I set you up on a blind date, and you've managed to overcome all the weirdness?

After finishing his business with the two powerful figures, Lin Yan rushed out of the apartment as if fleeing a disaster.

It rained again in Jiangcheng, but this time it had nothing to do with mermaids.

Lin Yan hailed a taxi and headed straight for the Folklore Bureau.

When he arrived at the office, he found that the lights were still on.

Pushing open the door, I saw Old Zhao smoking his pipe with a bitter face, while Su Qinghan was typing on the keyboard beside him.

"Team Leader Zhao, Coach Su, it's the middle of the night, is the bureau handing out year-end bonuses? Why is it so lively?"

Lin Yan strolled over, pulled up a chair and sat down, then casually picked up a handful of goji berries from Sister Liu's table and put them in his cup.

Old Zhao glared at him, furious.

"Screw your year-end bonus! What are you doing here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"

"I just received a bonus from the bureau, so I have to perform well."

Lin Yan shamelessly patted himself on the back.

"What happened? Has something else occurred?"

Su Qinghan pushed up her glasses and shoved a newly completed file in front of Lin Yan.

"Ever since the last black rain incident, there have been a lot of incidents happening in Jiangcheng late at night over the past week, with a lot of people disappearing."

"It's unclear whether there's any connection between these two incidents. The department has already sent agents to collect evidence."

"What's going on? Tell me about it."

Lin Yan felt that this matter should have nothing to do with mermaids, but just to be on the safe side, he would ask first.

Su Qinghan glanced at him, multitasking as she spoke:

"A dozen or so white-collar workers who worked overtime until late at night disappeared as soon as they left the company, neither alive nor dead."

"The police reviewed the surveillance footage before their disappearance and found that they all got into an unlicensed taxi with no license plates, and there was no record of it on the ride-hailing app."

Lin Yan raised an eyebrow: "Are unlicensed taxis robbing people?"

"If it's robbery, then it's not the Bureau of Folklore's place to handle it."

Su Qinghan tapped the keyboard, and a fairly high-definition surveillance video popped up on the screen.

In the video, a man stands by the roadside, his face filled with despair.

His current state is like that of a diarrhea patient holding a tissue box. He thought that taking out three or five tissues would be enough, but he ended up having his head held down and being given tissues all night.

A black car slowly pulled up in front of him. As soon as the man opened the car door, in that instant, by the light of the street lamp, Lin Yan could see that the back seat of the car was crammed with people!

Those people had no expression on their faces, and their faces were frighteningly pale, like paper dolls.

The man who got on the bus seemed not to notice anything unusual and sat down quite naturally.

As soon as the car door closed, the black car seemed to disappear into the night, driving out of the surveillance footage.

"It's already been finalized."

Su Qinghan's voice turned cold.

"None of those people in the back seat are alive; they were all formed from pent-up resentment."

"However, the bureau reinvestigated the pollution source records for that day but found no problems."

Old Zhao took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled a large smoke ring:

"We think this bizarre incident is related to those who died while working overtime late at night, those who were taken on detours, and those who got into arguments in their cars..."

"In short, the resentment caused by carpooling has come together to form this bizarre situation, which we'll temporarily codename as: [Deadly Carpooling]."

"Some patterns have been summarized from the existing evidence."

"This thing only comes out after midnight. If you call a car on your phone at that time and choose to share a ride, you are very likely to be targeted by it."

"Once you get on the bus, you'll most likely become one of those fellow passengers sharing the ride."

Old Zhao was so annoyed he kept scratching his head.

"Moreover, this thing doesn't have a fixed location; it wanders around the streets of Jiangcheng like a ghost."

"Qinghan and I plan to send a few clever teams fishing first."

Lin Yan's eyes lit up instantly.

Perfect!

A mobile grotesque that runs around everywhere!

Once you get on this bus, even if Saya comes with scissors to settle accounts, she definitely won't be able to find him for a while.

Besides, he has just acquired new power, so it's a good opportunity for him to practice.

"Team Leader Zhao, I think it's too dangerous to send ordinary operators to fish."

"This bizarre thing is obviously not simple. If an operator gets injured or doesn't come back, it will be a great loss to the department."

Lin Yan stood up with a righteous air, and casually took a pack of cigarettes from Old Zhao's table and put it in his pocket.

"I don't have any other hobbies, I just love to carpool and chat with people late at night."

Lin Yan blinked at Lao Zhao.

"I'll take this job. Instructor Su, send me the materials, and I'll go meet with the driver."

1:30 a.m., the back gate of the old campus of Jiangcheng University.

Most of the people involved in the incident disappeared in this area.

This place is remote, and several of the streetlights are broken.

Normally, you can't even see ghosts here. If Lin Yan is this eccentric, he would also consider this a feng shui treasure land.

In addition, this place is not far from the red-clad senior's territory, and the yin energy is heavy, making it a good place for fishing.

Lin Yan stood under the bus stop sign, took out his phone, and opened a ride-hailing app.

Destination: Jiangcheng Crematorium.

Vehicle type: Carpooling.

"That's what you call going all the way to the death."

Lin Yan mentally gave himself a thumbs up and pressed the call button.

The radar circle spun around and around, and a notification popped up in less than two rotations.

[Ride-sharing successful, driver is on his way.]

Lin Yan glanced at the order; there was no license plate number or driver's photo.

On the map, a black car icon was speeding toward his location at an obviously unreasonable speed.

Less than a minute.

Before the car arrived, the wind came first, followed by a sudden stop.

A black Toyota pulled up in front of Lin Yan. The windows were tinted, so it was impossible to see inside.

The car door creaked open and opened a crack on its own.

A strong smell wafted out, most notably formaldehyde, cheap perfume, and body odor; Lin Yan couldn't detect anything else.

Lin Yan deliberately waited for the smell in the car to dissipate before opening the car door.

He plopped down in the passenger seat.

"Master, you're still out driving so late, business must be good."

As Lin Yan fastened her seatbelt, she smiled and greeted the driver.

But when he glanced at it out of the corner of his eye, his heart skipped a beat.

The driver was wearing a greasy gray jacket. From the side, he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man, and he seemed quite honest.

He only caught a glimpse of the driver's back of the head with his next glance.

It was so dented that it looked like it had been run over by a truck, and the pinkish brain tissue was still rising and falling slightly with his breathing.

Not only that, Lin Yan glanced casually at the rearview mirror in the car.

Three people were crammed into the back seat.

One was a white-collar worker in a suit, with a thick hemp rope hanging around his neck.

The other one was soaking wet, with water plants still dripping from it.

There was also a pregnant woman whose upper body was the only part of her body, floating on the seat.

The intelligence was wrong; they weren't working like cattle. Now we can abandon our sympathy and get down to business.

The three friends were all staring intently at Lin Yan.

Three pairs of empty, pale eyes were filled with malice, with no intention of hiding it whatsoever.

With this setup and these stats, an ordinary operator might not be able to withstand it.

But who is Lin Yan?

He almost laughed when faced with these low-level obsession entities that couldn't even form a human shape.