Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7: The Male Protagonist Appears
The stairwell was extremely dim and eerily quiet. Even though it was daytime, it gave Zhao Mingyue the same gloomy, chilling feeling as when she had been alone in the bathroom last night. It felt as though a thread of cold air was slowly crawling up from her ankles.
The apartment building she lived in was very old. It did not even have an elevator. The stairwell was filled with a strong, pungent smell of disinfectant, as though it were deliberately covering up another odor.
Looking around, she saw that the stair railings were coated with a layer of black grime, the kind formed from years of accumulated dust.
Yet the surrounding walls had been freshly painted. The white putty coating clearly looked as though it had been applied within the past few months.
Zhao Mingyue knew that only her floor and the one above it had been repainted. The walls on the other floors were still yellowed with age.
“Why is it like this?”
Zhao Mingyue slung her backpack over her shoulders. She suddenly remembered that someone from her hometown once said that if you encountered a ghost wall, there were two ways to break it.
The first was for a living stranger to pass through the area.
The second was to close your eyes, walk backward a hundred steps, and curse the ghost fiercely so that it would know you were not easy to provoke.
Taking a deep breath, she realized she had no way to retreat. She simply closed her eyes and began walking backward up the stairs.
Instead of cursing loudly, she frantically called Bai Yu’s name in her heart.
She believed it was not Bai Yu’s doing. She did not seem like that kind of ghost.
“Don’t panic. Keep moving backward. That thing is upstairs.”
Bai Yu’s ethereal voice sounded beside her ear.
Zhao Mingyue was so touched she almost cried. For the first time in her life, the voice of a Fierce Ghost felt incredibly reassuring.
“Okay!”
She responded in her heart and carefully stepped backward along the stairs one step at a time.
Normally she avoided touching the stair railing because she felt it was dirty. But now she had no choice but to place her hand on it.
Just as she reached the corner between the fourth and fifth floors, she suddenly noticed that the railing had become sticky and slippery, disgustingly so—almost as if it had been coated in fresh blood.
“Don’t let go.”
Just as she was about to release it, Bai Yu’s voice sounded again. Zhao Mingyue had no choice but to grit her teeth and continue backing up the stairs.
There was no obvious sensation during the process. It was simply cold—an icy chill that penetrated deep into the bones.
And it felt as though someone behind her was staring at her without blinking.
She did not dare stop.
Step after step, she moved backward.
In her memory, the staircase had twelve steps. Once she reached the twelfth step, she expected to arrive at the fifth floor—or perhaps remain stuck on the fourth floor again.
But at that moment, her heel touched another step.
“Why is there an extra step?”
“Stop!”
The voice echoed in her mind. Her descending foot froze in midair before touching the step.
“Alright. Don’t go any further. Open your eyes. You can go to work now.”
Following Bai Yu’s instructions, Zhao Mingyue opened her eyes.
The first thing she did was look at the railing.
Fortunately, there was no blood or any other disgusting substance. The sticky and slippery feeling had completely vanished.
The second thing she did was turn around.
But there was nothing behind her.
Only the overly white, freshly painted, silent stairwell remained.
At last, it was no longer the fourth floor.
However, before Zhao Mingyue could breathe a sigh of relief, she took out her phone and saw that the time displayed was exactly seven o'clock.
Her heart instantly sank.
“Oh no… I’m late!”
For a moment she even forgot about the ghost. Zhao Mingyue rushed down the remaining floors in one breath. After leaving the apartment building, she unlocked the chain on her bicycle and hurriedly rode toward the convenience store where she worked.
What she did not notice was that during her descent, on the staircase of the fifth floor, a swollen bluish face with bulging veins had been silently watching her.
It was only when she was about to reach the convenience store that Zhao Mingyue suddenly remembered the incident.
“Bai Yu, what happened just now? Did I run into a ghost wall?”
“Yes.”
“It really was a ghost? On the fifth floor? Didn’t you already eat that ghost?”
“There are more.”
“M-more!?”
She continued calling Bai Yu, wanting to ask more questions about that ghost, but Bai Yu ignored her from then on.
With no other choice, she parked her bicycle outside the convenience store and pushed open the door.
The moment she stepped inside, the wind chime hanging nearby swayed lightly, producing a clear, flowing ringing sound like running water.
She remembered the store manager once saying that if this wind chime rang at night without wind, then no matter what strange things you saw, you must stay calm and call him immediately.
But just now… there had been no wind, right?
She had just glanced at the wind chime when a deep, steady voice from a middle-aged man sounded.
“Mingyue.”
“Ah, Manager! I’m sorry, I’m late today.”
Zhao Mingyue snapped back to her senses and looked apologetically at the man behind the counter wearing the convenience store uniform.
If there was anything worse than being late for work, it was being caught by the boss while late.
“It’s fine. I’ll let it slide this time. I know your situation. You have to go to school and work part-time at the same time. It’s tiring doing everything alone. Besides, it’s only ten minutes. Don’t blame yourself.”
The manager spoke with a warm smile.
He removed the apron-like uniform covering his clothes, revealing a well-fitted suit beneath. His hair was neatly styled, and his tall, sturdy build, combined with his easygoing smile, made him appear very approachable.
“Manager, why are you on duty today?” Zhao Mingyue stepped behind the counter to take his place and blinked as she asked quietly.
“Well, Xiao Lu resigned last night. He said his family wouldn’t allow him to continue working here.”
“I see… That makes sense. His family is so rich, and he still came here to work part-time. Of course his family would object. If he only wanted to experience ordinary life, then a month was probably enough.”
In Zhao Mingyue’s impression, Lu Liangting’s family was not just wealthy—it was unimaginably rich. Their assets were numbers she could not even comprehend.
Yet such a wealthy young man had still come here to work as an employee.
It was also worth mentioning that Lu Liangting was her classmate.
Shaking her head, she did not think much about it.
“I really don’t understand why he came in the first place.”
“Why did he come to work part-time?” The manager glanced at Zhao Mingyue meaningfully but did not elaborate.
“Mingyue, before I find a new night-shift employee, you might have to work alone at night.”
“Alone? That’s fine, Manager.”
“Alright. I’ll give you an extra three hundred at the end of the month.”
The moment she heard the word “money,” Zhao Mingyue’s hesitant expression instantly brightened.
“Thank you, Manager!”
“Alright, I have something to take care of. I’ll leave first.”
“Take care, Manager!”
She watched him leave. When he opened the door, Zhao Mingyue even tilted her head to check carefully, making sure that no wind from outside blew into the store and moved the wind chime hanging at the front.
“Could it be because of her?” she muttered while glancing downward.
She suspected that the wind chime might serve a special purpose. Normally she had never seen it move, yet today it had rung the moment she entered the door.
So the question was: what had she brought with her today that she did not normally carry?
Taking Miss Rabbit out of her backpack and placing it on the counter, Zhao Mingyue sat down and cupped her face in her hands.
“Bai Yu… Sister Bai… Can this wind chime detect ghosts entering the store? Why would the manager place something like this here?”
“Could it be that ghosts sometimes come in here?”
She waited for quite a while but did not receive a reply from Bai Yu.
Instead, someone else arrived.
Near noon, the convenience store door was pushed open. The bell on the doorframe rang with a clear chime, but the wind chime did not move.
Seeing who entered, Zhao Mingyue was a little surprised.
“Lu Liangting? Why are you here?”
A ripple of darkness stirred beneath the counter. The rabbit doll on the table quietly turned around.
Bai Yu had possessed it.
She wanted to see this so-called male protagonist of the comic.
According to the information she knew, the male protagonist of this world was named Lu Liangting.
She had not even gone to look for him yet, but he had delivered himself right to her door.