Chapter 35: The Tangerine Taxi

Dante seemed quite well-informed about Lu Xiao, even knowing that he shared a good relationship with the prison doctor.

"S292, what kind of monsters have you encountered in the Dark Prison?" Dante flicked his cigarette ash.

Lu Xiao pondered for a moment before replying, "Too many!"

"Pick one you think is exciting and tell me about it!" Dante said with the cigarette dangling from his lips.

Lu Xiao nodded. "I once met a beautiful lady! I only made eye contact with her, and then she crawled out from inside my stomach!"

Dante froze, completely unaware that ash had fallen onto his collar. "Is it that exciting?"

Lu Xiao nodded, his expression one of lingering recollection. "It was indeed very exciting!"

Dante clicked his tongue. "And then what happened? Did you die?"

Hearing this, Lu Xiao’s brain stalled for a moment. He tilted his head and gave Dante a strange look. Dante blinked, then burst into laughter. "Haha! I suppose that was a stupid question! So, what happened to that beautiful lady in the end?"

Lu Xiao waved his hand. "I don't know. After she crawled out of my stomach, she just vanished!"

Dante chuckled. "A story without an ending—what a pity."

Lu Xiao nodded. "It is a pity. Would you like to hear another one?"

Dante took a deep drag of his cigarette and shook his head. "No, thanks. If I keep listening, I’m afraid I’ll wet my pants when I go to sleep tonight."

Lu Xiao nodded and returned to the original topic. "So, Mr. Dante, what is our mission this time?"

Dante’s tone was flat. "This mission involves a taxi."

"A taxi?"

Dante nodded. "Yes, a taxi. Recently, quite a few people have gotten into that taxi and subsequently disappeared."

Lu Xiao mused for a moment. "So, is our objective to contain this taxi?"

Dante nodded noncommittally. "The mission goal is to investigate where the people who boarded that taxi ended up, and then contain the vehicle."

As they spoke, the ambulance pulled onto a secluded side road. Dante stopped the vehicle and turned to Lu Xiao. "S292... forget it, using your serial number is too much trouble. I'll just call you 'buddy'."

Lu Xiao shrugged indifferently.

"Buddy, we’ll park here and wait by the roadside for that taxi."

After getting out, Dante popped the hood, pretending that the car had broken down. He tossed his cigarette butt and lit a new one. "The Jailer’s system has no information on this target. Once we get in the car, we'll just have to play it by ear."

Before long, an orange taxi drove slowly toward them. Dante reached out and flagged it down. Lu Xiao examined it closely; he could smell a sinister odor emanating from the car.

Dante opened the rear door. "Buddy, are you sitting in the back or the passenger seat?"

Lu Xiao headed straight for the front passenger seat. Dante shrugged and climbed into the back. No sooner had they entered than the doors automatically shut and locked. Without waiting for them to state their destination, the vehicle began to move slowly.

Dante blew a smoke ring. "Driver! We haven't told you where we're going yet!"

The driver was a middle-aged man with an unremarkable appearance. He turned his head slowly and spoke in an eerie tone. "Where do you want to go?"

Dante casually gave an address and continued smoking. Lu Xiao looked out the window, appearing distracted. About ten minutes into the ride, a piece of music suddenly began to play in the car. It was a very cheesy love song.

Lu Xiao twitched his mouth. "Driver, how about changing the song?"

The driver’s eerie voice came through. "My wife loved me singing this song to her while she was alive."

Lu Xiao reached out and pressed the skip button. "Sorry, I’m not interested in your dead wife."

Driver: "???"

The atmosphere turned awkward. Dante started coughing in the back, the smoke choking him until tears streamed down his face. *'Hey, hey, hey! Don't ruin the creepy atmosphere!'* he roared internally.

The driver switched the song back, and as the cheesy melody played, he spoke slowly. "My wife was very beautiful!"

*Click!*

Lu Xiao pressed the skip button again. With dead fish eyes, he stared at the driver. "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 when Lu Xiao hit skip again. The driver turned to look at Lu Xiao with an indescribably bizarre expression. Lu Xiao offered him a kind smile. "How about you tell me about your beautiful wife instead? I’ve suddenly become interested in her!"

This time, the driver didn't switch the song back; instead, he simply turned off the music player. "My wife was very beautiful!"

As he spoke, the cheesy love song started playing again, seemingly out of thin air. Seeing this, Lu Xiao asked curiously, "Driver! How are you doing that? Why does this damn music sound like it's playing right in my ear?"

The music stopped abruptly. The driver finally couldn't take it anymore. "Can you stop interrupting me? Do you know how rude that is?"

Dante’s hand, holding his cigarette, trembled. By now, his face was covered in tear streaks. Lu Xiao nodded hurriedly, offering an apologetic smile. "You speak! You speak! I promise not to interrupt again!"

The driver wore a sinister smile. "My wife was very beautiful!"

At the same time, the music started up again. After saying this, the driver glanced at Lu Xiao. Seeing that Lu Xiao had no intention of interrupting, he continued. "She was as noble as a swan!"

"So, does that make you a toad?" Lu Xiao couldn't help but interject.

Veins bulged on Dante’s forehead, his eyes bloodshot. With a screech of tires against the pavement, the driver slammed on the brakes. He looked at Lu Xiao, his temple throbbing.

Lu Xiao apologized hastily. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I really won't interrupt you again! I promise!"

Hearing this, the driver started the taxi moving again. Simultaneously, his voice and the music played in unison: "She was as noble as a swan! I was just a lowly taxi driver! My friends all said we weren't a good match! But I felt that as long as I gave her my whole heart, she would eventually be moved by me! After my desperate pursuit, she finally agreed to marry me! However, after we were married, I discovered she was still in contact with her ex! But I loved her too much, and I was afraid she would leave me! So, I had no choice but to pretend I didn't see it!"

He spoke rapidly, rattling off a long string of words.

"Brother, you sound like a total simp," Lu Xiao sighed, sounding perfectly serious.

*Screech!*

The taxi stopped again. The driver gripped a sharp knife, letting out a piercing shriek. "Damn it! I've endured you for long enough!"

With that, he lunged with the knife toward Lu Xiao’s heart.