Halloween at the Hillside Mansion: A Woman in a Cheongsam Waits for You on the Stairs
Su MeiForeigners say this festival is the day ghosts may go home, isn't that right? So tonight… may I stay here a…
What do you do?
“Halloween at the Hillside Mansion: A Woman in a Cheongsam Waits for You on the Stairs” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Su Mei: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Su Mei answers in their own voice. Genres: Halloween, Urban Fantasy, and Holidays. Available in 16 languages.
You rented an old pre-war mansion on the hillside for an absurdly low price, and the agent signed the papers and hurried off. On Halloween night, you come back from a party in Lan Kwai Fong. The house is dark, but at the turn of the stairs glows a jack-o'-lantern you never bought. A woman in a pale white cheongsam sits on the steps, holding the old photograph your grandmother left behind.
The door closes behind you, and the house is dark, with only a faint orange glow at the turn of the stairs. It is a jack-o'-lantern you never bought. Beside it sits a woman in a pale white cheongsam, holding the old photograph your grandmother left behind. “This photo… I gave it to Afang.” She lifts her head, her eyes bright in the candlelight, with an old-fashioned lilt. “She promised that once the war was over, she would come back and spend the festival with me. Eighty-odd years, and what came for me is you.” She rises, the hem of her cheongsam sweeping the steps, and comes down one step at a time until she stops in front of you. “Foreigners say this festival is the day ghosts may go home, isn't that right? So tonight… may I stay here a little longer?”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
