Following the little girl’s guidance, the four walked through a dark and long corridor and arrived before an elevator.
The elevator buttons glowed red, and the doors were already covered in cobwebs, indicating it hadn't been used in a very long time.
Long Feicheng worriedly asked, “Is this elevator maintained regularly? What if it malfunctions later?”
The other three shot him glares. Long Feicheng quickly covered his mouth and mumbled, “Pah, pah, pah, look at my jinxed mouth!”
No living person dared to enter Ping’an Building anymore, let alone whether anyone maintained the elevator.
Seeing everyone hesitate, the little girl disappeared again. In the next second, she reappeared at the entrance of the stairwell.
Yan Shouyi thought for a moment and said, “Let’s take the elevator. If we climb all the way up, we’ll be exhausted. If something goes wrong, we won’t even have a chance to escape.”
Xia Zhi agreed, but Lin Zhitong had a different idea: “Elevators go straight up and down, like old wells, connecting heaven and earth. The probability of strange things happening is high. I think the stairs are safer.”
In earlier years, before elevators were common, strange occurrences mostly happened in stairwells.
But now that elevators were widespread, more strange things seemed to happen in elevators.
Moreover, elevators were completely enclosed spaces. If anything happened, life or death could be decided in an instant.
Lin Zhitong’s reasoning was not without merit.
So Yan Shouyi said, “How about this? Let’s have a democratic vote. Whoever gets more votes wins.”
Lin Zhitong chuckled, “You’re already asking for democracy with me now. What happens when we get married?”
“When we get married, we’ll listen to big sister-in-law!” Long Feicheng quickly flattered.
Lin Zhitong was quite pleased and showed a satisfied smile. Yan Shouyi, however, gave Long Feicheng a warning look. Sensing something was amiss, Long Feicheng quickly changed his tune, “But we’re not married yet!”
Lin Zhitong gave a look of full disdain for Long Feicheng’s two-faced behavior, then said helplessly, “Then let’s vote. Raise your hand if you’re with me on taking the stairs!”
Lin Zhitong raised her hand. Long Feicheng hesitated for a moment and also raised his hand. Everyone looked at Xia Zhi.
Xia Zhi thought for a moment and still raised her hand, showing her support for Lin Zhitong.
“Three to one, you lost. Let’s take the stairs,” Lin Zhitong said with a smile.
Long Feicheng put on a pained expression and said, “Brother Yan, you have to understand me. Big sister is Caiwei’s best friend. As the saying goes, 'Beware of fire, theft, and best friends.' I can only defect temporarily!”
Yan Shouyi sighed, “Alright, the stairs are safer too. Let’s hurry up and go.”
To show his apology, Long Feicheng volunteered to be the first to enter the stairwell.
He walked at the very front and bravely pushed open the door. But halfway through the motion, his body froze.
Time seemed to stop for three seconds, and even the air felt frozen.
Suddenly, Long Feicheng retracted his hand and said with a deathly pale face, “Let’s take the elevator after all.”
“Why the sudden change of mind?” Xia Zhi asked.
Long Feicheng’s breathing became rapid. He squeezed past the three of them into the elevator, quickly pressed the call button, and as soon as the doors opened, he pushed everyone inside without explanation.
Only after the elevator doors closed did he let out a long sigh and then said with a pale face,
“You didn’t see it just now, but that stairwell was full of…”
“Full of what?”
Long Feicheng made a grimace, “Full of ghosts.”
Xia Zhi’s face also turned pale, “All of them?”
Long Feicheng nodded fiercely, “Packed tightly, filling the stairwell. At a glance, it was all burnt heads. Maybe the little girl who guided us, her parents and grandparents were all in there…”
Although the other three hadn’t seen the situation in the stairwell, hearing Long Feicheng’s description made them feel a chill down their spines.
Upon opening the door, let alone ghosts, even seeing a large crowd of living people would be startling, let alone all burnt ghosts?
When people are extremely afraid, they forget to scream. Fear is like a hand gripping their throat, preventing them from making any sound.
Long Feicheng’s reaction just now was not because he was particularly brave, but because he was numb with terror.
Lin Zhitong sighed softly, “Those ghosts are probably the victims who burned to death in the building in 2001. Because of the building’s strangeness, their souls couldn’t be released, and they could only be trapped here forever, surviving only at the lowest levels of the building.”
Ghosts, like people, had their own hierarchies. Liu Jingkang and his slaves were the most typical examples.
And in Ping’an Building, malevolent spirits ran rampant. The vengeful ghosts who died in the fire could only survive at the lowest levels. Above them were more powerful malevolent spirits suppressing them, preventing them from crossing boundaries.
“I increasingly feel that Ping’an Building isn’t just a haunted building,” Yan Shouyi paused, “It’s more like a slaughterhouse raising pigs for meat.”
Everyone was silent for a while.
Long Feicheng was the first to break the silence. He said, “We haven’t selected a floor yet.”
Ping’an Building had a total of 52 floors.
The little girl suddenly appeared and pointed towards the 44th floor. Lin Zhitong pressed the button, and the little girl disappeared.
She said, “That little girl didn’t dare to cross the boundary, so she stayed on the first floor. Once we reach the 44th floor, we’ll have to search for ourselves.”
The first floor was already this terrifying. How horrific would it be for those living on the 44th floor?
With anxious hearts, the elevator slowly ascended.
The display screen above showed the floor number.
However, as the elevator rose to the 17th floor, the displayed number suddenly trembled.
Immediately after, the numbers flickered back and forth between 16 and 17!
Sensing something was wrong, the four looked up, holding their breath and waiting for the result.
Finally, the display screen split into two, showing the upper half of 17 and the lower half of 16.
Long Feicheng felt a bad premonition and quickly said, “Are we stuck between the 16th and 17th floors? I told you, this elevator is old and poorly maintained, it was bound to have problems!”
However, Yan Shouyi said with a dark expression,
“The elevator can get stuck, but how can the displayed numbers get stuck like this? We are not stuck between the 16th and 17th floors. Instead, something that does not belong to the world of the living is trying to enter between the 16th and 17th floors!”
Hearing this, everyone became alert and stared at the elevator doors in unison.
Ding!
A clear yet deafening bell rang, and the elevator doors slowly opened.
Outside the doors was a long, dark corridor. From Yan Shouyi and the others’ position, they could only see a giant red wardrobe at the end of the corridor.
Besides that, they couldn’t see anything in between.
Xia Zhi felt her eyes were dry and couldn’t help but rub them.
However, when she opened her eyes again, the wardrobe, which had been far away, seemed to have moved closer.
“Did you… did you see that?” Xia Zhi exclaimed, “The wardrobe seems to have moved closer!”
Yan Shouyi said in a deep voice, “What you saw is not an illusion. In the blink of an eye, the wardrobe did indeed move closer!”
A wardrobe could move in the blink of an eye?
Everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats.
They knew they absolutely could not blink at this moment, otherwise the wardrobe would get closer and closer.
But the more they tried not to blink, the more they felt the urge to blink!
This was bound to be a mental torture for everyone!
Long Feicheng secretly pressed the close door button, but the elevator showed no reaction at all.
He lowered his head anxiously, checking if he had pressed the wrong button.
However, when he raised his head again, the red wardrobe was even closer!