Taxi

According to the Ghost Cave, that Vengeful Ghost really tracked them down through the internet cables and killed everyone who clicked on the black packet.

Gao Tian's temples throbbed wildly. What should he do now? Go to the closet, find a baseball bat, and come back to fight the shattered face outside the window to the death?

No.

Other ghosts in the group also received black packets. Why weren't they worried about the Vengeful Ghost tracking them down through the internet cables?

Gao Tian suddenly remembered something the Ghost Cave had said.

Ghosts cannot be killed, only the living can be killed.

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

The Ghost Cave used this method to find out and kill the only living person in the group.

This also shattered Gao Tian's plan to fight for his life, because ghosts couldn't be killed. No matter how he struggled, he couldn't kill something that was already dead.

Gao Tian felt his limbs go cold, and even his thoughts were dozens of seconds slower than usual. He walked to the window again and confirmed the direction of the alley. Had he been too stressed with his studies lately, seeing things?

The scene before him completely extinguished Gao Tian's last shred of hope.

Where the Red-eyed Person had been standing was now empty, not a soul in sight.

Where did the Red-eyed Person go?

Even if this place had been a tree, a car, or a bench, Gao Tian could have comforted himself, thinking he had misread, mistaking a shadow for a person.

There was nothing. How was that possible?

There was only one possibility: the Red-eyed Person had already left the alley and begun their move.

Realizing he couldn't delay any longer, Gao Tian ran to the bedroom at top speed and found a baseball bat among a pile of clothes. He threw on an outer jacket and put all his change in his pocket.

Just as he was looking for his keys, bang bang bang, there were continuous knocking sounds from outside the glass window in the study. It sounded like someone was standing outside, knocking on the study window, signaling Gao Tian to open the door and let them in.

Gao Tian froze in the hallway between the study and the bedroom, trapped, unable to move.

This was the third floor, and there were no air conditioning units or other footholds outside the window. It was impossible for an ordinary person to stand at this height.

Gao Tian slowly turned his head and looked towards the study. At the window, a pale face, scarlet eyes, and a sharp nose pressed tightly against the glass. It was the Red-eyed Person who had been in the alley moments ago. Now, they had teleported to the window and were constantly banging on it, signaling Gao Tian to open the window and let them in, so they could kill him.

The Red-eyed Person's strength was immense. Each knock on the window made the entire wall rumble. Gao Tian could clearly feel that this thing could easily break the window and climb in, but it didn't. It was toying with him, wanting to torture him slowly and savor the fear of a dying person.

Just as the two were in a stalemate, there was the sound of a window opening upstairs, and an angry female voice roared through the quiet neighborhood:

"What time is it? Still knocking and knocking! The kids have school tomorrow, and the adults have work!"

Gao Tian recognized the voice. It was Aunt Wang from the fourth floor, known for her strong fighting spirit and loud voice. She had once verbally driven away seven young women from property management by herself. The Red-eyed Person outside was disturbing Aunt Wang, so she opened her window and, without discerning who it was, unleashed a torrent of abuse at him as he descended the stairs.

This sudden interlude interrupted Gao Tian's intense gaze with the shadowy figure outside the window.

Outside the window, the Red-eyed Person also heard someone opening a window upstairs. Its scarlet eyes seemed to wink playfully in his direction, and its entire pale body slithered silently like a snake towards the fourth floor.

Outside the third-floor window, the Red-eyed Person temporarily vanished.

Less than ten seconds later, Gao Tian heard it again: a scream mixed with shock and terror from the direction of the fourth floor, "What is that..." followed by dead silence. Aunt Wang's angry shouts and the sound of knocking on the wall outside had all disappeared without a trace.

Gao Tian knew clearly that Aunt Wang on the fourth floor, by opening her window, had attracted the Red-eyed Person's attention and brought about the doom of her entire family. Aunt Wang's family was likely beyond saving now, and this had also created a precious window of escape for Gao Tian, lasting several dozen seconds.

Without hesitation, Gao Tian deadbolted his study door. This would waste some time if the Red-eyed Person returned to the third-floor window to find him. Immediately after, he pushed open his apartment door and left his home.

The stairwell leading down was pitch black. Gao Tian walked on the steps, not daring to make a sound, fearing he might attract the attention of some unknown entity. As he moved forward in the darkness, he couldn't shake the feeling, whether it was psychological or not, that a pale face was hidden around every corner, waiting for him to walk right into a trap.

A few minutes later, Gao Tian successfully reached the ground floor of the apartment building.

The moment he stepped out of the apartment, he heard the sound of a glass window breaking from the third floor above him. He looked up and saw a massive shadow, twisted like a gecko, crawling down the wall to the third floor and slipping through the window.

Gao Tian took a breath, unsure if it was relief or lingering fear. He left the apartment at his fastest pace and flagged down a Taxi by the roadside. The first thing he said to the driver after getting in was:

"Take me to the nearest police station.

"Drive faster, and I'll give you double the fare."

Seeing his breathless state, the driver, a middle-aged man, asked:

"Young man, what's wrong? You look so pale.

"Do you want some water?"

Gao Tian thought about it. The experiences he'd had this month were too bizarre, too bizarre to explain clearly in a short time.

Even if he explained the whole story – how he accidentally entered a chat group full of ghosts and was now being hunted by a Vengeful Ghost because he accepted a red envelope from one – the driver's first reaction would probably be to hit the gas pedal and take him to a psychiatric ward, not the police station.

All the words in his mind boiled down to a single sentence:

"Never mind, let's just go."

As they drove down the road, Gao Tian in the back seat kept looking back, checking if the Red-eyed Person from the apartment complex had chased him out. After confirming that there were no figures behind them, only a few scattered cars, he finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

What on earth was that thing?

Gao Tian gradually regained some composure and began to try and recall the details of everything that had happened from just before he escaped the apartment.

There was one thing that he couldn't ignore.

The first time he encountered the Red-eyed Person, its entire face was like a large, blank jade plate. Apart from two murky, blood-red dots serving as eyes, there were no other facial features or characteristics.

But when the Red-eyed Person climbed up to the window, it was also the second time the two had met. There was a small detail at the time: the Red-eyed Person pressed its pointed nose tightly against the window--

The Red-eyed Person had grown a nose.

What did this signify?

Gao Tian didn't know. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? He subconsciously took out his phone and glanced at the black, turned-off screen, using it as a makeshift mirror.

Gao Tian's nose was also pointed.

Did the nose that the Red-eyed Person grew seem to be imitating his own?

Just then, the taxi began to slow down, and the driver's voice from the driver's seat rang out:

"Uh, the police station is on the road across the street.

"That spot isn't really good for making a U-turn, so could I let you off here, and you can go over yourself?

"It's only a short distance, shouldn't be a problem."

Gao Tian was about to say it was fine. He looked up towards the road across the street, at the blue and white safe house. Logically, it should have provided a sense of security.

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

It had a deathly pale face, a face he knew intimately, paired with two blood-red eyes, a pointed nose, and lips as thin as a blade, curved slightly into a V-shape, smiling in his direction.

The Red-eyed Person was waiting for him behind the police station's glass door. And at this moment, not only had its pale face grown a nose bridge, but it had also grown lips.

It seemed that every time Gao Tian made eye contact with it, it represented the birth of a new facial feature for it.

Gao Tian's expression changed drastically, and he changed his mind again:

"Driver, get us out of here immediately!

"The faster the better, preferably get on the highway and far away from this place!"

Seeing his passenger's startled demeanor, the driver didn't know what was happening. In his eyes, the police station across the street was empty. Let alone the Red-eyed Person standing at the door, he couldn't even see a single police officer. He couldn't understand what his passenger in the back seat was so afraid of. In his eyes, Gao Tian seemed a bit mentally unstable.

However, the taxi driver didn't care as long as he got paid. The passenger wanted to get on the highway, which meant he could earn a bit more. There was no reason to refuse this fare.

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

Speeding on the elevated highway, Gao Tian behind him began to slowly sketch out the Red-eyed Person's characteristics in his mind.

This thing was a ruthless killer. Aunt Wang's family of four—after it entered through the window, let alone fighting back, they couldn't even let out a single cry for help.

Its tracking ability was extremely strong. The moment he opened that black bag, it meant the Red-eyed Person would pursue him relentlessly, even if he took a taxi and ran to the ends of the earth.

Furthermore, during its pursuit, the Red-eyed Person had grown a nose and lips, and they were very similar to Gao Tian's own features.

Gao Tian didn't know if the Red-eyed Person would eventually grow a face exactly like his own if it continued to evolve like this.

What was it trying to achieve? Kill him, and then live in the human world as "Gao Tian"?

The more he thought about it, the more despairing he became. No matter how hard Gao Tian in the back seat pondered, he couldn't think of any way to break free.

The only thing that could give him a sense of security now was this taxi speeding down the empty road.

As long as he was in the taxi, Gao Tian was temporarily safe. No matter how fast the Red-eyed Person was, it shouldn't be able to match the speed of a car.

However, Gao Tian couldn't possibly stay in the car forever.

He would eventually have to get out.

Just then, the car's intercom on the driver's seat in front of him crackled to life--