Chapter 5

Qin Ye began to recount the story slowly: "When my dad was a kid, he lived in a rural village. Next door lived an old couple whose son had died of a sudden illness many years earlier, leaving just the two of them to rely on each other—it was really pitiful. They had a black cat named Shunfeng, the same name as their son. The old couple doted on this cat a lot, and it was a good cat too, catching plenty of mice at night. It would even help the neighbors catch mice after it had finished with their own house.

In the village, there was a notorious little thug. My dad used to hang out with him when they were kids. This thug was always up to no good, causing trouble all around the area, and everyone in the village was scared of him. One night, he invited my dad to go out and find something to eat. My dad happened to have a high fever that day and didn’t go. Who would have thought that night would end in a huge disaster..."

I was engrossed in the story. Qin Ye swallowed and continued, "That night, the little thug and his group—six of them in total—planned to steal chickens from the village. But because of his 'reputation,' everyone in the village had their chickens securely locked up. Unable to find any chickens, they wandered around looking for dogs to catch, but ended up nearly getting their balls bitten off by a dog (those were his exact words).

It was very late, and everyone in the village was asleep. After wandering around for a while, they ended up in front of the old couple's house—they had their eyes on the cat. So, they grabbed the cat using a burlap sack and took it to a river on the edge of the village, where they drowned it. Drowning wasn’t enough; they built a fire and roasted it to eat. People were so hungry back then that they’d eat anything. The next day, the old couple heard what happened and were devastated. They went to the riverbank and found only the burnt-out firewood, a pile of entrails, and some bones. The old couple cried for the entire morning. Being old and frail, who could they turn to for justice... Xiao Fan, are you still awake?"

"I’m awake, keep going," I replied, feeling wide awake.

"That very night, something strange happened. The little thug went home and fell asleep, but when he woke up, he wasn’t quite right. The rumor was that he curled up in a corner of the room, preferring the darkest places, and when people talked to him, he would respond with nonsensical gibberish, his expression a weird half-smile with his face twitching. His dad wasn’t too worried at first until, later that night, when he went to the kitchen for a bathroom break and saw a shadow in there. Thinking it was a thief, he picked up a piece of firewood and cautiously approached, shouting at the shadow.

When the shadow didn’t move, he brought an oil lamp closer for a better look and was scared stiff—he saw his son squatting next to a pile of dead rats, his face covered in blood, chewing on something, with a rat’s tail hanging from his lips. The boy looked up at his dad and suddenly snarled like a cat. His dad, terrified, took a few steps back, and the boy turned and ran out of the house. His dad said he wasn’t running on two legs but on all fours, quick and silent. By the time his dad realized what was happening, it was too late to chase him.

That night, it wasn’t just the little thug acting this way. The five other kids with him were also affected. The situation escalated—over thirty villagers grabbed torches and searched everywhere, finding only one of them by morning. But the one they found had gone mad, sitting by a tree eating his own fingers. His pinky was already gone, and he was gnawing on his ring finger. He died within a few days. At dawn, someone suggested searching the mountains.

So, a group of people headed into the hills and found the remaining five boys in front of a grave. The five of them had died in horrifying ways, missing arms or chunks of flesh, with fingers and hair from others stuffed in their mouths, looking like they had torn each other apart. That grave was where the old couple’s son Shunfeng was buried. My dad told me this story years later, and he still gets scared thinking about it—if he hadn’t had a fever that night, he could have been one of them."

Even though it was already daylight, I still broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this.

"My dad said," Qin Ye continued, "that killing a black cat at night is a big taboo. Evil spirits can find living people through black cats. That idiot Fei Rong just had to break this curse…"

I had no words. I began to worry about Fei Rong. Qin Ye fell asleep shortly afterward, but I still couldn’t sleep. I spent the morning surfing the internet in my room and went out to class around noon. They were all still sound asleep when I left, so I didn’t wake them.

As I passed the stairs, I couldn’t help but glance toward the sixth floor. I heard a faint rustling sound. I went up to the iron gate and looked through, seeing a black plastic bag being blown around by the wind on the ground. Goosebumps covered my entire body, and I quickly turned and walked away.

I spent that day in a daze. In the evening, I stopped by a small shop across from our building to buy two cans of coffee. The shopkeeper, Sister Ying, was a very chatty person. While giving me my change, she asked, "Hey there, you’re renting from Landlord Liang across the street, right?"

I nodded.

"Which floor did you rent?" Sister Ying continued to ask.

"Fifth floor."

The shopkeeper's face darkened. "I can tell you’re not sleeping well at night, huh?" She must have noticed the bags under my eyes.

"It’s okay, just didn’t sleep well last night," I replied with a smile, but I could sense that Sister Ying knew something.

"To be honest," she said, glancing around and lowering her voice, "tenants on the fifth floor never stay long..."

"Why’s that?"

"Because there’s something dirty on the sixth floor. Everyone in this area knows about it," she said with conviction. "You students, new to the area, rent his place because it’s cheap, but after a while, you either get sick or scared and end up moving out..."

I was already feeling uneasy.

"And remember this," Sister Ying said, raising her index finger as a warning, "never go to the sixth floor. The last time, a young man renting on the fifth floor got lured up there by a ghost. The next day, when he was going to work, I saw that all the hair on the back of his head had fallen out, and he hadn’t even noticed. I called him over and he realized it. He said a little girl had told him their water pipe had burst and asked him to help fix it, so he went up to the sixth floor to help those two women. But the problem is, no one lives on the sixth floor..." She finished speaking and handed me my change.

"Does Landlord Liang know?" I asked.

"Of course, he knows! He definitely knows!" the shopkeeper said, her eyes wide. "And I suspect that—"

Suddenly, a sleazy voice interrupted her. "Hey! Sister Ying, spinning tales again, huh?" I saw Landlord Liang had come out of his building at some point and was walking toward the shop. His large frame made his gait seem awkward, and as he reached the shop, he habitually spat on the ground.

Sister Ying awkwardly smiled and said, "No, no, just chatting with your tenant."

Landlord Liang leaned on her counter and said, "Give me two packets of cornstarch already. So much chatter!" Then, he glanced over at me with his beady eyes. I avoided his gaze and turned to head back to the apartment.

But to my surprise, the landlord called after me, "Hey! Handsome! Have you seen my cat?"

I turned to face him, my mind in turmoil, but I tried to appear calm. "Nope," I said.

He didn’t say anything else, just turned his head back.

As I climbed the stairs, I realized I was terrible at lying. One lie made me feel incredibly uneasy, and maybe because the stairwell was so dim, I nearly missed a step. When I reached the fifth floor, I absentmindedly continued up to the sixth floor, only snapping out of it when I bumped into the iron gate. Suddenly, I felt a chill in the air, as if the cold had seeped into my lungs. I really felt like there was a pair of icy hands or a sinister smiling face approaching me from the darkness ahead. Shuddering, I quickly backed down the stairs, nearly falling. As I left the iron gate behind, the summer heat hit me once again.

The four of them were inside the apartment, looking just as exhausted as I was. No wonder, daytime sleep doesn’t help much. I wanted to take a shower early tonight, but after what happened with that cat last night, I found myself suddenly terrified of the bathroom. I asked if any of them had taken a shower yet, and they all said no.

Lao Jiang was the most straightforward, "After what happened with that cat last night, who dares go in there? Damn it!"

So, we kept putting it off until 11 PM. I had sweated so much during the day that my whole body itched, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without washing. So, I mustered up all my courage, grabbed my clothes, and went into the bathroom to take a shower.