The Orange Taxi

Dante seemed very familiar with Lu Xiao's file. He even knew that Lu Xiao was on good terms with the Prison Doctor.

"292, what monsters have you encountered in the Dark Prison?"

Dante tapped the ash off his cigarette.

Lu Xiao pondered for a moment, then spoke.

"Too many!"

"Pick one you thought was exciting!"

Dante spoke with the cigarette between his lips.

Lu Xiao nodded.

"I once met a beautiful lady!"

"We only exchanged a glance, and then she crawled out of my stomach!"

Dante froze, oblivious to the ash falling onto his collar.

"That exciting?"

Lu Xiao nodded, his expression suggesting he was savoring the memory.

"It really was!"

Dante smacked his lips.

"What happened after that? Did you die?"

At those words, Lu Xiao's brain instantly crashed. He turned to look at Dante with an odd expression.

Dante froze too, then burst out laughing.

"Haha! I guess that was a stupid question!"

"So what happened to that beautiful lady in the end?"

Lu Xiao waved a hand.

"I don't know either. After she crawled out of my stomach, she disappeared!"

Dante chuckled.

"A story without a follow-up. What a shame!"

Lu Xiao nodded.

"It is a shame. Want to hear another?"

Dante took a deep drag, then shook his head.

"No thanks. If I hear any more, I'm afraid I'll wet myself in my sleep tonight!"

Lu Xiao nodded, then returned to their original topic.

"So, Mr. Dante, what's our mission this time?"

Dante answered in an even tone.

"Our mission this time is a taxi!"

"A taxi?"

Dante nodded.

"Yes, a taxi!"

"Quite a few people have gotten into that taxi lately, then disappeared!"

Lu Xiao considered this for a moment.

"So our objective is to contain this taxi?"

Dante nodded noncommittally.

"The mission objective is to investigate where everyone who got into this taxi ended up! Then contain the taxi!"

As they spoke, the ambulance had reached a secluded lane.

Dante stopped the vehicle, then spoke to Lu Xiao.

"292... forget it, using your number is too much trouble. I'll just call you buddy!"

"Only those research types like calling people by their numbers."

Lu Xiao shrugged indifferently.

"Buddy, we'll park here and wait by the road for that taxi!"

After they got out, Dante opened the hood to make it look as though the vehicle had broken down.

Dante tossed away his cigarette butt, then took out another cigarette and lit it.

"The Prison Warden's system has no information whatsoever on this target. Once we get in, we'll just play it by ear!"

Before long, an orange taxi slowly approached them.

Dante held out a hand and flagged it down.

Lu Xiao examined it closely.

He caught a whiff of something uncanny coming from the taxi.

Dante opened the rear door just then.

"Buddy, do you want the back seat or the front passenger seat?"

Lu Xiao headed straight for the front passenger seat.

Dante shrugged, then got into the back.

As soon as they got in, the doors automatically closed and locked.

Without even waiting for them to give their destination, the vehicle slowly pulled away.

Dante blew a smoke ring.

"Driver! We haven't told you where we're going yet!"

The driver was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man.

He slowly turned his head and spoke with a somewhat eerie expression.

"Where do you want to go?"

Dante casually gave him an address, then went back to smoking.

Lu Xiao turned to look out the window, seemingly lost in thought.

After the car had been traveling for ten minutes or so, music suddenly began playing inside.

It was a very tacky love song.

The corner of Lu Xiao's mouth twitched.

"Driver, how about a different song?"

The driver's eerie voice drifted over.

"When my wife was alive, she loved hearing me sing this song to her!"

Lu Xiao reached out and pressed the skip button.

"Sorry, I'm not interested in your dead wife!"

The driver: "???"

The atmosphere grew awkward for a moment.

Dante coughed fitfully in the back seat, choking on his smoke until his eyes watered.

Hey, hey, hey! Don't ruin the creepy atmosphere!

He roared inwardly.

The driver switched the song back. Accompanied by the tacky melody of the love song, he slowly began speaking.

"My wife was beautiful!"

Click!

Lu Xiao pressed skip again.

He stared at the driver with his dead-fish eyes and spoke.

"No matter how beautiful she was, she's dead. I'm not interested in dead people!"

Click!

The driver switched the song back and was just about to speak.

Lu Xiao pressed skip again.

The driver turned to look at Lu Xiao, his expression indescribably eerie.

Lu Xiao gave him a friendly smile.

"Why don't you tell us about that beautiful wife of yours? I'm suddenly interested in her again!"

This time, the driver did not switch the song back. Instead, he turned off the music player altogether.

"My wife was beautiful!"

As he spoke, that tacky love song sounded again out of nowhere.

At this, Lu Xiao asked curiously.

"Driver! How did you do that?"

"Why does that damned song sound like it's playing right beside my ears?"

The music stopped abruptly. The driver finally lost his patience.

"Could you stop interrupting me?! That's very rude, you know?"

Dante's cigarette-holding hand trembled slightly.

By now, his face was streaked with tears.

Lu Xiao hurriedly nodded and gave a slightly apologetic smile.

"Go ahead! Go ahead! I promise I won't interrupt!"

The driver gave an eerie smile.

"My wife was beautiful!"

At the same time, the music started again.

After saying this, the driver turned to glance at Lu Xiao.

Only when he saw that Lu Xiao did not intend to interrupt did he continue.

"She was as noble as a swan!"

"So you're a toad?"

Lu Xiao could not help interjecting.

The veins on Dante's forehead instantly bulged, and his eyes were bloodshot.

The tires scraped against the road with a piercing screech.

The driver slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a stop.

He looked at Lu Xiao, his temples throbbing.

Lu Xiao hurriedly apologized.

"Sorry! Sorry! I really won't interrupt you again! I promise!"

Only after hearing this did the driver set the taxi moving again.

At the same time, the driver's voice and the music rang out together.

"She was as noble as a swan!"

"I was just a lowly taxi driver!"

"Our friends all said we weren't a good match!"

"But I felt that as long as I gave her my heart and soul, she would definitely be moved!"

"After I pursued her with everything I had, she finally agreed to marry me!"

"But after we got married, I discovered she was still in contact with her ex!"

"But I loved her too much. I was afraid she would leave me!"

"So all I could do was pretend I hadn't seen anything!"

He spoke very quickly, pouring out a whole string of words.

"Bro, you sound like a simp!"

Lu Xiao sighed and spoke in complete earnest.

Screech!

The taxi stopped again.

Clutching a sharp knife, the driver let out a piercing shriek.

"Fuck! I've put up with you long enough!"

As he spoke, he thrust the knife toward Lu Xiao's heart.