Chapter 3

According to the rules, once an order is accepted, the destination in the ride-hailing app is set and cannot be changed midway, and the driver can see the name of the destination. However, this time, for some reason, although the navigation was on, there was no target or distance displayed, which made Zhao Mai feel uneasy.

He steeled himself and left the airport, entering the intercity highway. Cars passed by in front and behind, and the current navigation direction still pointed to the city. After passing through several highway interchanges without turning towards other cities, Zhao Mai felt a bit more relaxed. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw that the old man had just woken up from a brief nap, yawning. From the way he stretched, he didn't look like a man in his seventies or eighties; instead, he seemed more like a tiger standing up or an eagle spreading its wings.

"Kid, how's everything at home? I see your expression is a bit better than before. At least your brows are more relaxed. Is there any progress?"

"Frowning won't solve anything, right? There's nothing much to say now. I need to earn more money, and then these difficulties will pass. Thank you for your concern. If there's any good opportunity, please let me know."

"If there's a job that's very risky but can earn a lot of money, would you be willing to try it?" The old man in the car moved his fingers slightly and pulled out a small iron box, slightly larger than a matchbox, with silver-white lines etched on it.

Zhao Mai, driving in front, naturally couldn't see this. As the old man spoke, he tapped and clicked on the iron box, like a pianist playing the keys. "Are you satisfied with your current life? Do you want to make a change?"

If asked a day earlier, Zhao Mai would definitely not have agreed. He was confident in his abilities and believed that with time, he could achieve success. But life isn't always smooth sailing. When a huge wave suddenly appears and hits you, there's no time for gradual development. Fortunately, he wasn't a person who feared challenges. How many times in life can you really fight? After a brief thought, he gritted his teeth and replied, "As long as it's not illegal, I'm willing to try!"

"Hmm, I understand." The old man nodded and opened the iron box with his slender fingers. Inside were three gold coins. Each was about the size of a 50-cent RMB coin but had no teeth on the edge and had been worn into irregular ovals. One side of the coin had a balance scale, and the other side had a mountain passing through a halo. The old man threw the coins from the back seat to the passenger seat and said, "This is a gold coin, which many people call a fate coin. It's said to be able to change a person's fate, but only a few can unleash its power. Whether you can earn this money depends on your destiny."

Zhao Mai originally just wanted to glance at it, but once he saw the gold coin, he couldn't look away, as if a leaf had been sucked into a whirlpool. He watched the coin spin in the air, like a slow-motion scene in a movie, with every detail clearly visible. He knew the position of every stain and remembered the angle and direction of every scratch. If he could apply this skill to sports, he might have a place on the national table tennis team.

This state came quickly and left just as fast. Once the gold coin landed on the passenger seat, the "dynamic vision" ended. Zhao Mai was slightly dazed and then fell into excitement. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, and a slight feeling of suffocation gripped his throat. His imagination and divergent thinking exploded in his mind, and countless possibilities surged up. Zhao Mai tried to control himself, gripping the steering wheel tightly and biting his teeth hard before he could finally speak:

"Sir, you're not an ordinary person, are you?"

"That has nothing to do with what I just said." The old man smiled faintly, his voice unusually calm. "As long as you pick up the gold coin, you'll take a different path. If you don't touch it, nothing will happen, and you'll forget about this."

Zhao Mai's right hand released the steering wheel and froze in the air. He swallowed nervously, weighed it for three seconds, and then without hesitation, grabbed the gold coin.

There was no sensation in his palm, and when he opened his hand, there was nothing there. Zhao Mai laughed to himself, ready to confront the old man who had tricked him, but then he heard a prompt from the navigation system:

"Two kilometers ahead, please take the upward passage."

The gentle female voice repeated it twice, and Zhao Mai was sure he hadn't heard wrong. The old man in the back seat pulled the seatbelt over and clicked it into place, leaning back in the seat.

The road ahead still led to the city, and the straight highway had no interchanges. Where was the upward passage? Zhao Mai looked at the navigation screen, which was still running and showed no signs of malfunction. Just as he was about to tap the screen, the prompt sounded again: "One kilometer ahead, please take the upward passage. Please do not drive on the ground."

"This isn't a plane; how can I drive upward?" Zhao Mai shouted. "I must be dreaming, dreaming!"

"How will you know if you don't try?"

These words clearly entered Zhao Mai's ears, and an intense impulse suddenly burst forth. It's said that when a person is completely focused, all noise and distractions disappear, and the world becomes nothing but the target. Zhao Mai remembered taking a deep breath through his nose, instantly blocking out the engine noise, wind, and vibrations from the car, leaving only the electronic prompt:

"Five hundred meters ahead, please drive upward..."

"One hundred meters ahead, please drive upward..."

"Drive upward."

Zhao Mai sharply pulled the steering wheel, as if pulling an airplane's control stick. "THE·CHE" flashed a faint golden light, and the driver who saw the golden light immediately forgot that there was a car there.

Soaring into the sky, heading for the clouds, Zhao Mai's wild laughter echoed in the part-time taxi. At that moment, he felt only excitement and thrill, finally becoming a unique individual in an ordinary world.

"Welcome to the tunnel. The toll of one gold coin has been paid. The road ahead is clear, and the estimated time to reach the destination is three minutes. Please fasten your seatbelt, as there may be some bumps."

As soon as the words were spoken, the car window turned completely black. The originally clear blue sky and soft clouds disappeared, replaced by countless stars. Zhao Mai had never seen so many stars, even in documentaries on the Discovery Channel, and he never imagined they could emit such colorful light.

After just two seconds, the stars began to spin, creating rainbow-like trails. Zhao Mai thought he had fallen into a kaleidoscope and was about to ask when he felt the car jolt, as if driving over a small pothole. Looking out the window again, the stars were all gone, leaving only the darkness.

"We have about two minutes to talk, so I'll speak, and you listen." The old man stretched his neck and spoke calmly.

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