A beam of light cut through the darkness before his eyes. Manager Wang was startled. A red taxi silently appeared from the darkness in front of him. As the sound of the engine abruptly stopped, Driver Li got out of the car chuckling. Old Li was a native of the area. After exchanging some small talk, he enthusiastically helped Manager Wang load his belongings into the trunk.
Old Li has been in this line of work for over ten years. Since his child reached high school, he had picked up bad habits from a group of delinquents and constantly asked for money at home. Later, he heard that his child had a new homeroom teacher and had finally become much better behaved and more serious about studying. Now Old Li worked more diligently, earning money with extra effort to pay for his child's college tuition. Hence, even in the middle of the night, Old Li was still busily looking for business. Today, he had been busy for a long time and had earned quite a bit. He originally wanted to call it a day and go home, but by chance, he ran into Manager Wang and thought, 'I'm lucky today.' This made him chuckle happily, but soon, Old Li wouldn't be able to laugh anymore. Although the place Manager Xiao Wang was going to was far away, and the return fare was also agreed to be included—which promised a good amount of money—Old Li felt uneasy inside.
That place was a transfer station where the living walk into the grave—the crematorium.
The crematorium was far out in the suburbs, with few people around, and nearby were cemeteries. Numerous eerie and strange stories had spread from there. Old Li had heard from colleagues that, in the past, there was a driver named Liu who, due to family difficulties, would still pick up passengers late at night. He once encountered a passenger going to the crematorium. Liu did not think much and accepted the ride. When they arrived, the passenger gave him a red bill. Liu didn't pay much attention and even gave her some change. On his way back, he realized that the money he had received was ghost money, money meant for the dead. Furious, he went back to find the woman to demand an explanation. However, the spacious crematorium was empty. There was one person lying in a coffin in the center of the mourning hall. When he approached to take a closer look, it was the very same woman, clutching the change Liu had given her. This terrified Liu.
Later, Liu disappeared. Some said he had died, others claimed he had moved away—either way, there was no news. Now, in this same car heading toward the crematorium, Old Li was starting to feel a vague fear. Earlier, while helping Xiao Wang carry his belongings, he had some doubts. That package, no matter its size or feel, had made Old Li a little scared. Something about the person in the back seat, Xiao Wang, was definitely strange.And from just now until now, Xiao Wang hasn't made a sound at all, as if he were dead.\ He began to regret it. Just now, when Xiao Wang was moving things, the size and the feel of them made Lao Li feel strange and astonished. He thought that the Xiao Wang behind him might be a murderer, because no matter how he thought about that package, it could only be imagined as containing a corpse. Lao Li shivered and secretly glanced in the rearview mirror. That glance startled him almost to the point of his heart leaping out, and a chill spread from his trembling heart throughout his entire body. On the back seat, Xiao Wang's face was as white as paper, a pair of eyeball-less eyes staring straight at Lao Li. Without lips, his pale teeth rattled, emitting a creepy chuckling sound that, like cold claws, scraped at Lao Li's heart.\ The sound of a sudden hard brake rang out, and Manager Wang looked at the sweating Lao Li in surprise. Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Lao Li rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and with trembling hands barely held the steering wheel. After a long time, Lao Li finally calmed down and forced himself to continue driving calmly.\ Once Lao Li left the urban area, he was headed to the crematorium. Since there were no intersections, it would take nearly thirty minutes to get there. The road, just like a few years ago, was still unpaved and still without streetlights. The sycamore trees along the road had long lost their leaves, leaving only bare, hellish claw-like branches swaying eerily in the cold wind. The full moon, originally hidden by clouds, had somehow emerged, its pale moonlight making the surroundings even more sinister. There was no sense of vitality, and even Lao Li was unsure whether he still counted as alive. Time passed slowly, and he began to feel uneasy. Was this road really this long?\ Time had already exceeded Lao Li's estimate, yet the end of the road only led to an even more distant stretch, seemingly endless. Fear silently surged in his heart. Lao Li kept rubbing his eyes, trying to calm himself. Bang! Bang! Bang! Suddenly, the trunk was hit with a series of knocks, and Lao Li's heart jumped violently with each strike. "I can park now!" A cold, skeletal hand gently rested on Lao Li's shoulder, accompanied by a faint, hellishly ghostly voice that seemed to summon the soul.\ Lao Li shouted, "Ah!"A heart-wrenching, soul-tearing scream stumbled out of the car; he couldn't bear it any longer. Immediately, a thought crossed his mind: "I will—die here!" He leaned back against a large tree, his trembling legs unable to hold him up, staring at the car in panic. Manager Wang looked at Old Li with a strange gaze, as if nothing had happened. He slowly approached and helped Old Li up, his face full of concern.\ Old Li was completely terrified of Xiao Wang; he wondered whether he was human or ghost. He suddenly realized that he was already at the entrance of the crematorium. Just moments ago, no matter how he drove, he couldn't get here. He gradually calmed down, took several deep breaths, and confirmed that he was still alive. Xiao Wang gave Old Li several hundred-yuan bills, seemingly covering even the return fare, and then carried his own package straight toward the crematorium.\ The moon still shone brightly over the land, and the ghostly tree branches still swayed. Old Li carefully checked the bills and sighed—they weren't joss paper money. As he looked up at Xiao Wang's back, a gust of cold wind, mingled with the rustling of leaves and the faint smell of decay from Xiao Wang, seemed like a ghostly hand mocking Old Li, lifting the white cloth behind him. A pale face, even more ghastly in the moonlight, was revealed before Old Li. It was a face with only whites in the eyes, grinning menacingly. This was the face that had nearly made his soul disperse earlier; the face that had been watching him continuously from that moment; the face that had become an eternal nightmare in Old Li's heart.\ It was Manager Wang's face, still smiling strangely at Old Li. Unable to endure it any longer, Old Li went mad and rushed into the car, quickly leaving the crematorium, wanting to distance himself from the nightmare as soon as possible. But now, the nightmare continued. Old Li finally understood why Xiao Wang had paid for the return fare. In the back seat, Manager Wang held an exquisite little box, smiling eerily…
