〈Parallel Universes〉 平行時空

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.
2、〈人偶小美〉

從二手市場挑選一批展裝人偶，竟然會招惹上鬼魂，這算不算是貪小便宜的教訓呢？可這次的教訓，後來卻改變我的人生，讓我大呼「猴腮雷」！
我的女裝店花了上百萬裝潢，由於手頭資金必須留著進貨，為了節省一些費用，於是接受得力助手阿美建議，從二手市場挑選一批七八成新的展裝人偶。女裝店為拉抬聲勢，開幕當天起就展開促銷活動，流行女裝全面八折，消費滿千再打九折。
我的工作主要是批貨和每天結帳，店裡的銷售和衣服修改，交給阿美和阿玉兩人。開幕後沒幾天，兩個女人就先後跟我反應一件怪事，其中有個東方人造型的展裝人偶，當天分明穿著A套衣服，次日開店時，竟然發現換成B套衣服，甚至和別的人偶換服裝。阿美甚至繪聲繪影說，有一回她正在給那個取名為「小美」的人偶套上新的服裝時，她感覺到人偶的眼珠子會漂動，眉毛和臉頰還輕微彈動，令她覺得這人偶「毛毛的」。
起初我不以為意，安撫兩女說是她們的錯覺，幾天後拗不過阿美的請求，我找工人過來施工，在店裡大門和櫃台各裝設一支監視器。次日上午，阿美又跟我反應那個「小美」又換穿一套女裝。我們三個決定一起調閱監視錄影帶，果然發現那個「小美」，關店後沒多久，竟然開始活動起來，「她」像個很有品味的OL，首先逐一巡視每一個人偶身上的女裝，接著在一個人偶面前，又是伸手觸摸衣料，又是拉一拉衣領，舉止幾乎和來店裡的女客人無異，然後「小美」似乎滿意這套服裝，於是靠近這人偶伸出雙手，把它身上的那套女裝解開鈕扣，俐落地剝下來，拿在手上走到落地鏡前，對著鏡面將衣裙貼在身上擺姿勢，接下來「小美」帶著那套衣裙走進試衣間，幾分鐘後「小美」換上衣裙走出來，手上拎著自己原來那套女裝，走回那個被她剝光衣服的人偶面前，給它穿上自己原來那套衣服，然後走回自己原來站著的位置，並且擺出原來的姿勢。
看著這段錄影，我們三人不約而同臉上浮現三條電波線。
「Boss，我們真的撞鬼了！你看要不要報警啊？」阿玉首先發難。
「報警？」我苦笑一笑說：「波麗士又不會捉鬼…」。
阿美說：「去找道士來，應該會有用吧？電影裡都嘛這樣演的。」
我當機立斷，壓低音量說：「不用那麼麻煩了，等今晚休息時，我就把她裝進貨車廂，帶去大橋上，直接丟進淡水河裡。」
晚間9時，阿美和阿玉收拾好店面一起下班，我把電動鐵門拉到剩下半尺高。店裡就剩我坐在櫃檯結算帳款，這時我聽到腳步聲往我而來，我抬起頭看著前方，人偶「小美」已和我相距不到兩公尺，她隨即在我面前的椅子坐下，臉上不悅的表情瞪著我。要不是我在金門服役時，部隊駐地就位於太武公墓旁，練就一身膽識，換作別人恐怕早已嚇得嘴歪眼斜魂飛魄散了。我上半身稍往後仰，手裡握著一支原子筆指向她，強自鎮定說：「我跟妳無怨無仇，妳幹嘛找上我？」
「小美」伸出手飛快抽走那支筆，在桌面上的一本銷貨本上寫了一行字：「我有冤情，想請你幫忙我還陽。」她的字筆畫娟秀，感覺不像是歡場女子，而是有受過良好教育的女孩。
接下來的筆談過程，就是我問，「小美」寫在紙上回答我。「小美」說她在一場「人為製造的車禍」中魂魄離體，身體變成植物人，魂魄附在車禍現場附近，一家賣二手人偶店的一只人偶身上……。才一會兒工夫，我就和她「達成協議」。
隨後，按照和她的約定，我讓她坐在副駕駛座上，開車載她到陽明山仰德大道上的某一戶大院人家門前，她自行開車門，然後是奇幻的一幕畫面，「小美」竟然穿過一道鐵門，隨即消失，但我記得她的背影和那套女裝。我雖驚訝，卻也從此鬆了一口氣。
此後，女裝店裡就再也沒有出現「人偶自行換裝」的離奇橋段，不久，來店裡消費的顧客，「千金」和「貴婦」的比率逐漸增加，這些穿著體面的女人消費力很強，往往三五成群出現，每個人買上三五套都面不改色。
半年後，一個化著淡妝，五官清麗的輕熟女出現在我店裡，那小姐身上穿的那套長裙女裝，引起我的注意，因為款式和顏色正是「小美」離開時穿的。那小姐在店裡參觀女裝，當她的背影面對我時，我心裡直覺反應：「小美，真的是妳回來了！」。隨後，那小姐走到我面前，對我一鞠躬，接著甜甜笑著說：「恩人，小美回來報答您。」
接下來的劇情，不用我多說，留給讀者去想吧？我抱得美人，烏鴉變喜鵲，跳級成為一家上市公司老闆千金的乘龍快婿。

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.