"Found it! Found it! What kind of cursed lock is this, anyway? The keyhole's right there on the handle—how's anyone supposed to see it in this pitch black?" At last the two of them managed to fit the key into the lock, and their joy was boundless.

Yet before they could push the door open, Black Impermanence suddenly sensed something amiss and yanked White Impermanence back with a hard tug.

"What the hell! You scared me half to death!" White Impermanence's heart was still pounding from the fright.

"No, listen—don't you think our two shadows look kind of strange..." Black Impermanence's voice carried a distinct tremor.

"What's so strange about them?" White Impermanence curled his lip, but a closer look set him trembling too, and he stammered, "Th-this... how come there are three... shadows..."

No wonder the two of them were jumping at ghosts—their consciences were hardly clear to begin with. And now, faintly, three figures had appeared on the door, so naturally their first thought ran in that direction.

"Wh-what do we do?" Black Impermanence had a vague sense that something was behind him; his hair stood on end and he did not dare turn his head.

"Maybe we should just run? This place is too cursed!" White Impermanence no longer dared to keep up the bluff either, and twisted around, ready to flee.

But before either of them could turn, a woman's voice, cold as ice, came from behind them: "Cursed, is it?"

"Ah!" Their souls nearly fled their bodies on the spot. White Impermanence was scared witless; Black Impermanence simply bashed his head against the door handle, drawing blood.

"What are you two doing?" It was that same cold, icy woman's voice.

"We... we..." White Impermanence was on the verge of tears and for a moment had no idea how to answer. Bracing himself, he stole a glance behind him and indeed made out the blurry outline of a woman in white—in the dim light it was all the more eerie and chilling. That did it; he nearly wet himself. Damn it all, they had set out to play ghosts and failed, only to run into a real one!

Black Impermanence, dazed from the impact, collapsed to the ground with a thud, landing right by the white-clad woman's feet. Thrashing about, he grabbed at something, then suddenly sat up in absolute delight: "She has body heat!"

"What? Body heat? Then she's not a ghost—she's alive?" White Impermanence finally caught on, and his spine immediately stiffened again. He wore the look of one who had known it all along: "I thought of that earlier—if she really were a female ghost, how could she have a shadow!"

The commotion the two of them made was enough to set off the sound-activated light at the stairwell entrance, and the white-clad woman's features fell crystal clear into their eyes. What female ghost? This was plainly a beauty of a caliber you could search the world over with a lantern and never find!

"Well, well, a real looker!" Black Impermanence scrambled up from the floor and leered at the white-clad woman from head to toe, sizing her up. He gestured with his hands: "Quite tall for a pretty thing—you a model or something? Running around in the dead of night instead of staying home, dressing up as a ghost to scare people—that's not nice. Look, you've busted my head open. Go on, how are you going to make it up to me?"

"Make it up? Why, the obvious way, of course. Don't be scared, pretty lady. We may run with the underworld, but we still know the meaning of cherishing the fair sex. How about the two of us take you out for a good time, eh? Don't worry—just a bit of fun." White Impermanence cackled and reached out to pinch the white-clad woman's chin.

But before he could pinch her chin, she slapped him without the slightest warning. Bang—White Impermanence went sprawling flat on the ground, his head spinning.

Black Impermanence stared blankly as his brother hit the dirt. His first reaction was not revenge but a kind of curiosity: how did this pretty thing have such a heavy hand?

"You dare lay a hand on me! Do you know who I am? I'm Mountain Chicken of South Xima Street—brothers in the underworld all call me Lord Chicken with proper respect. You don't want to live, girl?" White Impermanence staggered to his feet, working himself up to be vicious. But she slapped him again, and bang—down he went once more.

This time White Impermanence was thoroughly stunned and could not get up for quite a while, while Black Impermanence beside him was frightened out of his wits. Seeing the white-clad woman turn her gaze on him, he hastily covered his face and begged: "Don't hit me! Don't hit me!"

"He's Mountain Chicken. And what are you?" the white-clad woman asked suddenly.

"I... I'm Foreskin..." Black Impermanence said, face still covered.

"Foreskin?" The white-clad woman was taken aback.

"It's, uh... the skin down there is a bit long..." Black Impermanence explained gingerly.

The white-clad woman thought for a moment before she understood, and her pretty face flushed red at once. She kicked both Black and White Impermanence down the stairs: "Shameless, filthy beasts!"

The two of them tumbled down in a tangled heap and vanished from sight. The white-clad woman turned to look at Wei Zhao's door and shook her head: "I suppose you count as a decent man, so I'll help you this once—consider it repaying your kindness these past days. Ugh, what a nuisance. So this is how men in the mortal world court women. How strange."

The white-clad woman was none other than the little ice queen who lived across the hall. With that she turned to go back to her own room—but just then, Wei Zhao's door suddenly opened.

"Thank you," Wei Zhao said, looking at her with a smile. He had assumed this little ice queen was cold by nature and devoid of human feeling, and only now did he discover she had a heart after all. True, even without her help he could have scared off those two petty thugs playing ghosts—and probably given them a far worse fright than this—but since the little ice queen had stepped in first, it was a favor done him, great or small.

"Ah!!!" The tall woman was instead startled half to death by him. Wei Zhao, appearing without a sound, was scarier than she had been moments ago. Still shaken, she said: "Why did you come out?"

"With all that racket, I couldn't very well sleep through it, could I?" Wei Zhao smiled.

"I suppose not." The tall woman nodded, then suddenly asked with a touch of nervousness: "You didn't hear what I said just now, did you?"

"I didn't hear you say anything about how strange it was," Wei Zhao said with a faint, knowing smile.

"Good, then. I'm going back." The tall woman breathed a sigh of relief, but after two steps she realized something was off. She turned and looked at Wei Zhao, her expression unreadable: "So you heard everything?"

"I did. You think it's strange, but I think what you said is stranger still. Could it be you're not from the mortal world?" Wei Zhao seized the chance to probe.

The tall woman was silent for a moment, then said gravely: "These are not things you should ask, nor things you can ask. I advise you to forget what I said—otherwise, beware of bringing a fatal disaster upon yourself!"

"Is it really that serious?" Wei Zhao was just about to take the opportunity to open the subject up, but alas, the little ice queen shut her door the moment she finished speaking, giving him no chance at all to dig to the bottom of it.

A perfectly good opportunity, wasted again! Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly, yet he did not feel disheartened—mainly because he had been given the cold shoulder so many times these past days that he was mentally prepared for such treatment. With little hope to begin with, naturally there was little disappointment. (To be continued.)

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