The next day, Zhang Ren came by again with the cat.
Qu Yanning glanced behind him, feeling an inexplicable sense of disappointment. “Er Ye’s already left?”
“Yeah, last night’s flight.”
The feeling of disappointment passed quickly. Qu Yanning took the cat, gave it a loving stroke, and held it in his arms. “Come in for some tea. You always come and go in such a hurry.”
Zhang Ren didn’t refuse. He was actually a bit curious about the place that had kept Er Ye around for so long.
Qu Yanning put the cat on the sofa and turned to get some tea leaves.
Xie Qi sat crouched on the sofa, his tail curled in front of him, staring coldly at Zhang Ren.
Zhang Ren rubbed his nose and was the first to look away, turning his eyes to the window.
“Qu’er—” Chu Zhou, who had just finished recording a video, came strolling out of the room and suddenly stopped in his tracks, raising his voice. “Who are you?”
Zhang Ren looked at him in silence. “.”
Qu Yanning came over with the tea, “This is Zhang Ren, he helped bring Guai Bao back.”
“This is my roommate, Chu Zhou,” he turned to introduce him to Zhang Ren.
Chu Zhou looked him up and down, something clicked in his memory. “You were the one who brought the cat over last time, right?”
He had just finished filming, still wearing heavy makeup that he hadn’t removed yet, a loose oversized T-shirt on top, and the edge of a pair of shorts barely peeking out underneath.
His long, pale legs were mostly bare, and even the toes in his flip-flops looked alluring.
Zhang Ren nodded stiffly, not daring to let his eyes linger on him.
Realizing it was someone familiar, Chu Zhou relaxed.
He rummaged through the snack cupboard, grabbed a few bags, and returned to his room.
“Is that your girlfriend?” Zhang Ren couldn’t help but ask.
“No,” Qu Yanning shook his head. “Just a good friend.”
Zhang Ren gave a quiet “oh,” opened his mouth as if to say more, but ended up staying silent.
They weren’t particularly close, so after chatting briefly, Zhang Ren took his leave.
As soon as he left, Xie Qi, who had been sitting prim and proper on the sofa, sprawled out and began swishing his tail, meowing at Qu Yanning.
“Hey,” Qu Yanning closed the door and walked over, giving the cat’s head a good rub before opening the snack cupboard. “Which one do you want?”
Xie Qi pointed a paw at the marshmallows, his tail swaying happily.
Qu Yanning opened the bag and counted a few pieces onto a plate, placing it by his paw. “Can’t eat too much sugar.”
Xie Qi picked up one with his mouth.
The white marshmallow was soft and fluffy, its sweetness blooming on his tongue.
Satisfied, he squinted his eyes and ate the whole piece, then quickly picked up another.
Clearly defiant — he was going to eat them no matter what.
Qu Yanning chuckled and poked him on the forehead. “Go ahead, eat all you want. You’ll just turn into a chubby ball.”
Xie Qi held the marshmallow in his mouth and pressed his paw over Qu Yanning’s hand, swatting him once with his tail in protest.
*******
August 7th, the beginning of autumn.
Shenshi’s temperatures were still scorching.
The typhoon had failed to bring any relief, and while inland areas were already cooling down, this coastal city remained hot and humid.
Yang Chunfang’s case had been resolved.
Not long after the police confirmed her identity, the murderer was arrested.
When the news broke, the neighborhood was abuzz for quite a while.
Rumors spread like wildfire, but every version inevitably ended with people spitting venom at Yang Chunfang’s husband.
According to reports, Yang Chunfang was attacked while coming home from a night shift.
The assailant had followed her with ill intent and ended up killing her during her struggle to escape.
As revealed by Wang Li, Yang Chunfang had tried calling her husband, Zhang Xianfu, several times before the attack.
But Zhang Xianfu had been in the middle of a steamy affair with his lover, and ignored every single call.
When Yang Chunfang didn’t come home, Zhang Xianfu thought she had found out about the affair and left on purpose to scare him, so he didn’t bother looking for her.
As a result, her body was dumped in a trash bin for several days before anyone discovered it.
Yang Chunfang was from a rural village in another province.
She came to Shenshi alone to work in a factory, where she met and later married Zhang Xianfu.
Besides him, she had no relatives in the city.
The police tracked down her family through her household registration, but her parents refused to acknowledge her, claiming their daughter had been dead for years.
They wouldn’t even come to Shenshi to collect her body.
In the end, the police had no choice but to have her cremated and buried at the funeral home.
Qu Yanning also went on the day of the cremation.
The body had been cleaned up and dressed properly.
Yang Chunfang stood beside it, looking just like she had the first time Qu Yanning saw her— long hair down to her waist, gentle eyes, even the fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes gave off a kind warmth.
It was easy to tell she had been a gentle woman.
“Thank you,” Yang Chunfang tucked her hair back, looking a little embarrassed. “You’ve done so much for me, but I have nothing to repay you with.”
Qu Yanning smiled, dimples appearing faintly at his cheeks. “It’s okay. May you rest in peace.”
Yang Chunfang bowed deeply, then turned and walked away in another direction.
She never looked back at her body, walking with her back straight until she disappeared from sight.
After lighting a stick of incense, Qu Yanning left.
He felt much lighter, and by the time he got back to the neighborhood, the gloom from the past few days had completely lifted.
When he arrived downstairs, an ambulance was parked at the entrance.
A crowd had gathered to watch, and through the onlookers, he could faintly see several people in white coats struggling to push a violently resisting man into the vehicle.
The man thrashed as he yelled, his expression wild. “Didn’t you hear it? She called me again!”
The crowd shrank back in fear.
A woman in red, standing a bit too close, was caught by the man when he broke free.
He grabbed her shoulders and shouted, “You heard it too! Tell them— I’m not crazy! That damn bitch came back! She came for us…”
“What are you doing?!” the woman screamed, swinging her purse hard at his head. “You psycho! Let go of me!”
“You filthy whore!” the man’s face twisted, and he slammed her to the ground, grabbing her hair and smashing her head against the pavement. “You want me dead too, huh? Is that it? Say something!”
The woman clawed at his arm in desperation, her sharp nails digging into his flesh, but she couldn’t break free.
Blood stained the concrete red.
Still, no one in the crowd moved to help.
Only when the people in white finally reacted did they rush in, pulling him off and tying his hands behind his back with rope.
The man looked completely deranged, eyes bulging as he screamed at thin air. “You want to kill me? You want me to die with you? No way!”
“Heh… no way. What can you do to me, huh? Heh heh…” He laughed maniacally as the white coats forced him into the ambulance. The siren wailed as it drove off.
The onlookers began whispering, their gazes full of disdain as they looked at the woman still lying on the ground, her head soaked in blood.
She twitched slightly, then slowly got to her feet.
Her beautiful dress was covered in dust and blood, her once-stylish hair now a sticky, tangled mess of blood and clumps.
She looked grotesque and terrifying.
She covered her face and began to sob, but no one stepped forward to help her.
No one knew who cursed first, but soon others joined in.
“Ugh, homewrecker.”
“Shameless slut!”
“Seduce someone’s husband, now look— getting what she deserves…”
“You—” the woman looked up, her cheeks covered in blood, her face twisted and swollen beyond recognition, as if she wanted to argue, but her mouth trembled and no sound came out.
She just stood there like a cornered animal, trembling in humiliation and rage, before finally crumpling back down again.
With nothing more to watch, the crowd began to disperse. Qu Yanning rubbed his face, then smiled with relief and went home.