Chapter 43: Little Hunter
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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Shua shua.
Little Shiyu took out a utility knife from his pocket and sharpened his pencil himself.
On the scratched wooden table lay a graffiti diary. Several little matchstick figures danced vividly on the paper.
His grip on the knife was very skillful, as if he was born knowing how to use it. In just a few strokes, the sharp pencil tip emerged. Little Shiyu held the pencil and continued drawing. A warm yellow desk lamp illuminated his left side. In the quiet night, suddenly—
Tap.
There was a sudden sound from the ceiling.
Little Shiyu stopped and looked up.
The old building, long neglected, had a ceiling in his bedroom that wasn’t pure white; it was stained with yellowish damp marks and there were several cracks.
After a while, there was no sound.
Little Shiyu leaned on his small desk and continued drawing in the graffiti diary. After a while, there was another sound:
Tap, tap, tap.
Sounds like footsteps echoed through the building. It sounded like someone was walking on cheap wooden floorboards, making a squeaky sound.
Little Shiyu looked up at the ceiling.
In his apartment 404, there was no one living in the apartment 504 upstairs.
Little Shiyu glanced at the black cat alarm clock on the bedside table. It was now ten forty in the evening.
—Maybe it’s just his imagination.
Little Shiyu continued drawing. He had read in the illustrated encyclopedia at Xinhua Bookstore about strange noises coming from the ceiling: footsteps, marbles rolling. In fact, it was just the building materials changing shape due to temperature or aging, causing such noises. There was nothing to be afraid of.
Little Shiyu lowered his head and flipped through his graffiti diary, marking out the time slots when all the weird people in the residential building were absent: next Monday, from three to four thirty in the afternoon.
This time period was safe; he could invite Chu Feng to his house…
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
A series of hurried footsteps!
Little Shiyu suddenly looked up. This time he heard it very clearly; it was definitely the sound of someone walking.
Little Shiyu opened the bedroom door, and his mother was already sleeping tiredly. Little Shiyu silently walked to the window, pulled up the curtain a little, and looked up—
There was no light on the fifth floor.
Little Shiyu lowered the curtain, stood back at the door of his bedroom, and waited again…
Thud.
A sound came from the floor above.
It sounded like someone was moving heavy objects.
Shua, Shua—
—the sound of moving boxes.
There was definitely someone in apartment 504, but Little Shiyu didn’t know what they were doing up there.
Little Shiyu frowned unhappily. He had finally managed to invite Chu Feng to his house, and now there was someone causing trouble upstairs again. If it was another weird person, he would have to start his observation and recording all over again.”
Little Shiyu’s tender little hand twitched slightly, his fingers tingling with an itch. Sometimes he really wanted to…
Kill all these people.
Little Shiyu calmly thought, he was only seven years old, physically no match for adults, but he had an absolute advantage that all adults lacked:
Children under fourteen are not held criminally responsible.
Little Shiyu recalled the picture books he had seen at Xinhua Bookstore. He knew that killing someone now wouldn’t be illegal, it would just mean spending two years in a juvenile detention center. If he really wanted to kill, it wouldn’t be worth it to kill just one person; it would be better to kill them all. Then everything would be completely peaceful.
Little Shiyu turned his head and saw his mother lying on the bed, asleep, seemingly completely unaware of the sounds. He thought for a moment. The illustrated encyclopedia also mentioned that children’s hearing is stronger than adults’, able to hear a wider range of frequencies.
Little Shiyu scratched his itching finger, moved a small stool, stood behind the door, and opened the peephole on the wooden door, observing the hallway outside.
No one lived in apartment 504, and utilities like water and electricity weren’t in use, so it couldn’t meet someone’s daily needs.
Whoever was staying up there wouldn’t stay in apartment 504 all the time; they would definitely come downstairs. As long as they came downstairs, they would definitely pass by the doorway of his apartment 404.
He wanted to see who was causing trouble.
The hallway was pitch black, nothing visible.
Suddenly, Little Shiyu thought, if someone really came down the pitch-black hallway, they would see light coming through his apartment’s peephole.
If there’s light, it means someone is awake in his house. Maybe that person would then suspect him, causing unnecessary trouble. Little Shiyu jumped off the stool and turned off all the lights.
Now his house was as dark as the hallway outside.
Little Shiyu laid behind the peephole, gradually adjusting to the darkness. Slowly, the steps of the stairs, the handrails, the walls, the light bulbs, all became visible in the darkness.
The little boy patiently waited, like a hunting hunter.
Tap, tap, tap—
Footsteps gradually descended from the fifth floor, approaching with each step of the stairs.
Someone was coming down!
Little Shiyu laid behind the peephole, eyes wide open, staring outside.
In the darkness, a rosy flower skirt appeared.
Actually, in the darkness, colors couldn’t be distinguished, but Little Shiyu recognized this skirt: it was worn by Auntie in apartment 401!
Suddenly, he remembered. Auntie clearly lived in the building behind theirs, but recently she had often come to their building. Just now, when he went to Uncle’s apartment 304, Uncle said to Auntie, “Why do you always come to our building? Do you know someone who’s moving in? Or maybe there’s treasure in this building?”
Auntie had evaded the question, but Little Shiyu thought, maybe Uncle from the convenience store was right. Auntie was secretly hiding something in apartment 504.
Little Shiyu silently noted it down. He didn’t like this gossipy Auntie, but since moving in, he hadn’t discovered any secrets about her.
Next Monday, from three to four thirty in the afternoon, Auntie would go out to buy groceries, and Chu Feng wouldn’t meet her.
Auntie looked around the hallway, sneakily crossed the intersection staircase on the fourth floor, and returned to her apartment 401 in the building behind.
Little Shiyu jumped off the stool, left the door, and returned to his little bedroom. It was already eleven o’clock at night.
Auntie was also very strange.
Little Shiyu drew her into his graffiti diary.
“…. Xie Shiyu?”
Little Shiyu immediately closed the graffiti book, jumped onto the bed, lifted the covers, and crawled in, closing his eyes as if sleeping.
His mother rustled, gently opened his bedroom door. Seeing Little Shiyu obediently lying in bed, eyes closed, the small lamp casting shadows on his tender face.
“This child… why doesn’t he turn off the light when he sleeps?”
Little Shiyu, pretending to sleep, heard his mother walk to his desk, not quickly turning off the light. His mother saw his diary.
She picked it up and flipped through it. Inside were all sorts of strange matchstick figures. She didn’t look closely, just thought it was a child’s doodle.
Click.
His mother turned off the light and left.
In the darkness, Little Shiyu opened his eyes.
Tomorrow is Friday, and school ends exceptionally early. He could ask Chu Feng if he wanted to go to the department store with him. He wanted to find out what snacks Chu Feng liked. Preparation for next Monday.
The thirty yuan reward for finding Uncle’s cat had already been hidden in the inner pocket of his backpack.
Little Shiyu joyfully wrapped himself in his small blanket.
***
Friday, after school.
“You’re not… going left today?”
Little Chu Feng and Little Shiyu walked hand in hand to the intersection.
Chu Feng was about to let go of his hand, but he found that Little Shiyu was still holding onto him.
Little Chu Feng blinked, looking at Little Shiyu strangely.
“Do you have time today?”
Little Shiyu casually asked.
“What’s up?”
“Yeah… I want to go to the department store, and if you’re free…” Little Shiyu didn’t look at Chu Feng, deliberately staring at the trees on the roadside, watching their swaying shadows in the wind.
“Sorry.”
Little Chu Feng lowered his head in disappointment. “I have to go home to practice the piano today.”
The wind ceased, and the leaden gray shadows of the trees froze on the sidewalk.
“Ah, I see.”
Little Shiyu had to let go of little Chu Feng’s hand. He pretended not to care:
“It’s okay, I’ll go by myself then.”
The warmth in the palm of his hand gradually faded away.
Without hesitation, little Chu Feng suddenly took the initiative to hold Little Shiyu’s hand. Little Shiyu was taken aback.
“N…next time, can I go with you?” Little Chu Feng said with his head down.
“Then, are you free next Monday?” Little Shiyu stood in the shadow of the tree, tightly holding Chu Feng’s hand and not wanting to let go:
“Come to my house.”
“Really!”
Little Chu Feng exclaimed. Little Shiyu saw Chu Feng’s eyes, as dark and sparkling as lychee seeds, looking at him.
“Mmm…”
Little Shiyu felt a little embarrassed looking into Chu Feng’s eyes for so long. “Before, it was because… all the adults were at home, it wasn’t very convenient.” He casually made up an excuse.
“Then it’s settled! Next Monday, no backing out.” Little Chu Feng said.
Little Shiyu felt Chu Feng suddenly become particularly happy. Normally, the kids on Friday nights were the happiest, but Chu Feng had been low-spirited all day until he heard about coming to Little Shiyu’s house on Monday.
“Yes, it’s a deal.”
Little Shiyu said.
His tender little hand twitched slightly. Little Shiyu thought, if something unexpected happened in the building when Chu Feng came…
Then it really should disappear.
***
Friday night was as bright as daylight.
The light in the study shone above little Chu Feng’s head.
The white walls, the white ceiling, everything was as white as snow, bright, clean, and empty.
The white grand piano was placed in a corner of the large study.
Seven-year-old Chu Feng sat numbly on the piano stool, stretching out his tender fingers, trying hard to reach the various keys on the piano.
Stumbling notes jumped out of the piano keys one by one.
“What messy playing is that!”
Mom sat beside the piano stool, supervising him, watching him play, and scolding:
“How could you play like this, huh? Have you been practicing at home these days? Tomorrow is Saturday, and you’ll have piano lessons. How can you play like this? What will your teacher think!
“Do you know how much each lesson costs? One-on-one teaching, four hundred yuan per lesson! This piano costs tens of thousands! And your exam results this summer were only ‘Good,’ not even ‘Excellent’! Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is? Look at the people upstairs, they practice piano and even go to competitions, winning first place. Every time I meet their mother, I feel embarrassed to say my son is also learning piano. Can’t you stop embarrassing me!”
Little Chu Feng sat on the piano stool, silently.
He didn’t like playing the piano at all, and didn’t find it interesting. But his mother made him learn because with lessons came exams, and everyone had a certificate. He couldn’t be without one.
“You better practice properly by yourself! If you don’t play well, don’t eat! I’ve never seen a child like you…”
Mom grumbled and left.
Little Chu Feng sat on the piano stool, looking at the timetable posted on the study wall: practice the piano for at least one hour every day.
Friday afternoon, do homework when you get home, practice the piano in the evening. The entire Friday night must be spent practicing the piano.
Saturday morning, piano lessons from 9:00 to 11:00, lunch at 12:00, piano practice from 1:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon, Chinese classics class from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, and calligraphy class from 7:00 to 9:00 in the evening.
Sunday morning, English class from 9:00 to 11:00, and abacus class from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. Sunday night is for rest, but he still needs to practice the piano from 6:00 to 8:00, organize his backpack, sleep, and prepare for Monday’s classes.
Little Chu Feng took a deep breath as he looked at the timetable on the wall.
He hated Fridays, as well as Saturdays and Sundays.
—When will this kind of weekend end?
He prayed silently in his heart. He wanted to go to Little Shiyu’s house and play.
His tender fingers returned to the black and white piano keys, and the stumbling notes danced again on Friday night…
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