Chapter 51 Witness
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“Oh, Little Shiyu, you’re back?”
The Auntie from Room 401, carrying a green paint bucket, walked up with a kindly smile on her face.
“I hired a craftsman to paint in front of my house, and coincidentally, the entrance of Room 304 was a bit dirty, so I helped paint it too. I saw your entrance wasn’t very clean either, so I just brushed it as well. We’re all neighbors, haha, no need to thank me.”
Little Shiyu, with a black little backpack on his back, stared at the Auntie in front of him, wanting to brush off her pretentiousness.
The dead baby swallows laid one by one at Little Shiyu’s feet.
“Ah!” The Auntie feigned surprise, then exclaimed, “Oh, these dead birds chirp all day in the corridor, so annoying! And the bird droppings, oh, so filthy!”
She glanced disdainfully at the dead swallows as if nothing had happened, then, carrying the paint bucket, walked towards Room 401, saying to Little Shiyu as she went, “See, Auntie helped you paint like this, your wall is much cleaner now! It’ll be more hygienic in the future.”
Little Shiyu looked at the mud marks on his wall, which had not been painted at all, just the swallow’s nest deliberately knocked off.
“That bird, making a mess every day, spreading who knows what diseases… You don’t need to feel bad. Painting the wall isn’t expensive, it’s just a small favor among neighbors!”
With a clack, she opened the door, smiling, and entered Room 401.
Bang—
The door closed, and the corridor fell silent, leaving only seven-year-old Little Shiyu, and the lifeless baby swallows lying at his feet, like the death of hope.
Little Shiyu squatted down, wrapped the baby swallows in tissue, carefully put them in a nicer paper bag, and prepared to bury them in the courtyard of the residential building.
As he walked down, passing through the corridor of Room 304, Little Shiyu looked at the odd green paint, wondering why it was painted green…
He squatted down to observe carefully and soon noticed a nail-sized bloodstain on the wall that hadn’t been wiped off.
…Bloodstain.
Little Shiyu rushed down to the convenience store and peered in…
Uncle Ji Shiming was sitting there as usual, listening to the radio with the volume intentionally low. Little Shiyu listened for a moment, it was a language he couldn’t understand.
Little Shiyu buried the baby swallows under the old locust tree. Then he walked back to the residential building. Halfway there, he felt a shock.
Where’s Xiao Qi?
He had seen Xiao Qi this morning on his way to school, walking around in the courtyard, meowing. But he hadn’t seen him since he came back from school.
Little Shiyu returned to the convenience store:
“Uncle! Is the cat here?”
Ji Shiming wasn’t pretending to be hypocritical in front of Little Shiyu. He turned off the English radio and said:
“Ah, Xiao Qi? It’s probably… still playing outside.” Uncle Ji Shiming smiled:
“After all, it’s spring.”
—Cats in heat.
Little Shiyu nodded, it seemed Xiao Qi had gone out to find friends. He turned around and climbed the stairs back to Room 404.
“Chirp chirp!”
Little Shiyu looked up, and two swallows flew into the corridor. The father and mother swallow brought back worms to feed their chicks.
They flew around Little Shiyu’s door, circling and chirping, as if they didn’t understand why their home and babies had disappeared so suddenly.
Little Shiyu looked at the two swallows without children and said, “I’m sorry.”
Although he knew the swallows couldn’t understand.
The two swallows chirped for a long time, then finally stopped, spread their wings, and flew away.
Little Shiyu watched the swallows fly away, thinking they would never come to his house to build a nest again.
“Are we going to your house after school today to see the swallows?”
During morning reading class, Little Chu Feng held his Chinese book in front of him and eagerly spoke to Little Shiyu:
“Have the swallow babies hatched?”
Silence lingered for a while.
Little Chu Feng heard Little Shiyu say, “I can’t go today after school.”
“…Why? You promised me yesterday…” Little Chu Feng had been looking forward to seeing the baby swallows for a long time, but suddenly he couldn’t.
Little Shiyu, like a withered grass, said, “The baby swallows… died.”
“Ah? Why… did they die?”
Little Shiyu imagined the monsters in the residential building, and finally just said, “The baby swallows got sick.”
Little Chu Feng sighed in disappointment, “Then we can only… go see them next spring.”
“Next spring… we’ll be in different classes,” Little Shiyu said with his head down.
Little Chu Feng frowned, “If we’re in different classes, I can’t come to your house to play?”
“No.” Little Shiyu shook his head, unsure of what to say.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be in the same class! Then you can still sit with me,” Little Chu Feng said confidently.
To ordinary children, class allocation was random, but not for Little Chu Feng. He had connections.
In the coming years, he could still go to Little Shiyu’s house to see the adorable baby swallows.
***
After school today, Little Shiyu returned to the residential building but still didn’t see Xiao Qi.
He tried looking around, under the eaves, in the courtyard, under the trees, but there was no sign of the black and white cat anywhere.
Little Shiyu returned to Room 404, feeling disappointed. He did some math problems for a while. At 5:30, as usual, he cooked dinner and helped his mother fold the clothes by the window.
He was about to open the curtains when, through a crack, sharp-eyed Little Shiyu saw the tall, thin man coming back!
He immediately stepped back and quietly observed through the crack.
The tall, thin man seemed to have just come back from somewhere, with something like a work badge hanging around his neck. The bright blue satin reflected the last rays of the setting sun.
His footsteps gradually approached, back to Room 402.
About fifteen minutes passed.
The tall, thin man came out again, carrying a black plastic bag. He walked to the side of the residential building, by the trash can next to the utility pole, and threw it away—
Little Shiyu’s heart tightened immediately.
After the tall, thin man had gone far away, Little Shiyu immediately rushed downstairs. He stood next to the trash can, the setting sun like blood, casting long shadows on the ground.
Little Shiyu approached and carefully picked up the black bag that the tall, thin man had thrown away, and opened it—!
A black and white cat, chopped into five pieces.
—It was Xiao Qi!
Each piece of the body, like before, was tied with a red plastic rope.
Xiao Qi laid in the black plastic bag, its beautiful emerald green eyes would never open again.
***
6:00 PM
Tonight, Xiao Qi didn’t come back either.
Ji Shiming frowned. Xiao Qi was originally a stray cat, and they couldn’t control it at home. Ji Shiming usually let it roam around, but even when it was wild outside, it had never been gone for two days.
“Hello, Uncle!”
The seven-year-old kid from Room 404 was back.
Ji Shiming put on the persona of Li Dawei from the convenience store and smiled kindly.
Little Shiyu held a list in his hand.
Ji Shiming, against his conscience, said, “Little Shiyu, are you here to help your mom buy groceries again? You’re such a good boy.”
“Yes, today we need to buy one bar of soap, two plates, a bottle of soy sauce, and a pack of green beans…”
Little Shiyu casually listed the things their home was lacking. The list his mother gave him was from last time, so this time, of course, he wasn’t here to buy groceries. But he couldn’t bring up Xiao Qi’s matter so overtly. If later there was any conflict between the convenience store uncle and the tall, thin man, it might come back to him.
Ji Shiming couldn’t be bothered to fetch the goods for Little Shiyu and just pointed to the counter, letting him pick them up himself.
Little Shiyu took his time selecting the items.
At the moment he saw Xiao Qi’s body, he genuinely wanted to kill the tall, thin man.
Little Shiyu speculated in his mind. The convenience store uncle, Ji Shiming, might not even be his real name. The uncle from Room 304 could be convenience store Uncle Li Dawei and the Ji Shiming who disposes stolen goods; since he could have one identity, he could have many other identities as well.
The English playing on the radio, the FBI California serial killer case, the strange women’s hand cream…
Little Shiyu felt like he was standing in front of a huge roulette wheel, and now was the time to make a big bet.
At checkout.
Little Shiyu thought, if the convenience store uncle didn’t bring it up, he would chat a bit more and steer the conversation to the cat…
“By the way.”
Ji Shiming handed the items to Little Shiyu in a bag and casually asked, “Have you seen Xiao Qi? That’s Uncle’s cat…”
***
Little Shiyu stood in front of the convenience store glass counter, calmly taking the shopping bag.
He felt a huge opportunity was right in front of him, just one word from him.
Little Shiyu had thought that the tall, thin man would find the smuggled cigarettes and directly hold the convenience store uncle accountable. He had overestimated the tall, thin man.
This person killed stray cats because he couldn’t kill people, his hands were itching, killing Xiao Qi, the convenience store uncle’s cat, was purely because he was cowardly, he didn’t dare to confront the uncle directly, so he killed the weak little cat to indirectly warn the convenience store uncle.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu was utterly disappointed in the adults in their thirties and forties.
—If the convenience store uncle was also cowardly, if others abused his cat like this and he didn’t dare to confront the tall, thin man, then Little Shiyu would personally deal with the tall, thin man who killed Xiao Qi.
“I haven’t seen Xiao Qi either.”
Little Shiyu innocently said, “But the uncle from Room 402 seems to be catching stray cats lately… saying they might… spread some disease.”
Little Shiyu waved the bag and said goodbye to the uncle, “Goodbye, Uncle!”
***
After Little Shiyu left, Ji Shiming frowned.
Stray cats…
Recently, he seemed to have heard that they found cat corpses near the trash can. He had heard about it but hadn’t really paid attention, after all, he had a good reputation in this building, and there was no need to bully his cat.
Ji Shiming stood up and walked out of the convenience store.
Little Shiyu hid behind the curtain of Room 404. Through the crack, he saw in the dusk, the convenience store uncle walking towards the residential building’s trash can, with Xiao Qi’s dismembered body in the black plastic bag in the twilight…
***
Tonight.
No stars, no moon, no light at all, pitch black and gloomy.
A dim yellow desk lamp illuminated in front of the desk.
Little Shiyu was tinkering with an iron box.
After the convenience store uncle saw Xiao Qi’s dismembered body, he didn’t even take it away, leaving it alone in the trash can.
Little Shiyu took out the square iron box where he originally stored cookies. He didn’t disdain Xiao Qi. Little Shiyu carefully took out the dismembered cat’s body and laid Xiao Qi’s corpse to rest in his beloved cookie box.
Tomorrow, he planned to pick some flowers on the lawn of the Youth Palace, put them in with Xiao Qi, and then bury Xiao Qi in their secret base with Chu Feng.
Click.
Little Shiyu closed the lid of the iron box and put the small iron box into his school bag.
11:00 PM.
Mom still hasn’t come home. Little Shiyu set his alarm clock for tomorrow by himself and went to bed. He was about to pull the blanket over himself…
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
There was a hurried sound of footsteps coming from the floor above.
Little Shiyu frowned irritably. In the middle of the night, Auntie or the tall, thin man must have gone to Room 504 again…
Thud!
A loud noise.
Little Shiyu abruptly opened his eyes, sat up. This sound wasn’t like the sound of something heavy being dropped, it sounded like… the sound of a head hitting the floor.
Swish, swish…
Now… it sounded like shoes rubbing against the floor. Little Shiyu thought for a moment, when would someone make this kind of sound?
In his mind, an image of someone being strangled from behind emerged, the assailant holding the person, dragging them back, the person being strangled struggling with their feet, the soles of their shoes rubbing against the floor vigorously…
Someone upstairs was struggling!
Little Shiyu immediately jumped out of bed. He quietly opened the door of Room 404, silently closed it using the same method of slowly sliding the bolt against the door lock as last time.
His peripheral vision scanned the hallway of the fourth floor, looking at Rooms 401 and 402 across from him.
Both of these rooms were dark, Auntie and the tall, thin man were both gone! The fourth floor was now unmonitored. Seven-year-old Little Shiyu, calm and composed, ascended to the fifth floor alone.
He stopped at the corner of the staircase between the fourth and fifth floors, quietly crouching down, peeking up through the gap in the staircase railing…
The door of Room 504 was half-open…
A little light was shining from inside.
Suddenly!
A bloodied hand emerged from the half-open door, tightly gripping the door frame, scratching off a string of wet, fresh bloodstains.
“Ah… ah… mm!”
Little Shiyu heard the sound of struggling, as if someone was being choked, their cries for help stuck in their throat, about to suffocate…
“It’s been many years since I’ve done this. Sigh, I’m a bit out of practice.”
—The voice of the convenience store uncle!
Little Shiyu quietly hid around the corner, observing.
“…Ah!! Help…”
Suddenly! A head emerged from the door frame. Little Shiyu saw that the tall, thin man’s neck had been slashed deeply, blood gushing out, but he wasn’t dead yet, his bloodied hand gripped the door frame, trying to escape—
The convenience store uncle grabbed the work permit around the tall, thin man’s neck.
Little Shiyu watched as the bright blue silk ribbon tightened around the tall, thin man’s throat, directly inserting into the bloody wound on his neck, making the wound even deeper.
The tall, thin man’s face turned purple instantly.
Little Shiyu saw the convenience store uncle’s hands tightly gripping the ribbon, his arms, wrists, and fingers exerting continuous force. Ji Shiming, contrary to his usual gentle “Li Dawei” image, his two eyes were burning completely, his face filled with an excited expression:
“I really didn’t plan to do this again. My career has come to a perfect end, I’m retired now…”
Excited, Ji Shiming threw away the bloodied ribbon. He personally squeezed the neck of the cat-torturing man, the same hands that usually pretended to struggle lifting soda crates, now exerted force. Little Shiyu could tell that with Uncle Ji Shiming’s strength, he could easily strangle the cat-torturing man to death in an instant…
But he didn’t do it.
As the tall, thin man neared death, Ji Shiming immediately eased the pressure. He seemed to be savoring the moment, both enjoying it and creating a masterpiece. Little Shiyu saw him deliberately, slowly, bit by bit, applying pressure with his wrist…
The tall, thin man’s neck was being squeezed, while at the same time, it was being twisted bit by bit…
When it reached a certain point, Little Shiyu knew that the neck would snap, and the head could be twisted off…
Crack, crack.
The tall, thin man’s face contorted in pain, his features no longer resembling those of a human.
“Do you know? Real serial killers have their own unique modus operandi.” Ji Shiming stared at the tall, thin man, who was on the brink of death but couldn’t die, and cruelly smiled:
“Your knot, it’s just too ugly.”
In the eve of his death, the tall, thin man seemed to suddenly realize what the honest and dependable convenience store owner in front of him was saying!
Little Shiyu’s heart sank. Indeed, the uncle in Room 302 was the one behind the serial dismemberment of 12 people reported in the FBI English news.
“I stopped five years ago. Twelve works, it was originally a particularly perfect thing. I didn’t want a thirteenth. The number thirteen is really not auspicious.”
Uncle Ji Shiming, the convenience store owner, squeezed the cat-torturing man’s neck with one hand and provocatively slapped his cheek with the other:
“Tell me, why mess with anyone’s cat? Why mess with mine?”
Fear erupted in the tall, thin man’s eyes. He hadn’t expected that his imitation crimes would be discovered by the real perpetrator. The terror of facing the real devil made him almost wish he were dead in that moment.
The real serial killer, Ji Shiming, was thoroughly enjoying this look of extreme terror before death. Death wasn’t scary; what people feared the most was the process of nearing death. He never let his “works” die so easily. The ultimate terror revealed by people before their deaths made Ji Shiming reminisce in his dreams. Five years ago, God knew how much determination it took for him to stop.
***
Fifteen minutes later.
From around the corner, Little Shiyu heard: “Crack—”
The tortured and dying cat-torturing man had finally been strangled to death.
Ji Shiming, intoxicated, took a deep breath, grabbing the body of the cat-torturing man.
Swish, swish.
Dragging the body into Room 504, into the living room.
The faint rustling sounds came from the living room, somewhat indistinct.
—Possibly dismemberment.
Little Shiyu waited for a moment, making sure Uncle was still active in the living room. He stepped out from the corner between the fourth and fifth floors, slowly taking a step upward.
He knew very well that this time was entirely different from the last time he lurked in Room 504.
Last time, if Auntie and the tall, thin man found him, Little Shiyu might have been able to fool them, because he was just a seven-year-old child. Auntie and the tall, thin man might have thought he didn’t understand what smuggling was. Killing him rashly would have been unwise and would have attracted the attention of his grieving mother.
Little Shiyu took another step, silently and swiftly heading towards the fifth floor landing. He knew, this time there was no possibility of fooling anyone. Once Uncle Ji Shiming discovered him, he would be killed.
Room 504. Little Shiyu slipped behind the half-open door.
He stole a glance at the living room, with a wall separating the door and the living room, leaving only a small passage connecting them.
In the narrow passage, half of the tall, thin man’s feet from Room 402 were visible…
Bang!
Little Shiyu heard the sound of a knife chopping down, the pair of feet being chopped off, blood spreading and flowing into the narrow passage.
Bang, bang, bang… the sound of heavy knives falling, one after another, echoed from the living room.
He was dismembering.
Uncle from the convenience store was an old hand at this, doing it efficiently. Little Shiyu saw him walk over to the severed feet of the tall, thin man, crouch down, and pull out a coil of nylon rope from his pocket.
—Little Shiyu remembered that there was a report in the FBI English news about the California serial killing case using nylon rope to bind the dismembered body parts.
Ji Shiming tied a complex knot with the nylon rope around the severed feet.
This knot tying action was useless for killing, dismembering, or evading investigation, but Ji Shiming had to do it every time he killed someone, as if it were a ritual of the devil’s life.
He stopped and admired his knot for a while, as if admiring a blooming orchid, his expression even showing a hint of gentlemanly intoxication.
He didn’t know that outside the door, another little devil was watching him.
After a while, Little Shiyu behind the door saw Uncle Ji Shiming stand up. He took a few steps and seemed to encounter an obstacle, so he kicked—
Rolling…
The head of the tall, thin man rolled out, leaving a trail of blood. The eyes that couldn’t close in death were wide open, staring at Little Shiyu at the door.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu stood silently behind the door. Strangely, he saw all this blood, body parts, and decapitated head, but he had no adverse psychological reaction. It was as if he were looking at a lump of red playdough, split into several pieces by someone, feeling nothing at all.
Uncle from the convenience store walked towards the bathroom in Room 504.
Little Shiyu knew he was going to wash up.
Uncle’s hand-washing process was a bit lengthy, and he had a bit of OCD, insisting on applying hand cream for maintenance. It would take at least three minutes.
Little Shiyu quickly calculated in his mind. The scene was so messy, blood was everywhere, and Uncle Ji Shiming, in order to directly experience the thrill of killing, didn’t wear gloves at all. His fingerprints were all over the body, and there were many footprints at the scene.
—Little Shiyu realized that in such a scene, if he were to do it, he would definitely not let this scene stay.
Little Shiyu’s gaze fell on the goods in Room 504, piles of tobacco and other flammable materials.
Uncle Ji Shiming would burn this place down later.
Room 504 was unoccupied all year round. An accidental fire.
Auntie from Room 401 was a smuggler. After the fire started, she could only watch helplessly as her goods burned, unable to call the police, suffering in silence. And the tall, thin man, once he disappeared, no one would report him missing. Even if by some chance they found his teeth and bones at the scene of the fire, it could be attributed to an accident.
So…
Little Shiyu lowered his head and looked at the silk ribbon that Uncle Ji Shiming had just thrown away.
The ribbon had been snapped, falling on the floor along with the work permit.
Little Shiyu knew that this ribbon had the blood of the deceased cat-torturing man and the fingerprints of the perpetrator, Uncle from the convenience store.
Before long, all of this would turn to ashes in a fire.
This ribbon was the only thing that could be taken away, the only evidence that could identify Ji Shiming.
The perpetrator of 12 serial dismemberment murders, all escaping without exception, had left the only loophole at this moment in time.
—The serial killer uncle was still washing his hands, three minutes remaining.
Now was the only chance.
Little Shiyu made a quick decision, lowering his head and bending over. He wrapped his hands in the soft jacket, not letting his fingerprints touch the ribbon.
He quickly picked up the lightweight blue ribbon.
A final d*mning piece of evidence, fell into the hands of 7-year-old Little Shiyu.
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