Chapter 56: Childhood Episode · Complete
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Ji Shiming eagerly awaited Little Shiyu’s confession.
To his surprise, Little Shiyu remained silent.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu stared at Ji Shiming, who thought he had won, and noticed that he had missed a detail. Ji Shiming knew very well that when he returned from Xinhua Bookstore, it was almost the time when Sun Wencheng from Room 104 came out to water the flowers. But he didn’t think further:
Little Shiyu clearly knew who was in Room 104, yet he still dared to come back at that time, indicating that he had no fear of Uncle from Room 104.
On the contrary, Uncle from Room 104 was afraid of him.
If Ji Shiming had thought of this point, he wouldn’t have chosen Room 104 as the one to threaten Chu Feng. If he had chosen someone else in the building to be the threat, Little Shiyu might have confessed today to protect Chu Feng.
But because of the child abuse committed by the occupant of Room 104, Ji Shiming was blinded, and he chose Room 104, ensuring that he would not hear any confession today.
Little Shiyu tightly sealed his lips, like a tightly closed clamshell.
The last time Ji Shiming guided Chu Feng to the alley where Uncle from Room 104 passed by on his way to work, Little Shiyu noticed Ji Shiming’s plan.
That day, he took the lost Chu Feng out and returned to school. After school, Little Shiyu went home alone and picked up a handy fruit knife.
That night, 23:00.
Mom hadn’t come home as usual.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu, holding a fruit knife, bounced down the stairs.
Room 104
The floor was low, it was hot at night, and Sun Wencheng’s windows were usually open. As one gets older, it’s hard to sleep until dawn. Tonight, he got up as usual to use the bathroom.
Splash, splash.
Flushing, pulling up his pants, Sun Wencheng yawned as he came out of the bathroom. He laid back in bed, closed his eyes, and felt the cool night breeze blowing in from outside.
Beside the bed, the curtains swayed—
Suddenly! Sun Wencheng felt a cold sensation on his neck, and he abruptly opened his eyes to see a knife pressed against his Adam’s apple!
“Ah…!”
“Shh.”
The curtains fluttered, and seven-year-old Little Shiyu, dressed in black, walked out like a ghost.
Sun Wencheng trembled in fear. “What are you doing… what do you want to do!”
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu, holding the knife, stood at the head of Sun Wencheng’s bed, looking like a little ghost from a horror movie. He smiled grimly:
“Uncle, what were you doing in the alley during the day?”
“I… I wasn’t doing anything!”
Sun Wencheng realized what was happening. Little Shiyu had come to stand up for his friend. Sun Wencheng looked wronged:
“I… I really didn’t do anything! I was just going to work and passed by that alley… and then your friend was there, it’s not my fault he ended up there! I swear! I didn’t even touch a hair on him!”
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu, holding the knife, looked at Sun Wencheng:
“You didn’t touch him, but you saw him, right?”
***
—What?
Sun Wencheng was shocked, cold sweat breaking out all over his body. What did this little ghost mean? He had just hidden behind the house and glanced at the little boy today, but he hadn’t done anything wrong. Even saints judge actions, not thoughts, so why couldn’t he even look anymore!
“Don’t move.”
Little Shiyu held the sharp fruit knife, its tip pressing against Sun Wencheng’s Adam’s apple. Sun Wencheng felt a slight pain in his neck, trembling with fear:
“Uncle won’t move… please don’t… be stimulated, could you… could you please move the knife away first?”
Little Shiyu held the sharp fruit knife steadily. Sun Wencheng could see that this child’s grip on the knife was very skilled, not like other desperate people who hold the knife tightly, afraid of losing it. That kind of grip was too tight, and if held for too long, the hand would stiffen, making it difficult to hold the knife, and it would slip off at the slightest touch.
Sun Wencheng observed that this seven-year-old child held the knife very lightly, with his fingers wrapped around the handle, using only seventy percent of his strength, leaving three-tenths for adjustment. If the prey made any struggling movements, he could adjust the direction of the blade tip at any time and stab viciously—
Sun Wencheng had intended to find an opportunity to counterattack, but now, under Little Shiyu’s knife, he didn’t dare move a muscle.
Little Shiyu held the sharp fruit knife, and the tip of the knife pierced Sun Wencheng’s neck again, scaring Sun Wencheng so much that all the hairs on his body stood up. He was about to beg for mercy when Little Shiyu said:
“Uncle, listen carefully. The next time you look at him again…”
Sun Wencheng thought the child was going to say the common line: “I’ll gouge your eyeballs out.”
“I’ll kill you!”
Sun Wencheng looked at the devil in front of him in horror.
Little Shiyu grinned, “Uncle should know, I’m only seven years old, killing someone isn’t against the law, even if you call the police, it won’t help. The police can only educate me at most.
“If I gouge your eyeballs out, I’ll still be sent for education. It’s better to just kill you, it’s more cost-effective.”
Sun Wencheng couldn’t control his trembling.
The knife pressed against his Adam’s apple slid down his throat, gradually aiming at his lungs.
Little Shiyu said, “I heard that puncturing the lungs is the most painful. Since I’m already killing someone, I won’t just stab you to death so simply, Uncle, I’ll definitely help you dismember your body.”
Sun Wencheng was on the verge of tears, breathing heavily and rapidly.
He had been sentenced by the law before, and he knew very well that at Xie Shiyu’s age, he was practically synonymous with lawlessness. Even if he really committed murder and dismemberment, the law couldn’t touch him, and…
Little Shiyu: “And, after I kill Uncle, I will definitely turn around and say that Uncle did something bad to me, that’s why I came to kill you. Uncle, you have a criminal record, everyone will believe me, sympathize with me, and maybe I won’t even need to be educated, I could be acquitted directly.”
Sun Wencheng felt that the scene before him was absurd to the extreme. He, an adult male, was actually being threatened like this by a seven-year-old child.
But he had to admit, everything the child said was true. Seven-year-old Xie Shiyu was not the underage child he had bullied before, but a small murderer protected by juvenile protection laws.
—More terrifying than an adult serial killer.
Little Shiyu held the knife to Sun Wencheng’s lung and drew a bloodstain.
Sun Wencheng was so frightened that he wanted to scream, but he was afraid that if he screamed too loudly, Xie Shiyu would really stab him to death. He opened his mouth, like a mute rooster, his face full of fear, feeling as if he had entered a slaughterhouse, about to witness himself scalded with boiling water and plucked alive.
“Please… please… I beg you…”
“Uncle, I know what time you leave and what time you sleep every day, I know all your habits. Remember, if you look at him again, I’ll kill you and dismember you!
“For someone like me from this kind of family, you should know what I’m capable of.”
“Do you understand?”
Sun Wencheng was covered in cold sweat, quickly nodding like garlic:
“I understand, I understand! I definitely won’t look, absolutely won’t look…”
Little Shiyu stared at Uncle like a ghost for a while, then suddenly withdrew the knife, turned around and jumped out of the first-floor window. Like an agile little black panther, he disappeared into the thick darkness.
***
At this moment.
Sun Wencheng held the shower head and just opened Room 104, only to see the little boy from the alley last time appearing in the empty courtyard.
His eyes had just glanced at him for a moment when he caught a glimpse of the vague figure of the little boy, and reflexively looked away.
—He didn’t even see what kind of clothes little Chu Feng was wearing today.
Sun Wencheng couldn’t help but curse himself for being despicable. Now that kid from Room 404 wasn’t even here, what could he do even if he had a hundred eyes!
But he was really scared.
He didn’t dare.
What if? What if that kid from 404 was now hiding in some corner observing him? Last time he entered his house, he came in silently through the window and scared him to death.
Sun Wencheng was a coward from Room 104, only daring to bully children. Once a child showed a face that didn’t match their innocence, he would be terrified. As the saying goes, in June, children’s faces change at will. Children couldn’t be bribed. Adults could still try to negotiate with money to see if they could settle things, but when a child got angry and said they would stab you to death, and after stabbing you, the law would still protect them.
Sun Wencheng had no way to deal with the child Little Shiyu.
Bang—
A loud noise startled little Chu Feng.
He saw the door of Room 104 had just opened, and an uncle came out, but after a few steps, he fled as if avoiding a plague, and then hurried back into the room.
—Strange.
Curious little Chu Feng walked over from the courtyard. From a distance, he secretly glanced at the window of Room 104—
An uncle was installing anti-theft iron wires on his window to prevent someone from climbing in. He angrily hammered the nails, muttering curses under his breath:
“Pervert! They’re all perverts! Even children are so perverted!”
He cursed in a low voice, as if afraid of being heard by someone. Uncle looked up and found him—
D*mn it! Sun Wencheng cursed inwardly:
This plague little boy is here again! He quickly averted his gaze and waved his hand, cursing loudly:
“Get lost!”
Little Chu Feng was scolded, carrying his small backpack, quietly walked back into the small courtyard, and continued to wait.
***
In the convenience store, behind an iron door
“I was waiting for my mom at home! Are you crazy, let me go— mmph!”
Seven-year-old Little Xie shouted, but was tightly covered by Ji Shiming.
Little Shiyu knew in his heart that he had to hold on and not confess. Uncle from Room 104 had been confronted by him, and there was no way he would do anything to Chu Feng.
But he also couldn’t remain silent in front of Ji Shiming forever. It would be too eerie for a seven-year-old child to remain silent and not speak.
Little Shiyu simulated in his mind how a seven-year-old brat who really didn’t know anything would speak. He guessed that Uncle would definitely ask him about what he was doing behind the peephole that night.
Sure enough, Ji Shiming pressed, “Stop lying! Uncle saw you hiding behind the peephole that day, what were you looking at?”
“I was looking at when my mom would come back! But instead, I saw you, you pervert standing at my door!!”
Little Shiyu pretended to be irrational, kicking and hitting Uncle with his small hands and feet, but of course, he was mercilessly suppressed by Ji Shiming. Little Shiyu pretended to be resentful and cursed:
“You’re just like the person from Room 104!! Disgusting! Get lost—”
Little Shiyu made a biting and hitting gesture, desperately trying to open Ji Shiming’s grip to go save Chu Feng in the courtyard.
Ji Shiming’s cold eyes carefully watched the little demon in front of him.
—If this was acting, it was too realistic.
Ji Shiming thought, maybe this little demon really thought of him as a pedophile like the one in Room 104. That night, he saw him through the peephole, scared to make a sound, and now he was caught by himself. His friend was still in the courtyard, together with the pedophile from Room 104, and he couldn’t break free from the shackles. He could only be trapped in the convenience store, behind an iron door, not knowing what was happening in the courtyard, like a trapped beast at the end of its tether.
Little Shiyu had been observing him all along. While Ji Shiming was thinking like this, Little Shiyu timely shed two tears, his eyes were red, like a fierce little wolf, full of helpless anger, staring at Ji Shiming.
—Is this enough acting? Little Shiyu thought.
After a while, Ji Shiming Shiming gradually released him.
—He opened the back door of the convenience store for him:
“Get lost.”
***
Before leaving, Little Shiyu didn’t forget to glare fiercely at Ji Shiming and say a couple of tough words that a little brat would say: “You just wait for me!”
Ji Shiming shrugged, indifferent.
He didn’t see that when Little Shiyu walked out of the back door, the tears on his face stopped instantly, like turning off a faucet, and his red eyes, after a few blows of the wind, returned to normal.
“Hey.”
In the courtyard, Chu Feng turned his head and saw Little Shiyu suddenly appearing behind him:
“Have you been waiting for a long time?”
“N… not really long.” Chu Feng lowered his head, feeling a little embarrassed. He had secretly sneaked into Xie Shiyu’s house by himself again. Would Little Shiyu be angry?
Chu Feng quickly changed the subject: “Where did you just go?”
“Well… just wandered around casually.” Little Shiyu said casually.
While little Chu Feng waited quietly for him, he was trapped in the convenience store by Uncle, which was a terrifying moment, but it completely cleared his suspicion.
At this stage of probing, Ji Shiming would also let go. There were so many other residents in the building, it wasn’t worth wasting time with him.
Seven-year-old Little Shiyu stood in the courtyard, looking up. Today, the weather was beautiful, the sky was blue.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you to see the swallows.”
Little Shiyu said softly, reaching out his hand and naturally holding Chu Feng’s hand.
—Now it wasn’t lineup after school, and there was no teacher demanding that they hold hands.
Chu Feng felt a bit shy. He gently shook the hand held by Little Shiyu.
“You don’t need to hold my hand. I’ve been to your house many times before, I won’t get lost.”
“Okay.”
Chu Feng waited for a while and found that Little Shiyu didn’t let go of his hand, just holding it like this, tighter and tighter.
Chu Feng’s little face blushed slightly, and he stopped speaking.
They walked to the corridor on the first floor, and a gentle breeze blew on their faces.
“Look over there.”
Little Shiyu pointed to the corner between the wall and the ceiling. “See that?”
“Wow! Such a big swallow’s nest!”
Chu Feng exclaimed excitedly and ran over. This swallow’s nest was a bit different from the one he had seen at Xie’s house before; it was semi-circular.
“Are there baby swallows in the nest?”
“Yes, there are.”
Chu Feng jumped excitedly twice. “But it’s so high… I can’t see.”
“Stand on these.” Little Shiyu pointed to several stacked wooden crates under the corridor.
“What are these crates…” Chu Feng looked at the nearby residents’ doorplates: 104, “Isn’t this Uncle’s? I saw him seem to have a bad temper just now. Will he scold you for stepping on his crates later?”
Little Shiyu sneered, “He wouldn’t dare.”
Chu Feng: ??
Little Shiyu patted the neatly stacked wooden crates. “Step on it, it’s fine.”
Little Shiyu held his pretty little prince’s hand and helped Chu Feng climb onto the stacked crates until they were close to the top of the wall.
The mud-built swallow’s nest was right in front of them. Prince Chu Feng looked inside curiously, his eyes against the opening of the swallow’s nest—
“Chirp chirp!”
“Ah, I see!” Chu Feng exclaimed, “There are several of them!”
The baby swallows were round-headed and fluffy. They poked out their chubby bellies, blinked their shiny black eyes, and also looked curiously at the human cubs outside the nest:
“Chirp chirp chirp~”
“So cute!” Chu Feng smiled happily.
Little Shiyu stepped up onto the wooden crates and stood next to little Chu Feng. He glanced at the baby swallows for a moment, then shifted his gaze to Chu Feng’s smiling face.
—You’re even cuter.
This was too embarrassing to say out loud. Seven-year-old Little Shiyu remained silent, just holding Chu Feng’s hand.
As the wind gradually blew, time seemed to stretch out inch by inch, and they were both growing up. For little Chu Feng, visiting Little Shiyu’s house was the only thing he was interested in among the suffocating schedule of childhood activities.
For Little Shiyu, little Chu Feng, who came to observe small animals with him, was the only thing he looked forward to in his dark, oppressive, and potentially life-threatening childhood.
The swallows chirped, and the sky was clear. Two little friends walked hand in hand.
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