“Did you see that just now? My reflexes were so fast! Even I didn't expect myself to be this amazing!”
A look of well-measured relief and post-disaster joy appeared on Nan Zhi’s face.
“Are you okay? Scared the life out of me. Goodness, how could those lights just explode out of nowhere? If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve rather stayed in the office enjoying the air conditioning, don’t you think?”
The doubt that had just surfaced in Zhang Qiuyu’s mind slowly dissipated.
The other girl didn't possess the Third Eye, so how could she have known disaster was coming? It was probably just quick reflexes.
“It's all thanks to you, Nan Zhi, or else I’d definitely be among the people getting stitches at the hospital right now! Did you see Sister Liu from accounting? Her scalp got sliced by a piece of glass, and the flesh was flipped right open.”
Zhang Qiuyu drew a sharp breath and gestured with her hand.
“A gash this long—it’s definitely going to leave a scar. And Chen Jie had it the worst. The supervisor just called to say his arm is broken, so he’ll probably need a cast.”
As she spoke, she began to complain:
“What is building property management even doing? The office lights were flickering a few days ago, and no one ever came to fix them. Now today, the lights on the sixteenth floor exploded completely. They’re probably going to have to pay a fortune in compensation.”
A colleague nearby chimed in:
“Yeah! When the bulb exploded just now, it scared the hell out of me. I actually thought there was a ghost!”
“You were clearly the one screaming the loudest earlier! We all heard you, okay?”
“It really was terrifying.”
“That master just packed his bag and ran. In my opinion, he was just a scammer who couldn't keep up the act and bolted.”
“What a waste today was. I didn't even get to enjoy the gossip properly and almost got hurt. Sigh! Well, I’ve definitely learned my lesson this time—I’m never crowding around where there's a mob again.”
Even though plenty of people had gathered to watch the commotion today, many still believed it was nothing more than an accident.
For instance, when an ancient person traveled, they would only think of two methods: riding a horse or taking a carriage.
Even if someone told them that in the future, iron birds dozens of zhang long would fly through the sky and iron fish hundreds of zhang long would swim in the sea, they would merely marvel at the notion.
They wouldn't truly consider airplanes and steamships as real means of transportation.
Because they had never seen an airplane or a steamship; even with an imagination, they would never believe such things genuinely existed.
By the same logic, even if someone encountered a ghost and was forced to experience all kinds of supernatural occurrences, their brain would automatically fill in the gaps to make these events seem rational and easily explainable.
Lightbulbs constantly flickering? It was probably aging wiring and unstable electrical currents.
A constant sound of marbles bouncing on the floor in an empty room? That was just the rebar inside the concrete settling with a snap.
When confronted with things beyond their cognition, human brains subconsciously reject them to protect their own sanity. The people in the building were no different.
Still, Nan Zhi finally understood how the protagonists in low-IQ horror movies felt when dragged down to their deaths by foolish teammates.
Whenever she watched movies in the past, she was always baffled as to why the main characters insisted on courting death even when they clearly knew a ghost was around. Now she understood.
Even when a master had just painstakingly warned everyone moments before to maintain reverence and keep their distance even if they didn't believe, Chen Jie had immediately run his mouth right afterward, causing Chen Ping’s ghost to be provoked and use the lightbulbs like shotguns to strafe the bystander crowd indiscriminately.
Before leaving, Master He had said that Chen Ping’s ghost would be exceptionally weak for the next three days.
For Nan Zhi, however, this was a rare, golden opportunity to complete her quest.
She planned to explore the building at night to meet Chen Ping.
...
To be safe, Nan Zhi observed for another two days.
During those two days, just as Master He had said, Chen Ping hid away and didn't appear.
The seventeenth floor also regained a brief spell of tranquility, as if the previous supernatural occurrences were merely everyone's collective delusion.
After such a massive accident, Manager Huang was fired by the advertising agency, and the building property management dispatched personnel to conduct a thorough overhaul of the electrical circuits throughout the entire tower.
No one brought up the events of that day anymore.
As if it had been nothing more than a harmless little episode.
Except for Chen Jie, who showed up for work in a cast.
Finally, on the morning of the third day, Nan Zhi ran into Chen Ping’s ghost at the elevator lobby.
He seemed somewhat dazed, not knowing where he was, standing dully behind two money trees.
Compared to two days ago, he had several more bloody lashes on his body, resembling whip marks crisscrossing his chest and back, making him look thoroughly battered.
Ding—
The elevator chime rang, jolting Chen Ping’s ghost awake.
Only then did he realize he was clutching a sparrow with a snapped neck in his hand.
The bird’s fragile neck was broken, its blood seeping into his palm little by little, yet Chen Ping felt no warmth.
Here it came again.
Chen Ping was surprisingly calm, burying the sparrow into a flowerpot with practiced familiarity.
People came and went as countless office workers bustled in and out.
Still, no one could see him.
There was no one talking to him, no sound of breathing, no heartbeat, and no gurgling sound of blood flowing through veins.
In this world so quiet it drove one mad, he was entirely alone.
Chen Ping looked around in helpless bewilderment, his gaze happening to land upon Nan Zhi.
She was staring at the money trees, appearing somewhat lost in thought.
With hope in his eyes, Chen Ping hurriedly clung to the elevator doors:
“Miss, can you see me?”
“Can you hear me talking?”
“Could you please pass a message to my wife and kid, tell them that I miss them very much!”
“What’s that smell in the stairwell? It's so foul. I should tell someone to come check it out tomorrow morning.”
Nan Zhi muttered to herself, walking into the elevator without glancing aside and pressing the button for her floor.
The light in Chen Ping’s eyes dimmed.
As another person stepped out of the elevator, he pressed up against them again, two streaks of bloody tears leaking from his pitch-black eyes:
“Hello, can you hear me talking?”
“Could you please pass a message to my wife and kid...”
The elevator doors slowly closed.
Standing inside the elevator, Nan Zhi let out a slow breath.
In her vision, Chen Ping possessed not only a body full of resentment, but also half a health bar floating above his head:
【Chen Ping: 50 points (Injured Status)】
Master He had been right.
He was indeed considerably weakened right now.
She could make a move; tonight was her last chance.
Come to think of it, the Painted Skin Ghost had also seemed injured back then.
What was she, a professional opportunist?
Nan Zhi wasn't quite sure.
...
That night, neon lights flickered across the city as the sky was wrapped in a velvet-like darkness.
Under the scattered city glow, the stars appeared dim and lackluster; only the moon remained bright and clear, hanging high in the night sky.
At the elevator lobby of Hongxing Mansion, a bound-feet woman with charming, delicate features drifted into the elevator like a breeze.
This woman was dressed very strangely.
Long black hair was gathered into an antique hair bun pinned with a wooden hairpin.
Her upper body wore a short yellow shirt tied over a bright red chest-wrap, while her lower half was draped in an ancient-style pleated skirt.
Although it was nearly midnight, plenty of people were still working overtime.
There was a food delivery courier in the elevator. Seeing the woman, he was stunned for a moment, then showed a look of comprehension:
A traditional style enthusiast, he understood.
He just felt the way she walked was somewhat strange.
“Hey miss, which floor are you headed to?”
The delivery courier grinned, boldly letting his eyes roam over the woman without hiding it:
“Working overtime this late? You guys really have it rough.”
“Seventeenth floor, thank you.”
The woman’s eyes shimmered enchantingly, her voice crisp and melodious like an oriole leaving the valley, sending a tingling sensation through the ears.
Holy crap!
Even her voice sounded so pleasant!
The courier's heart fluttered as if ants were crawling all over him.
From his angle, he could just see the delicate nape of the woman’s neck and that tiny patch of fair skin beneath her ear.
The dead of night.
An enclosed space.
A gorgeous woman in vibrant attire.
The courier grew even bolder, deliberately lowering his voice as the elevator ascended:
“I heard this building is haunted. Did you know?”
The woman seemed startled and turned slightly, revealing a lovely countenance.
It was a face of profound classical beauty.
The courier grew excited, his gaze wandering even more boldly down across the woman’s skirt:
“I heard someone jumped from the twenty-seventh floor last year, their aggrieved soul refusing to scatter, and their ghost has been lingering in this building ever since. A few days ago, the news even reported on the haunting in this building, causing quite a stir. Aren’t you scared working overtime all by yourself? Why isn't your boyfriend keeping you company? If I were your boyfriend, there’s no way I’d let a beauty like you work overtime so late. But then again, they do say, ‘To die beneath the peony flower makes one a merry ghost.’ If you were my girlfriend—”
“Ah?”
The woman gasped softly, her body trembling slightly as the other half of her face finally turned around:
“Really?”
The woman’s voice remained sweet and captivating, only laced with a hint of urgency:
“Are you truly willing to die for me?”
“That's wonderful.”
The woman smiled sweetly, revealing her entire face.
What kind of face was that?
Lifeless skin showed a misty, bluish-gray pallor, and her eye sockets had no eyelids at all—
Protruding eyeballs rolled grotesquely, while a gaping wound ripped all the way past the base of her ear, exposing flared fangs.
Half beauty, half malicious demon.
“Look, my feet hurt from walking. Carry me up on your back, okay?”
The woman giggled, the extreme beauty and extreme ugliness contrasting sharply against each other.
Her skirt fluttered slightly, revealing beneath it a pair of tiny feet wearing three-inch embroidered shoes.
Tiny feet like lotus roots hovered weightlessly just above the floor.
That was definitely not an action a normal human being could perform.
The courier finally realized what had been so strange about the woman's walking posture.
She had floated in the entire way.
Rolling his eyes back, he fainted dead away.
Rate on N.U.
