‘Now I want to kill’: smart woman in China fakes manic depression to stop sexual advances of ride-hail driver, says she always carries a knife
- Late night ride-hail trip takes sinister turn as driver begins sex talk
- Woman convinces man at wheel that she is ‘mad’ and carries a knife
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A woman who pretended to suffer from manic depression to repel a ride-hailing driver who verbally harassed her late at night has won praise on mainland social media.
The quick-thinking woman, surnamed Zhang, from Zhejiang province in eastern China, employed the trick to protect herself from the driver as he drove her home on December 24.
As soon as she realised her driver could be problematic, she quickly told him that she was “mad” and recorded the subsequent conversation on her phone, Chao Video reported.
It is unclear why the driver does so, but he asks Zhang: “Does he have sex with you?”
This immediately scared fast-thinking Zhang who replied: “No, because I’ve done the killing. Every time someone comes close to me, I want to kill him. Do you know what I mean?
“I’m not afraid to die, do you know that?” Zhang adds.
The driver failed to answer her questions and tried to steer the conversation back to men approaching her but Zhang stopped him by changing the topic.
“Ah, now I want to kill. I suffer from manic depression,” she told him.
In an effort to convince the driver her condition was real, Zhang told him her mother was doctor and her father a forensic expert, adding that she had a medical certificate to prove it.
“Say no more that provokes my feelings. I also have mental problems. master, how can I solve them master?” Zhang said, to which the driver replied: “You can drink some wine every night.”
“Every time I have wine, I want to get a knife. I just don’t know why,” Zhang told him.
The driver continued to try to get her to talk about drinking wine, but Zhang stopped him again and said: “I have a knife in my bag now. Master, stop talking. I’m very emotional.”
The conversation ebbed and flowed from there and ended when the driver returned to Zhang’s earlier remarks about having “done the killing”, a sign that he believed her story about being “mad”.
The driver asked her if the person had died to which she replied “nearly”.
Both then agreed they needed to calm down and stop talking, after which Zhang was dropped off safely at her destination.
The story struck a chord on mainland social media and at the time of writing had attracted 46,000 comments on Douyin.
One person said: “Wow, she is so smart and brave. I really admire her.”
“The driver totally freaks out,” said another, while a third added: “She proves that by pretending to be crazy we can protect ourselves.”
Another online observer who claimed to have had a similar experience said: “I pretend to be a police officer and tell my colleague in a call that I’m heading to the crime scene.”
