I came from a unique background and carry a unique destiny. Now, I drove a taxi.

During the day, I earned my living by driving people around. At night, I earned merit by ferrying ghosts. I neglected neither side of the job.

One day, while driving through the suburbs, I came across three people standing in the middle of the road, blocking my way.

As soon as I stopped, a man dressed head-to-toe in luxury brands strode up and banged on my window.

I glanced at the passenger in the backseat, my expression troubled, before rolling down the window.

“I’m sorry, the car is already booked. Why don’t you wait for the next one?”

The man grinned, then tossed a stack of hundred-dollar bills right into my face.

“Do you think I’m blind? The car is clearly empty, yet you dare refuse me? Do you know who I am?”

The two men behind him burst out laughing.

“He’s Damien Thornfield, the prince of Edinburgh’s elite circle. Ninety percent of the real estate in Scotland belongs to his family. Just getting to see him is your lucky day.”

“You’re just a lowly taxi driver. One call from him and you won’t be able to make a living in Scotland. How dare you refuse him?”

I forced a smile. “No, no, it’s really inconvenient.”

“Don’t be ungrateful. I’ve already taken down your license plate number. Open the door before I lose my temper.”

His tone was clearly threatening and I had no desire to make things more complicated.

With a helpless sigh, I said, “Alright, but you’ll have to share the ride.”

The ghostly woman in the backseat met my gaze in the rearview mirror and gave a small nod.

——

“Share a ride? The words ‘share a ride’ don’t exist in my dictionary.”

Damien tossed another stack of money onto the floor at my feet.

“Name your price. Your car is ours anyway.”

It was already shared.

I glanced again at the rearview mirror, hesitating for a moment before mustering the courage to speak.

The three of them crammed into the car, but before they could settle in, the woman wrinkled her nose.

“What’s this junk in your car? Why are there incense and candles?”

My body stiffened. I turned around quickly to apologize.

“Sorry, I bought them to use at the temple. It’s almost the Ghost Festival.”

She tutted, muttered “bad luck,” and casually tossed the offerings for the ghosts out of the window.

Those offerings were for the female ghost sitting in the backseat!

I gasped in shock, but the three of them looked annoyed.

“What are you screaming about? It’s only a hundred or so dollars. It’s blocking our feet in the car. We’ll give you a little extra tip later and you can buy some more.”

Cold sweat broke out on my skin and my fingers trembled against the steering wheel.

It wasn’t about the tip at all.

I cast an uneasy glance at the female ghost in the mirror. Her expression was unreadable, but I could feel the temperature in the car drop several degrees.

Sure enough, not long after we started moving, the woman shivered.

“You, turn up the air conditioning. I’m freezing to death.”

I hadn’t even turned the air conditioning on, how could I make it warmer?

“It might be broken,” I explained carefully.

“What bad luck. If the car we were supposed to take hadn’t been in an accident, no one would have had to ride in this old clunker.”

Damien pulled her into his arms with a smirk. “Perfect, let me keep you warm.”

The two of them laughed and began to get handsy.

Nervously, I reminded them, “Keep it down, don’t disturb the others.”

After the offerings had been thrown out, the female ghost beside them was already in a foul mood. If we angered her any further… I didn’t want to imagine the consequences.

They clearly misunderstood my words, thinking I was just shy.

Damien deliberately pressed a hard kiss to the woman’s lips, his eyes daring me to react.

“You’re just a lousy driver. What are you? Do you think you have the right to tell us what to do?”

“Exactly. Even if you drove your whole life, you couldn’t afford one of my shoes. Just drive your car properly, that’s all you’re good for.”

He then barked an order. “Take us to the city center hotel. Now.”

I kept my tone polite. “Mr. Thornfield, the previous passenger agreed to share the ride, so I accepted your order. I have to take her first.”

Damien paused for a moment. He looked around, realizing there was no one else present and saw that I wasn’t backing down.

His expression instantly darkened. “Don’t push your luck. Say one more word and I’ll have you kicked out of Scotland today and turn your car into scrap metal.”

At that moment, regret pierced me deeply. I shouldn’t have stopped. I had provoked someone far too powerful.

Suddenly, the woman beside him clutched Damien’s hand tightly, her eyes darting around nervously.

“Damien, did you hear someone laughing just now?”

Damien brushed off her words, unwilling to take them seriously. His expression shifted a few times before he finally exhaled. “Alright, you can drop off one passenger first, but you must take the route I choose.”

I knew the road he meant; it was only a slight detour. As long as I could complete the job on time, I was willing to comply.

Normally, I didn’t transport the living at night. My work was with the dead. I took them to the places they longed to visit before they died, helping them release their grievances and move on to reincarnation.

If their wishes aren’t fulfilled within the allotted time, they turn into vengeful spirits.

I knew what mattered most.

The men quickly lit cigarettes inside the car and the thick smoke made my eyes sting. Damien deliberately pressed his cigarette butt into the seat, the acrid smell of scorched leather filling the confined space.

I valued my car. It might be ordinary, but every part of it had been blessed with talismans.

“What are you doing? If you damage my car, you can’t possibly pay for it!”

The moment I spoke, all three of them burst into laughter.

“You poor schmuck, my Lamborghini could cover repairs for this junker for an entire year with just one press of the accelerator.”

“The worst car in my garage could buy a hundred of these rust buckets.”

Laughing last, Damien kicked the back of my seat hard. “If you’re going to be poor, then be poor properly. If I give you money, take it without complaint.”

I bit back my words, forcing myself to stay calm. What mattered was delivering the female ghost in the car to her destination.

But as soon as I turned onto the road Damien had specified, more than ten black cars suddenly appeared behind us, giving chase.

Trouble.

I slammed on the gas and twisted the steering wheel sharply to dodge the pursuing vehicles.

“Mr. Thornfield, what’s going on?” I demanded.

In the rearview mirror, he simply smiled meaningfully and said nothing.

Before long, I was forced to pull over at the side of the road.

Several burly men closed in, motioning for me to step out.

My whole body trembled, but I forced a strained smile. “Brothers, don’t get worked up. Let’s talk this out.”

The next second, the door was wrenched open violently. Rough hands dragged me out and threw me hard onto the ground.

Damien, holding the woman in his arms, strolled over slowly and lifted my chin with the tip of his shoe.

“You were so cocky just now. Why are you suddenly speechless?”

Pain throbbed in my scalp and the taste of dirt filled my mouth.

One of the enforcers handed Damien an ID they’d taken from me. He read it lazily.

“Rachel Whitlock, Senior Underworld Liaison Officer. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Using a fake ID to pick up customers is illegal, isn’t it? If I call the police, how long do you think they’ll keep you locked up?”

He did have power and influence, but we were not from the same world.

Amid the laughter of the crowd, one thug smashed the taxi’s windows with a crowbar while another grinned maliciously as he popped open the hood.

I tried to stop them, but I was too weak. Two fists couldn’t fight against four hands. I struggled to stand, only to be shoved back down, my wrists bound tightly behind me.

“You’ll pay the price for what you did to my car!” I shouted, fury burning in my chest.

My vision blurred red. Teeth clenched, I wanted nothing more than to lunge at him and sink my teeth into his flesh.

“Price?” Damien sneered. “Name your price. To me, it’s just a number.”

He grinned, spreading his hands in a dismissive gesture.

The woman beside him giggled.

“This car isn’t worth much anyway. If you behave yourself today and make Damien happy, maybe he’ll give you a BMW tomorrow.”

If driving a BMW could solve everything, my name would be spelled backward.

Unable to explain myself, I let out a weary sigh. “Mr. Thornfield, I don’t need your money. Some things simply can’t be solved with money.”

Damien arched a brow and signaled for the thugs to keep smashing the car.

But the expected sound of metal being battered never came.

One of the thugs frowned in confusion. “Mr. Thornfield, this car doesn’t even have a battery. How is it moving?”

No sooner had he spoken than a cold wind swept through the scene.

The thugs, arrogant only moments ago, now looked uneasy.

“It’s almost the Ghost Festival. Isn’t this a little… creepy?”

“Did we provoke something we shouldn’t have?”

Damien refused to believe it. He barked at them to check my car and phone again.

Sure enough, there was no battery in the car and my phone showed no order information.

“She’s just a fraud,” he scoffed. “Is all this really worth the fuss?”

He snorted derisively, pulled my driver’s license from his pocket and handed it to one of the men. “Run a check. See if you can dig up any dirt.”

It didn’t take long before they came back with results.

“She used to live in a mental hospital and once went crazy, setting a fire.”

That fire had been part of an exorcism ritual. Without it, the evil spirits haunting that courtyard could never have been purged.

“She also broke into a crime scene where an entire family was murdered and was arrested. There was even a physical altercation during the arrest.”

That time, I had gone to collect the murdered family. The youngest child had refused to leave until I helped him find his glass marbles.

As the story unfolded, the woman’s disdain grew sharper.

“No wonder I felt unlucky the moment I stepped into this car. She’s just some lunatic pretending to be important.”

I had nothing to say. If they hadn’t forced themselves into my car, I would have already completed my task by now.

The glow of the phone screen twisted Damien’s face into something grotesque.

“I told you, she’s nothing but a lunatic pretending to be something she’s not. And she dares refuse me a ride?”

I shook my head firmly. “Mr. Thornfield, I truly don’t want to get involved with you, but it’s already too late. I have to get my passenger to her destination on time, or the consequences will be unimaginable.”

“What consequences?” he sneered. “In Scotland, I always get my way. Tell me one thing I can’t handle.”

He played the thug with ease, draping an arm around the woman’s waist. “And as for you, Rachel, using a fake certificate to get a job. I’m curious, is this so-called passenger of yours also a lunatic spouting nonsense like you?”

He lifted his chin and two henchmen moved in. They grabbed me, ignoring my struggles and hauled me to my feet.

“If you take us to see this ‘distinguished guest,’ I’ll be generous. I’ll even give you a new car. How about that?”

Damien was still treating it like a game. But by the time he saw the truth, it would already be far too late.

In the spirit world, there is one well-known fact: under normal circumstances, only vengeful spirits manifest themselves.

And who in their right mind would want to see a vengeful ghost without reason?

I clenched my teeth. “No. That guest holds noble status, she is not someone who can be easily seen.”

At first, everyone froze. Then they all burst into exaggerated laughter.

“The Kingsley Family is the very sky above Scotland. Everyone knows Claire Kingsley is the most noble of all. A single project from her family could buy your entire family’s lives.”

“Is she insane? She doesn’t even know Claire Kingsley and dares to put on airs with us?”

“How pitiful. She doesn’t even realize who she’s messing with.”

I was desperate. I didn’t know exactly who I had offended, but I knew they were about to get into serious trouble.

Did none of them notice how the temperature had been steadily dropping all this time?