Jiang Tao didn't expect the woman in red at all—the female ghost—to be standing behind him. He remembered glancing back just moments before and seeing no "person" there. Instinctively, he wanted to turn around for another look, but just as he moved, a flash of memory hit him from his school days, something his grandmother had warned him about: if someone calls your name late at night in the wilderness, never answer, lest your soul be spirited away. Furthermore, you must never turn around suddenly, because every person has a light on each shoulder, and turning extinguishes the light on that side, making it easy for a ghost to possess you.

He swallowed involuntarily. Now, whether to turn or not to turn was an impossible choice. At that moment, he heard a burst of "Hee hee hee," a laugh so intensely dark and grating that it sounded as if it were emanating right beside his ear. Jiang Tao instinctively flailed his hand out to the side but touched nothing.

He felt a chill spread from the crown of his head straight to the soles of his feet, his body instantly locking up, unable to move an inch. He felt himself on the verge of passing out.

Suddenly, the stylish woman’s eyes, wide with sheer terror, began to chatter their teeth together with a loud clacking sound. Yet, she reached out, grabbed Jiang Tao, wheeled around, and yanked him toward the taxi, shouting breathlessly, "Hurry up and get in, drive!"

Jiang Tao’s mind was blank. Every subsequent action seemed purely instinctual. Pulled by the stylish woman, he practically threw himself into the car. Before he could even settle in, the woman outside shoved him further inside.

Jiang Tao blinked, hearing her cry out, "Go further in, the steering wheel is over there..." Only then did he realize he was sitting in the passenger seat.

As he scrambled behind the steering wheel, the stylish woman slipped into the car as well, making sure to firmly shut the rear door before settling in.

"Lock the doors, lock the doors..." she shrieked before she was even seated properly.

After automatically locking the doors, Jiang Tao started the engine, stomping the accelerator straight to the floor. His eyes were locked dead ahead, his hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. The taxi tires shrieked against the pavement as it shot back onto the road with a roar.

They drove in tense silence for quite a while before Jiang Tao seemed to slowly come back to himself. He finally managed to speak, "Thank you..."

The stylish woman sat beside him, still shaken, shaking her head vigorously but unable to speak.

"I still don't know your name," Jiang Tao said, his eyes fixed forward now that his senses had mostly returned.

"Jin Qiu," the stylish woman replied.

Before Jiang Tao could offer a polite compliment, the situation beside him shifted again. A strange sensation washed over his heart. He suddenly noticed the temperature inside the car plummeting in an instant, so much so that his breath plumed out in white wisps from his mouth and nose due to the sudden cold.

Moreover, the outside world, visible through the windows, seemed shrouded in a thin layer of mist, obscuring the scenery until it was barely visible. Jiang Tao’s face went ashen, and for a second, he felt his breathing stop altogether. He stared wide-eyed through the windshield and slammed his foot down on the brake pedal.

He pumped the pedal several times in panic, only to realize with horror that the brakes had failed for some unknown reason.

Jiang Tao couldn't help but yell, "The—the car..."

All of this had transpired in mere seconds. Jin Qiu, the stylish woman, had also registered the bizarre state of the car and joined him in a frightened shout.

Jiang Tao was shouting unconsciously when his gaze fell upon the rearview mirror. There, exactly as before, sat the female ghost in red in the back seat, sitting stiffly with her head bowed, her long hair obscuring her face. She seemed to sense his gaze; a wave of eerie, cold laughter drifted out from beneath her long tresses, each peal drowning out the screams of Jiang Tao and Jin Qiu.

Jin Qiu also noticed the female ghost in red in the back seat. Perhaps due to extreme shock, both Jiang Tao and Jin Qiu fell silent almost simultaneously, staring blankly into the rearview mirror.

The horrifying laughter abruptly ceased. The car continued to move forward, but the interior was as silent as the grave.

Jiang Tao stared fixedly into the rearview mirror, unmoving, as if his consciousness had deserted him. Suddenly, his body began to tremble uncontrollably, and cold sweat broke out. He felt a tightening, chilling sensation around his waist, something wrapping around him. This feeling compelled him to look down, and his eyes snapped wide open in involuntary shock. Two pale, bluish, skin-and-bones hands were slowly reaching forward from behind him, pressed against his waist.

Jiang Tao’s entire body tensed. He desperately wanted to pull away but found himself utterly immobile. The two hands were passing directly through the partition separating the front and back seats to grip his waist. In moments, the hands had encircled his entire waist, and a bone-chilling coldness swiftly engulfed him.

Though he could guess that the hands belonged to the female ghost in the back seat, he had no idea what she intended to do. In that moment, he felt certain he was doomed.

Contrary to Jiang Tao’s expectations, once the hands encircled his waist, they didn't squeeze violently, threatening to crush him or tear him in half—they simply held him.

What Jiang Tao hadn't anticipated was that the one to act would be Jin Qiu, sitting beside him. Perhaps when a person's fear reaches a certain threshold, they commit acts beyond their own comprehension. Jin Qiu felt her internal terror reaching its absolute peak, especially as she watched the two hands wrap around Jiang Tao. She stared as the hands slowly enveloped his waist, yet she dared not look at the situation in the back seat.

The instant the two hands encircled Jiang Tao’s waist, Jin Qiu screamed, raised her small purse, and frantically began striking at those hands with all her might.

Unfortunately, Jin Qiu's resistance proved largely ineffective. Although every blow struck the two arms, it failed to make the hands let go. However, the impact jolted Jiang Tao’s body, and the sensation of being struck snapped him out of his dazed state.

A look of sheer panic crossed Jiang Tao’s rigid face. He let out a shout, suddenly releasing his hands from the steering wheel, and fiercely grasped the two hands clamped around his waist. The icy, penetrating chill made him cry out again—a sound closer to a wail—but he did not let go. Instead, he pulled hard, trying to wrench the hands away.

Having lost the force stabilizing the steering wheel, the taxi began to weave violently down the road like a drunken dragon, and a serious accident seemed imminent.

A strange thing happened again: the two hands holding Jiang Tao’s waist suddenly loosened, then slipped away like eels, instantly retracting from his grasp and vanishing back behind him in a blink.

With the car out of control, Jin Qiu had already stopped beating at Jiang Tao with her purse, tossing it aside entirely. She was just huddled over, screaming incessantly.

Since the grip was finally released, Jiang Tao noticed the car's alarming behavior and quickly seized the steering wheel, exerting all his strength to steady the runaway vehicle.

After significant effort, the car finally came back under his control and resumed driving in a straight line. Jiang Tao let out a breath, panting heavily, and used his shoulder cloth to wipe the sweat from his face.

Jin Qiu, practically curled up in her seat, stopped screaming. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright, her face still frozen in terror, her eyes wide open. She forced her mouth open, emitting a series of choked gurgling sounds, but Jiang Tao could not decipher a single word.

"What... is... wrong..." Jiang Tao asked, his voice trembling.

After a long moment, Jin Qiu slowly turned her head toward Jiang Tao with mechanical stiffness. The look of horror on her face gradually faded. Before Jiang Tao could ask again, the corners of her mouth suddenly stretched upward into a deeply unnatural, grotesque smile, followed by a low chuckle. Jiang Tao sucked in a sharp breath, hearing Jin Qiu state flatly, without inflection, "Drive properly."

Jiang Tao sensed something terribly wrong with Jin Qiu but was powerless to do anything. He kept one hand steadying the wheel while furtively glancing at her actions.

Although there was not a flicker of life in her eyes, her mouth emitted a sinister, low hum as she said, "Drive well and obediently. Don't think about struggling or running away."

Seeing Jin Qiu like this, the words Ghost Possession flashed through Jiang Tao’s mind.

At this moment, though his whole body was still trembling from fright, Jiang Tao’s cognitive abilities seemed to have returned. He stole a look in the rearview mirror: the back seat was completely empty.

"Where... are you going?" Jiang Tao asked, his voice shaking.

"Xiqing Road..." Jin Qiu spat out the three words malevolently.

Jiang Tao clearly started, blurting out, "You're going there too?"

Jin Qiu snorted.

Was it because his destination was Xiqing Road that this female ghost appeared in the car? Jiang Tao couldn't help but speculate.

The area outside the windows remained shrouded in that gauze-like mist. Jiang Tao turned on the headlights, trying desperately to discern the way. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Um... could you make it clearer outside? I... can't see the road..."

Whether it was due to some spell cast by the spirit possessing Jin Qiu, the fog outside the car windows began to dissipate noticeably after a short while. Jiang Tao was astonished to observe that the road ahead was deserted, utterly devoid of any other vehicles.

Is this still the realm of the living? Jiang Tao nearly cried out. Cold sweat drenched him, soaking his clothes through and through.

Perhaps because the ghost had possessed a human body, the temperature inside the car seemed to have warmed slightly, no longer like an ice cellar.

Jiang Tao raised a hand to wipe his sweat, straining his eyes. In truth, on an empty road, seeing the road conditions clearly made little difference, but he maintained the diligence expected of a driver.

A crossroads appeared not far ahead. At this hour, the traffic lights should have all been blinking yellow, but the lights at this intersection were still operating normally.

Seeing the red light, Jiang Tao instinctively slowed down. Suddenly, he noticed a dark silhouette on the roadside not far from the intersection.

Seeing Jiang Tao about to stop for the red light, Jin Qiu’s expressionless face furrowed slightly. Before he could stop, she commanded, "Keep driving! Don't stop."

Jiang Tao truly didn't have the nerve to argue traffic laws with a female ghost, so he pressed the accelerator again. Just then, a sudden change occurred: the dark shape by the roadside, a short distance from the car, moved.