Horror Post: The 4th Window on the 3rd Floor

1. An lives in this city, this dusty city. Every day is plain yet peaceful. In the early morning, she gets up lazily, then washes up, and then goes downstairs for a 1.5 yuan breakfast, usually a bowl of soy milk and a fried dough stick. By 8 o'clock, An steps into the office on time, sits at her desk, and when someone comes in, she smiles at them—An knows her smile looks very good. When no one is around, she holds a cup of hot tea, pretending to drink it, while quietly and carefully observing Section Chief Wang's ears from the rim of the cup.

Those ears seem almost alive, occasionally moving slightly. This is the result of An's three days of observation. Now An has taken her research a step further: to see whether the twitching of the ears is related to his emotions. Of course, these observations are secret and must not be noticed by anyone. A girl always staring at a middle-aged man's ears would be laughed at.

Sometimes An also joins the office's popular discussion group led by Yanzi and Da Liu, chatting enthusiastically about clothing and hairstyles. An is also very interested in the gossip about secret rivalries between Section Chief Wang and Section Chief Zhang, occasionally joining in with a comment or two, even encouraging them.

But most of the time, An drinks tea and quietly sits by the window, just like her name—An, calm, and hiding herself.

An looks through the grayish glass at the city outside, at the distant green mountains like eyebrows, and at the small vendors calling out on the streets below. Winter is very deep now, so deep that city pedestrians walk with their necks hunched.

But An notices one person who is an exception. This person does not hunch his neck; he holds his head high, raises his eyebrows, stretches lazily, and stands in the crowd, looking around.

"If those people flowing by are like water, what is this person holding his head high and looking around like? Right, like an angler by the water. Or maybe a child searching for treasure in the trash," An chuckles to herself, thinking her analogy is vivid.

There are still some fallen leaves in the deep winter. That person picks up one that lands on his shoulder and puts it in his pocket.

Perhaps An's gaze burned his eyes. He turns and looks towards An's window. An seems to see him smile slightly, his eyebrows arching, white teeth shining.

"Have I been noticed?" An asks herself, but immediately finds her worry funny. How could a pedestrian on the street notice someone behind a third-floor window? "He just happened to glance this way."An said to herself, and looked at that person more boldly. The person's hair in front of the forehead was long, with a strand always blown down by the wind, covering the eyes. As she stared, An felt a bit uneasy. That person did not move their gaze and continued looking toward the window side. "Have I really been discovered?" An lowered her eyes, not daring to look at him again. But that person's strange behavior again attracted An's attention. That person was leaning against a street sign, pointing a finger in the air as if gesturing at something. An looked carefully and realized it was actually some words: Three… floor… fourth… window, …peeped… on me… Oh, I really have been discovered! An blushed. She quickly lowered her head, but the girl's competitive heart made her unwilling to give up so easily. She saw that everyone in the office was busy, with no one paying attention to her, so she quietly extended a finger and wrote a "hmph" on the window glass. However, she forgot that the words she wrote appear reversed when viewed from the outside. That person laughed again, continuing to write: "Hmph, what?" "Not peeping, observing." "Observing secretly without the owner's consent is peeping." "Alright then, peeping it is. What do you want to do?" "Hehe, did you learn anything from peeping?" "I think you are from out of town." "Evidence?" "Locals aren't so unafraid of the cold like you." And so, on a winter morning, An and that person began communicating in this peculiar way. "What's your name?" that person suddenly asked. "An. And you?" An replied. "Call me Niuniu." "Sounds like a child's name." An laughed. "In the face of long years, we are all children," that person also laughed. "Your tone sounds like a philosopher," An mocked. "What's wrong with being a philosopher?" that person continued laughing. "Why did you come to this city?" An changed the subject. "To have a look, chat with someone." "Did you find them?" An was a little curious. "Found them, third floor, fourth window." "Smooth talker!" An's face reddened again, but she felt inexplicably a little happy inside. "And then?" An continued to ask. "Get her to chat with me," the person replied. "Just chat like that?" "Just like that." They were silent for a while, then An asked again: "When are you leaving?" "Going soon." "So soon!""An felt a bit regretful. 'But I will come again.' The person straightened up, looked at An behind the window, and wrote with a smile, 'But when I come again, you will probably have forgotten me.' 'No!' An hurriedly wrote these three characters, so anxious that she herself was surprised.

At that moment, the office became busy. Wang Ke handed over some documents and asked An to deliver them to the director's office. An hastily wrote the character 'wait' on the glass before leaving the window.

The director was a talkative person. After receiving the documents, he pulled An along and chatted idly for a while. By the time An rushed back to the office, she was anxious and keen. She leaned against the window and saw that although the street below was still lively, that person was already gone.

'Gone?' An felt a little melancholic.

For the next day, An did not observe Wang Ke's ears again, nor did she discuss fashion trends with Yan Zi or Da Liu. She sat blankly by the window, constantly looking outside.

2. Days passed one by one, and spring came in the blink of an eye. The trees on the streets outside the window grew thick, a shade of green everywhere.

Pedestrians no longer walked with their necks hunched. An's life was simple and quiet in this dusty city. Yet amidst the calm, there was one person who occupied An's heart: someone who would lift his head, raise his eyebrows, stretch lazily, and glance around.

An regretted not asking for his contact address or phone number at the time. Yet she did not regret it either—what good would asking do? They were merely two strangers separated by glass.

What a contradictory feeling.

An did not know if this was love or love at first sight. She buried a shadow in her heart—subtle, yet hard to erase. Every day at work, sitting by this window, An would think of him—the person with whom she had once conversed through writing in the air.

This kind of longing inexplicably made An gentle. Da Liu and Yan Zi now said that as long as An sat by that window, it seemed as if she transformed—from a carefree girl into a little woman, radiating a gentle glow. To their discoveries and curiosities, An always just smiled. They had noticed the phenomenon, but they could never discover the story behind it. An knew.

'How long will it take for this story to be forgotten? Will it follow me for my whole life?' An felt a bit panicked, yet not panicked; a bit lost, yet a bit happy.

She had finally become An with a story.An's parents worried about their daughter's marriage and always liked to introduce her to potential suitors. In the past, An did not mind these social obligations, but now she disliked them. She could not help but compare those people to the figure in her heart, and then she lost all interest. However, this figure no longer appeared, leaving An to yearn alone. Bearing this longing, An waited through to summer. At this time, An's cousin from J City came to visit her and stayed with her. An's cousin worked in a hospital and often shared amusing stories from her work with An. One day, the cousin told An that not long ago, their hospital had treated a strange patient who repeatedly muttered a phrase on his deathbed. "What did he say?" An asked curiously. "The fourth window on the third floor," her cousin replied with a smile, not noticing that An had turned pale: "Don't you think it's funny? Others think about their family when they die, but he was thinking about a window. Oh! Sis, what's wrong?" Ignoring her cousin's surprised look, An immediately boarded a train to J City that same day. At the hospital where her cousin worked, An obtained the address and, after several twists and turns, found the cemetery. Standing in front of the cold tombstone, An did not cry. She stood quietly and said softly, "I hope you remember your promise, to come see me." 3. The following winter was colder than the last, and the city began to snow. An, who had been lounging in bed, was awakened by the alarm clock and, upon opening the window, saw the city covered in snow. After quickly washing up, An had a simple breakfast downstairs: a bowl of soy milk and a fried dough stick. She was slightly late arriving at work. Luckily, Wang Ke was not there today. Da Liu and Yan Zi pouted at her. An smiled at them, walked to her desk, made herself a cup of green tea as usual, then sat down and gazed out the window. On the snowy ground below a street sign, An suddenly saw seven large characters: "The fourth window on the third floor." The tears that An had held back for a year streamed down her face.