Chapter 28: Chapter 28: There’s a Ghost Upstairs
That strange sound of marbles started again, rolling back and forth across the third-floor ceiling—the fourth-floor’s floor.
It seemed a family of three lived directly above Gao Tian. The parents worked year-round and were never home, leaving only their preschool-aged daughter, whose favorite pastime was rolling marbles back and forth across the floor.
’How nice.’ If only Gao Tian didn’t know they were ghosts upstairs.
Although he was completely used to the noises made by the fourth floor’s "tenants," hearing them still made his skin crawl every time.
Just as Gao Tian closed his eyes to get some more sleep, a low, muffled whisper of a girl’s voice drifted down from above:
"Excuse me, big brother... my marble accidentally rolled into your room. Can you please help me get it back?
"It might be nothing to you, but it’s really important to me. If my mom comes home and finds a marble missing, she’ll kill me.
"*Sob*... please, I’m begging you..."
It took Gao Tian a long moment to realize the "little girl" upstairs was talking to him.
This was a highly unusual sign. It was the first time a "neighbor" from upstairs had tried to communicate with him since he’d moved into the Living Persons’ Apartment.
’What should I do? Should I answer her? I could try to communicate, learn as much as I can about the fourth-floor residents.’
’Or should I just ignore her completely?’
Gao Tian kept one thing firmly in mind: as long as he stayed on the third floor of the Living Persons’ Apartment and resisted any temptation to go to the fourth, he was absolutely safe.
But he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the little girl upstairs had some special ability. If he so much as spoke to her, he might find himself compelled to go to the fourth floor.
Without knowing her abilities, Gao Tian decided to play it safe and say nothing.
Still, a part of him hoped the girl would keep talking. He wanted to know where these fourth-floor residents came from and what kind of sinister plans they were hatching.
The crying from upstairs continued for a little while longer before the girl’s voice vanished completely, as if it had never been there at all.
Gao Tian waited, but the girl’s voice didn’t return. It seemed she had really gone.
He lay on his bed and breathed a sigh of relief, though he wasn’t sure if he felt fortunate or disappointed.
CLINK. CLINK.
But just then—
Something terrifying happened, an event that made Gao Tian’s blood run cold.
The sound of marbles rolling across the floorboards echoed in his ears.
If the sound had come from upstairs, Gao Tian wouldn’t have been nearly so panicked. He had chosen this room on the third floor, well aware that living here meant hearing noises from the fourth.
But why was the sound of marbles coming from the third floor—from inside *his* room?
’This is impossible. The rules of the Living Persons’ Apartment are absolute. The ghosts on the fourth floor can’t affect the third floor in any way. The third-floor residents are supposed to be completely safe.’
Gao Tian was certain there were no marbles in his room before. After the little girl’s voice had spoken, the marbles that should have been rolling around on the fourth floor had somehow moved to the third.
This meant the third floor was no longer absolutely safe. The ghost from upstairs had managed to transport two marbles down.
If this was real, not some hallucination, and the ghosts on the fourth floor could now affect the third, then the last safe haven for the apartment’s residents had been breached. The psychological blow this would deal to everyone, including administrators like Xia Ta and Jiang Yang, was unimaginable.
Gao Tian slowly sat up in bed and looked toward the sound of the rolling marbles.
From under the TV stand, two small glass marbles rolled out, moving slowly in his direction.
One was pink, the other blue. The sound of their rolling, which should have been faint, was as loud as a landslide in Gao Tian’s ears.
He wasn’t sure to what extent the fourth-floor ghost’s influence could reach. He grabbed the Ghost Transformation Spear from under his bed for protection, keeping the marbles in his peripheral vision. At the same time, he pulled out his phone and called Xia Ta, who was currently outside the apartment.
The phone rang for a moment before someone picked up. A cool, clear female voice came through:
"Gao Tian, what’s wrong?"
She figured, what could possibly happen to Gao Tian while he was safe inside the Living Persons’ Apartment?
Gao Tian:
"Xia Ta, has this ever happened before? A fourth-floor resident successfully tossing a marble, or some other little trinket, down to the third floor."
Xia Ta:
"How is that possible?
"If the fourth-floor residents could physically pass things to the third floor, they could just send down any cursed object and the third-floor residents would all be dead by now. How could the apartment still be called a safe zone?"
Xia Ta wasn’t stupid. Putting two and two together, she asked after a moment:
"You’re in your room on the third floor right now?"
Gao Tian gave a wry smile.
"Yes."
Xia Ta:
"What did they send down from upstairs? How?"
Gao Tian looked at the marbles still rolling around his bedroom floor.
"At first, I just heard the sound of marbles on the fourth floor.
"Then today, I suddenly heard a little girl upstairs asking if I could help her get her marble back. Said her mom would kill her if one was missing, that sort of thing.
"And then two marbles just inexplicably appeared in my room. They’re still rolling on the floor right now."
Xia Ta’s voice on the other end of the line turned serious. Anything concerning the safety of the Living Persons’ Apartment was a matter of grave importance.
If the first three floors of the apartment had been breached by ghosts, then they had no idea where else in the world could possibly be safe.
Xia Ta:
"When the little girl upstairs spoke to you, did you answer her?"
Gao Tian:
"Not at all."
Xia Ta:
"Could it be that the marbles were already in your room?"
Gao Tian:
"I didn’t bring any marbles with me. In the week I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen any in the closet or anywhere else. They’re not mine."
Xia Ta asked for one last confirmation.
"Gao Tian, are you absolutely sure this is real and not a hallucination brought on by stress?"
This sort of thing had happened before with new residents.
Some residents, encountering the supernatural for the first time, had mental breakdowns after a couple of green-text missions. Even after returning to the apartment, they’d insist their rooms were haunted. They were eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and became unable to carry out missions.
Gao Tian gave another wry smile.
"I don’t think so.
"My mental state is perfectly fine. I’m certain what I’m seeing isn’t a hallucination."
If the fourth-floor ghosts could really transport a marble to the third floor, the news would be apocalyptic for everyone in the apartment.
Could it be true, just as the previous administrator had said? Were the ghosts upstairs really starting to invade, one floor at a time?
This was too big to ignore. No matter where Xia Ta was, she had to come back immediately.
Xia Ta:
"Listen to me, Gao Tian.
"Stay in your room. Don’t go out, no matter what happens.
"If the ghost upstairs could have harmed you, she would have done so already. She only sent down a marble. It’s probably a trick to lure you out of your room.
"I’m grabbing a cab back to the apartment right now. I should be there in about fifteen minutes. Just hang in there."
Gao Tian:
"That makes a lot of sense. Understood."
Xia Ta:
"Are there any other residents on the third floor?"
Gao Tian knew that Jiang Yang was long gone.
Whenever that guy didn’t have a mission, he was either at a bar or the basketball court. In his own words, since an apartment resident could die at any moment, it was best to live for the day.
As for the other resident, the Monk in gray robes named Yu Sheng, his movements were always a mystery. The door to his room was always locked tight, and not a sound ever came from within.
Gao Tian:
"I’m not sure. But I didn’t hear any noise from the other rooms when I was in the hall earlier."
The third floor had few residents to begin with, and those who chose to live there were all a bit out of the ordinary.
Xia Ta hung up. It was clear she was rushing back to the apartment as fast as she possibly could.
Gao Tian had just hung up. Without Xia Ta’s reassuring voice, the dead-silent room felt even more eerie, with only the sound of the rolling marbles remaining.
For the time being, the two marbles just continued to roll randomly across the floor, posing no direct threat to Gao Tian.
But as the seconds ticked by, the little girl’s voice sounded from the ceiling once more:
"Big brother, weren’t you interested in me? On your very first day in the Living Persons’ Apartment, you asked about me, didn’t you? You wanted to find me.
"So why are you so scared now that I’m really here?
"My family... at first, they thought this was just a cheap apartment. They thought they’d finally found a place to settle down in the big city. But after we moved in, we realized it was the beginning of a nightmare.
"The apartment administrators forced us to go on all sorts of missions. In fact, even without them, the apartment itself would erase any resident who didn’t complete a mission within a certain time.
"My parents were just ordinary people. They died quickly, during the first or second mission. My older brother was a bit more capable. He completed two missions and was about to clear the third, but he was betrayed by the other participants. A vicious ghost chased him all the way back to the apartment entrance, and right in front of me... it skinned him alive.
"All I could do was hide inside the apartment and watch as my brother, a bloody mess, died right outside. I couldn’t do a thing.
"My whole family is dead. I’m the only one left. I can’t complete any green-text missions; I’d just be a burden to everyone else. And that ghost... the one that skinned my brother... it’s still lingering outside the apartment entrance. It wants to break in, drag me out, and skin me, too."
At some point, the little girl’s crying had turned into laughter.
"Everyone in the apartment is so cold. No one cares about me.
"Luckily, there are lots of aunts and uncles on the fourth floor. They care about me a lot. Besides my dead family, they’re the only ones in this world who are nice to me."
