Chapter 50 Observing Swallows
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
“Meow—”
7-year-old Little Shiyu walked to school. The morning sunlight illuminated the gray streets of the old town, and he looked at the edge of the wall, where a row of sharp triangular glass shards was placed, reflecting colorful light.
“Meow, meow—”
A black and white cat suddenly jumped out of the wall, agilely leaping over the glass shards on the wall edge and landing at Little Shiyu’s feet.
“Xiao Qi.” Little Shiyu squatted down to pet it. Xiao Qi had grown from a kitten that couldn’t climb down from a tree at the time to an agile little cat.
“I have to go to class now, I can’t play with you.”
Little Shiyu crouched down, stroked Xiao Qi’s fluffy belly, waved goodbye to it, and was about to leave. He had just taken a step—
“Meow, meow, meow…” Xiao Qi circled around Little Shiyu’s feet, preventing him from leaving, and stretched out its paws to scratch his white shoes.
“What’s wrong?”
Little Shiyu felt something was amiss.
Xiao Qi took a step forward, turned its head, took three steps, then turned back, staring at Little Shiyu with its beautiful emerald eyes.
—It was asking him to follow.
With his backpack on, Little Shiyu followed the little cat.
Xiao Qi’s direction was towards the residential building, and Little Shiyu could only follow back. After walking about fifty or sixty steps, the little cat stopped.
“Meow!”
Near the residential building, beside the utility pole, stood two stinky garbage bins, with black marks of dried garbage water everywhere, and piles of kitchen waste were rotting, attracting swarms of flies.
Little Shiyu looked at the garbage pile. Xiao Qi deliberately brought him here, there must be something strange. He carefully observed for a while and suddenly noticed a black plastic bag overflowing from the trash can, seemingly newly thrown.
The tied-up bag revealed a bit of fluffiness…
“Meow!” Xiao Qi blinked and looked at Little Shiyu, seeking help from the human cub.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu approached, picked up the black plastic bag, and opened it—!!
Little Shiyu was shocked and immediately stepped back.
Inside the bag was the body of a small white cat.
If it was just a dead cat, it would have been fine, but… this cat had been dismembered.
It had been cruelly cut into five pieces, each tied with red plastic rope and tied with strange knots.
“Meow… meow…”
Xiao Qi cried sadly and ran to the bag, rubbing its fluffy head against the small white cat.
Cats don’t have nine lives. Being killed and dismembered like this, the little white cat would never be able to live again.
“Xiao Qi, Xiao Qi, there’s no way to save it…” Little Shiyu gently squatted down, took the sad Xiao Qi out of the bag, and stroked it. Then he retied the black bag and put it back where it was.
Little Shiyu looked back at the residential building he lived in, the dilapidated gray walls, with windows in every household, each containing countless secrets.
—The serial dismemberment murderer from the news was really around him. He had never thought much about it.
In his mind, Little Shiyu thought that the uncle in Room 304 raised Xiao Qi well and didn’t abuse it, so killing the cat couldn’t be his doing.
The only two people who knew how to tie such strange knots were now narrowed down to the skinny man in Room 402.
This person was not just a smuggler, but also the real murderer.
Under normal circumstances, Little Shiyu knew he should call the police. Although the media hadn’t exposed how the knots on the body parts were tied, the police would surely know. As long as they compared it with this cat corpse, the skinny man in Room 402 would be considered a highly suspicious person, a suspect.
But…
Little Shiyu thought for a moment. His mother was a thief, his father was a drug addict, calling the police… was not allowed in his family.
And living in this building, actively calling the police would also make their family unable to stay here. It was like telling the teacher at school, and after the teacher left, the bullied students would still be bullied, or even worse.
Little Shiyu remained silent, he lowered his head to help Xiao Qi straighten its fur, bid farewell to the little cat, and walked back to school. He still had a question in his mind.
That FBI English news.
Five years ago, the serial killings in California, was it also done by the skinny man? After returning to China, did he itch to commit crimes again?
If the skinny man was the real murderer in the serial killings, and the uncle in the convenience store was just a fence, then the uncle would definitely not be able to contend with him…
However, Little Shiyu shrugged indifferently. He was willing to send anyone away anyway.
The tender green grass was sprouting on the moss by the roadside, spring was coming soon.
The swallows would soon arrive, and he could invite Chu Feng to come to his house to observe the swallows.
God always likes to make things happen unexpectedly. Little Shiyu had just finished thinking about inviting Chu Feng to watch the swallows in his mind, when suddenly, as he turned the corner of the old street, he bumped into Chu Feng!
“You…!”
“Good morning!” Little Chu Feng came over happily, the sunlight sinking into his smiling eyes.
Chu Feng thought that Little Shiyu would be pleasantly surprised. He could walk to school happily with Little Shiyu, instead of sitting in his dad’s car, listening to his parents quarrel endlessly…
However, Little Shiyu looked at him with a frightened expression:
“Why did you come here by yourself!”
Little Shiyu seemed a little stern.
Little Chu Feng frowned: “Can’t I come over to find you by myself? I know the way to your house…”
“No!”
“Why not!”
Little Chu Feng also became fierce. He had stayed at his grandmother’s house last night, which happened to be not too far from here. He had deliberately gotten up early just to find Little Shiyu and go to school together, but this guy turned out to be so fierce. It was simply unreasonable.
Little Shiyu remained silent for a moment, then continued to remain silent. At seven years old, he didn’t know how to explain all this to Chu Feng, who lived in another world, another normal world.
Saying that there might be a serial killer near his home? It sounded like a child’s fantasy, deliberately saying there was something strange near his house to attract attention.
Looking at the silent Little Shiyu, Little Chu Feng also fell silent.
For the first time, the two of them didn’t say a word and walked to school together.
Three days had passed.
On the way to school, Little Shiyu thought.
Little Chu Feng had ignored him for three days.
But they just didn’t speak; everything else remained the same.
In the morning, as usual, Little Chu Feng would give him boiled eggs, and then Little Shiyu would give Little Chu Feng the fried eggs he made in return, exchanging breakfast.
During break time, they would line up together.
After school, Little Chu Feng would still let him hold his hand on the way home.
But he just wouldn’t talk to him.
—He didn’t actively go to talk to Little Chu Feng either.
After three days of holding it in, Little Shiyu sighed and picked up his small backpack.
It seemed like bad luck ran in the family. Since that day, Little Shiyu had repeatedly found dead cats in the residential building’s garbage bins.
—They were all stray cats nearby.
At the same time, he observed that the skinny man in Room 402 was becoming increasingly irritable, sometimes extremely depressed, sometimes losing his temper, even Auntie couldn’t stand him anymore.
For the past half year, the police uncle had been investigating the dismemberment case, and the skinny man couldn’t leave the city because he hadn’t disposed of the smuggled goods yet. Little Shiyu suspected that he was itching to kill cats to vent his frustration.
“Xiao Qi, you have to be careful. Don’t come to the fourth floor, stay obediently in the convenience store.”
Little Shiyu used to come and play with Xiao Qi occasionally, but recently he would go to confirm Xiao Qi’s safety on the way to and from school.
The black-and-white kitten with its green eyes open meowed and rubbed Little Shiyu’s fingers with its fluffy head.
***
March.
The warm breeze swept over the city, spring had really arrived.
On this day,
“Mom, mom! Look—”
Little Shiyu opened the door, pulled his mother out, and happily pointed to the top of their own Room 404.
There was a little mound of mud prints on the corner where their door met the corridor wall…
“Chirp chirp”
Two black-and-white swallows flew across the corridor, bringing a little mud back. When the two swallows lowered their heads and saw the two humans below:
“Chirp chirp~”
The swallows flapped their wings, their scissor-like tails brushed through the air, and they flew out again to fetch more mud to build their nest.
Little Shiyu’s mother also smiled rare: “The swallows are nesting here this year too. That’s nice… You can see the little swallows every day, aren’t you happy?”
Little Shiyu: “Well… it’s okay, I’m kind of tired of it.”
His mother laughed at him: “Tired of it but still so excited to come out? Okay, let’s go inside. Standing here will affect them making their nest.”
In the campus, the sound of reading aloud filled the air.
Little Shiyu silently opened his mouth, holding his Chinese book, like a goldfish, his mouth opening and closing, pretending to read out loud when he actually didn’t make a sound.
Little Chu Feng, who was reading earnestly beside him, secretly glanced at Little Shiyu for a moment, then quickly looked away, pretending to be indifferent.
After a while, he heard Little Shiyu beside him start to say softly:
“My house has swallows, do you want to come and see?”
“Really?”
Little Chu Feng immediately broke the silence and spoke to Little Shiyu.
He pursed his lips, feeling a little embarrassed.
Chu Feng didn’t really want to ignore Little Shiyu, but since Little Shiyu didn’t come to talk to him, he didn’t want to actively seek him out either.
“Do you have time after school today?” Little Shiyu pretended to recite from his textbook, “You mentioned that your parents have to work overtime on Mondays, so you can come home later.”
“Okay.”
Following Little Shiyu’s example, Little Chu Feng earnestly held his Chinese book, his expression focused. He recited half of a sentence from the text and then turned it into a conversation:
“Um… so… can I come to your house after school today?”
Today was Monday, a busy day for parents, and Little Chu Feng’s favorite day.
Little Shiyu: “Sure.”
The three-day silent treatment strangely began and ended.
***
On that day after school, it was the first time Little Chu Feng truly saw the swallows building their nest.
“Are these the mommy and daddy swallows?”
Tiny Chu Feng stood at Little Shiyu’s doorstep, excitedly tilting his little face upward, watching the small mud nests on the wall. Two adult swallows chirped.
“Yeah,” Little Shiyu looked at Little Chu Feng, “They’re going to have babies.”
“When will the baby swallows be born?” Little Chu Feng asked eagerly, “Can I still come and see them?”
“Yeah,” Little Shiyu paused for a moment, looking at the excited Little Chu Feng, and said, “As long as you still want to.”
***
Ever since the swallows built their nest at his home, Little Shiyu had been paying attention to their movements every day, noting when they laid eggs and when the babies hatched. Whenever there was activity, he had a reason to invite Little Chu Feng over to play!
When there were eggs in the nest, he invited Chu Feng over again. Little Shiyu even borrowed a ladder from the convenience store and helped Chu Feng climb up to see the small eggs lying in the mud nest.
Little Chu Feng was thrilled. He climbed the small ladder, leaned over beside the swallow’s nest, and saw the tiny eggs nestled in the mud. Little Chu Feng’s face turned red with happiness.
As he watched the swallows on the ladder, he called out to Little Shiyu to come and see too. Little Shiyu, holding the ladder, glanced at the ordinary nest for a moment, then his gaze shifted slightly to Chu Feng’s rosy cheeks, and he looked at them for several moments…
Little Shiyu silently lowered his head, his face also slightly flushed.
As time passed, Little Shiyu counted the days, knowing that in these few days, the swallow eggs should hatch!
After school today, Little Shiyu returned home excitedly. He climbed the stairs, step by step, until he reached the third floor…
Suddenly, Little Shiyu felt something was wrong. Why did the third floor look like this? Half of the white walls had been painted green.
He felt a sense of unease in his heart and immediately rushed up to the fourth floor…
Around Room 404, there was a blank white wall.
On his family’s wall… where the swallow’s nest used to be… was gone.
It had been destroyed!
The newly born baby swallows, one by one, fluffy and tiny, laid dead at his doorstep, leaving behind a glaring spot of blood.
Little Shiyu clenched his fists tightly.
Want to show your support? Come donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
