Riding the Spirit

Cool on the outside, warm on the inside, a big sister who lives for cars x mysterious, dark-skinned, eccentric spirit-world indentured worker

*

There are certain moments in life

when you've acted rashly and miscalculated, standing at a crossroads,

rushing forward, yet afraid to take the next step.

You regret it in silence, while the traffic lights refuse to change.

Forward? Back? Left? Right?

For a few seconds, you're about to make a major decision.

Good thing the steering wheel is in your hands.

[Whenever Wei Sihang remembered that life was a pendulum swinging between boredom and pain, she thought back to that summer of dreams and insomnia.]

1.

Wei, the big sister from the office, disappeared.

As summer came to an end, my memories of her grew hazy.

Later, I only saw her in nightmares.

...Wait, what department did she work in?

2.

Wei Sihang, now 33, had spent years struggling in the big city. The little electric car she'd bought three years ago was her only asset.

One day, she opened her eyes and found herself, car and all, in an unfamiliar abandoned parking lot. From then on, she was forced to become a hearse driver.

Her passengers... were mostly not alive.

And their destination might be Hell.

This was the spirit world.

The souls of the dead settled in the spirit world and were called "ghosts."

When people slept, their souls left their bodies and wandered the spirit world. They were called "dream spirits."

Wei Sihang was certain she was the latter.

Here, the accelerator and brakes worked in reverse,

her phone's buttons never worked,

no restroom could be trusted,

and she mustn't answer the calls of relatives who had died long ago.

Wei Sihang struggled to adapt to the rules of this other world, driving her beloved car 0373 as fast as she could away from one nightmare after another.

Damn it... why hadn't she woken up yet?

3.

Never give up searching for the truth of life, even if it lies within a nightmare.

One moment, she was in a fatal car crash. The next, Wei Sihang was opening her eyes inside her car again in the abandoned parking lot, reborn.

The battery was running low, but she was still alive.

She knew. She remembered.

The monster lurking in the chassis was asleep.

The passenger-side door opened.

Her suspicious companion got into the car once more.

Reader's Guide:

1. Infinite-flow, suspense with a touch of horror, all kinds of elements. At heart, it's a heartwarming story! Come tease the author for being sentimental and cliché!

2. The heroine may be a normal person, with a regressive case of adolescent chuunibyou and a growing tendency toward madness.

3. The romance is a slow burn. This is a strong female lead story! The male lead is sometimes offscreen.

4. Our motto: Fight the void!

5. I'm always collecting strange dream material. Come chat in the comments! (The author is up to no good.)

Theme: People are reeds that think.