"Ma'am, please make yourself comfortable. We're heading off now," Su Xuan said.

It was dusk when Su Xuan picked up a woman in her fifties or sixties. He rarely got elderly passengers; most of his rideshare customers were young people.

"Young man, can we change the destination?" the woman asked from the back seat, holding a cloth bag. "The location I set on my phone is incorrect."

"No problem, you can choose a new destination," Su Xuan replied gently.

"Great!" The woman fiddled with her phone for a while before saying, "Okay, let's go here."

"The outskirts?" Su Xuan frowned at the new destination she had input. He didn't want to take a passenger that far, as he had planned on just picking up a short trip before heading home. He also realized something—the woman had deliberately chosen the wrong location, fearing that he or any other rideshare driver wouldn't want to take her to the outskirts, especially with night falling.

Su Xuan then asked, "Why didn't you take a taxi?"

The woman replied, "I have a Didi coupon."

Su Xuan was speechless.

"Young man, please help me out," she pleaded. "Someone is waiting for me there, and they'll be unhappy if I'm late."

"Uh... okay then!" Su Xuan felt bad about rejecting the ride. He picked up his phone, called home to say he would be late for dinner, and then drove the woman toward the outskirts.

The destination was a fork in a provincial road. By the time Su Xuan got there, it was already completely dark.

"Ma'am, there's no one waiting for you here!" Su Xuan looked around the deserted fork. There were no buildings nearby.

"Young man, this location isn't quite right either," the woman said apologetically. "If you turn onto the side road and go a few hundred meters more, we'll be there. Sorry for all the trouble!"

Su Xuan grimaced and drove onto the side road. After a few hundred meters, she asked him to drive a few hundred more. This went on several times until they had gone several kilometers further.

"All right, young man, you can stop here," she said finally.

At last, the woman had Su Xuan stop by a roadside overgrown with wild grass.

"There's still no one waiting for you here!" Su Xuan observed.

"There is, there is," she assured him. "He'll come out as soon as I call for him. You should head back now, young man. It's getting late."

With that, the woman got out of the car with her bag and ventured into the waist-high wild grass.

Su Xuan was curious and wanted to follow her, but he thought better of it. It wouldn't be good if I stumbled upon something inappropriate. During the ride, I vaguely sensed that this woman was coming to meet a lover. Yes, a tryst.

Su Xuan rubbed his eyes, ready to drive off, when he suddenly furrowed his brow.

SOB... SOB...

From the depths of the wild grass, a sobbing sound drifted out.

He pushed the door open, parted the grass, and walked forward step by step. After about fifteen meters, a series of mounds appeared before his eyes.

To be precise, the mounds were all graves.

The woman was kneeling in front of one of them, crying incessantly. In front of the grave were offerings of fruit and burning joss paper.

"Old man, I'm here! You used to visit me in my dreams, but you don't anymore. Why not? Have you forgotten me?"

The woman knelt before the grave, wailing, her cries raw and powerful, completely oblivious to Su Xuan's presence.

Su Xuan initially wanted to go over and comfort her but felt there was more to the situation. If she were just here to pay respects, why come at night? And why did she want me to leave so quickly? Was she planning to spend the whole night here? Could it be... A sense of unease rose silently in his heart.

"Old man, do you see this bag of joss paper?" the woman cried out, pulling out sheets of it from her bag and burning them. "If your spirit is listening, come out and chat with me. If you don't show up after I've burned all this joss paper, then I'm going to join you. We have no children, and life has been so hard since you left. I can't hold on any longer!"

Along with the joss paper, she had also taken out a bottle of pesticide. She had clearly made up her mind to die.

A dead man can't come out to chat with her. Even if he could, she wouldn't be able to see him!

As time ticked away and the pile of joss paper dwindled, the woman's hand moved toward the pesticide bottle.

Sighing softly, Su Xuan was about to intervene when his eyes suddenly narrowed.

A ghostly silhouette slowly rose from the grave, appearing in front of the woman. It was the apparition of an elderly man with graying hair, his face etched with sorrow. The old man reached out, gently placing his hand on the woman's head, but she was completely unaware. She opened the lid of the pesticide bottle, poised to drink it.

"Wait!"

Su Xuan rushed over, snatching the pesticide bottle from her hand. "Your husband is here!" he said sternly.

"You... Why haven't you left yet!" the woman cried, looking at Su Xuan with sorrow. "Just let me go see my husband. I really don't want to live anymore!"

She obviously didn't believe him. But after just one more sentence from Su Xuan, she shuddered as if struck by lightning.

Su Xuan said, "Your husband has a mole on the right side of his forehead!"

"How... how do you know?" she asked in shock. She and Su Xuan were complete strangers; they had no connection at all. How could he possibly know about the mole on her husband's forehead?

"He's right here," Su Xuan said, looking at the air in front of her. "His hand is on your head."

"What?"

The woman suddenly made a strange gesture, raising her hands and moving them through the air as if she were using sign language.

The ghostly old man held up five fingers.

The woman, however, couldn't see it.

"Young man, I just asked my husband if he remembers how old he was when he died. Did he answer me?" she asked Su Xuan. "He was mute in life; he can understand my sign language."

This was her test.

Su Xuan held up five fingers.

The woman's gaze slowly dimmed. "Fifty? No, that's not right."

The old man's ghost then held up three more fingers.

Su Xuan mirrored him, holding up three fingers.

The woman's eyes suddenly brightened.

Fifty-three!

That was it! It was a perfect match!

The woman then began signing furiously. The old man's ghost responded with signs of his own, and Su Xuan relayed them, imitating the ghost's movements for the woman to see.

This special conversation lasted for two full hours. It finally ended when the woman's expression had become one of pure happiness and joy.

Before returning to his grave, the old man bowed deeply to Su Xuan.

A profound sense of inner peace washed over Su Xuan once more.

It was only much later that Su Xuan unexpectedly learned this inner peace was not just an illusory feeling. It had a magical effect that helped him turn danger into safety time and again! It was an effect that science could not explain and money could not buy.

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