It was the middle of the night. Someone was using the elevator, but it didn't stop on the twelfth floor.
Xin Huohuo had no choice but to press the 'down' button and wait.
Then, she noticed something strange...
She wasn't sure if the elevator door was electroplated or stainless steel, but either type had a particular quality. When wiped clean, it was exceptionally shiny, but it also showed marks very easily, especially if touched by a dirty or greasy hand.
'But then again, who touches an elevator door for no reason? Especially the outer doors. People usually just press the button, right?'
And yet, right then, there were clear handprints on the elevator door.
There weren't just one or two. The area near the seam between the doors was covered in countless palm prints. Judging by their angles, direction, and messy, forceful appearance, it looked as if someone had been desperately trying to pry the doors open. More importantly, the prints looked remarkably "fresh," as if they'd been left just moments ago.
'What kind of bratty kid is this, making handprints for fun out of boredom?' That was Xin Huohuo's natural conclusion; it was the only rational explanation. Just as she leaned in for a closer look, the light overhead suddenly flickered, letting out a SIZZLING sound as if it were about to die. The entire hallway plunged into alternating light and darkness.
Xin Huohuo still had her phone out. An idea struck her, and she quickly raised it to take a selfie. 'In this flickering light, who knows what kind of ghoulish picture I'll get,' she thought. 'It'd be fun to post and scare my friends.'
As she was snapping away—CLICK, CLICK—the elevator arrived.
The instant the elevator doors slid open, the overhead light abruptly returned to normal. The bright light cast Xin Huohuo's silhouette on the wall. But just as she took a step into the elevator, she instinctively pulled her foot back.
She felt that something was wrong.
She waited in silence. As the elevator doors slid shut again, she finally realized what it was.
The handprints! They were gone! All of them! The elevator door was now so clean it reflected her image. And there she stood, all alone.
She was certain her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. How could something she had seen so clearly one second just vanish the next? 'If something was trying to pry open the doors,' she thought, 'and the handprints vanished when the elevator arrived, does that mean...'
Generally, Xin Huohuo didn't believe supernatural phenomena could manifest in densely populated areas. With so much yang energy around, living beings and spirits were supposed to keep to their own separate paths, an unspoken rule of "do not disturb." But right now, every hair on her body was standing on end.
WHOOSH. While she stood there, stunned, the closed elevator doors slid open again, as if in invitation.
'I absolutely, positively did not press the button! The elevator must be broken, then, right? Why else would the doors open and close on their own? Unless... unless there's something here I can't see?'
Xin Huohuo sprang into action.
She dashed to the other, still-functioning elevator, frantically mashing the button in a panic. When the doors finally opened, she jumped in and slammed them shut.
The ride from the twelfth floor to the first took only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. It wasn't until she burst through the building's main entrance that she could finally press a hand to her forehead. It was slick with a cold sweat.
'Yes, I've never seen a ghost, and I don't really believe in them,' she admitted to herself. 'But there are plenty of things in this world I haven't seen, and plenty I don't believe in. That doesn't mean they don't exist.' Even the great sage Confucius said to respect ghosts and spirits but keep them at a distance. So, whatever was going on, steering clear was the best option.
She felt a bit better after rushing back to the restaurant. But maybe it was just her imagination, because even after leaving that building, she couldn't shake a persistent chill. The coldness seemed to radiate from her chest throughout her entire body, and she could almost imagine a faint, strange smell clinging to her.
Thankfully, dawn soon broke. She got busy with her part-time job and managed to push the bizarre events to the back of her mind. But when she got home, she was devastated to find that the kitten and puppy she'd rescued were no longer breathing.
A wave of sadness washed over her. 'So I couldn't save them after all, huh?'
She laid their bodies on her bed and gently washed them with a clean towel, planning to bury them in a nearby garden. They may have only been fleeting visitors in her life, but they were lives nonetheless and deserved to be treated with tenderness.
She thought of the tiny turtles she'd seen for sale at the pet market, hatched by the hundreds in shallow tubs. They were so fragile and innocent, yet they carried their little shells and scrambled over each other, desperate to survive. They tried so hard, but most of them still ended up dying. Even the ones bought by parents for a child's science project would likely perish quickly. Very few ever made it.
So many lives were as fleeting as morning blossoms that wilt by dusk—utterly insignificant. Her encounter with these two little strays, even if it only lasted a day, was a small, precious connection in her life. At the very least, she couldn't let their final resting place be a trash can. They had come into this world; they deserved to leave behind something more than nothing.
'But what is life, really?'
'Is it just breathing? Survival? A long, drawn-out death? Or a meaningless, endless cycle? And are ghosts another form of life?' She didn't know. She simply picked up a copy of the Taoist Beidou True Scripture and began to chant softly. She wasn't trying to send their souls to the afterlife, just praying for life and blessings.
As she continued to chant, she suddenly felt a twitch beneath her hand.
Her eyes snapped open. She was met by a pair of cool, clear, jade-green eyes and a pair of shiny, darting black ones. As her vision widened, she saw the little black cat and the little white puppy—whose bodies had been completely cold just moments before—struggling to move. They seemed to be protesting her hands resting on them, wriggling to get free.
"Oh my god, you're alive!" she cried, so overjoyed she was on the verge of tears. It had started as a simple act of kindness, so why did she now feel the ecstatic joy of having recovered something precious she thought she'd lost?
'Whether the bond was deep or shallow, it was a bond nonetheless!'
"My chanting of the Beidou Scripture must have worked, right? Heaven sent you back to me!" Xin Huohuo was ecstatic. She scooped up the two little creatures and smothered them with kisses. 'Or maybe I was just mistaken earlier,' she thought. 'Maybe they weren't dead at all, just frozen stiff.'
Funnily enough, despite being so tiny, their different personalities were already showing.
The little black cat looked utterly disgusted. It even lifted a paw to push her away and then vigorously rubbed the spot she had kissed.
The little white puppy was far more cooperative. Not only did it not resist, it even licked her back a few times.
"I hereby declare that from now on, you two belong to me," Xin Huohuo announced happily. "But I won't treat you like pets. You'll be my family. Hmm, let's get you some names." She pointed at the little white puppy. "You... you'll be Bai Qi." Then she pointed at the little black cat. "And you'll be next in line, so... let's call you Mr. Hei."
The little black cat and the little white puppy looked at each other, simultaneously turning to stone.
Xin Huohuo thought they were just too hungry to move. She hopped to her feet cheerfully. "Don't worry, I bought some food that's perfect for kittens and puppies. I'll go get it ready for you now. Be good and wait here, okay? I'll be super quick!"
She scampered off with a spring in her step, feeling as if she weren't the least bit tired after a long night of making deliveries.
The little white puppy—no, Bai Qi—immediately yelped after she left, "I told you something was off about her! I told you! How else would she know I'm the seventh?" He pointed a paw in Xin Huohuo's direction. "And that you're the eighth! The famous Seventh and Eighth Masters, and now we belong to *her*?"
"Congratulations. You have a master now," Mr. Hei snorted. "You seemed to be enjoying yourself just a moment ago."