This happened last month, and I still can’t figure it out.
That night I was out with friends and had a couple of beers – not drunk, but I didn’t want to drive, so I ordered a ride‑hailing car to go home. It was past 1 AM, in Guangzhou’s Tianhe district.
The car arrived – a white Corolla, license plate ending with 7K3. I checked the plate on the app – it matched, so I got in and sat in the front passenger seat. The driver was a middle‑aged man in his forties, quiet. I gave him my address and he started driving.
About five minutes into the ride, my phone died, so I plugged it into the armrest charger and leaned against the window to rest my eyes.
After about ten minutes, I opened my eyes and glanced out the window – the route felt wrong, not the way home. I was about to ask the driver, when I caught something in the rearview mirror – there was someone sitting in the back seat.
It was a person in black clothes – couldn’t tell male or female – head down, hat pulled low, curled up in the corner like a shadow, completely still. I jumped because the back seat had been empty when I got in. When did someone get in?
I turned my head to look – yes, there was definitely someone there! I blurted out: “Driver, who’s that in the back?”
The driver glanced in his rearview mirror, frowned, and said, “What back person? You got in alone – there’s nobody.”
I turned again – the back seat was empty. The person in black had vanished. No bag, no coat, nothing – as if they’d never been there.
A chill ran down my spine. I told the driver to pull over – I wanted out. He stopped, looking completely confused.
I got out and checked the back seat – empty. Then I looked at the plate – ending in 7K3, the same car I’d ordered.
I stood by the roadside for a while, thinking maybe it was the alcohol playing tricks. I got back in, the driver didn’t ask, and we continued. When I got home, I paid and went to bed.
The next day, I opened the ride‑hailing app to check the trip record. The driver and plate matched – 7K3. But as I scrolled down, I saw another cancelled trip from earlier that same morning – two minutes before my pickup. That cancelled order also had a plate ending in 7K3.
I clicked on it – the cancelled car was not a Corolla; it was a black Passat.
So that night, on that same stretch of road, there were two cars with plates ending in 7K3 – a white Corolla and a black Passat. I got into the white Corolla, but the cancelled order was for the black Passat.
Which raises the question: What happened to the person who was supposed to be in that black Passat?