Bai Lixin’s palm tapped on the glass window, making a crisp sound “pa.”
The guard heard the sound, rubbed his eyes, straightened up, and with droopy eyelids, squinted at Bai Lixin outside, “Young man, who are you looking for?”
Bai Lixin was stunned for a moment, “Can you see me?”
The guard hadn’t fully woken up yet and replied drowsily, “Of course I can see you, you’re not a ghost.”
Bai Lixin cleared his throat, “Um, I was just passing by and saw your clothes and blanket about to fall. It’s chilly at night, don’t catch a cold.”
The guard chuckled, “Young man, you have a good heart, you’ll be rewarded for your kindness.”
He turned around, grabbed the nearly falling coat and blanket, lifted them up, and wrapped himself in them before looking up again, “Young man, it’s late now, go home early…”
When he raised his head again, there was no one in front of him.
The guard was puzzled, so he opened the glass window and stuck his head out into the biting cold wind outside. However, there was no trace of the young man who had just been there.
Closing the glass door in confusion, the guard, now fully awake from the chill, frowned and muttered softly, “Strange, how did the young man disappear so quickly? Like a ghost.”
After saying this, he suddenly remembered the young man’s question from earlier when he was half asleep, “Can you see me?”
Would a normal person say such a thing?
Only a ghost would ask if someone could see them, right?
The guard’s pupils suddenly contracted, a chill creeping up from his feet. He looked at the glass door in front of him with fear, immediately stretched his arm to lock the glass door with a bolt, and then tightly wrapped himself in the blanket, wide awake now.
Bai Lixin watched the guard’s reaction and realized that he must be invisible to him again.
He stretched out his hand and moved it back and forth in front of his eyes, his eyes filled with scrutiny.
Neither alive nor dead…
The moment the guard could see him, he seemed to smell something, the only smell he had detected since losing his sense of smell.
Bai Lixin looked up at the yellowed leaves of the plane tree.
What he just smelled seemed to be the scent of these plane tree leaves.
So although he was in a “spirit” state now, he wasn’t completely a “ghost.”
When he could pass through walls, he should be in the form of a “ghost”, that is, the undead state after death.
When ordinary people could see him, his sense of smell would return, and he would become like a normal person, which should be the state of the living.
When others couldn’t see him, but he could touch things, he was in between the two states, neither alive nor dead.
Bai Lixin bent down and tried to pick up a fallen leaf from the ground. When he pinched the leaf with his fingertips, it was easily lifted.
Now he was in a state of “neither alive nor dead.”
He wondered if these three states had special meanings or if they were just surprises created by the horror game to fit the character.
After understanding the three states, it was time to consider the next move.
It was two o’clock in the morning, and he was a wandering soul in a state of neither alive nor dead, with no money, no home, and accompanied by a police dog.
Bai Lixin walked casually along the road, occasionally looking around.
It seemed that his current state wasn’t very good. Proper ghosts like Zhao Jia and the security guard would become light as a feather after turning into spirits, able to shuttle thousands of meters in the blink of an eye and even drift in the air on the wind.
But in his current state of neither alive nor dead, apart from making his movements a bit ethereal, he didn’t have any advantages.
He still could only walk on two legs, and even the police dog beside him could fly around him with its lower body trailing like smoke!
Only him.
Being transformed into a spirit but not completely, was frustrating.
Just as he was cursing, a taxi suddenly stopped beside him.
The window of the taxi rolled down, and a middle-aged man leaned his head out and shouted at him through the passenger side window, “Hey, young man, need a ride?”
Bai Lixin touched his pockets, “I don’t have money.”
The taxi driver could see him, so it seemed he had turned back into a living person.
The taxi driver smiled kindly, “Ah, I’m not asking for money. I saw you wandering around alone so late at night and thought you might be in danger. Our City R has not been peaceful lately. Come on, it’s fate that I met you. Where do you want to go? I’ll take you there, and after dropping you off, I’ll finish my shift.”
Reminded by the driver, Bai Lixin remembered that there was somewhere he needed to go.
He thanked the driver, opened the back door and stepped in. “Could you please take me to R University?”
The driver glanced at Bai Lixin through the rearview mirror, “So you’re a student at R University, huh? You look very young. Luckily, I’m headed there too and it’s on my way, so fasten your seat belt.”
Bai Lixin obediently fastened his seatbelt, listening to the radio broadcast coming from the taxi.
At two in the morning, instead of listening to sunny music, the taxi driver was listening to midnight horror stories.
“Creak!”
“A harsh sound of the door opening broke the quiet air.”
“Zhang San, who was working with his head down, heard the door creak and raised his head in confusion. The wooden door that had been closed properly now opened by itself.”
On the radio, the host deliberately lowered his voice and told ghost stories in a tone more suited to the horror atmosphere.
The host was very professional, lowering his voice when necessary, raising it when needed, and drawing it out at certain parts.
To create a sense of horror, every time there was an action transition, there would be a real-time “creak” sound of the door opening.
Although it was just coming from a small player, Bai Lixin had a sense of being present in the scene.
“Xiao Lin, is that you?”
“Zhang San rubbed his eyes and stood up. He glanced at the clock on the desk, it was already two o’clock in the morning.”
“No one answered outside the door, only a ‘pat pat pat’ sound.”
“Zhang San wrapped himself in a woolen blanket and walked out of the door holding an oil lamp.”
“The corridor was empty.”
“Suddenly, something touched his trouser leg.”
“Zhang San lowered his head in confusion, a round head lay on the ground, with a blood-red eye peeking out from the damp and muddy hair, staring at Zhang San…”
“Ah, damn!” The taxi driver suddenly cursed, “That scared me! I have goosebumps all over my body…”
“…”, Bai Lixin twitched the corner of his mouth and smiled dryly, “You’re still listening despite being scared?”
Driver: “Isn’t this refreshing? I’ve been driving a taxi for a long time. I’ve lost interest in listening to music. Only these ghost stories are like a shot of adrenaline, and I feel refreshed immediately.”
S419M: [This driver’s hobby is quite weird. It’s fortunate he’s driving you; if it were someone else, they’d probably have complained already. You’re fine, you’re scarier than ghosts, and ghosts are just as scared of you.]
Escape System: [You’re wrong again, Brother M. Master Bai Lixin is now a “spirit”, but it’s still equivalent to a ghost.]
S419M readily agreed: [Sister System is right! Before, the Lord Host was only feared by ghosts, but now, whether human or ghost, he is feared by all! The terror index has skyrocketed! You’re wasting this terror index if you don’t act like a copy boss.]
Bai Lixin: […]
Since scaring S419M in the morgue earlier, its resentment has shown an exponential upward trend.
The police station wasn’t far from R University, about a twenty-minute drive.
When they reached the gate of R University, the taxi stopped, and the driver leaned back from the driver’s seat, “Classmate, we’ve arrived at R University, be careful…”
The voice abruptly stopped.
The back seat, where there should have been someone sitting, was now empty.
The driver’s body stiffened suddenly, and swallowed his saliva silently. The radio was still playing refreshing ghost stories.
“Zhang San turned around and saw that the black-haired boy who had been sitting in the corner of the classroom just now was nowhere to be seen.”
“But how could this be? The back door was locked, and he had been guarding the front door all along. He didn’t see the boy leave, but he was no longer there. Where did he go?”
The male voice on the radio remained low and hoarse, carrying an inexplicable sense of horror.
The driver wiped his forehead and found that beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead at some point.
“Zhang San plucked up his courage and walked towards where the boy had been sitting just now.”
“Just as he was about to reach the table—”
“’Creak!’The front door opened, leaving a gap for one person to pass through, as if someone had been standing by the door had opened it.”
In the car, the back door, which had been firmly closed, suddenly opened by itself with a “click”, revealing a gap for one person to leave.
The driver’s breath stopped. He felt that his heart was pounding, as if it would jump out of his throat in the next second.
“Tap! Tap! Tap!”
“The sound of leather shoes on the ground came from the doorway, followed by another ‘creak,’ and the front door closed.”
With a “bang”, the back door that had opened itself also closed by itself at this moment.
The taxi driver gasped for breath. His pupils were trembling, and he was on the verge of fainting.
“Zhang San stood in place for a long time, it wasn’t until the sound of footsteps completely disappeared that he walked back to the table.”
“There was only a piece of paper on the table, with a few words written neatly: Thank you, little brother.”
“Ah, it turned out to be just a benevolent ghost repaying kindness.”
At this moment, the taxi driver noticed something shaking behind him. He bravely turned his neck and looked back, only to widen his eyes suddenly.
Where the boy had just been sitting, there were now two golden leaves.
The darkness did not obscure their brilliance, and the splendid golden color shimmered.
The taxi driver reached out tremblingly and found that under the golden leaves, there was also a sticky note with handwriting as elegant as a dragon:
[Thank you for taking me to R University, this is the fare.]
The taxi driver gently gauged the weight of the golden leaves. They were at least 10 grams, and with the current gold price of 450 per gram, that’s 4500!
It would take him half a month of driving a taxi to earn this much money!
In an instant, all the fear from before was replaced with joy; he quickly put the golden leaves into his arms and drove away quickly.
As the car started, he pressed the radio tuner and finally stopped at a channel playing happy songs.
‘Instead of listening to ghost stories, it’s better to listen to music.’
On the way back, he couldn’t help but glance into the rearview mirror. Thinking of the eerie scene just now, he still couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.
Although he made money with the golden leaves, he was really scared!
Bai Lixin’s palm tapped on the glass window, making a crisp sound “pa.”
The guard heard the sound, rubbed his eyes, straightened up, and with droopy eyelids, squinted at Bai Lixin outside, “Young man, who are you looking for?”
Bai Lixin was stunned for a moment, “Can you see me?”
The guard hadn’t fully woken up yet and replied drowsily, “Of course I can see you, you’re not a ghost.”
Bai Lixin cleared his throat, “Um, I was just passing by and saw your clothes and blanket about to fall. It’s chilly at night, don’t catch a cold.”
The guard chuckled, “Young man, you have a good heart, you’ll be rewarded for your kindness.”
He turned around, grabbed the nearly falling coat and blanket, lifted them up, and wrapped himself in them before looking up again, “Young man, it’s late now, go home early…”
When he raised his head again, there was no one in front of him.
The guard was puzzled, so he opened the glass window and stuck his head out into the biting cold wind outside. However, there was no trace of the young man who had just been there.
Closing the glass door in confusion, the guard, now fully awake from the chill, frowned and muttered softly, “Strange, how did the young man disappear so quickly? Like a ghost.”
After saying this, he suddenly remembered the young man’s question from earlier when he was half asleep, “Can you see me?”
Would a normal person say such a thing?
Only a ghost would ask if someone could see them, right?
The guard’s pupils suddenly contracted, a chill creeping up from his feet. He looked at the glass door in front of him with fear, immediately stretched his arm to lock the glass door with a bolt, and then tightly wrapped himself in the blanket, wide awake now.
Bai Lixin watched the guard’s reaction and realized that he must be invisible to him again.
He stretched out his hand and moved it back and forth in front of his eyes, his eyes filled with scrutiny.
Neither alive nor dead…
The moment the guard could see him, he seemed to smell something, the only smell he had detected since losing his sense of smell.
Bai Lixin looked up at the yellowed leaves of the plane tree.
What he just smelled seemed to be the scent of these plane tree leaves.
So although he was in a “spirit” state now, he wasn’t completely a “ghost.”
When he could pass through walls, he should be in the form of a “ghost”, that is, the undead state after death.
When ordinary people could see him, his sense of smell would return, and he would become like a normal person, which should be the state of the living.
When others couldn’t see him, but he could touch things, he was in between the two states, neither alive nor dead.
Bai Lixin bent down and tried to pick up a fallen leaf from the ground. When he pinched the leaf with his fingertips, it was easily lifted.
Now he was in a state of “neither alive nor dead.”
He wondered if these three states had special meanings or if they were just surprises created by the horror game to fit the character.
After understanding the three states, it was time to consider the next move.
It was two o’clock in the morning, and he was a wandering soul in a state of neither alive nor dead, with no money, no home, and accompanied by a police dog.
Bai Lixin walked casually along the road, occasionally looking around.
It seemed that his current state wasn’t very good. Proper ghosts like Zhao Jia and the security guard would become light as a feather after turning into spirits, able to shuttle thousands of meters in the blink of an eye and even drift in the air on the wind.
But in his current state of neither alive nor dead, apart from making his movements a bit ethereal, he didn’t have any advantages.
He still could only walk on two legs, and even the police dog beside him could fly around him with its lower body trailing like smoke!
Only him.
Being transformed into a spirit but not completely, was frustrating.
Just as he was cursing, a taxi suddenly stopped beside him.
The window of the taxi rolled down, and a middle-aged man leaned his head out and shouted at him through the passenger side window, “Hey, young man, need a ride?”
Bai Lixin touched his pockets, “I don’t have money.”
The taxi driver could see him, so it seemed he had turned back into a living person.
The taxi driver smiled kindly, “Ah, I’m not asking for money. I saw you wandering around alone so late at night and thought you might be in danger. Our City R has not been peaceful lately. Come on, it’s fate that I met you. Where do you want to go? I’ll take you there, and after dropping you off, I’ll finish my shift.”
Reminded by the driver, Bai Lixin remembered that there was somewhere he needed to go.
He thanked the driver, opened the back door and stepped in. “Could you please take me to R University?”
The driver glanced at Bai Lixin through the rearview mirror, “So you’re a student at R University, huh? You look very young. Luckily, I’m headed there too and it’s on my way, so fasten your seat belt.”
Bai Lixin obediently fastened his seatbelt, listening to the radio broadcast coming from the taxi.
At two in the morning, instead of listening to sunny music, the taxi driver was listening to midnight horror stories.
“Creak!”
“A harsh sound of the door opening broke the quiet air.”
“Zhang San, who was working with his head down, heard the door creak and raised his head in confusion. The wooden door that had been closed properly now opened by itself.”
On the radio, the host deliberately lowered his voice and told ghost stories in a tone more suited to the horror atmosphere.
The host was very professional, lowering his voice when necessary, raising it when needed, and drawing it out at certain parts.
To create a sense of horror, every time there was an action transition, there would be a real-time “creak” sound of the door opening.
Although it was just coming from a small player, Bai Lixin had a sense of being present in the scene.
“Xiao Lin, is that you?”
“Zhang San rubbed his eyes and stood up. He glanced at the clock on the desk, it was already two o’clock in the morning.”
“No one answered outside the door, only a ‘pat pat pat’ sound.”
“Zhang San wrapped himself in a woolen blanket and walked out of the door holding an oil lamp.”
“The corridor was empty.”
“Suddenly, something touched his trouser leg.”
“Zhang San lowered his head in confusion, a round head lay on the ground, with a blood-red eye peeking out from the damp and muddy hair, staring at Zhang San…”
“Ah, damn!” The taxi driver suddenly cursed, “That scared me! I have goosebumps all over my body…”
“…”, Bai Lixin twitched the corner of his mouth and smiled dryly, “You’re still listening despite being scared?”
Driver: “Isn’t this refreshing? I’ve been driving a taxi for a long time. I’ve lost interest in listening to music. Only these ghost stories are like a shot of adrenaline, and I feel refreshed immediately.”
S419M: [This driver’s hobby is quite weird. It’s fortunate he’s driving you; if it were someone else, they’d probably have complained already. You’re fine, you’re scarier than ghosts, and ghosts are just as scared of you.]
Escape System: [You’re wrong again, Brother M. Master Bai Lixin is now a “spirit”, but it’s still equivalent to a ghost.]
S419M readily agreed: [Sister System is right! Before, the Lord Host was only feared by ghosts, but now, whether human or ghost, he is feared by all! The terror index has skyrocketed! You’re wasting this terror index if you don’t act like a copy boss.]
Bai Lixin: […]
Since scaring S419M in the morgue earlier, its resentment has shown an exponential upward trend.
The police station wasn’t far from R University, about a twenty-minute drive.
When they reached the gate of R University, the taxi stopped, and the driver leaned back from the driver’s seat, “Classmate, we’ve arrived at R University, be careful…”
The voice abruptly stopped.
The back seat, where there should have been someone sitting, was now empty.
The driver’s body stiffened suddenly, and swallowed his saliva silently. The radio was still playing refreshing ghost stories.
“Zhang San turned around and saw that the black-haired boy who had been sitting in the corner of the classroom just now was nowhere to be seen.”
“But how could this be? The back door was locked, and he had been guarding the front door all along. He didn’t see the boy leave, but he was no longer there. Where did he go?”
The male voice on the radio remained low and hoarse, carrying an inexplicable sense of horror.
The driver wiped his forehead and found that beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead at some point.
“Zhang San plucked up his courage and walked towards where the boy had been sitting just now.”
“Just as he was about to reach the table—”
“’Creak!’The front door opened, leaving a gap for one person to pass through, as if someone had been standing by the door had opened it.”
In the car, the back door, which had been firmly closed, suddenly opened by itself with a “click”, revealing a gap for one person to leave.
The driver’s breath stopped. He felt that his heart was pounding, as if it would jump out of his throat in the next second.
“Tap! Tap! Tap!”
“The sound of leather shoes on the ground came from the doorway, followed by another ‘creak,’ and the front door closed.”
With a “bang”, the back door that had opened itself also closed by itself at this moment.
The taxi driver gasped for breath. His pupils were trembling, and he was on the verge of fainting.
“Zhang San stood in place for a long time, it wasn’t until the sound of footsteps completely disappeared that he walked back to the table.”
“There was only a piece of paper on the table, with a few words written neatly: Thank you, little brother.”
“Ah, it turned out to be just a benevolent ghost repaying kindness.”
At this moment, the taxi driver noticed something shaking behind him. He bravely turned his neck and looked back, only to widen his eyes suddenly.
Where the boy had just been sitting, there were now two golden leaves.
The darkness did not obscure their brilliance, and the splendid golden color shimmered.
The taxi driver reached out tremblingly and found that under the golden leaves, there was also a sticky note with handwriting as elegant as a dragon:
[Thank you for taking me to R University, this is the fare.]
The taxi driver gently gauged the weight of the golden leaves. They were at least 10 grams, and with the current gold price of 450 per gram, that’s 4500!
It would take him half a month of driving a taxi to earn this much money!
In an instant, all the fear from before was replaced with joy; he quickly put the golden leaves into his arms and drove away quickly.
As the car started, he pressed the radio tuner and finally stopped at a channel playing happy songs.
‘Instead of listening to ghost stories, it’s better to listen to music.’
On the way back, he couldn’t help but glance into the rearview mirror. Thinking of the eerie scene just now, he still couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.
Although he made money with the golden leaves, he was really scared!
