Chapter 35: The Orange Taxi

Dante seemed to know Lu Xiao’s file very well, even being aware of his close 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 that you found exciting!”

Dante said around the cigarette in his mouth.

Lu Xiao nodded.

“I once met a beautiful lady!”

“We only made eye contact for a moment, and then she crawled out of my stomach!”

Dante was stunned, the ash falling onto his collar going completely unnoticed.

“That exciting, huh?”

Lu Xiao nodded, his expression seemingly nostalgic.

“It was indeed very exciting!”

Dante smacked his lips.

“So what happened next? Did you die?”

Hearing this, Lu Xiao’s brain short-circuited for a second. He turned his head to look at Dante with a strange expression.

Dante also paused for a beat, then laughed heartily.

“Haha! Seems I asked a stupid question!”

“So what happened to that beautiful lady in the end?”

Lu Xiao waved a hand.

“I don’t know. She disappeared after crawling out of my stomach.”

Dante chuckled lightly.

“Too bad the story doesn’t have a follow-up.”

Lu Xiao nodded.

“It is a pity. Want to hear another one?”

Dante took a deep drag of his cigarette, then shook his head.

“No need. If I hear any more, I’m afraid I’ll wet myself in my sleep tonight.”

Lu Xiao nodded, then returned to the original topic.

“So, Mr. Dante, what is our mission this time?”

Dante said in a flat tone,

“This mission is about a taxi.”

“A taxi?”

Dante nodded.

“Yes, a taxi.”

“Recently, many people got into that taxi and then disappeared.”

Lu Xiao thought for a moment.

“So our job is to contain this taxi?”

Dante gave a noncommittal nod.

“The mission objective is to investigate where the people who got into this taxi ended up! And then contain the taxi itself!”

As they spoke, the ambulance had already driven onto a remote path.

Dante stopped the vehicle and said to Lu Xiao,

“S292... Forget it, using the subject number is too troublesome. I’ll just call you ‘bro’!”

Lu Xiao shrugged indifferently.

“Bro, we’ll park the car here and wait for that taxi by the roadside.”

After both got out of the car, Dante popped the hood, pretending the vehicle had broken down.

Dante tossed his cigarette butt away and immediately lit another one.

“The Warden system has no information recorded on this target. We’ll just have to play it by ear once we get in the taxi.”

Before long, an orange taxi slowly drove towards the two men.

Dante stretched out his hand to hail it.

Lu Xiao examined it carefully.

He could smell something bizarre on this taxi.

Dante opened the rear door at that moment.

“Bro, do you want the back seat or the passenger seat?”

Lu Xiao walked straight towards the passenger seat.

Dante shrugged, then got into the back.

The moment they got in, the doors automatically closed and locked.

Without waiting for them to state a destination, the taxi slowly started moving.

Dante blew out a smoke ring.

“Driver! We haven’t said where we’re going yet?”

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

He turned his head slowly, his expression somewhat eerie as he said,

“Where do you want to go?”

Dante casually gave an address and continued smoking.

Lu Xiao looked out of the taxi's window, seeming distracted.

After driving for about ten more minutes, music suddenly started playing in the taxi.

It was a very tacky love song.

Lu Xiao’s mouth twitched.

“Driver, maybe you can change the song?”

The driver’s eerie voice came through.

“My wife loved it most when I sang this song to her while she was alive.”

Lu Xiao reached out and pressed the ‘next track’ button.

“Sorry, I’m not interested in your dead wife.”

Driver: “???”

The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

Dante in the back seat started coughing, the smoke bringing tears to his eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t ruin the creepy atmosphere!”

He screamed internally.

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

“My wife was very beautiful!”

Click!

Lu Xiao hit ‘next track’ again.

His dead-fish eyes stared at the driver as he said,

“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 hit ‘next track’ again.

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

Lu Xiao gave him a friendly smile.

“How about you tell us about that beautiful wife of yours! I suddenly became interested in her!”

This time, the driver didn’t switch the song again but directly turned off the music player.

“My wife was very beautiful!”

As he spoke, the tacky love song began playing out of thin air again.

Seeing this, Lu Xiao asked curiously,

“Driver! How are you doing that?”

“Why does this damn song sound like it’s playing right next to my ear?”

The music stopped abruptly. The driver finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Could you please stop interrupting me! Don’t you know that’s very rude?”

Dante’s hand holding the cigarette trembled slightly.

His face was already streaked with tears.

Lu Xiao hurriedly nodded, offering an apologetic smile.

“You talk! You talk! I promise I won’t interrupt again!”

The driver showed an eerie smile.

“My wife was very beautiful!”

Simultaneously, the music started again.

After saying this, the driver glanced at Lu Xiao.

Seeing that Lu Xiao showed no intention of interrupting, he continued,

“She was as noble as a swan!”

“So you are a toad?”

Lu Xiao couldn’t help but interject.

The veins on Dante’s forehead instantly bulged, his eyes bloodshot.

Tires screeched against the pavement with an ear-piercing sound.

The driver slammed on the brakes, stopping the taxi.

He looked at Lu Xiao, a vein throbbing at his temple.

Lu Xiao hurriedly apologized.

“Sorry! Sorry! I really won’t interrupt you again! I promise!”

Hearing this, the driver started the taxi moving again.

At the same time, the driver’s voice and the music sounded together.

“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 thought, as long as I devoted myself wholeheartedly to her, she would surely be moved by me!”

“Under my desperate pursuit, she finally agreed to marry me!”

“But after marriage, I found out she was still in contact with her ex!”

“But I loved her too much, I was afraid she would leave me!”

“So I could only pretend I didn’t see it!”

He spoke very fast, rattling off a long string of words.

“Brother, you sound like a simp!”

Lu Xiao sighed, saying with a completely straight face.

Screech!

The taxi stopped again.

The driver held a sharp knife in his hand, letting out a piercing shriek.

“Fuck! I’ve put up with you for long enough!”

As he spoke, the sharp knife stabbed towards Lu Xiao’s heart.

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