〈Parallel Universes〉

A Collection of Short Fantasy Stories 2

2. “The Doll Xiaomei”

Who would have thought that buying a batch of display mannequins from a secondhand market would attract a ghost? Could this be a lesson in trying to get a bargain? Yet this particular lesson would later change my life and make me shout, “This is freaking amazing!”

I spent more than a million dollars renovating my women’s clothing store. Since I needed to reserve my available cash for purchasing inventory, I decided to save some money by following the suggestion of my capable assistant, A-Mei, and buying a batch of secondhand display mannequins that were still in fairly good condition.

To build momentum for the store, we launched a promotional campaign on opening day. All fashionable women’s clothing was 20 percent off, and customers who spent at least NT$1,000 received an additional 10 percent discount.

My main responsibilities were purchasing merchandise and settling the accounts every day. Sales and clothing alterations were left to A-Mei and A-Yu.

Only a few days after the opening, the two women came to me separately with reports of something strange. One of the display mannequins, which had an Asian appearance, was clearly dressed in Outfit A when we closed the store one evening. Yet when we opened the next day, we discovered that she had somehow changed into Outfit B. On some occasions, she even seemed to have exchanged clothes with other mannequins.

A-Mei went even further, describing one incident in vivid detail. She said that when she was dressing the mannequin, whom she had named “Xiaomei,” in a new outfit, she had the distinct feeling that the mannequin’s eyes were moving, while her eyebrows and cheeks seemed to twitch slightly. It made A-Mei feel that there was something seriously creepy about the mannequin.

At first, I paid no attention to it. I reassured the two women that it was simply their imagination. But a few days later, unable to resist A-Mei’s persistent request, I hired workers to install surveillance cameras at both the store entrance and the checkout counter.

The following morning, A-Mei once again came to me and reported that “Xiaomei” had changed into another women’s outfit.

The three of us decided to review the surveillance footage together.

Sure enough, the footage revealed that shortly after the store closed, “Xiaomei” actually began to move.

“She” behaved like a sophisticated office lady with impeccable taste. First, she carefully inspected the women’s clothing worn by each mannequin. Then she stopped in front of one particular mannequin. She reached out to touch the fabric and tugged at the collar, behaving almost exactly like one of the female customers who came into our store.

Apparently satisfied with the outfit, “Xiaomei” approached the mannequin and reached out with both hands. She unbuttoned the clothes it was wearing and efficiently stripped them off. Holding the outfit in her hands, she walked over to the full-length mirror.

Facing her reflection, she pressed the dress against her body and struck several poses.

Then “Xiaomei” carried the outfit into the fitting room.

A few minutes later, she emerged wearing the dress, while carrying her own original outfit in her hand. She returned to the mannequin she had stripped and dressed it in the outfit she had originally been wearing.

Finally, she walked back to her original position and resumed the exact pose she had been standing in before.

As the three of us watched the footage, three wavy lines seemed to appear simultaneously across our faces.

“Boss, we really have a ghost on our hands! Don’t you think we should call the police?” A-Yu was the first to speak up.

“The police?” I gave a bitter smile. “The cops aren’t exactly equipped to catch ghosts...”

A-Mei said, “Why don’t we find a Taoist priest? That should work, right? That’s what they always do in the movies.”

I made up my mind immediately. Lowering my voice, I said, “There’s no need to make things so complicated. Tonight, after we close, I’ll put her in the back of the delivery truck, drive her to the bridge, and dump her straight into the Tamsui River.”

At nine that evening, A-Mei and A-Yu finished cleaning up the store and left together.

I pulled the electric security door down until only about six inches remained open.

I was the only person left inside, sitting behind the counter and settling the day’s accounts.

Then I heard footsteps approaching me.

I raised my head and looked ahead.

The mannequin “Xiaomei” was now less than two yards away from me.

She immediately sat down in the chair directly in front of me, staring at me with an unmistakably displeased expression.

If I had not served in the military in Kinmen, where our base was located right next to Taiwu Cemetery and where I had learned to keep my nerve around death, I probably would have been so terrified that my face would have twisted and my soul would have left my body.

I leaned my upper body slightly backward, pointed a ballpoint pen at her, and forced myself to remain calm.

“I have no grudge against you, and I’ve never done anything to you. So why are you coming after me?”

“Xiaomei” reached out and quickly snatched the pen from my hand.

She then wrote a line in a sales ledger lying on the desk:

“I have been wronged. I want to ask you to help me return to life.”

Her handwriting was delicate and graceful. It did not look like the handwriting of a woman from the entertainment world. Instead, it gave me the impression that she had received a good education.

What followed was a written conversation. I asked questions, and “Xiaomei” wrote her answers on paper.

“Xiaomei” told me that her soul had left her body during a “deliberately staged car accident.” Her body had been left in a vegetative state, while her soul remained near the scene of the accident and eventually became attached to a mannequin in a secondhand mannequin shop nearby.

It did not take long before she and I reached an agreement.

Afterward, according to the arrangement we had made, I had her sit in the front passenger seat while I drove her to the gate of a large private residence on Yangde Boulevard in Yangmingshan.

Then something extraordinary happened.

“Xiaomei” opened the passenger door herself. She walked toward the iron gate, passed straight through it, and disappeared.

Yet I still remembered her departing figure and the outfit she was wearing.

Although I was astonished, I also felt a tremendous sense of relief from that moment onward.

After that, the strange episodes of mannequins changing their own clothes never happened again in my women’s clothing store.

Before long, the proportion of customers who were wealthy young women and elegant socialites gradually increased. These well-dressed women had tremendous purchasing power. They often came in groups of three or five, and each one could buy three or five outfits without batting an eye.

Six months later, a stylish woman in her thirties, wearing light makeup and possessing delicate, beautiful features, walked into my store.

The long dress she was wearing immediately caught my attention.

The style and color were exactly the same as the outfit “Xiaomei” had been wearing when she left.

The woman browsed through the clothing in the store.

When she turned her back toward me, something inside me suddenly responded with absolute certainty:

“Xiaomei. It really is you. You’ve come back!”

A moment later, the woman walked up to me, bowed deeply, and then gave me a sweet smile.

“My benefactor, Xiaomei has come back to repay you.”

As for what happened next, I don’t need to say much.

I’ll leave the rest to the readers’ imagination.

I won the heart of a beautiful woman, and my life went from rags to riches. I went from being an ordinary man to becoming the son-in-law of the heiress of a publicly listed company.