was an unknown number calling in. The call was hung up soon enough, like the person on the other end of the phone also realized that something was wrong.
âJust ignore it. We canât talk on the phone while driving anyway.â Olâ Zhang laughed drily.
Then he glanced at the phone againâa message had come in.
âQuickly stop your car! Run down the road as fast as you can! Itâs not a human being sitting at the back of your car!â
The message showed on the screen for several seconds. Olâ Zhang saw it, and the passenger at the back also saw it. âMy friend, always a joker.â
Olâ Zhang picked up the phone to place it beside the steering wheel. He was about to say something, but when he raised his head to the rear-view mirror, he was shocked to realize the passenger had his face stuck to the partition between them!
There was an inexplicable smile on the passengerâs face.
âThereâs no need to deny it. Iâm sure youâve noticed it already.â The hood of the jacket fell off. The passengerâs neck slowly moved, and there was another face growing on the back of his head.
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âTechnically, he is still human, but Iâm not.â This sentence was said by the face on the back.
Olâ Zhang had forgotten what he should do. His mind was blank. He remembered stepping on the brake. The taxi stopped several meters later. He ran out of the taxi, screaming.
The passenger also got out. He turned away from Olâ Zhang, and an ugly smile appeared on the face behind his head.
âThereâs nowhere to run. This body has been targeted by a madman, so I need a new partner.â
The passenger faced away from Olâ Zhang, and like a puppet pulled along by a string, he chased after Olâ Zhang, running backwards.