The woman sent a servant nearby to fetch them. Before long, a beautiful young woman of about thirty came out with a boy of seven or eight.
Hu Xing called out, "Aunt." The beautiful young woman nodded to him, then walked somewhat stiffly over to the older woman and called her "Aunt Xia." She did not sit, but stood attending her.
The way the three women addressed one another was rather confusing, but Qingmu was not someone who liked wasting thought on trivial matters. His attention was entirely on the boy.
The little boy stood beside the young woman, his head lowered, without a word. His body was stiff, his face as pale as paper.
The older woman introduced them to Qingmu. "This is my nephew's wife, Zhang Juan, and this is my grandnephew, Xia Tian."
Zhang Juan pushed Xia Tian's shoulder and urged him, "Come on, Tiantian, say hello to Grandma!"
Xia Tian stood stubbornly in place. No matter how his mother urged him, he would neither speak nor take a single step forward.
The older woman said, "Never mind, never mind. Don't make things hard for the child." Then she looked at Qingmu. "Sir, please take a look at him. He never used to be like this."
Qingmu stood, walked over to the little boy, and crouched to meet his eyes.
Xia Tian tried to back away at the sight of him, but Qingmu held him by both shoulders.
Qingmu asked, "Your name is Tiantian?"
Xia Tian nodded timidly.
Qingmu said, "Then you must have a brother called Haohao. He studies hard, and you rise higher every day, right?"
Xia Tian shook his head, his eyes telling everyone that he had no liking whatsoever for this man with the bird's-nest hair.
Hu Xing thought Qingmu's joke was painfully awkward. Even for entertaining a child, it was rather idiotic. Beside her, Zhang Juan, who had remained standing, suddenly swayed.
Aunt Xia keenly noticed Zhang Juan's movement and said to her, "You sit down too."
Zhang Juan sat on the sofa opposite Hu Xing.
Qingmu said, "Don't you like your brother Haohao?"
Xia Tian shook his head again and lowered it a little further.
"But why don't you like him?" Qingmu said. "He likes you very much, doesn't he?"
Xia Tian suddenly shouted, "I don't! I just don't like him! He doesn't like me either!"
The women jumped at his words. Aunt Xia remained composed, but Hu Xing and Zhang Juan both stood. Zhang Juan said anxiously, "Tiantian! Tiantian, what's wrong? Let's ignore this man. Come to Mommy! He's a bad man!"
But Xia Tian did not seem willing to return to his mother's side. Instead, he kept backing away. Qingmu followed him. As long as he kept retreating, Qingmu kept following.
Step by step, Xia Tian backed up to the elevator. With his back against its doors and nowhere left to go, he faced Qingmu, not daring to look up.
There were two triangular buttons beside the elevator doors, one pointing up and one pointing down. They reminded Qingmu of that strange symbol again, and for a moment he felt that the elevator was a passage to some mysterious space.
These rich people really were something! A manor villa only three stories tall, and they still had to install an elevator. What a luxury.
He reached out and pressed the up button.
The elevator doors opened. The little boy tilted backward and fell inside.
Qingmu followed him in.
Xia Tian scrambled up from the floor and tried to slip past Qingmu, but the elevator doors closed quickly, and he failed.
Qingmu pressed the button for the third floor, and the elevator began to rise.
Xia Tian hid silently in a corner of the elevator, his head down and his eyes on the tips of his shoes.
Qingmu said, "Why don't you like Haohao?"
Xia Tian seemed terrified of hearing that name. He screamed again and frantically pounded on the elevator doors.
Generally speaking, elevator doors were held in place by only a narrow groove and were very fragile, which was why elevators had warning signs forbidding passengers from leaning against or prying at the doors. There had once been a brat who kicked an elevator door, knocking it loose and nearly causing a serious accident.
But the elevator in this wealthy household seemed exceptionally well made. No matter how Xia Tian pounded and kicked, it remained perfectly intact. It was just a little slow; even after all this time, it had not reached the third floor.
Xia Tian seemed a little tired. He sat down, panting heavily.
Whether his destructive efforts had finally achieved something or the manor's power supply had developed a problem, the light in the elevator ceiling flickered a few times and went out.
The elevator was pitch-black, with only a white afterimage left by the ceiling light after it flickered out.
Normally, it should have been impossible to see inside an enclosed elevator with the lights off. Yet Qingmu could now see everything inside clearly, as though he were wearing infrared night-vision goggles.
Xia Tian huddled in the corner, his head lowered and his body trembling. Qingmu could see the terror in his eyes and the cold sweat seeping out along his neck.
"There's nothing to be afraid of," Qingmu said.
Xia Tian trembled even harder. He raised his head to glance at Qingmu, then slowly shifted his gaze to the ceiling and stared fixedly at it.
Qingmu followed his gaze and saw the white afterimage left by the extinguished ceiling light slowly gather into a deathly pale face, which was staring down at Xia Tian.
The face suddenly smiled, revealing a mouthful of sinister, sharp teeth.
Xia Tian screamed, sprang to his feet, and frantically pressed the elevator's floor buttons.
There were only four floor buttons on the elevator panel, from basement level one to the third floor. Qingmu had lit up the third-floor button when he entered, but the panel's LCD screen showed that they had already reached the fifth floor.
Xia Tian frantically jabbed all four numbered buttons, hoping the elevator would stop. But it kept rising: five, six, seven, eight...
When it reached the eleventh floor, Xia Tian gave up and curled back into the corner, clutching his head and shouting, "Don't come looking for me! I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to!"
The deathly pale face slowly emerged from the ceiling, becoming more three-dimensional, then gradually sank. There was nothing else in the dark elevator, only a floating face.
The face sank beside Xia Tian's ear and softly called, "Big Brother."
Xia Tian burst into tears, his whole body shaking as though he had gone mad.
"Big Brother, don't you want me anymore?" the face said, drifting in front of Xia Tian.
Xia Tian squeezed his eyes shut with all his might, but could not keep from seeing it.
"Big Brother!" the face called again. "Don't you want me anymore?"
"Go away!" Crying, Xia Tian waved his hands to drive the face away. A crisp slap landed on it, and the face twisted grotesquely.
"Big Brother, you hit me!" the face said in pain.
"No! It wasn't me!" Xia Tian sobbed.
"It was you. I saw you." The face began to whimper and sob too, crying even more sorrowfully than Xia Tian.
The elevator was still rising. It had already reached the twenty-fifth floor.
"Big Brother, I want you to come keep me company," the face said.
Xia Tian said a firm "No," but before the word had finished leaving his mouth, the face lunged at him, struck his face, and sank into it.
Xia Tian suddenly stopped crying. He rose from the corner and stood quietly.
With a ding, the elevator stopped. The panel showed that this was the thirty-third floor.
The elevator doors opened, and light streamed in.
Qingmu saw Xia Tian looking up at him, his face as white as bleached paper. Bright red blood flowed from his eyes, and two sharp fangs protruded from his purplish-blue lips.