Sitting in the taxi, Chen Ge called Xiao Gu two more times to confirm the Red-Raincoat Woman hadn't returned. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
"Tonight's top priority is getting Xiao Gu home safely. I'll deal with the Eastern Suburbs later."
Chen Ge had his own concerns. Both the taxi driver and Xiao Gu were ordinary people, and he didn't want to drag them into this.
Rain hammered against the window, blurring his view. Dark clouds blanketed the sky outside, and it felt like the entire night was pressing down on them.
"The weather forecast is never right. They said light rain — how long has it been pouring like this?" The driver was a young man, roughly Chen Ge's age. He kept his eyes locked on the road ahead, not daring to let his attention waver for even a second in these conditions.
"When we get there, I'm going to pick someone up, and then I'll ride back with you. Don't worry — I won't make you drive an empty fare." Chen Ge pulled his gaze back inside.
"It's not the fare I'm worried about." The driver didn't turn around. "Don't you think there's something weird about this rain? The farther east we go, the harder it pours. The road's already flooded — I can't even see the curb anymore."
"What's so weird about that? You might be a little too sensitive." Chen Ge chuckled softly.
"Better safe than sorry. Some things can't be explained away." The driver gestured toward the Buddhist prayer beads hanging from the rearview mirror. "I've picked up passengers from the Eastern Suburbs before. They're very superstitious out there — lots of rules. Like when there's a newborn in the family, the father has to stomp his feet at the doorway before entering. If you have a bad dream, you flip your pillow over when you wake up. After midnight, if you get a phone call, don't speak first. If you pass a car accident scene and see a strange vehicle going by, don't get close. Stuff like that. I didn't believe any of it at first, but after hearing enough of their stories, it started getting to me."
The lights along the roadside grew dimmer and dimmer. The driver eyed the wipers swinging back and forth, a trace of nervousness creeping in. "They've got one legend that's the scariest of all. When it's raining hard like this and you're walking at night, you'll easily lose your way. It looks like you're heading home, but you're actually walking farther and farther away, until you end up in a completely unfamiliar place."
"Is that so?" Chen Ge perked up. Many urban legends actually had a basis in reality — they weren't purely fabrications. More often than not, they were connected to something real.
"The Eastern Suburbs haven't had any major violent cases, but out of all the missing-person reports filed in Jiujiang each year, four out of five happen in the Eastern Suburbs. It's like that place eats people."
The driver's words sounded pretty eerie, and Chen Ge committed them to memory. "Just keep driving. If something strange really happens, we'll call the police."
"Call the police?" The driver wasn't quite prepared for Chen Ge's leap in logic. "Sure, I guess. I was just giving you a friendly heads-up — it's best not to head out to the Eastern Suburbs alone in the middle of the night. It's pretty desolate out there…"
He stopped mid-sentence. Squinting ahead, he suddenly wrenched the steering wheel.
The taxi swerved violently. Chen Ge's body slammed against the car door. Without a word, he reached into his backpack and decisively flipped the switch on the repeater.
The taxi slowed down. The driver gasped for breath, his forehead slick with sweat.
"What happened?"
"There was someone standing in the middle of the road."
"You must've seen wrong. It's pouring rain, it's pitch-black out — who would be standing in the middle of the road?" Chen Ge's hands rummaged through his backpack, his fingers closing around something.
"Impossible." The driver wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced to the side. Outside the window was nothing but darkness.
"Then describe what they looked like to me. Were they wearing a red raincoat?"
"No raincoat. Just a shadow. Maybe I really did see it wrong." The driver rubbed his head, slipped the prayer beads off the rearview mirror and onto his wrist, then continued driving forward.
"Don't go too fast. There are a lot of rivers in the Eastern Suburbs — safety first." Chen Ge wasn't afraid of vengeful ghosts. What he worried about was the driver becoming a target. If the driver had an accident at high speed, Chen Ge would go down with him.
A crackling static hum filled the taxi's interior, and the raindrops outside seemed to deliberately give the car a wide berth.