The young shop assistant tilted her head and stared at the string of numbers. Her eyes suddenly seemed much clearer, and her voice no longer sounded listless.
Clearing her throat, she pushed Gao Ming's phone aside. "Why didn't you say you were here for an interview?"
She looked Gao Ming up and down and noticed the cat carrier on his back. "You really are alike. The boss used to have a cat, too."
"Does your boss like keeping cats, too?"
"Not really. Cats can sense spirits, and the places the boss went to discuss business weren't clean." The way she looked at Gao Ming changed. Her gaze was hard to describe, but it certainly wasn't how someone would look at a normal person. "Since the boss sent you here, I won't waste any time. Let's start the interview."
The young woman shouted into the shop. The lights inside went out, and the door slowly closed, as though someone inside was operating it.
"Let's go."
"Is the interview somewhere else?"
"Yeah." Covering herself with an oversized black hoodie and putting on a baseball cap and mask, she walked in the shadows and led Gao Ming into the elevator.
As the numbers on the elevator display changed, the temperature inside slowly rose. It felt as though they were climbing out of an ice cavern a thousand years old. Fashionably dressed young people boarded now and then, and music and voices flooded their ears.
Gao Ming glanced at the young woman. She stood in a corner of the elevator with her head lowered, her cap's brim hiding her face. The other passengers seemed unable to see her.
"We're here."
The floor number stopped at 14. The elevator doors opened, and the young people poured out in a noisy crowd. Gao Ming and the