They All Say I've Met a Ghost

10

"No, wait," Xia Jin said suddenly when he was no longer afraid, "how did you come out of the toilet just now?"

Li Yuanyuan was about to walk out of the women's toilet with me. When she heard Xia Jin's words, she immediately hurried over to the last stall as if floating, opened the door, and prepared to stick her head into the toilet.

I quickly grabbed her and said to Xia Jin, "You just saw wrong, stop bothering other people about it."

Xia Jin grabbed at his sparse hair and looked perplexed. "Weird. I clearly saw…”

He saw Li Yuanyuan looking longingly at the women's toilet and shook his head. "Forget it, let's say I saw wrong. Take her home and keep an eye on her. She can't go around everywhere scaring people."

"Of course." I looked at Li Yuanyuan with her muddled expression. I really didn't know how to get through to her. It seemed that Liu Sishun had a pretty good understanding of Li Yuanyuan. When we got back, I'd have Teacher Liu try to have a word with her.

The three of us went one after the other towards an elevator. The mall was empty. The elevator soon reached the fourth floor. Xia Jin said to us, "Let me drive you back."

Then he glared at Li Yuanyuan and said, "You didn't really jump in the toilet just now, right? You can't get in my car otherwise."

I smelled Li Yuanyuan's clothes. There was no unusual odor. The white dress was clean. So I shook my head at Xia Jin. Xia Jin was relieved and went into the elevator.

I followed, but Li Yuanyuan stared at the elevator.

"What's the matter?" I said to Li Yuanyuan. "Let's go. Xia Jin is my schoolmate. His bark is worse than his bite. He's a very upstanding person. If he's willing to drive you, it means he doesn't mind anymore."

Li Yuanyuan pointed to the elevator: "The elevator…”

"Oh, how can you be afraid the elevator?" Li Yuanyuan liked small spaces like bathroom stalls. She couldn't be claustrophobic. Was she afraid of elevators?

Li Yuanyuan shook her head. "I'm not afraid."

“Then let’s go home and rest." I gave her a tug.

Li Yuanyuan nodded and walked in slowly with me.

Xia Jin pressed “-1” to send the elevator directly to the parking lot on the first subfloor. The elevator in the shopping mall was of good quality. It glided all the way to the first subfloor, but it didn't stop. It kept going down.

"Well," Xia Jin pressed the elevator button a few more times, "what's the matter? It's still going down."

I took a closer look at the floors shown on the elevator. The lowest floor was the second subfloor. There were two parking lots underground. "Could someone have called the elevator from the second subfloor?"

The elevator didn’t stop after it reached the second subfloor but instead went back up to the fourth floor.

"What's the matter?" Xia Jin pressed the “-1” button and watched the elevator pass the first subfloor, go to the fourth floor, then go down again, and then climb to the fourth floor again.

Xia Jin and I were speechless.

"What's going on?" Xia Jin was tired from working all day, and his face was full of fatigue. After work, he had been scared by Li Yuanyuan, and now the elevator had malfunctioned. After the elevator reached the fourth floor for the third time and started going down, his face was already greenish.

"The elevator must be malfunctioning." I quickly pressed all the buttons on the elevator, had Xia Jin and Li Yuanyuan stand firmly against the elevator wall, and immediately pressed the alarm button.