Chapter 45: The Culprit (Part 1/2)
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The sun was sinking slowly behind the western hills. Xie Shiyu watched as the sky turned increasingly yellow.
“It’s about time for you to go back,” he said.
Little Chu Feng was still reluctant. “Can’t we play a little longer?”
The uncle who manages the convenience store on the surface, has more flexible time compared to other odd job workers who need to go to work. According to Little Shiyu’s observation, around five o’clock, the convenience store Uncle would transport goods back to Room 304.
Although it’s not yet very clear what secrets this Uncle Li Dawei, also known as Ji Shiming, holds, it seems like he’s just engaged in dealing stolen goods. However, Xie Shiyu has a strong intuition not to get too close to this uncle.
“Let’s go.”
Xie Shiyu opened the door and led Little Chu Feng out of Room 404. Little Chu Feng was about to descend the stairs with his backpack.
“Wait!”
Little Chu Feng turned around, and Xie Shiyu suddenly rushed down, grabbing his arm and pulling him back into Room 404—
Bang!
Xie Shiyu closed the iron gate, locking it, and then shut the second wooden door tightly.
“W-what’s going on?” Little Chu Feng felt a strange sensation, tinged with excitement.
Xie Shiyu’s house was completely different from his own. Little Chu Feng felt that his own home was just an ordinary apartment, nothing fancy. But Xie Shiyu’s home was like a castle from a fairy tale, with spiders the size of faces, swallows that would come to build nests, flocks of birds in the morning and evening, dimly lit corridors, and suddenly locked doors.
Everything was so novel to Little Chu Feng. He walked up to Xie Shiyu’s side, his eyes shining:
“Has someone come?”
Xie Shiyu stood behind the curtain, calmly looking outside.
Little Chu Feng leaned in behind Xie Shiyu, wanting to peek out from under the curtain.
“Don’t.”
Xie Shiyu held Little Chu Feng’s hand, stopping him from pulling the curtain. He led Little Chu Feng back a step. “Don’t move the curtain, and don’t get too close to it.”
Xie Shiyu knew that Little Chu Feng hadn’t grown up in this type of apartment building and wouldn’t have developed such cautious habits in daily life.
“Okay,” Little Chu Feng obediently replied. He stood with Xie Shiyu, one step away from the curtain.
After making this move, Little Chu Feng suddenly felt cool, like he was playing a spy game, and moreover, his teammate beside him was extremely attentive and reliable.
“What kind of person is outside that we need to hide from?” Spy Little Chu Feng asked seriously.
The gap in the curtain was too small, so Little Chu Feng could only see a sliver of daylight. In that narrow view, a stick figure appeared.
It was difficult for someone unfamiliar with the surroundings to discern the situation outside from such a small gap.
Xie Shiyu stared at the light coming through the gap in the curtain. He saw a tricycle parked downstairs in the residential building. When Xie Shiyu slightly tilted his head and changed angles, he could see the corner of a few boxes inside the tricycle.
—Someone new is moving in!
Xie Shiyu frowned. Of all days, they had to move in today. The person below was directing the tricycle driver to help him move the boxes upstairs.
Xie Shiyu explained everything to Little Chu Feng and taught him to stand in different positions to observe through the gap in the curtain, so he could see things from different angles.
“I see it! The tricycle… Wait, it looks like they’re coming up…” Little Chu Feng said, squeezing his small hand, feeling a bit nervous.
Although he didn’t understand why someone was moving in and why Xie Shiyu was being so cautious, locking the door and hiding behind the curtain to observe, it didn’t matter. There must be some reasons that couldn’t be said, and these mysteries made him feel even cooler. This spy game felt realistic and thrilling.
—Much more interesting than staying at home memorizing vocabulary and practicing piano.
Little Chu Feng looked at Xie Shiyu with his big, round eyes, wanting to know what they would do next.
Xie Shiyu didn’t know where to put his hands under the gaze of those black eyes. Little Chu Feng was completely unaware and even seemed a bit excited.
Xie Shiyu knew very well that Little Chu Feng’s living environment had been completely different from his since childhood, like heaven and earth. Little Chu Feng, who lived a comfortable life, couldn’t even imagine what kind of people lived in this building.
Suddenly, a sense of “responsibility” fell upon Xie Shiyu’s young shoulders.
Chu Feng was invited to play at his house. He couldn’t tell Chu Feng the secrets about the people in the building. He had to ensure that Chu Feng could go home safely and happily every time.
Xie Shiyu quietly held Little Chu Feng’s hand.
“It’s okay, I’ll go out and take a look. You stay here and don’t move.”
“Okay!”
Little Chu Feng automatically understood Xie Shiyu’s words as: I’m going out on a mission, and you cover me.
Creak—
Little Shiyu opened the door and stepped out.
A new guy moved in, so he had to go check it out.
Xie Shiyu’s life from a young age taught him that if you’re only afraid and hide, no matter how cautious you are, it’s useless. You have to take the initiative and strike first, as the saying goes: “The early bird catches the worm.”
Xie Shiyu locked the door with the key, ensuring that Chu Feng could stay safely at home.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu put his hands in his pockets and leisurely walked downstairs, looking relaxed and carefree, like a mischievous kid who couldn’t sit still after returning home from school and wanted to sneak out to play.
Little Shiyu walked to the intersection of the stairs and saw a tricycle driver coming out from the building behind. The driver was struggling to carry three large boxes, sweating profusely.
Following the driver, a tall, thin man walked out. His sunken cheekbones made him look extremely harsh. He was wearing an old suit, suggesting his life wasn’t very prosperous. He held a box in his left hand, while his right hand remained empty.
Xie Shiyu raised an eyebrow.
The thin man and the driver stopped at Room 402 in the building behind.
—Next door to Auntie in Room 401.
It was on the same floor as Xie Shiyu’s Room 404, so he could easily run over anytime via the cross staircase.
Xie Shiyu walked boldly on the cross staircase towards them.
Although he was heading towards the newly moved-in Room 402, Xie Shiyu’s eyes wandered around. Sometimes he looked down at the courtyard, sometimes up at the rooftop, behaving like a curious little rascal. Adults wouldn’t pay attention to him at all.
The thin man and the tricycle driver from Room 402 didn’t bother with him either. The thin man unlocked the door with his key, and the driver quickly moved the three large boxes inside…
Xie Shiyu immediately noticed a detail—the thin man had been holding his own box in his left hand all along.
Typically, when moving, after carrying the box, it would be immediately placed on the ground upon arrival, to save effort and quickly open the door to move the box in. But it wasn’t the case here; he kept holding it in his hand, unwilling to put it down.
Xie Shiyu wanted to take a look at that box.
Now, the thin man stood sideways, facing Xie Shiyu with his right side, holding the box in his left hand. His body blocked most of the box, so Xie Shiyu couldn’t see.
—He had to walk across the cross staircase to Room 402, to the left side of the thin man, to see it.
Xie Shiyu switched to his seven-year-old mode, skipping over happily. With a childish voice, he said, “Hello, Uncle!”
The thin man glanced at him coldly, frowning, and shooed Xie Shiyu away like swatting a fly, “Go play over there—”
Little Shiyu giggled and hopped over, taking three or five steps until he reached the left side of the tall, skinny man—
He saw the box clearly and felt a jolt in his heart.
It was a very ordinary wooden box, bound with a cross-shaped red plastic rope.
The knots on the rope were tied in a peculiar manner!
Unlike the knots tied by Uncle from the convenience store, which were twisted together like two maggots. The knots tied by this tall, skinny man were two ropes twisted together, then continuously intertwined and knotted into a string of red lumps, locked above the box.
Little Shiyu recalled the news report in his mind: “…discovered body parts, feet bound with red plastic rope, the knotting method is very peculiar…”
“Suspected murderer believed to have recently arrived in our city…”
The tall, skinny man scowled impatiently, “Get lost—kid, don’t bother me!”
Little Shiyu deliberately controlled the muscles of his facial expression. His facial expression still appeared playful, as if he hadn’t noticed anything, even when he saw the knot. The tall, skinny man didn’t think much of a seven-year-old kid and just wanted him to leave and not interfere with his moving.
In his mischievous nature, Little Shiyu lingered around the tall, skinny man for a while, looking around, until he was finally scolded and pretended to slink away.
Click.
Little Shiyu unlocked his own door with the key and locked it again.
It was quiet inside the house.
Little Shiyu furrowed his brows, “…Chu Feng?… Chu Feng!”
He immediately ran to the curtain and found no one. Then he hurried back and opened his bedroom door…
“I’m here.”
The doors of the living room and bathroom opened, and Little Chu Feng stuck his head out.
“What’s wrong?”
After Xie Shiyu left, Chu Feng went to the bathroom to observe the white-headed orb-weaver spider. The huge spider slowly extended its long legs without being disturbed, as there was no one around.
Xie Shiyu felt relieved seeing Chu Feng was fine.
Chu Feng asked, “How did your mission go? Who was outside?”
—The person outside was suspected of being the serial dismemberment murderer.
This sentence circled in Xie Shiyu’s mind, but he erased it.
He looked at the innocent Chu Feng in front of him. He knew that all of this was just a thrilling game for Chu Feng, something fun to do during leisure time.
But for Xie Shiyu, this was just his daily life.
Every year, 365 days, he had to spend it like this.
“Well… it’s an uncle who doesn’t like kids.” Xie Shiyu made up a few passable lies, and Little Chu Feng believed them to be true.
The minute hand was getting closer to 30, almost half past four.
If they didn’t leave soon, they would encounter the uncle from the convenience store.
Little Chu Feng only felt that Xie Shiyu cared a lot about the time, just like Cinderella caring about midnight. As soon as the time arrived, he grabbed his hand and ran out of the residential building…
“I’ll walk you home.”
The streets of the old town were complicated and intertwined, so Xie Shiyu escorted Chu Feng, afraid he wouldn’t know the way back alone.
***
After seeing Chu Feng off, half of the sun had already set, casting the afterglow of the sunset on the old street, stretching the little figure very long. Seven-year-old Little Shiyu walked home alone.
“Hey! Little Shiyu—”
Sure enough, under the residential building, at 4:51, the uncle from the convenience store appeared.
He was carrying a box, heading back to Room 304.
“Little Shiyu, are you just getting out of school? Why so late? Isn’t first grade supposed to finish at three?”
“Just played outside for a bit,” Xie Shiyu said. He looked up and stared at the box the convenience store uncle was carrying, also tied with red plastic rope, with strange knots.
Room 304, Room 402.
Xie Shiyu recalled the strange knots in his mind.
One of these two people must be the real culprit.
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