The lightning attachment process is significantly influenced by the electric field, which around structures is affected not only by the building itself but also by surrounding building clusters. In order to investigate the interaction between tall and adjacent short buildings and explore whether short buildings affect the lightning activity of tall buildings, it is recognized that general patterns are difficult to be derived through observational methods alone, due to the limitations in lightning location system accuracy and the complexity of regional building interactions. Therefore, a fine-resolution lightning attachment model with multiple upward leaders was employed to evaluate the impact of short buildings on tall buildings, based on a comparison of lightning strike probabilities between control and experimental groups. The results show that the presence of a 150?m short building located 50?m from a 300?m tall building reduces the tall building's strike probability from 34.32% to 33.64%. It is found that the presence of short buildings causes varying changes in lightning strikes across different regions. Except on the distant side of the short building, where an increased number of strikes on the tall building is observed, lightning in other regions is associated with a reduced number of strikes on the tall building. It is concluded that the presence of short buildings lowers the lightning strike probability of nearby tall buildings. The position of the short building is considered to influence the lightning strike outcomes in different regions. Its distortion effect is interpreted as strengthening the surrounding electric field, thereby providing more potential development points for downward leaders and, to some extent, reducing the lightning strike probability of tall buildings. Meanwhile, on the distant side of the short building, lightning is attracted toward the building side due to the building cluster effect of tall and short buildings.