Chapter 31

The taxi driver wanted to repeat himself, but Qi Xu did not answer his earlier words. However, the driver did not mind what Qi Xu had answered either. He just kept talking to himself about how strong the scent on Qi Xu’s body was. Qi Xu’s tongue pressed against her cheek, a bit displeased. She actually wanted to retort like before, but the driver in front of her was not human—he was a ghost.

It might tear off its disguised skin at any moment and lunge at Qi Xu with a roar. Qi Xu did not want to kick the bucket just yet, so she crossed her arms and fell silent.

Qi Xu knew that if she did not return home at night and Xia Zhiming did not see her, she would definitely call. If she was lucky, Xia Zhiming’s call was special enough for her to pick up. Even if she was unlucky and could not receive it, Xia Zhiming would surely come looking for her.

Whether she came to rescue her was another matter, but she would definitely show up and give her a good scolding, saying her guts had grown too big and she still dared not to answer her calls.

So although Qi Xu was somewhat afraid, she was not terrified to the point of despair.

The late night radio inside the taxi was still playing that story about the female ghost in the back seat, but the driver hummed cheerfully and tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. Seeing that Qi Xu was not responding, he instead launched into a nonstop rant against her. He said something about a female college student not returning to school late at night but running around outside instead—probably because she had a man out there. So young and already misbehaving, shacking up with some guy, getting knocked up, and in the end, it was she who would lose face.

Qi Xu’s face darkened. Hah, ignore you, and you get even more full of yourself.

The driver was just about to keep going when Qi Xu decided: She could not tolerate this anymore.

“I say, that’s enough out of you. Don’t think just because you’re a ghost you can spew that middle-aged man’s dad vibe and lecture me. Yeah, I do have someone outside, but it’s a woman. You not going home so late—don’t tell me you don’t have a wife? Pulling night shifts all day and night, is there some family glory waiting at home? Risking your old life to earn money for a house to glorify the ancestors? And here you are worrying about other people’s daughters eating hotpot?”

Qi Xu’s little mouth fired off like a machine gun, blah blah blah. She could not be blamed; she had spent too much time with Xia Zhiming lately. She had not learned any ghost-exorcising Daoist arts or anything, but—her skill at trash-talking had improved by leaps and bounds. Plus, she browsed the forums every day, watching the friendly faction argue with the hostile faction; she had picked up some real zingers.

Most importantly, fueled by anger, Qi Xu’s speech sped up dramatically.

The taxi driver ghost froze for a moment, then whipped its head back around. Not only that, its neck suddenly stretched out, bringing its iron-blue face right up to Qi Xu’s. Its mouth opened, about to say something, when the panicked Qi Xu slapped it square on the head.

“Ghost!”

Qi Xu really was a person who was very afraid of ghosts.

Under the surge of adrenaline, people could do some inexplicable things, like slapping the taxi driver ghost and sending its head flying to the other side of the car window, far from her. Even because her strength was too great, its head tugged on its neck and smashed against the window, dangling outside the car.

It flew into a rage and began yelling loudly at Qi Xu.

“How dare you do this?! You’re dead! You’re dead! I’m going to kill you! Eat you!”

But Qi Xu did not care much. Instead, she lowered her head and looked at her palm: Wait, when did her strength get this big?

The taxi driver ghost clearly wanted to pull its head back; its neck was already retracting. Qi Xu thought this would not do—she could not let its head return to cause her trouble. So she reached out, first unbuckled her own seatbelt, then grabbed the one on the adjacent seat and looped it twice around the taxi driver ghost’s neck before snapping it into the buckle with a click.

After that, she yanked open the car door, putting even more distance between its head and herself.

As soon as the door opened, the taxi driver ghost let out an even louder bellow: “You damn woman! What are you doing to my car?! Aah, I’m definitely going to eat you!”

Sure enough, taxi drivers really cared about their cars. After shouting this, it took further action. Its hands released the steering wheel and reached back, trying to grab Qi Xu. How could Qi Xu let it succeed? She kicked the back of the seat hard, making its upper body lurch forward. The motion it had been making to reach back for her could no longer continue.

Its head dangled outside, but its desire to grab her from behind did not diminish. Qi Xu could only keep kicking the back of the driver’s seat, watching the taxi driver ghost in front bob up and down. The scene was somewhat comical, but Qi Xu could not laugh.

Fortunately, at that moment, Qi Xu’s phone rang. She hurriedly pulled it out and answered: “Hello?!”

“Where the hell have you died off to?! It’s so late, and you’re not back yet?! Doesn’t your school have a curfew? Huh?! …Wait, what’s that noise on your end?”

Besides Qi Xu, the only sound at the scene was the taxi driver ghost’s head flailing outside the window, yelling one after another: “Ah! Damn woman! I’m going to eat you!”

Xia Zhiming understood immediately: “You’ve run into a ghost?”

Qi Xu was on the verge of tears: “Yeah, yeah, I’ve run into a ghost.”

“How did you run into a ghost again?”

That word “again” hit particularly hard; Qi Xu felt a bit aggrieved and wondered if she really was that unlucky, always bumping into ghosts at the drop of a hat. But she could not argue back and could only plead with Xia Zhiming: “It wasn’t on purpose. Can you come save me?”

Qi Xu actually felt pretty pathetic and did not want to trouble Xia Zhiming, but she had already troubled her who-knows-how-many times. Every day, Xia Zhiming had to transfer yang energy to her. Sometimes Xia Zhiming was clearly in a rush, coming home just to transfer yang energy before leaving again, feet barely touching the ground, yet she still made time for her.

She was not the type who liked troubling others, and she knew Xia Zhiming hated trouble, but aside from Xia Zhiming, Qi Xu did not know who else to turn to.

The vice bureau chief’s contact was actually in her phone too, but at a time like this, the only one who would call her was Xia Zhiming.

Xia Zhiming fell silent for a moment. All Qi Xu could hear in her ears was the whistling wind outside the car window. The taxi driver ghost’s head was still trying to come back. Qi Xu could only use her hand to keep pressing the door outward a bit, so she had to clamp the phone between her shoulder and ear, afraid to miss a single word from Xia Zhiming.

Xia Zhiming did not say much, only leaving her with two words: “Wait there.”

Just those two words made something explode in Qi Xu’s heart. She blanked out for a second, then obediently replied: “Okay.” The call ended. Qi Xu’s shoulders relaxed, and the phone dropped onto the back seat.

“Damn woman! I’m going to eat you!”

The taxi driver ghost was still roaring, but Qi Xu could no longer hear it. Her mind was filled with: Haha, you’re done for! Xia Zhiming’s coming soon!

After a while, she could not help but think again: Xia Zhiming is really good to me. The moment she heard I was in trouble, she just told me to “wait there” and would come save me right away. Deep down, Qi Xu still harbored a bit of delusion toward Xia Zhiming.

From the first moment she saw Xia Zhiming—even with the mask on—Qi Xu thought she was stunning. Once she saw her true face, Qi Xu instantly confirmed she was into women. Add in all these days of intimate contact, and it was impossible for her heart not to waver.

But Xia Zhiming showed no sign of wavering; cuddling with her seemed as casual as rubbing a kitten or puppy’s face. So that budding admiration had quietly buried itself in the soil. Yet today, with just one sentence and two words—”wait there”—the seed in her heart began to sprout again.

Unknowingly, a blush spread across Qi Xu’s face, and her little heart pounded wildly. Qi Xu was, after all, a girl in her early twenties. A young woman falling for someone over something so small was poetic and not hard to accept.

It was just a bit hard for the ghost to accept.

“You’re blushing?! You’re blushing right now?! I’m definitely going to eat you! Definitely! Aaaah!” The taxi driver ghost’s head flailed wildly outside. It really wanted to retract its head and give Qi Xu a piece of its mind, but this woman who seemed so afraid of ghosts did things that were anything but.

Called out like that by the taxi driver ghost, Qi Xu felt embarrassed, like her thoughts had been exposed. She kicked the back of the front seat hard again—this time so forcefully that her leg hurt a little. The taxi driver ghost lurched sharply, its arms flopping back and forth like noodles.

The taxi’s quality was not great. Under Qi Xu’s repeated kicks, the driver’s seat track became unstable and started sliding back and forth. Qi Xu had to stretch out her legs and brace against the front seat to keep it pushed forward.

This also caused the taxi driver ghost’s chest to press tightly against the steering wheel, the wheel digging into it painfully.

The taxi driver ghost’s voice grew even shriller, like nails on a chalkboard. It hurt Qi Xu’s ears, but she endured: Heh heh, Xia Zhiming’s coming to save her soon.

If the taxi driver ghost knew what Qi Xu was thinking, it would probably curse again: Save? You need saving?! Look at us now—who needs rescuing more?!

But for now, the best Qi Xu could do was keep the taxi driver ghost from harming her. Fortunately, this was on a Ghost Hit Wall road—straight as an arrow. As long as the taxi driver ghost kept the accelerator down, the car would not flip.

The taxi driver ghost clearly realized this too. It began rubbing against the steering wheel, making the taxi swerve left and right. Qi Xu’s body rocked uncontrollably from side to side with the sharp turns.

Qi Xu’s face paled. If Xia Zhiming did not come soon, she was not far from death. But right then, as if hearing her call, Xia Zhiming descended from the sky. After the taxi had driven who-knows-how-far, Qi Xu suddenly spotted someone standing by the roadside.

The taxi sped by quickly, the figure flashing past in an instant. Fortunately, Qi Xu’s eyesight was sharp; even in that fleeting glimpse, she caught that flash of pink.

In that moment, Qi Xu’s suspended heart finally settled.

—Woo woo woo, great, it’s Xia Zhiming. I’m saved!

At the same time, that quietly budding seed in her heart began to bloom.