Taxi

According to Ghost Cave, the Vengeful Ghost had really followed the internet connection to find them, killing everyone who had claimed the Black Packet one by one.

Gao Tian's temples throbbed. What was he supposed to do now? Find the baseball bat in the wardrobe, come back, and fight the Shattered Face outside the window to the death?

No.

The other ghosts in the chat group had claimed the Black Packet too. Why weren't they worried that the Vengeful Ghost would follow the internet connection to find them?

Gao Tian suddenly remembered something Ghost Cave had said.

Ghosts couldn't be killed. Only Living People could be killed.

Even if the Vengeful Ghost went after them, Ghost Cave wouldn't care. They had already become ghosts.

That was how Ghost Cave had singled out the only Living Person in the group and killed him.

That also put an end to Gao Tian's plan to fight to the death. Ghosts couldn't be killed, after all. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't kill something that was already dead.

Gao Tian's hands and feet felt cold, and even his thoughts seemed to move dozens of seconds slower than usual. He went back to the window and looked toward the alley to check again. Maybe the pressure of studying had been too much lately, and he'd imagined what he saw.

The sight before him crushed the last of his hopes.

The spot where the Red-eyed Person had been standing was empty. There wasn't a soul in sight.

Where had the Red-eyed Person gone?

If there had been anything there—a tree, a car, a bench—Gao Tian could have reassured himself that he'd simply mistaken a shadow for a person.

But there was nothing. How could that be?

There was only one possibility: the Red-eyed Person had left the alley and started moving.

Realizing he couldn't waste any more time, Gao Tian ran to the bedroom as fast as he could and found the baseball bat in a pile of clothes. He threw on his coat and stuffed all his loose change into his pocket.

As he looked for his keys, a series of knocks sounded against the study window. Someone seemed to be standing outside, tapping on the glass to signal Gao Tian to open up and let him in.

Gao Tian stood frozen in the hallway between the study and the bedroom, trapped between two choices and unable to move.

This was the Third Floor, and there was nothing outside the window to stand on—not even an air-conditioning unit. An ordinary person couldn't possibly be standing at that height.

Gao Tian slowly turned to look at the study. Pressed against the window was the Red-eyed Person, its face ghastly white, its eyes blood-red, and its pointed nose flattened against the glass. It had been in the alley just moments ago, but now it had appeared at the window as if by teleportation. It kept pounding on the glass, signaling Gao Tian to open the window and let it in so it could kill him.

The Red-eyed Person was incredibly strong. Every slap against the window made the entire wall rumble. Gao Tian could tell that it could easily smash the glass and climb inside, but it hadn't. It was toying with him, taking its time to torment him and savor the fear of someone about to die.

While the two of them were locked in a tense standoff, a window opened upstairs. An angry woman's voice roared through the silent complex:

"What time is it? Knock, knock, knock! Don't kids have school tomorrow? Don't adults have work?"

Gao Tian recognized the voice. It belonged to Aunt Wang from the Fourth Floor, famous for her ferocious temper and booming voice. She'd once chased off seven young property-management staff members all by herself. The Red-eyed Person's pounding had disturbed her, so she'd opened her window and started laying into the people below without even finding out what was going on.

The sudden interruption broke the intense stare-down between Gao Tian and the figure outside.

The Red-eyed Person had heard the window upstairs open too. Its blood-red eyes seemed to wink playfully at Gao Tian, and its pale body slithered soundlessly toward the Fourth Floor like a snake.

Outside the Third Floor window, the Red-eyed Person had vanished—for now.

Less than a dozen seconds later, Gao Tian heard a scream from the Fourth Floor, filled with shock and terror. "What is that thing...?" Then everything fell silent. Aunt Wang's furious shouts and the pounding against the window vanished without a trace.

Gao Tian knew that Aunt Wang had drawn the Red-eyed Person's attention by opening her window, bringing disaster upon her whole family. They were probably already dead. But her actions had given Gao Tian a precious few dozen seconds to escape.

Without hesitation, Gao Tian locked the study door from the inside. That way, if the Red-eyed Person returned to the Third Floor window, it would lose some time getting inside to find him. Then he pushed open the front door and left his apartment.

The stairwell leading down was pitch-black. Gao Tian moved along the steps without making a sound, afraid of attracting the attention of some unknown thing. As he made his way through the darkness, perhaps because of his nerves, he felt that a ghastly white face lurked around every corner, waiting for him to walk right into its trap.

A few minutes later, Gao Tian finally reached the ground floor.

The moment he stepped outside, he heard the sound of glass breaking from somewhere above, around the Third Floor. He looked up and saw a huge, twisted shadow like a gecko crawling up the wall to the Third Floor, then squeezing through a window.

Gao Tian let out a breath, unsure whether he felt relief or fear. He hurried away from the apartment building and flagged down a taxi at the roadside. Once inside, his first words to the driver were:

"Take me to the nearest police station.

"Drive faster. I'll pay double."

Seeing him panting, the driver—a middle-aged man—asked, "What happened, young man? You look awful.

"Want some water?"

Gao Tian thought it over. What had happened to him this month was so bizarre that he couldn't explain it in a few words.

Even if he explained everything—how he'd stumbled into a chat group full of ghosts, claimed a Black Packet from one of them, and ended up with a Vengeful Ghost trying to kill him—the driver's first reaction would probably be to step on the gas and take him to a psychiatric ward, not a police station.

He had a thousand things to say, but only one came out:

"Let's just go."

As the taxi sped down the road, Gao Tian kept looking back from the rear seat to see whether the Red-eyed Person from the apartment complex had come after him. Once he was sure there was no one behind them besides a few scattered cars, he finally relaxed a little.

What was that thing?

Gao Tian gradually regained some composure and tried to recall everything that had happened before and after he fled the apartment.

One thing kept bothering him.

The first time he'd seen the Red-eyed Person, its whole face had been as smooth and bare as a huge jade plate. Apart from two blood-colored, murky dots for eyes, it had no other features at all.

But when the Red-eyed Person had climbed up to the window—their second encounter—he'd noticed one small detail: it had pressed its pointed nose against the glass—

The Red-eyed Person had grown a nose.

What did that mean?

Gao Tian didn't know whether it was good or bad. Without thinking, he took out his phone and used its dark, powered-off screen as a makeshift mirror.

Gao Tian's nose was pointed too.

Was the nose the Red-eyed Person had grown an imitation of his?

Just then, the taxi began to slow, and the driver spoke from behind the wheel:

"Um, the police station's just across the road.

"It's kind of hard to make a U-turn there. Could I drop you off here and let you walk the rest of the way?

"It's only a short distance. You'll be fine, right?"

Gao Tian was about to say he would be fine. He looked across the road at the blue-and-white safe house. In theory, it should have made him feel secure.

Then Gao Tian saw a figure standing behind the glass door, staring blankly at him.

It had a ghastly white face he knew all too well, paired with two blood-red eyes and a pointed nose. Its lips were thin as blades, curved into a slight V as it smiled in his direction.

The Red-eyed Person was waiting for him behind the police station's glass door. And now its ghastly white face had grown not only a nose, but lips too.

It seemed that every time Gao Tian looked into its eyes, it gained a new facial feature.

Gao Tian's face fell. He changed his mind again.

"Driver, get out of here now!

"As fast as you can. Get on the highway if you have to—just take me as far away from here as possible!"

Seeing his passenger's erratic behavior, the driver had no idea what was going on. As far as he could see, the police station across the road was completely empty. There was no Red-eyed Person by the entrance—not even a police officer. He couldn't understand what the passenger in the back was afraid of. To him, Gao Tian seemed a little unhinged.

Still, the driver didn't mind. As long as the fare was paid, it made no difference. If his passenger wanted to take the highway, he'd make a little extra money, so there was no reason to refuse the fare.

The driver stepped on the gas and pulled away from the police station.

As they sped along the elevated highway, Gao Tian slowly began to piece together the Red-eyed Person's traits.

The thing killed without mercy. After it entered Aunt Wang's home through the window, it had killed all four members of her family. They hadn't even had the chance to fight back—or call for help.

It had an incredible ability to track him. The moment he clicked on the Black Packet, the Red-eyed Person had begun an unrelenting pursuit. It didn't matter if he got in a taxi or ran to the ends of the earth.

And while chasing him, the Red-eyed Person had grown a nose and lips that looked very much like Gao Tian's own.

Gao Tian didn't know whether, if it kept evolving like this, the Red-eyed Person would eventually grow a face identical to his.

Why was it doing this? Did it want to kill him and then live in the human world as "Gao Tian"?

The more he thought about it, the more hopeless he felt. No matter how hard he racked his brain in the back seat, Gao Tian couldn't think of any way out.

The only thing that made him feel safe right now was this taxi speeding down the empty road.

As long as he stayed in the taxi, Gao Tian was safe for the moment. No matter how fast the Red-eyed Person was, it couldn't possibly keep pace with a car.

But Gao Tian couldn't stay in the car forever.

sooner or later, he would have to get out.

Just then, the car's walkie-talkie crackled from the dashboard in front of the driver—