Chapter 15 Is It a Dream?

"You called the police?" Jiang Cheng asked.

The driver nodded. "Yes, I called his wife. He didn't come home, and his family didn't know where he went."

Fatty licked his lips, involuntarily clutching his arms. The driver's story gave him a very bad feeling.

He suddenly felt a chill, and even the sunlight shining on him through the car window seemed to have lost its warmth.

"Because of this, I stayed at the police station until almost dawn that day before going home. Even after I got home, I was still worried, until... until noon the next day..."

The driver seemed to have thought of something, his voice trembling uncontrollably, his face changed, and his lips even showed a strange bluish-black color.

"Don't be nervous," Jiang Cheng said in a calm tone, "it's all over."

He paused, and after a while, continued, "Tell me slowly."

Next, Fatty found that the doctor's words really worked. The originally nervous driver actually calmed down, and his terrifying appearance was relieved.

"The next day, news came from the police station that they had extracted surveillance footage from a nearby dumpling restaurant. According to the surveillance, after the car drove over and stopped, it never moved again, and no one opened the door to get out. He... he disappeared in the car!"

"At that time, the driver's seat was reclined, and a leather jacket was covering it, as if... as if someone was sleeping under the jacket, and then suddenly disappeared!"

In the end, the driver didn't suppress his emotions, or maybe he was too excited and couldn't suppress them. In short, the impact of this sentence was obvious.

Fatty's body began to break out in goosebumps.

A feeling of coldness gradually enveloped him. He suddenly had a feeling, whether it was intuition or illusion, as if an invisible net was binding him, and... it was constantly tightening.

That strange and unfounded feeling even made him feel a little suffocated.

"Up ahead," Jiang Cheng suddenly said, "stop there. We'll get out there."

"Get out?" The driver looked around, then looked suspiciously at the location marked on the mobile phone navigation, and said, "Little brother, there's still a long way to go to the destination. There's no village or shop nearby. You here..."

"It's rare to come to the suburbs, and we want to get out and walk around," Jiang Cheng replied.

It could be seen that the driver had a lot of complaints about the two getting out here. He hadn't encountered anyone or any cars along the way, and the location was remote, so there was no chance to pick up another group of passengers.

He was probably going to have to drive back to the city empty.

But fortunately, the money paid by the passengers was generous, and the driver's ugly face turned slightly better.

As he was getting out of the car, Jiang Cheng suddenly turned around and asked, "What's the name of your missing friend?"

The driver lowered his head and counted the money Fatty paid over and over again before reluctantly answering, "Qin Dongguo."

After closing the car door, the taxi drove away in a puff of smoke, leaving only Jiang Cheng watching the car leave, and Fatty staring at him wide-eyed.

"Doctor," Fatty looked around and asked, "Where is this? Aren't we going to..."

"No," Jiang Cheng retracted his gaze.

He took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and after waiting for a while, he sent a message. Since leaving the taxi, the chill on Fatty's body had subsided a lot, and the sun was shining on him, warm and comfortable.

Inside and outside the car, it was like two different seasons.

Seeming to have thought of something, Fatty stared at the doctor while hugging his arms. After a long while, he hesitated and said, "Doctor," he said softly, "that driver just now was so strange."

He was already used to the doctor's silent attitude, so he looked in the direction the taxi disappeared and continued, "He knew too much about his friend's disappearance, and he also said that the police station sent news the next day..."

He licked his lips and looked up, asking suspiciously, "Isn't this kind of thing kept secret before the truth is revealed? Besides, he's just an ordinary person. Is it really necessary for the police to notify him?"

Putting down his phone, Jiang Cheng looked up at Fatty, the look in his eyes making Fatty feel a little uncomfortable. "Doctor, just say what you want to say," Fatty's throat rolled, "My back hurts when you look at me like that."

"Continue," Jiang Cheng said calmly, "What else?"

"Nothing," Fatty thought for a while, "That driver just gave me a weird feeling, but... but if you really want me to say it, I can't say where it's weird."

Fatty scratched his head. "Intuition, I guess."

"Whoosh—"

In the distance, an SUV drove over, then sped past the two of them, unceremoniously kicking up a cloud of dust. Fatty quickly covered his nose and mouth.

Gradually, this long-silent road began to become lively. More and more cars began to pass by, and even some motorcycles, with vegetables and various small commodities almost as tall as a person tied behind them with ropes.

When they passed by them, the engine made a deafening roar, and the driver's helmet mask was wrapped in a layer of gauze.

Presumably, they were merchants who went to the city to sell goods in the morning and were returning.

A few seconds later, Fatty seemed to realize something, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

Watching the people passing by, Jiang Cheng exhaled a long breath and said slowly in a tone that Fatty couldn't understand, "It's lively again..."

An uncertain emotion flashed in Fatty's eyes. He finally grasped the origin of that strange feeling, or more precisely, he smelled the scent.

It was a nightmare.

It was the scent of a nightmare!

The eerie feeling permeating the driver was like facing those capricious and insidious NPCs in a nightmare. sudanxs.com

And hidden among them... ghosts.

But... how could it be?

Wasn't this the real world?

Moreover... moreover, they had just come out of the doctor's consultation room, the sun was still hanging in the sky, the sunlight... the sunlight was also there, and they weren't even asleep.

He raised his head, the dazzling light almost made him unable to open his eyes, the wind brushed past his ears, and everything around him was real beyond belief.

What... what was going on?

Too much jumbled information was entangled in his mind. He had a feeling that he had grasped some key point, but in the next second, that feeling suddenly dissipated.

It was like grasping a cloud of fog.

After an unknown amount of time, a soft but clear message tone interrupted Fatty's thoughts. He turned his head and looked at the doctor with a look of inquiry.

Picking up his phone, Jiang Cheng received a WeChat voice message.

"Dr. Jiang," Pi Ruan's voice was still so full of vitality, "I asked a friend to check the license plate number you sent me. It's a taxi license. The driver disappeared three days ago. The case hasn't been solved yet, and the car is still being held by the criminal investigation team at the police station."

"Oh, right," Pi Ruan said cheerfully as if he remembered something, "I've sent you the driver's information."

After opening it, there was a series of information. The driver's name was Qin Dongguo, a local from Rong City. As if searching for something, Jiang Cheng flicked the screen, and the information kept sliding down.

Until... a photo appeared on the screen.

Jiang Cheng's finger paused in mid-air.

As he leaned closer to see the photo clearly, Fatty's expression began to become strange, and in the next second, his mind buzzed.