Heavenly Eyes 4: The Haunted Building

CHAPTER 1

1.

My grandmother was a renowned fortune teller in the countryside, respectfully called ‘Flower Goddess’ (or perhaps more accurately, ‘Madam who questions the flowers’).

 

Our home housed a spirit shrine, and she made a living helping people through divination and solving their problems.

 

In our hometown, what we call ‘Question Flower’ is actually spirit mediumship, or ‘walking the underworld’.

 

Those who perform this ritual descend to the underworld, find the deceased relative of the person seeking help, and then allow that spirit to communicate through their body.

 

Performing this ritual frequently opens up Yin points all over the body, making it easy to attract malevolent spirits and wandering souls who try to steal one's body.

 

Therefore, my grandmother didn't want me to be exposed to these things too early.

But she didn't know that I had already performed spirit mediumship many times to help others.

 

Logically, without the protection of the spirit shrine, my body should have been taken over by now.

 

But I was born with the Heavenly Three-Eyed Pupil, possessing incredibly strong spiritual energy. As long as I don't consent, those evil spirits can't possess me.

 

Operating on the principle of ‘if they can't have me, they'll destroy me,’ every day evil spirits try to kill me.

 

That's when the entities in my closet step in.

2.

“Why? Why? Why did you abandon me?!”

 

“I’m not reconciled! I’m not reconciled!”

 

“You dog and bitch, I’ll make you both pay!”

 

In the elevator, a ghost in a red dress cornered me. Her crimson fingernails extended like claws, her eyes filled with hatred, as if she wanted to strangle me.

 

I cowered in the corner, my eyes rolling back so far it looked like I was the ghost.

 

Don't get me wrong, the ‘dog and bitch’ she was referring to had nothing to do with me.

 

After the college entrance exams, because of my poverty, I took a part-time job as a security guard.

On my first day of work, I received a call for help – someone was trapped in the elevator.

 

The building where I work is quite old, and perhaps because of disrepair, the elevator always malfunctions on the 19th floor.

 

Sometimes the doors won't close, sometimes they won't open, or it just keeps going back and forth, stopping only on the 19th floor and refusing to go down.

 

It's gotten to the point where many people on floors above the 19th are afraid to use the elevator.

But this building has over fifty floors. A time or two is fine, but climbing the stairs every time? It would exhaust anyone!

 

So, I received another complaint call.

3.

“Young lady, come quickly! The elevator's broken down again! My grandson and I are trapped on the 19th floor, we're terrified!”

 

It was a call from Mrs. Wang, a resident on the 23rd floor.

 

I agreed and put away my walkie-talkie, taking a different elevator up to the 19th floor.

 

When I arrived outside the 19th floor, I pressed the button and saw Mrs. Wang and her five-year-old grandson smiling at me.

 

“Little Shen! It's always you! Since you came, the elevator has been much better behaved.

Last time, my grandson and I were trapped, and those people couldn't open the elevator for ages!”

 

I smiled, entered the elevator, pressed the button for the 23rd floor, and sent her and her grandson home.

 

It's strange, this building's elevator frequently traps people, but no matter how many times they inspect and repair it, they can't find anything wrong.

 

But every time it malfunctions, it's fixed as soon as I arrive.

 

Gradually, the residents noticed this, and whenever there's a problem, they come looking for me.

 

People in the owner's group are saying I'm a god, that ghosts and monsters are afraid of me.

 

I'm not a god, but I am a truly unlucky person. I'm constantly saving people, I'm practically a living saint.

 

To avoid running up and down the building every day, I decided to burn some incense and offerings at midnight at the elevator entrance on the 19th floor.

To see what exactly is causing the trouble, and to negotiate with it.

4.

“Master Bai, it's almost midnight, where's my stuff?”

 

As midnight approached, I started messaging Bai Ze's Funeral Shop on WeChat.

 

The impatient voice of the boss came through the voice message.

 

“Here it is! Traffic jam, Miss Shen!~”

 

“Miss Shen, next time could you not place an order so late at night? Why are you working in such a place? The delivery guys won't even take orders there!~”

 

“It made me deliver it myself in the middle of the night!~”

Bai Ze's Funeral Shop is a store I've frequented. The original owner was an elderly woman in her seventies or eighties, but in the last two years, her grandson took over. She rarely goes to the shop anymore. (T/N: Lol, author insert their own name here; Báizé Funeral Shop)

 

Those trendy new paper offerings—cell phones, computers, sports cars, video game consoles, even anime girls—were all launched by the kid, and their sales are far ahead of the competition.

 

The prices are also far ahead of the competition.

But although the items are a bit expensive, the quality is top-notch, and he's the only one willing to deliver this late at night.

 

A moment later, I heard a noise outside and rushed out.

 

Sure enough, I saw Master Bai's delivery van parked in the empty space outside the building.

 

While thanking him, I urged him to give me the items.

 

“I didn't want to trouble you so late, I was afraid that if I did it earlier, someone would see me doing this and accuse me of witchcraft, and report me!”

Master Bai looked to be in his early twenties, with delicate eyebrows and eyes, but with bleached white hair and a small braid at the back of his head. He wore a white T-shirt with a picture of a lucky charm, an old-fashioned Tang-style jacket, jeans, and sneakers. He had an aged jade pendant around his neck. The whole look was… incredibly cool.

 

Hearing my words, Master Bai didn't say anything, just handed me a pile of things.

 

“We'll settle the bill at the end of the month.”

 

As he left, he glanced at the building in front of him and said to me, “Be careful!”

5.

Master Bai's words gave me a jolt.

 

I thought, could he have seen something?

 

Then again, it wouldn't be strange if he did.

 

People in our line of work, we all have some skills.

 

So I didn't think much of it, took the things and rode the elevator up to the 18th floor, then climbed the stairs to the 19th.

 

It's not without reason that the 19th floor is said to be cursed.

 

At least in the information I found, this 19th floor is full of strange occurrences.

It's not that anything else happened, but every company that rented this space for their offices either moved out or went bankrupt.

 

Over time, rumors spread that the floor was unlucky, and it gradually became vacant.

 

Now, it's been almost ten years.

 

I carried the things to the elevator entrance, looked around, and lit the incense and prepared an iron basin to burn the paper money.

 

As I burned the paper, I silently muttered in my heart.

 

“Whether you're older brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandparents, or kids, please be kind and stop messing with the elevator.”

“The elevator is full of people going up and down, it's very unsafe!”

 

“I'm new to this place, so I prepared some things, I don't know if they'll suit your tastes. Please forgive any shortcomings.”

 

After the paper money burned, it spun merrily.

 

Vaguely, I seemed to hear a child's laughter echoing through the empty floor.

6.

In an empty house that has been vacant for a long time, without any human presence, it will eventually be occupied by wandering spirits with nowhere to go.

 

This is also the reason why you should knock on the door before entering an empty house.

 

A polite greeting makes things easier for everyone.

 

This elevator always gets stuck on the 19th floor, and often traps people inside. Could it be that these children's spirits are playing pranks?

 

I finished burning a stack of yellow paper and gold and silver ingots in my hand and walked inside.

The flashlight, consecrated with talismans, revealed any ghosts and demons in its beam.

 

Vaguely, I saw several child-like spirits holding the joss paper money and candles I had just burned, along with toys like mobile game consoles, running around.

 

“Sister, come play!”

 

I wanted to catch one to ask who was causing all the trouble in the elevator.

 

“You've taken the offerings, shouldn't you help your sister with something? Sister has some questions for you!”

 

A voice rang out:

“Catch us, Sister! If you catch us, you can ask!”

 

“Yeah, yeah! Come on, Sister!”

 

I had no choice but to chase them around on the 19th floor.

 

But those little ghosts were very fast, seemingly playing tricks on me.

 

After running around for a while, seeing that none of them were willing to listen.

 

I got a little angry and stopped to catch my breath.

 

“You naughty spirits, you took my money and toys, and you’re still playing tricks on me?”

 

“I bought those things with real money!”

I stood still, and when they saw I wasn't chasing, the little ghosts curiously gathered around.

 

Curiosity killed the cat, as they say.

 

The red thread in my hand suddenly shot out, and in a moment, I had caught four or five of the little ghosts.

 

The red thread was made with black dog's blood – a complex process I won't go into detail about.

 

In short, it's an extremely yang and extremely fierce object, capable of subduing Yin and ghost spirits.

 

The little ghosts looked to be only two or three years old, the older ones no more than seven or eight.

 

Bound together, they sat on the ground, trembling.

One little boy, his face full of terror, said to me, “Sister, please don't kill us! We didn't mean to do anything, we just wanted to play with you.”

 

I only wanted to ask questions; I naturally didn't want to cause them any trouble.

 

They died young and being left here was already tragic enough.

 

I patted the little boy's head and said, “Sister won't hurt you, but you have to answer one question.”

“If you're good, Sister will bring you gifts and food next time, okay?”

 

Hearing my words, the little ghosts all nodded, indicating they would be obedient and cooperate.

7.

I then untied the red thread from them and explained the strange events happening in the elevator, asking if they were responsible. Children can be mischievous, and these children, dying so young, their minds remained at the time of their death; time stood still for them.

 

However, to my surprise, they all denied it without exception.

 

“Sister, it wasn't us.”

 

“Yeah, we only dare to play here, we don't dare go out.”

 

I was confused.

 

Not them?

“Then, did you see who did it?”

 

At my words, the children looked at each other, and one by one returned the offerings I had burned for them.

 

“Sister, we don't know anything.”

 

“It's getting late, we have to go back! Sister, be careful!”

 

Then they all disappeared before me.

 

I got up and walked around the 19th floor a few times, but I couldn't find any trace of the little ghosts.

Before leaving, I discovered in the middle of a vacant office space, a tall statue stood, covered with a red cloth, almost as tall as a person.

 

I shone my flashlight on it, slowly approaching, and lifted the red cloth.

 

I expected something terrifying and horrifying.

 

Instead, beneath the red cloth was a statue of Guanyin.

 

It must have been placed there by the previous company when they encountered strange events.

 

However, it hadn't been consecrated, so it held no divine power.

I checked the time on my phone; it had been half an hour since I came up. I was the only one on night shift, and I couldn't delay any longer. I covered the Guanyin statue again and took the elevator down to the first floor.

 

However, to my surprise, the elevator stopped after descending only a few floors.

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter