The broad leaves trembled up and down, revealing an eye peeking cautiously from the gap...
Tetsuya, holding two pots of flourishing large-leaved plants, trembled his way up to his new home on the fourth floor. It wasn't so much the weight of the pots that made him unsteady but the need to constantly watch his feet, careful to avoid the falling debris that kept appearing on the stairs.
His biggest regret at this moment was that he hadn't immediately stopped his colleagues from joyfully offering to help him move a few days ago. He now wished he had at least tricked them into thinking he had already found a moving company! In the end, this group of humanoid beings, who spent all day hunched over their computers with spindly limbs resembling those of another species, demonstrated an utter lack of reliability when it came to moving, completely crushing his worst expectations.
Outside the building, by the truck, lay the completely damaged remains of a cardboard box—that was the first box they had dragged off the truck.
As the contents of the box scattered all over the ground, Tetsuya began urgently searching for a way to pause the chaos in his mind. Meanwhile, everyone present was cheerfully reminding him to "be safe," that phrase acting like a spell, along with the joking and apologetic smiles that greatly delayed his mental pause.
Thus, the moving work began amidst the lively shouts of "be safe," with the clattering sounds swelling through the stairway, interspersed with shouts, angry exclamations, and high-pitched cries.
As an atheist engineering man, Tetsuya couldn't bear to dampen everyone's enthusiasm, so he could only keep chanting "May Amitabha and God bless" in his mind and repeatedly reassure himself that the team's spirit was more valuable, especially since he hadn't planned to move the old furniture anyway; it could just be treated as trash.
As he noticed that they were close to finishing unloading the truck, the group tasked him with supervising from downstairs. Tetsuya waved at Lao Jiu, who was in charge of unloading and carried two pots of greenery upstairs.
He felt like maybe the Buddha wasn't familiar with him or perhaps God was on holiday this Sunday. The climb up these stairs was nerve-wracking—papers, books, various junk, broken doorknobs, unidentified wood scraps, and wheels... The stream of debris and the remains of furniture seemed to never end from the first floor all the way up.
*"Are these people afraid they won't find their way home, leaving markers along the way?!"* Tetsuya thought, surprised yet indignant.
The fourth floor wasn't too high, but Tetsuya was gasping for breath and utterly exhausted as he reached the corner of the stairs on the third floor. He stopped.
On the ground lay a large piece of a mirror, shattered into three or four pieces. Tetsuya recognized that the mirror had fallen from the vanity that his wife, Misaki, had used for less than a year.
He had chosen the vanity, and Misaki loved it. Tetsuya believed that if heaven mandated Misaki could only bring one piece of old furniture to their new home, she would undoubtedly choose this vanity.
*"Hey! I told you not to move it, but you wouldn't listen! Now the new house has turned into a junkyard!"* Tetsuya complained internally as he slowly crouched down, gently placing the two pots of greenery on the ground before pulling out his phone to send a message on Line.
"Casualties all around, some fatalities, including your vanity!"
The response came back quickly with a surprised emoji.
"I already said not to move it! Now look what's happened; we have to take the unusable stuff down again!" Tetsuya squatted between the two pots of greenery, continuing to message to take a break for his legs.
"You know I'm sentimental. Don't hurry to throw it away; let me check the damage!"
"Wait."
After sending that single word, Tetsuya mumbled to himself as he opened the camera and snapped a few pictures of the scattered items on the stairs, then turned to photograph the broken mirror on the floor. After the crisp sound of a shutter clicked, he suddenly noticed something strange reflected in the mirror spread across the floor.
Tetsuya focused his gaze and was shocked to recognize that it was an upside-down blue skirt, along with white thighs and light yellow underwear. The light in the corridor was abundant; he could even see the little bear pattern printed on the underwear.
Tetsuya's heart skipped a beat, and a buzzing sound filled his ears. He slowly raised his eyelids, peering upward as if every part of his body had frozen except for his eyeballs.
First, a pair of white sneakers came into view, resting on two steps of the staircase. As Tetsuya's gaze slowly rolled upward, two legs poised to descend slid into view, smooth like cream and shining like columns, disappearing into the azure pleats of the skirt.
In his panic, Tetsuya quickly jumped his gaze upward, directly locking eyes with the person's face. He saw a young girl standing on the stairs, looking down at him with her chin raised, squinting her eyes at him, a smirk barely gracing her lips, as though she had spotted something disgusting.
Instantly, Tetsuya's eyes were overwhelmed by her scornful glare, causing his gaze to awkwardly linger on the underwear deep within the folds of the skirt. He forced himself to look away, only to be caught again by the girl's prickling stare, leading to a continuous back-and-forth tug of war...
*"Is it pretty?"* the girl asked in a voice that still carried a hint of youthful innocence, but her words felt like they were spat out, sharp and fiery like arrows. At the same time, her knees suddenly bent slightly outward, spreading her legs a little wider, momentarily revealing even more...