Chapter 2: Strange Neighbor 02

Yu Bai froze for a moment, then immediately reached out and pressed the door-open button.

The entire elevator gave a slight jolt, followed by a loud clang as the doors slid open.

A man carrying several plastic bags hurried inside. He wore a polo shirt with a limp collar and sported a substantial beer belly. As he used one hand to block the door and pressed the button for his floor with the other, he glanced at Yu Bai beside him.

“Thanks,” he muttered, almost to himself. “Good thing I made it, or I’d have to wait forever again.”

Yu Bai didn’t reply, merely curving his lips in a polite smile by way of response.

The elevator began its ascent, and soon the compartment filled with the rich aroma of food.

Barbecue, fried chicken, hot and sour noodles… Yu Bai quickly identified the scents, and they all smelled delicious.

He glanced silently at the pile of bags and even spotted signs of chilled drinks—the heavy bottles were weighing the bags down, a thin layer of condensation clinging to the plastic.

In his rush to get home, he’d forgotten to order takeout ahead of time.

Hunger now thoroughly awakened, Yu Bai thought as he pulled out his phone, intending to pick out dinner for the night.

Suddenly, the upward-moving elevator shuddered again.

Yu Bai and the polo-shirt guy both looked up instinctively, scanning the ceiling. Their puzzled gazes met in midair.

“What was that jolt?” The polo-shirt guy wiped sweat from his neck and struck up a conversation like they were old pals. “It can’t be breaking down, can it?”

Then his eyes skipped past Yu Bai—who had reacted the same way—and landed on the third person in the corner. Surprise colored his voice. “Whoa, a foreigner.”

A faint sense of foreboding stirred in Yu Bai’s gut. He skipped over that ominous remark, unwilling to respond, but his gaze reflexively followed.

The stranger heading to the same floor was no longer staring at the ground. Instead, he gazed straight ahead, his slightly curly black hair no longer hiding his eyes.

They were a striking pair of clear gray-blue eyes, like an icy lake frozen in a winter forest, quietly gleaming under the dim elevator lights.

The handsome stranger, who looked like he might be mixed-race, still seemed a bit reserved, but he stared fixedly at something ahead of him, as if on the verge of speaking.

Yu Bai paused, that uneasy feeling in his chest beginning to spread familiarly.

The last time he’d encountered someone with such striking looks, he’d witnessed a failed courtship turn into a crime of passion.

The time before that, he’d found a despondent celebrity passed out drunk in a quiet alley, nearly suffocating in his own vomit.

But this time… it was just three strangers who didn’t know each other from Adam, trapped in what felt like a sealed metal box.

Yu Bai followed the gray-blue gaze and saw the red-and-black warning notice posted on the elevator door—elevator usage guidelines.

One of the rules read: Do not block the doors with body parts or objects.

For some reason, Yu Bai’s intuition told him the mixed-race guy was staring right at that line.

He frowned slightly, then instinctively gripped the handrail.

The polo-shirt guy, still clutching his mountain of takeout, kept chattering away, eyeing the silent stranger with curiosity. “Hey, do you live in this building too? Never seen you before. Just moved in? Wait, do you even understand me?”

The next second, the elevator jolted again.

“Lemme think, how do you say it in English? Hello! How do you… Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”

In the midst of its steady climb, the elevator car suddenly plummeted downward, accompanied by the screech of metal grinding and crashing from outside.

Hearts plunged into brutal freefall amid the deafening noise and curses. Yu Bai clutched the handrail tightly, his mind flashing unbidden to the latest draft of his will—the thirteenth revision.

Sure, it was already polished, but in the face of death, new regrets always bubbled up. He suddenly realized the ending phrasing wasn’t quite right. If he got the chance, he’d rewrite it as version fourteen by hand. Of course, fifteen would sound luckier, and sixteen even more so—

Amid these absurd thoughts, the metallic wail from the elevator shaft grew louder until, in a moment that nearly rang in their ears, the noise cut out entirely.

The wildly plummeting elevator came to an abrupt halt.

Caught off guard, the polo-shirt guy lost his footing and fell flat on his ass. The plastic bags landed in his lap, and his terrified, frozen expression sprang back to life. “Hot hot hot, it’s burning me! Holy shit, we’re still alive?!”

He fumbled to lift the bags of steaming food, heedless of his undignified sprawl, and whipped his head around to check on the other two strangers.

There was Yu Bai, gripping the handrail and leaning against the wall in a practiced self-protective stance. And the mixed-race guy, still standing in place without so much as a change in expression.

Flat on his back like an upturned turtle, high overhead with his food, the polo-shirt guy felt utterly out of place among these poised humans. He struggled to get up.

“Don’t move.” A relatively calm voice stopped him.

Yu Bai took a deep breath to steady his body’s instinctive trembling and continued, “The elevator didn’t hit bottom. It’s hanging in midair right now. I’m afraid any big movements could send it falling again.”

The polo-shirt guy froze obediently. “Okay, okay, I won’t. So what do we do now? Call for help? Do our phones have signal?”

“There’s signal.”

Yu Bai adjusted his slightly crooked glasses. He’d already pulled out his phone and dialed the emergency rescue number posted above the elevator buttons.

The call connected quickly. As he spoke with the rescuers, he grew steadier.

“They said they’ll be here in fifteen minutes. We need to stay calm,” Yu Bai relayed their reassurance. “There’s ventilation in here, so no need to panic about oxygen.”

“That’s a relief, that’s a relief.” The guy on the floor sighed repeatedly. “Thank goodness you’re here. I’ve never dealt with anything like this. Thanks, man.”

Yu Bai shook his head. “No problem.”

He’d never faced an elevator malfunction this bad either—just a lot of other experiences like it.

The elevator fell quiet for a moment.

Yu Bai’s mind wandered, mentally drafting his fourteenth will, while the polo-shirt guy stared blankly ahead, working to calm himself.

Gradually, their gazes drifted, almost belatedly and in unison, toward the third person in the elevator.

The black-haired, blue-eyed man who might be mixed-race stood there just as before, utterly silent, as if he hadn’t just lived through that heart-stopping ordeal. He waited calmly for the elevator to reach its destination.

He was like an out-of-place ghost.

If ghosts existed in the world, Yu Bai might have thought he’d seen one.

He resolutely looked away, deciding to ignore this weird neighbor.

Just fifteen more minutes, and he’d be safely home, sprawled on the sofa with a bag of snacks…

In the unusually quiet elevator, two distinct gurgles suddenly rang out, sharp and clear.

Yu Bai glanced down at his stomach first, confirming it wasn’t the source. Then he heard the polo-shirt guy on the floor speak up sheepishly. “Been busy all day, already starving, and that scare made it worse.”

The plastic bags in his hands kept wafting out thick scents of fried chicken, barbecue, and hot and sour noodles.

Everyone fell back into silent waiting for rescue.

Fifteen minutes felt eternal.

Grr. Grumble grrr.

The polo-shirt guy patted the left side of his bags, then the right, finally giving in to his rumbling gut. He carefully set the bags on the floor and stretched to untie them.

He issued a hearty invitation. “The hot and sour noodles spilled a bit. You guys want some fried chicken and skewers?”

Yu Bai was about to decline when he heard the guy rip open another bag. “I’ve got cola and beer too—ice-cold. Easier to drink standing up. Perfect to settle the nerves.”

The ice cola lay right next to the piping-hot fried chicken.

Impossible to resist.

Yu Bai accepted the cola with good grace. “Thanks.”

“No problem. We’re all neighbors now—and we’ve been through life and death together, right?”

Still sprawled like an upturned turtle, the polo-shirt guy cracked a joke and enthusiastically offered over the skewers and fried chicken. “This place makes killer stuff. Try some.”

He’d wanted to offer to the mixed-race guy in the corner too, but with no response from him, he lost his nerve and muttered to Yu Bai instead.

“This foreigner probably doesn’t understand us, huh? I really wanted him to try some local grub. Man, his nerves are steel—didn’t flinch at all…”

The fizzy cola went down first, followed by the crispy, tender fried chicken. Yu Bai’s mood even improved a bit.

He didn’t think the stranger beside them was some foreigner who couldn’t understand them. After all, he’d clearly been reading the warning notice earlier. He just didn’t want to engage.

“Maybe he doesn’t need any,” Yu Bai said offhandedly.

As the words left his mouth, the tall black-haired, blue-eyed man suddenly brightened, glancing at him.

If Yu Bai wasn’t mistaken, those gray-blue eyes seemed filled with… agreement?

Agreement with what? That he didn’t need any?

Yu Bai didn’t get it.

He chose to ignore these minor oddities. The day had been eventful enough; he didn’t want more complications. He just wanted to get home and rest.

“Then he has no such luck with food.” The man in the polo shirt shook his head, his tension gradually easing under the soothing power of the snacks. “So, how is it? Pretty tasty, right?”

Yu Bai nodded. “It smells amazing. Where’d you get it?”

The mixed-race guy gave him another one of those looks.

He thought it smelled good too?

…Enough already.

Yu Bai closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to stop glancing at the man out of the corner of his eye. He stared straight ahead and focused on eating.

The polo-shirt guy on the floor answered between bites of his skewers. “There’s a place right by the bus stop. Buy a pound, get half a pound free.”

“That’s pretty close. I’ll grab some next time I pass by.”

“Then I’ll be sending some business his way. Haha.” The polo-shirt guy grinned. “I run the hardware store next door to his shop. If anything breaks at your place, come find me. I’ll fix it for free. Just call me Master Wang.”

The faulty elevator, thick with the aroma of fried food, had turned into a makeshift night market stall.

The doors suddenly slid open, and the rescue team was greeted by this bizarre scene.

“Alright, the doors are open now. Trapped folks, you can come out. Take it slow, no need to panic—uh.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ll call someone to inspect the elevator right away. Everyone, head back home. Nothing to see here—hey?”

A dense crowd had gathered outside the elevator: rescue team members, reporters and photographers who’d tagged along on assignment, property managers from the complex, and nosy residents.

The photographer’s finger hovered over the shutter in the awkward silence. Unsure what else to do, he pressed it.

Click.

Master Wang lay there flat on his back, munching on barbecue, staring blankly at the crowd.

The black-haired, blue-eyed strange neighbor stared at the lens, as if trying to remember something. Then he flashed a perfectly photogenic smile.

Yu Bai, a piece of fried chicken in one hand and a Coke in the other, closed his eyes in despair.

He just knew today could get even more exciting.

After explaining the situation to the rescue team and property managers—and begging the reporters and photographer to blur the photos—Yu Bai finally extricated himself from the chain of mishaps. He let out a sigh and headed for the stairwell.

At the insistent demand of the onlookers, both elevators in the building were being taken out of service for inspection. He had no choice but to take the stairs home.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a skyscraper—just twelve floors total. He lived on the top floor, and the broken elevator was stuck at the fifth. Not too bad.

Yu Bai pushed open a fire door when a voice called out from behind him.

“Excuse me, does this lead to the twelfth floor?”

He turned back in surprise, his gaze meeting those lake-like gray-blue eyes.

The strange neighbor had finally spoken. His pronunciation was flawless, and his voice was pleasant, but there was an odd note of nervousness in it, like someone speaking to another person for the very first time.

Definitely not a foreigner.

More like an alien.

“Sure.” Yu Bai had already stepped into the stairwell and instinctively held the door open for him.

But the other man didn’t budge.

Yu Bai noticed the stranger’s eyes fixed on the hand propping the door open, a clear flicker of concern in them.

He fell silent for a beat, then—almost as if possessed—blurted out, “This isn’t an elevator. It’s fine to hold the door.”

…

What the hell was he saying? Was he treating the guy like an idiot?

Granted, the gray fire door did look a little like an elevator door.

Before Yu Bai could take back his bizarre remark, the stranger seemed to relax with a breath of relief and strode inside.

“Thank you.” The neighbor was polite, his tone full of sincerity.

“…You’re welcome.”

Yu Bai’s face remained wooden as he wrapped up the friendly exchange. He decided not to dwell on the logic behind it.

Whatever. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t met a six-foot-tall, handsome grade-school kid who’d gotten hit on by women before.

No matter how weird this mixed-race-looking stranger was, it was none of his business. They just happened to live on the same floor, which had plenty of units. He wouldn’t run into the guy often—

After climbing seven flights of stairs and entering the twelfth floor, Yu Bai stopped at the door to Room 1205 and fished his keys from his pocket. Meanwhile, the guy next door had already unlocked the door to Room 1204. Before stepping inside, he turned back with another polite farewell, his gray-blue eyes shimmering like rippling lake water.

“See you.”

“…” Yu Bai desperately shoved down the ominous feeling that this was all too familiar. “See you.”