Chapter 52: Person Beyond the Peephole
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Crackle, crackle.
The faucet released clear, cool water.
Ji Shiming’s hands were covered in imported fragrant hand wash, rubbing them back and forth meticulously, humming a cheerful handwashing song. He carefully washed away all traces of blood from the dismemberment just now.
His hands became clean and white again.
Ji Shiming looked satisfied and then pulled out a delicate pink silk handkerchief from his pocket, drying them off. Then he took out the L’OCCITANE hand cream. Today, he had switched to a new scent, peony.
The girlish scent of peony filled the air between his hands. Ji Shiming lowered his head, leaning between his hands that had just killed someone, indulgingly taking a deep sniff.
The fragrance was intoxicating, penetrating deep into his lungs.
Ji Shiming emerged from the bathroom, satisfied. He glanced at the corpse on the ground.
Not doing this for five years made his skills a bit rusty. Ji Shiming squatted down, scrutinizing the cut surface of the corpse. After all, he was getting older, and his hand strength wasn’t as nimble as it used to be when he was young, so the cut surface of the flesh wasn’t as smooth and even.
Ji Shiming looked disdainfully at the head of the cat-abusing man. This piece of work was a failure, but fortunately, it wouldn’t be discovered by the police. His record remained brilliant on the other side of the ocean, in a foreign land where the unsolvable twelve cases of serial dismemberment occurred.
Snap.
Ji Shiming lit a lighter. He piled several flammable items together, about to ignite them when—
A premonition seized him. Ji Shiming abruptly turned his head.
Before him was a wall, and behind the wall, a half-open door.
Ji Shiming extinguished the lighter.
He paused for a moment, then slowly walked towards the doorway…
A light, fluttering work badge laid at the doorway.
The ribbon was gone!
***
Little Shiyu ran back to Room 404.
He hid inside, locking both doors tightly, leaning against the doorway, listening for any movement outside.
—Silence.
Little Shiyu calmed down and returned to his bedroom. He took out a red scarf he had bought at the school gate for five cents and wrapped the blood-stained blue silk ribbon in it.
Little Shiyu then pulled out a pair of school pants from the closet, casually bundling the red scarf into one of the pockets. He neatly folded the pants back and placed them in the closet, mixing them with other clothes, quietly waiting inside.
Nobody knew that in one of the pockets of the clothes placed so openly, there was something incredible.
Little Shiyu closed his closet. He walked to the window, observing if there was any smoke coming out of the fifth floor.
After Mr. Ji Shiming lit the fire, he should have taken measures to put it out or called the fire brigade in advance. Little Shiyu thought that Mr. Ji Shiming had done so many bad things, killing and setting fires should have been done cautiously, not enough to burn down the entire building.
Just in case, Little Shiyu kept his eyes on the potential fire that could start at any moment.
After waiting for a long time, it was already late at night, but the fire he anticipated had not yet ignited.
Strange…
Little Shiyu frowned. His estimation should not have been wrong. The scene was so chaotic, wouldn’t Mr. Ji Shiming have to continuously wipe the bloodstains off the ground? With so much blood flowing, it would take at least an hour or two to wipe it off, and besides, Little Shiyu saw on TV that even if the bloodstains were wiped away, they could still be detected.
There’s still a body, with all the marks of strangulation and fingerprints on it. If the body isn’t burned, Uncle will have to pack up all the body parts and then find a chance to dispose of them again. Carrying such a big bag, walking around the corridor, would be too conspicuous.
The night was eerily quiet.
Little Shiyu couldn’t see any smoke from the fire, nor could he hear Uncle’s usual footsteps coming downstairs.
—What is Uncle doing upstairs?
Little Shiyu glanced across the hall. The lights in Room 401 were still off, and Auntie hadn’t returned yet. Maybe she was out smuggling.
He waited for a while longer.
There was still no movement from Uncle.
—Has he already come downstairs?
If Uncle was deliberately stepping lightly, Little Shiyu thought he might indeed not hear anything.
As time passed by every minute, Mom would be coming back soon. Little Shiyu felt a bit anxious. What if Mom came back and happened to run into Uncle Ji Shiming carrying a bag of body parts from the fifth floor…
Would Mom be silenced?
—What is Uncle Ji Shiming really doing?
Unable to grasp the movements of this serial killer, Little Shiyu felt he couldn’t sleep peacefully tonight. Seven-year-old Xie walked to the door, brought a small stool, and stood on it.
Through the peephole on the door, he could see the corridor and staircase between Room 404 and Room 403. Whenever Ji Shiming came down from the fifth floor, he could see it clearly.
Leaning forward, Little Shiyu approached the door panel, his left eye facing the peephole, looking out — !!
Outside the peephole, there was no corridor, no staircase, just a huge eye.
Little Shiyu was reflexively startled and crouched down.
Uncle Ji Shiming was right at his doorstep!
Uncle’s eyes were pressed against the peephole, peering into his home from outside, not knowing how long he had been watching…
Little Shiyu immediately calmed down. You couldn’t see inside from outside through the peephole, so Uncle couldn’t see what was inside his house, and he didn’t know that he was standing behind the door watching…
Wait.
Little Shiyu paused, suddenly realizing something was wrong!
—The light.
When he wasn’t observing the peephole, from the outside, the light from inside would be visible through the peephole.
And when he stood on the stool to observe through the peephole, his body would block the light, making it darker… But as soon as he crouched down, the light reappeared!
Uncle from the convenience store stood outside. Although he couldn’t see inside, from this change in light, Little Shiyu immediately knew that he was right behind the peephole…!
Seven-year-old Xiao Xie leaned against the door, and behind his family’s door stood a real serial killer. What’s even more frightening is that he didn’t know when Uncle had come down, and he was only staring at his family’s door.
After a while, there were faint sounds, one after another, coming from outside the door.
Little Shiyu listened carefully…
Click!
The door lock opened.
—Uncle was prying the door open!
The door of Xie Shiyu’s house was very old, especially the first green iron door, which was dilapidated. Ji Shiming slightly used an iron wire to pry it open a few times, and immediately opened the first door.
The second door, a not-so-sturdy wooden door, could be easily broken through with a few hits by an adult man.
“Little Shiyu, Uncle knows you’re home~”
Ji Shiming laid on the wooden board, speaking softly, and then immediately…
Bang! Bang! Bang!!
Ji Shiming, using the hands that had killed thirteen adult males, gripped the doorknob of the wooden door and forcefully pulled! The fragile wooden door panel banged against the door frame, making a loud noise!
Little Shiyu stood alone behind the door.
The drunkard in Room 403 hadn’t come back, Auntie in Room 401 had gone out to smuggle, and the thin man in Room 402 had been killed.
The entire fourth floor now only had him and Uncle.
The wooden door would soon give way.
Mom hadn’t come home yet.
Ordinary children would cry in fear at this moment, begging for their parents’ protection, but Little Shiyu had long given up seeking such things from his parents. It’s better to say that Mom not being home was Mom’s luck. Most of the time, parents weren’t reliable with a knife.
Seven-year-old Xie Shiyu jumped off the stool. He turned around and picked up the long knife he usually used to cook for himself from the kitchen, along with a bottle of chili sauce — the one he had originally planned to use to marinate meat for himself.
He waited by the side of the wooden door.
If the Uncle from the convenience store wanted to kill him, he would use that ribbon as an excuse, saying he hadn’t left it at home, but had hidden it somewhere on the floor.
This way, Uncle wouldn’t kill him in one go, Little Shiyu was confident, because if he died, Uncle would never know where the ribbon had gone.
But…
This was really the last resort. If possible, Little Shiyu still wanted to maintain his “naive and romantic” image as a seven-year-old child. He hadn’t been to the fifth floor, nor had he picked up that ribbon.
Although the lights in Room 401 and Room 403 were off, who knew where they were? Auntie might not have gone straight to Room 401 when she came back, but went to the smuggling warehouse on the fifth floor to check it out, only to witness the murder scene and take the ribbon.
As long as he wasn’t caught red-handed by Uncle from the convenience store, everything else could be said casually. Little Shiyu calculated in his mind that no matter what, in the eyes of adults, he would always be a seven-year-old brat. Although Uncle Ji Shiming was particularly suspicious of him now, as time passed and there was no evidence that he had taken the ribbon, Little Shiyu believed that Uncle Ji Shiming would eventually turn his attention elsewhere.
And, intermittently, Uncle would have a hint in his mind: Is it really just a seven-year-old brat? Could it be him? Can a little brat understand so much?
This was the arrogance of all adults towards children.
Bang—Bang—!!
The door panel became louder and was about to give way…
“What’s that noise!”
Little Shiyu’s hand holding the knife paused.
Outside, Ji Shiming also stopped.
Downstairs, the sound of high heels gradually approached.
“Who’s there? What are you doing so late at night?”
A woman’s voice.
Little Shiyu was startled. Mom was back!
He immediately peeked through the crack in the door. If Uncle from the convenience store was planning to harm Mom, he would rush out and see if he and Mom could plot against Uncle.
If Uncle chose to escape, then tonight’s events would end here.
Little Shiyu, gripping the knife, waited.
Ji Shiming stood at the door, staring deeply at the wooden door.
The high heels downstairs were approaching rapidly.
The corpse upstairs hadn’t been dealt with yet.
Ji Shiming smiled, took a step back, gently closed the iron door of Little Shiyu’s house, and silently locked it. He turned around, ran, and escaped from the cross staircase to the building opposite.
Tap, tap, tap, the high heels climbed up and stopped outside the door.
Click, click, Mom was outside turning the key.
Little Shiyu had already put the knife back in the kitchen, laid back in the bedroom, and obediently closed his eyes.
Click—the door opened.
Mom walked in, unaware of what had happened tonight. She locked the door, went to her son’s room, and checked on him.
“Mom…”
Little Shiyu rubbed his eyes, pretending to wake up sleepily, and said in a muffled voice:
“Mom’s back…”
“Mmm!” Mom walked over and hugged Little Shiyu. “Did I wake you up?”
Little Shiyu neither nodded nor shook his head.
“By the way, did you hear… banging on the door just now?” Mom asked.
Little Shiyu obediently shook his head.
“Alright… remember to always lock the door when you’re home alone. Got it?” Mom said.
Little Shiyu nodded, but he knew that locking the door wouldn’t help. If someone really wanted to come in, there were countless ways. He deliberately took his time going to the bathroom. Uncle from the convenience store would escape from the cross staircase and should come back to this building through the rooftop planks of the building behind, go to the fifth floor, and set fire.
Little Shiyu was waiting for the fire to start. Before that happened, he couldn’t let Mom fall asleep.
About 4 minutes later.
“Mom.” Little Shiyu held his mom’s hand. “It seems like… there’s smoke!”
Mom sniffed, and it was true! She quickly opened the window to look out, only to see thick smoke drifting down from upstairs…
“Oh no! Is there a fire upstairs?”
***
That night, no one in the residential building slept.
The fire brigade arrived with sirens wailing. Little Shiyu glanced at the clock, and their timing was just right. Room 504 was burned down completely, but the fire didn’t spread to the hallway, affecting other residents.
Only Auntie from room 401, who came back around two or three in the morning, fainted from hearing the news that Room 504 was burned down. An ambulance took her to the hospital.
Little Shiyu stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the ambulance drive away, and muttered:
“Serves her right.”
The person who killed the little swallows that Chu Feng wanted to see shouldn’t have a good ending. Little Shiyu thought to himself that evil deeds would be repaid, but sometimes, when God was too busy, it required someone else to expedite their retribution.
The man who abused cats was dead, and the smuggling Auntie was in the hospital. Little Shiyu slowly shifted his gaze to Room 304—
The serial killer uncle shouldn’t be spared either.
Want to show your support? Come donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
