The day Lao Chu died, I happened to be out with some seniors from my department. We started with an escape room, moved on to karaoke, and finally, the couples in the group went off to a midnight movie marathon. Bored and with nothing to do, I called up a high school classmate who was also at this university, and we headed to an internet cafe to grind some League of Legends. Around three in the morning, while I was dozing off in my booth, Pi Zhang suddenly called, telling me to get back to school immediately. When I asked what was wrong, he said someone was dead. My heart skipped a beat.
I took a taxi and rushed to the base of the dormitory, where I found several police cars parked. Pi Zhang was smoking a cigarette while talking to a young police officer. Seeing me arrive, he waved me over. The officer didn't look much older than us and seemed very composed. He first confirmed if I was Student Ye, then led me into a police car for a private talk. Ever since I learned the deceased was Lao Chu, I had been terrified, fearing they would treat me as a murder suspect. The officer likely sensed my panic; once we were in the car, he comforted me. "We’ve roughly determined the time of death to be between eight and ten tonight. Since there’s a camera at your dorm entrance and you left at five and didn't return, if you can provide an alibi, we should be able to rule you out as a suspect."
I breathed a sigh of relief.
He then asked if Lao Chu had any enemies or if anything strange had happened recently. I thought about it and said yes.
Before he died, Lao Chu had been acting very strange.
Lao Chu was in the same year as me but a different major. We were both at the bottom of our respective classes' rosters, and since we were the "leftovers" when dorms were assigned, we ended up on the top floor of this building. I remember when he first moved in, he was quite aloof. He wore glasses, carried thick books, and always looked very serious and academic. He was a law student; I suppose a future member of the social elite didn't care to associate with slackers like us. Then, for a period of time, his health declined, and he went back to his hometown to rest for a month. When he returned, he was like a completely different person. Originally, he had been distant and solitary, but after coming back, he became very focused on maintaining social relationships. He quickly integrated into the interdisciplinary circle of the top floor and became quite popular—mostly because half of his hard drive was filled with porn. He always managed to find high-definition videos despite our abysmal internet speeds; every social circle needs a "Resource King" like that.
At the time, our jaws practically hit the floor. Everyone said the same thing about Lao Chu: he was upright and ascetic. None of us expected the "elite" to be such a pro at this.
Later, I felt Lao Chu was taking it a bit too far. It was as if he had discarded his books overnight to devote himself entirely to the industry of "grinding until one turns to dust." Sometimes, when several of us gathered to watch a film, I could sense his thirsty, flickering gaze even through his lenses. I told him it was a bit too blatant—did he really need to be so single-minded while watching a video, not even blinking? Even if he hadn't "eaten the pork," surely he'd "seen the pig run" before? Was there really a need to watch people going at it from morning till night? Surely he’d hit aesthetic fatigue eventually; besides, the naked human body isn't always that beautiful, right?
But as we grew closer, I discovered that this guy actually had a girlfriend—and it wasn't just one or two. I realized Lao Chu was a real dark horse. Seeing how he studied the "arts of the bedchamber," it made sense; he had professional needs, after all. Sometimes I’d even remind him to be careful of his kidneys and eat more organ meats to supplement his strength.
At this point, the officer interrupted me. He said I was being too long-winded and asked if I could speed it up. He was clearly writing "messy private life" in his notebook, yet he blamed me for not providing useful information. I was trying my best to reconstruct Lao Chu's life—who knew if this was a crime of passion?
Among the dozen or so people on our top floor, Lao Chu was closest to me. To be honest, his closeness felt a bit sycophantic. Meanwhile, Pi Zhang fancied himself the "Big Brother" of our floor, but Lao Chu didn't really give him the time of day. Pi Zhang couldn't admit he was jealous of being ignored, so he’d just glare and chain-smoke whenever he saw him. Lao Chu would, at most, give a faint smile through the smoke—a smile that was almost a bit flirtatious—and then continue to ignore him, turning away and leaving Pi Zhang fuming enough to punch a wall. In short, I didn't know how they managed to form a grudge when nothing had actually happened and they barely spoke. Pi Zhang’s pettiness was one thing, but Lao Chu’s attitude of total, arrogant disregard was also a bit much.
Once, while we were drinking and Lao Chu wasn't around, Pi Zhang glanced at me and gave a cold chuckle. He said Lao Chu looked like a smooth operator, but he was actually a total coward, wasn't he?
I knew what he was referring to. Lao Chu always claimed that every night at midnight, strange footsteps would echo in our dormitory hallway. No matter how much we mocked him, he insisted our dorm was "unclean." He stubbornly put up various charms and holy water and drew bizarre symbols. I even looked some of them up and found that some belonged to Eastern Taoism, some to Western alchemy, and others couldn't be identified at all. He really spanned across time and space; I hadn't realized Lao Chu was such a charlatan. However, those charms and magic circles didn't seem as direct or effective as Pi Zhang bringing girls back to roll around in the hay. I suspected Pi Zhang did it specifically to spite Lao Chu. In the end, Lao Chu became the laughingstock of the entire floor.
But now, I felt Lao Chu might not have been wrong. The world is vast; who knows what exists out there? When I encountered that thing in my own room, my first instinct had been to find Lao Chu.
The officer interrupted me again: "Are you saying Pi Zhang and Lao Chu had a grudge?"
I stole a glance at Pi Zhang outside the car window. He was crouching on the steps, a lit cigarette between his fingers, a pile of butts at his feet. His entire face was hidden in the shadows of the smoke, making him look like a crumbling ancient statue. The Pi Zhang in my memory was always arrogant and overbearing, but now he looked like a lifeless puppet, evoking a strange sense of pity. I withdrew my gaze and forced a smile. "It wasn't some deep-seated hatred, and there was never any violence. They just didn't like each other. I don't know the details; you'd better ask Pi Zhang himself."
The young officer nodded, scribbling in his notebook. "Lao Chu studied the occult?"
I didn't realize that hocus-pocus could be called a "study." "Probably. I don't know what he did in his spare time, but I heard him mention a certain Celestial Master in our city... called Hong-something?"
"Master Honghui? The one in Sanmen Lane?"
"Yes."
"What did Lao Chu say about him?"
"Said he was a scammer."
The officer put down his pen and looked up, staring at me seriously. I could only blink innocently.
He stared at me for a good three seconds before lowering his head and asking me to describe what had happened in my dorm. Just then, my roommate returned on his bicycle. Seeing the commotion, he stopped and pushed his bike over, only to be intercepted and questioned by the police. Under the streetlights, my roommate kept his head down. His eyelashes looked very long, giving him a docile appearance that made me swallow the words I had intended to say. I felt that even if I said it, the police wouldn't necessarily believe me. So, I made up a lie, saying my roommate smelled bad and I didn't want to live with him.
That day, I had told Lao Chu about my roommate, and Lao Chu told me to pack my things and move in with him. I had agreed eagerly, of course, but I didn't dare enter my room. I didn't know if my roommate was inside, so I asked Lao Chu to go in with me. To my surprise, Lao Chu refused to take a single step into my room, no matter what. As we were dallying at the door, Pi Zhang suddenly opened his door and cursed at us for being lunatics.
"You," he pointed at me, "go in and get your stuff." Then he grabbed Lao Chu and pulled him toward the stairwell. I didn't know what had gotten into Pi Zhang; he looked furious. I was afraid they might fight, but then I saw him pull out a cigarette, take a deep drag, and lower his head to talk to Lao Chu. It didn't look like he was going to get violent. So, I steeled myself and went back into the dorm, like a thief, grabbing my washbasin, towel, toothbrush cup, and a few pairs of shorts before fleeing.
When Pi Zhang saw me come out, he took a puff of his cigarette and left. Lao Chu pushed up his glasses and smiled at me. "Let me carry that for you, let me carry that..."
I didn't think anything was wrong and handed him the washbasin without a second thought. That was just how Lao Chu and I interacted. He was exceptionally attentive to me. I never wondered why; I was just used to it. But since I’d moved in with him, Lao Chu had become a bit excessive. He was still attentive, but that attentiveness was laced with certain unpleasant factors... As for what they were exactly, I found it hard to say. But now that a life had been lost and I was giving a statement, I couldn't afford to be evasive; otherwise, I probably wouldn't have said it until the day I died.
After the officer prompted me several times, I finally said with forced composure, "Lao Chu... he was getting handsy with me. He said he liked me and wanted to sleep with me."
The officer reacted quickly, glancing at me in surprise, and then he actually laughed. This was the first expression other than seriousness he’d shown in half an hour. And the bastard actually laughed out loud! *Heh, heh my ass! Is it okay for a member of the People's Police to mock an important witness like this?!* Sitting in the passenger seat, my face turned bright red. Was it easy for a grown man like me to say something like that?
"So, before he was killed, he suddenly changed his sexual orientation?"
"...Not exactly. He still went out with his girlfriend."
"Girlfriend? What girlfriend? Do you know her?" The officer raised an eyebrow. I could tell what he was thinking from his expression: *Your social circle is a mess.*
"...I only saw the back of him and another woman from the window. That day, he had just confessed to me, and I rejected him. He left looking dejected. I thought something might be wrong and was worried about him, so I chased him down a few floors. Then, from a window on the third floor, I saw him walking away with his arm around a woman."
Whether it's a man or a woman, an experience like that is embarrassing. How could someone be like that? One moment he's failing to pursue me, and the next he's off to book a room with a girl. I hadn't told anyone about this. As it turned out, the officer who shared this precious life experience with me was actually gloating. Don't think I didn't see the corners of your mouth twitching upward.
I saw the officer draw a red line between Pi Zhang and Lao Chu, then connect me, the mysterious girlfriend, and Lao Chu. He asked if I had anything else to say. I thought for a moment and told him that in Lao Chu's dorm, you really could hear unusual footsteps in the hallway around two in the morning. I couldn't describe them, but they felt chilling. The officer nodded and gave me a business card. The name on it was Ren Xing. Despite his youth, who would have thought he was already a detective in the Major Crimes Unit? He watched me save his number and told me to contact them if I found any new leads.
By the time I got out of the car, it was nearly four in the morning. Lao Chu's body was just being carried out of our building. As they passed me with two stretchers, I asked in confusion, "Was he cut in half?"
Pi Zhang took a puff of his cigarette. "Flayed."
I nearly wet myself right then and there.
No wonder Officer Ren was so certain from the start that I wasn't the killer.
"This kind of death... forget a normal college student, it’s hard to say if a human could even do it," Pi Zhang said, pointing toward the balcony on our top floor. Our dormitory building faced north-south, and at the eastern end of each floor's hallway, there was a narrow balcony. To prevent people from falling, the balcony railings were topped with iron spikes—they looked nice and were safe. Now, that balcony was sealed off with yellow tape.
Pi Zhang told me that when Lao Chu was found, his entire skin had been peeled off. His body, looking like a "Red-Skinned Lao Chu," was impaled face-down on those spikes. That human skin was hanging nearby, flapping in the wind like a red flag.
I snatched his cigarette and took several deep drags, my temples throbbing with pain.
This was too damn sinister.
Pi Zhang glanced toward the corner of the building. I followed his gaze and saw my roommate standing there with his bicycle, half of his face obscured by shadows.
Pi Zhang said, "Sinister. It’s incredibly sinister."
***
