Just then, the driver in front suddenly spoke.
The current atmosphere was a little eerie. The two of them were in a taxi that might be a Spirit Car, with a driver who could be human or ghost.
When the driver suddenly spoke, it startled Zhuifeng, making him shiver slightly.
"That said... you two shouldn't be out this late at night..."
The driver sounded somewhat hesitant as he spoke. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝
Gu Mian looked up at the rearview mirror, which reflected the driver's face.
His face was haggard; it was clear he often stayed up late, running his body into the ground.
The driver sighed before speaking again. "Don't ignore my advice. You youngsters who stay out late instead of going home to sleep might not feel it now, but when you get to my age, you'll definitely feel the effects..."
His speech was halting, as if something was stuck in his throat.
"Besides, it's not safe to be out late. Just two weeks ago, didn't a young boy disappear after getting into a taxi at night..."
At these words, Gu Mian asked, "Two weeks ago?"
The previous taxi driver had told him that four people had disappeared in Yecheng City before this, all of whom went missing after getting into a taxi late at night. But he hadn't mentioned anyone disappearing so recently.
"Yes." The driver's voice was somewhat muffled.
Perhaps because he felt it was too cold, the driver was wearing a very thick black scarf that looked quite warm.
"I think it was about ten days ago. A high school senior, a boy, was never seen again after taking a taxi at night. He might have been murdered..."
Gu Mian then asked, "Before that, had anyone else disappeared after taking a taxi?"
"Yes," the driver nodded. "Of course. I heard about a girl two years ago, I think she was a college student, who also vanished like that."
"Actually, I didn't pay much attention to it back then... COUGH COUGH... but her parents plastered missing person notices everywhere. They often slipped them into my car window, so eventually, I remembered it."
"As far as disappearances go, I think those are the only two. I haven't heard of any others."
Gu Mian lowered his head slightly. Something's off. The timing is off.
The previous driver had said that the college student, Lin Rongrong, disappeared ten years ago.
But this driver was saying that the female college student disappeared two years ago.
There was an eight-year time difference.
Zhuifeng looked at Gu Mian, puzzled. He didn't know about the female college student; he just felt that the atmosphere was a bit strange.
"Can I take a look at the paper in your hand?" Gu Mian suddenly asked.
"Um..." Zhuifeng, utterly bewildered, handed him the map. "Here you go."
The front of this leaflet was also a map of Yecheng City, marking the starting point and home location for the player Zhuifeng Shaonian.
Gu Mian saw that his home was located almost in the city center, in a place called Yinglun Castle.
Gu Mian's destination, Rong'an Residential Area, was due east of Yinglun Castle. The two areas were quite far apart, a drive of nearly twenty minutes.
He then flipped the paper over to look at the advertisements on the back.
There wasn't much content on the back, similar to the leaflet Gu Mian was holding. It also had an advertisement for Sunshine Taxi and a missing person notice.
But the date in the top left corner was different.
The date on Gu Mian's leaflet was July 30, 2002.
This one, however, was dated October 1, 2013.
There was a gap of nearly eleven years, and the person sought in the missing person notice was different too.
[MISSING PERSON NOTICE]
[Name: Liu Mo, Gender: Female, Age: 18]
[Home address: Rong'an Residential Area, Yecheng City. High school student, disappeared on September 29, 2013. Height: 1.61 meters. Last seen getting into a taxi.]
[Urgent Appeal: If you have any information, please contact the family immediately. A generous reward will be given!]
Further down was a very familiar face: large, expressive eyes, bowl-cut bangs, her whole face exuding a youthful aura.
Gu Mian's previous driver—she was also one of the victims in these taxi disappearances.
And her home address is the same as my destination?
Gu Mian frowned slightly as he thought. In this instance, every player had to take a taxi back to their 'home.' But he realized that these so-called 'homes' were actually the original residences of those who had disappeared after taking a taxi.
Why are they assigned this way? Couldn't they just give us a random new address as our 'home'?
As he pondered this, he looked down at the missing person notice again.
Lin Rongrong, the first to disappear, vanished on July 24, 2002. Her family's current address was unknown. After her disappearance, her parents had once lived in the same residential community as Liu Mo's family.
Liu Mo was also one of the disappeared. She had previously mentioned that four others had vanished before her, making her, by a conservative estimate, the fifth to disappear. She vanished on September 29, 2013, and lived in Rong'an Residential Area.
Their disappearances were eleven years apart.
And this driver in front...
"Driver," Gu Mian suddenly spoke up.
"What's up?" the driver in front asked back.
His voice was very hoarse, as if something was constantly lodged in his throat.
Zhuifeng Shaonian looked somewhat scared. He quietly swallowed.
Gu Mian asked, "Would you mind telling me your name?"
The driver remained silent for a while before finally responding, "Zuo Xiaqiu..."
"And what time is it now, roughly?"
"Mid-April, I guess. The weather's still a bit chilly."
As expected, each driver perceives time differently. They're stuck at the time of their death.
Zuo Xiaqiu... he died long ago. He died before Liu Mo disappeared, probably two years after the female college student went missing.
Two people disappeared before him, making him the third person to vanish in the taxi disappearance incidents.
Lin Rongrong, first to disappear.
Zuo Xiaqiu, third to disappear.
Liu Mo, fifth to disappear.
Time. Time is a very clear clue in this instance. Everyone disappeared at a different time. Their disappearances followed an order. And the players' deaths... most likely follow an order too. This is like a role-playing game, but not quite.
Gu Mian muttered quietly to himself, "My destination happens to be Liu Mo's home address. This probably isn't a coincidence. Does this mean I'll suffer the same fate as Liu Mo?"
Liu Mo, the fifth to disappear... in a sense, she could be considered the fifth to die. Manner of death unknown... Manner of death?
Gu Mian furrowed his brows.
Meanwhile, Zhuifeng Shaonian was looking out the car window, feeling uneasy.
He kept feeling that if he wasn't careful, a head might suddenly drop down from above the window.
This instance is called 'Death Taxi'; all players know this. So, everyone also understands that the danger in this instance usually comes from the driver, or else from other unidentified passengers. The passenger next to me seems relatively safe. It's the driver who's a bit strange.
As Zhuifeng Shaonian thought this, he secretly glanced at the driver in front again.
He saw the driver sitting rigidly in the driver's seat, driving the car quite normally.
He finally breathed a sigh of relief and was just about to turn his head to look out the window again.
But just as he turned his head, Zhuifeng Shaonian's gaze swept across the car's interior rearview mirror.
Then his hair stood on end.
Because he saw that the driver, at some unknown point, had opened his eyes wide and was staring intently at him through the rearview mirror.