Chapter 132
Lin Yi was already frozen but this shrill cry made his blood surge again.
Tensed nerves relaxed.
At first, Lin Yi thought it was the cat representing Sun Jingwen’s Rules of Death, guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits.
The moment he touched the cat’s fur, Lin Yi was already going through his last will and testament in his mind.
There was a cat in the closet.
But it was alive.
Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t need to draft his last will just yet. Although he had accumulated no properties during his lifetime, that unlimited meal card still belonged to Qin Zhou.
The cat was alive, which meant that this cat couldn’t have been the one used by Sun Jingwen as sacrifice. Moreover, this cat’s meow was so shrill that it made people’s hair stand on end, but through this cry, Lin Yi was able to assess the cat’s condition.
A dying cat wouldn’t be able to let out such a loud cry. This was a very healthy cat.
However, Lin Yi still didn’t dare to take it lightly. A healthy cat appearing on top of a wall, taking a nap in the sun, even if it was pitch dark, wouldn’t be a problem.
But this black cat appeared in the closet at this time.
Just as Lin Yi was about to take back his hand, the cat suddenly pounced towards him.
Lin Yi quickly used his arms to block it but with his head covered in clothes, his vision was limited. Cats are agile animals and so he was beaten by this cat.
And it was quite miserable too. The cat made bloody scratches on his arms, waist, and lower abdomen. When he tried to block it with his hands, the cat bit his tiny thenar, its teeth piercing the skin of his palm.
Lin Yi could even hear the sound of his skin being pricked open. He could clearly feel the teeth tearing open the wound. After the teeth moved away, blood continued to flow through the punctured opening.
But he ignored the pain. The black cat was the first to attack and the first to stop. It bounded to the classroom window. Only then did Lin Yi notice that the classroom window glass was broken.
The black cat had probably came in from here. But it did not leave immediately. Instead, it looked back and let out a grieving mournful cry.
After the cry was silence. The black cat straightened its head and squeezed out through the window.
Lin Yi looked at it.
Down his arm, blood flowed down past his fingers and dripped onto the floor.
After the cat got out, Lin Yi chased after it to the window and watched as the cat jumped downstairs and disappearing quickly.
However, Lin Yi did not look away, locking his eyes on the cat’s retreating figure.
Lin Yi had noticed the cat’s glance when it had turned back. He was certain that the cat had not been looking at him. Through the blurred moonlight streaming in from the window, Lin Yi was sure that the spot the cat was looking at was the cabinet where it had just been.
After watching for a while, Lin Yi’s eyes fell on the broken window.
The window looked to have been broken by a thrown stone from outside. Lin Yi searched the floor and found a stone half the size of a fist.
He held the stone and looked at the window again.
Finally, he put the stone into his pants pocket, took the few steps back to the blackboard and continued to explore the cabinet with his hands.
This time the cabinet was empty. There was nothing.
Lin Yi took back his hand, pursed his lips and thought.
The cat had been healthy. It was alive and had its eyes intact.
Although the cat attacked him, it seemed more out of fright and stress.
But, the cat appearing here, in this cabinet, and then looking back as it was leaving, seemed to have some special meaning.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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After locking the door again, he hurried back to the dorm.
It was still dark. By Lin Yi’s estimate, it should be around four in the morning.
It was mid-summer in the 8-4 Rule World and although the days were long and the nights were short, it was still dark at this time. He didn’t dare stay on the road. He quickly traversed the road connecting the teaching building to the dorm and stepped onto the staircase leading to the dormitory building doors.
He’d been walking too hastily.
The light in the mailroom was still out but the door was just slightly ajar.
When Lin Yi reached the corridor, the door was closed.
It was almost dawn. The cats summoned by the curse letter had disappeared. The entire dormitory building seemed to be in a deep sleep. Lin Yi knocked on the door of Room 204.
The building was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop and even your breathing seemed to echo. But Lin Yi wasn’t worried. After Xia Hui’s death, there were no outsiders on the second floor of the dorm building.
After knocking on the door, Lin Yi waited for Cheng Yang to open the door.
Although this would be the time when most people would be at their sleepiest, Lin Yi reckoned that Cheng Yang had stayed up all night, unable to sleep.
Two seconds later, Cheng Yang’s voice came from behind the door. “…Lin Yi Xiong?”
Lin Yi: “Yeah.”
Then came the sound of Cheng Yang’s footsteps quickly approaching the bedroom door. Because the door swung open outwards, Lin Yi stepped back. While waiting for Cheng Yang to open the door, his eyes naturally fell on the name written in paint on the bedroom door.
Xia Hui.
Cheng Yang opened the door and was stunned when he saw Lin Yi’s bloody hand. “Fuck, are you injured?!”
Lin Yi entered first. Standing at the door and talking was one of the stupidest things to do.
Lin Yi was about to turn around and close the door. Cheng Yang, seeing Lin Yi’s hand, said, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.”
Lin Yi didn’t argue with Cheng Yang. After Cheng Yang closed the door and his nose filled with that rancid smell, Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief. He should be safe now.
“What’s going on?” Cheng Yang turned to Lin Yi and looked at Lin Yi’s wounds. Cheng Yang suddenly became nervous. “Were you bitten by that cat?”
“It wasn’t the one outside the window.” Lin Yi said, raising his eyes to look at the curtains. “Is that cat still there?”
Cheng Yang said, “Not anymore.”
He had been waiting for a long time for Lin Yi to come back. He was scared and anxious, so he thought of looking out the window to see if Lin Yi was on his way back. When he carefully opened the curtain, he happened to see the cat with glowing eyes turn and jump away.
At the time, he thought the cat had discovered that Lin Yi wasn’t in Room 204 and left to find Lin Yi.
Cheng Yang was so frightened that he quickly looked for something he could use for a weapon and was about to climb out the window to rescue Lin Yi.
But before he could find a viable weapon, Lin Yi had returned.
“It must be because daybreak is soon.”
Lin Yi explained the reason why the cat left. He knew that Cheng Yang was very concerned about the result of his excursion so he took the initiative to tell Cheng Yang about before he could ask. After that, Lin Yi asked Cheng Yang what he’d been puzzling about.
“Do cats naturally like staying in cabinets?” Lin Yi asked.
“You need to take care of this hand, damn it.” Cheng Yang pulled Lin Yi’s hand up and was shocked when he saw clearly the hideous wound on his hand: “The wound is actually this deep? It went all the way through to your flesh. Were your nerves damaged?”
“It’s fine, I can still move it.”
Lin Yi withdrew his hand. Although Cheng Yang was a straight man and the relationship between them was very good, Lin Yi was still not used to having this kind of contact with others.
“What do you mean ‘fine’?” Cheng Yang didn’t mind that Lin Yi took his hand away. He said nervously, “You’ll need a tetanus shot and at least a couple of stitches.”
“There’s no infirmary here.” Lin Yi said, “And apart from death, any injury disappears upon leaving the Rule World.”
Back then, when he got his backside pierced by the vase girl in the 7-7 Rule World, once he left the Rule World, his wounds disappeared.
“Cheng Yang Xiong, do cats naturally like staying in closed spaces like cabinets?” Lin Yi asked.
He asked this mainly because he’d heard others say that cats would sometimes hide in closets. The owner, thinking the cat was missing, would go looking all over for the cat, while the cat simply watches their owner from inside the closet.
And cats seem to be particularly interested in boxes. In a certain way, cabinets and boxes were basically the same.
Cheng Yang thought for a while and said, “It’s probably not their nature. The one my mother raised doesn’t do that. It only hides in the closet when I hit it. Especially when my mother isn’t around and I’m the only one at home, it always hides in the closet and won’t come out.”
As he talked, Cheng Yang started feeling a little homesick. He recalled, “It sheds a lot and every time it hides in the closet, my mother’s clothes get so much fur on them, they can no longer be worn. My mother comes to trouble me and makes me compensate her for the clothes. She never wants money, just clothes. Her clothes are limited edition. Where could I possible find a replacement? Maybe that’s the reason my mother beats me up. Lin Yi Xiong, believe me when I tell you that some cats are really smart. After it witnessed my mother beating me several times, it started going into the closet whenever it had nothing to do. It’s also got a discerning eye and won’t touch clothes worth less than six figures. It’s an expert at choosing the really pricey ones.”
Lin Yi was momentarily stunned.
Cheng Yang: “What? Which of my words inspired you again?”
Lin Yi said, “It’s nothing.”
He secretly calculated in his mind, six figures worth of clothes — ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, one hundred thousand.
Oh.
Damn rich people.
Cheng Yang was still reminiscing and kept telling Lin Yi things about the cat at home.
Figuring out why the black cat appeared in the classroom was not something that could be solved in a short while. Moreover, it was Lin Yi who’d set Cheng Yang on this path down memory lane. And so, Lin Yi listened quietly.
Cheng Yang said that his standing at home was lower than the cat’s and that the cat was the boss of the house.
He also said that the cat was fed raw meat imported from New Zealand. He kept talking about how good his mother was to the cat. He also mentioned that there was a time when the cat was depressed and his mother was so worried that she couldn’t even eat.
“I don’t know where my mom heard it but she said neutering a cat after birthing a litter is better for its health. As a result, several of the kittens it had given birth to died. It was so pitiful. It kept meowing all day long. Its meows were so sad, just hearing it hurt.”
Lin Yi paused, “It kept meowing?”
Cheng Yang said, “Not only meowing, it also looking for them everywhere.”
Lin Yi suddenly asked, “How big was that cat outside?”
Cheng Yang had also gotten somewhat used to Lin Yi’s jumping thoughts. He paused and then gestured, “About this big. It should be two months old by the looks of it.”
Because the cat was small, its two glowing green eyes were like copper bells, they did not match the body at all. The eyes appeared to be extra large and scary.
Lin Yi stared at the size of the black cat estimated by Cheng Yang. He thought for a while and asked, “Cheng Yang Xiong, do you think the black cat I saw in the classroom tonight might also be looking for its kittens?”
Cheng Yang had set Lin Yi thinking, which led Lin Yi to have this idea.
But he also felt that this idea was too simple. He judged the black cat to be looking for its child just based on the cat’s meowing sound and the fact that it had appeared in the classroom.
Lin Yi was a little unsure because the cat’s appearance and the package seemed to have no connection.
Cheng Yang nodded. “Of course, after you told me the situation, I also thought the black cat might be looking for its kittens.”
Seeing Lin Yi’s thoughtful expression, Cheng Yang said, “With your high IQ, you’re good at solving difficult problems but it is easy to complicate a simple thing.”
Lin Yi thought about it and agreed. He said, “Cheng Yang Xiong, I have a few problems that are bothering me. Can you use your own thinking to tell me what you think?”
Cheng Yang said, “What are you being all polite with me for? Just tell me what they are.”
Lin Yi said, “Do you think the cats attracted by the curse letter might also be the black cat’s kittens?”
Cheng Yang said, “I don’t know.”
Lin Yi: “…”
Cheng Yang said: “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I’ve never seen those cats that are after me so I really don’t know.”
Lin Yi gestured to estimate their size. “Those cats are about this same size.”
This was the size of the cat outside the window that Cheng Yang just gestured for him.
“Oh.” Cheng Yang nodded, “Then it’s possible.”
It’s possible’ was too ambiguous.
Lin Yi didn’t ask about the cats anymore. He asked about Sun Jingwen. “Cheng Yang Xiong, where do you think Sun Jingwen learned about the cat curse?”
Thinking that Cheng Yang would answer ‘the Internet’, he added, “There isn’t a computer room in this township secondary school.”
There was only one teaching building and Baoxiang Secondary School didn’t have a computer room and judging from the cabinet hanging above the blackboard, if there was a TV in the cabinet, it would be a heavy old-fashioned TV.
This was enough to prove that the teaching equipment of Baoxiang Secondary School wasn’t advanced. The fact that the school was like this could tangentially prove that the development of the surrounding towns and villages was not very good.
After Lin Yi presented the problem, he stared at Cheng Yang, waiting for Cheng Yang to give his answer.
This question was really simple for Cheng Yang. Cheng Yang didn’t even need to think about it and blurted out, “Someone in her family is engaged in this line of business.”
Lin Yi was silent.
This answer was too absurd and completely unfounded.
Cheng Yang saw Lin Yi’s doubts and said, “It’s like this, Lin Yi Xiong. Think about it, I, an Internet expert, don’t even know about the cat curse. Sun Jingwen is a high school student and one in such a small and broken school to boot. How could a high school student learn about all that? Of course she must have learned it from someone at home. The more backwards a place, the more ignorant it is. Isn’t it often in the news? Some people don’t go to the hospital for treatment when they’re sick. They go to witch doctors instead. There must be a witch doctor in Sun Jingwen’s family. Otherwise, even if a little girl knew about the cat curse, how could she possibly dare do it? She killed five cats at once. She must have been desentized to stuff like this. Otherwise, how could she have gotten so evil as to use this way to curse someone?”
Lin Yi said while thinking, “Desensitized.”
Cheng Yang made a sound and said, “Desentized, desensitized. So long as you can understand it.”
Lin Yi pondered the matter.
He damn well felt that what Cheng Yang said made a lot of sense.
He could find nothing to say in reply.
So he asked again, “Cheng Yang Xiong, what do you think those five people did to anger Sun Jingwen and make her use such a vicious curse?”
Seeing that Lin Yi seemed to agree with his words, Cheng Yang suddenly felt confident. He said, “This is a school. It must be a case of school bullying. Otherwise, the curse could have been implemented anywhere. Why else would the 8-4 Rule World be set up in a school of all places?”
Lin Yi’s mouth hung open in surprise.
Cheng Yang asked, “Lin Yi Xiong, what do you think?”
Lin Yi said, “It’s really…”
What a really simple answer.
Cheng Yang said: “But based on the answer I just gave and the context, I think that Sun Jingwen was bullied by being ridiculed and excluded and those five must be the instigators.”
Lin Yi hurriedly asked, “Why do you say that?”
The person asking the questions and the person answering the questions had switched places and Cheng Yang inexplicably felt proud.
He cleared his throat and said, “School is a place to gain knowledge. They advocate for us to love science and reject ignorance and outdated thinking. My guess is that these five should be from the same village as Sun Jingwen, or if not from the same village, then from neighboring ones. These five know the details of Sun Jingwen’s life. Isn’t it such a coincidence that the five of them and Sun Jingwen are not only in the same school but also in the same class? After studying at Baoxiang Secondary School, they came to understand what science is and what ignorance is. They spread the news that there’s a witch doctor in Sun Jingwen’s family, causing Sun Jingwen to be ridiculed and excluded by their other classmates. But Sun Jingwen probably couldn’t understand it. As I said before, she has been exposed to these things since she was a child. How can her three views that she’d had since she was a child be so easily changed? So she decided to teach these people a lesson. Of course, the lesson wouldn’t be so severe right away, so I’m guessing she just wrote “There’s a ghost in the school, run” in her diary, just to scare her surrounding classmates. But the result didn't hurt, it didn't itch so Sun Jingwen grew furious.”
Cheng Yang himself didn’t expect that he would be able to connect the scattered clues. The more he talked, the more he felt that what he said made sense. It was the main plot of the 8-4 Rule World. He clapped his hands and said excitedly, “Sun Jingwen used the most vicious cat curse to one, take revenge for the bullying she suffered, and two, to let those people know how powerful she is.”
Cheng Yan feel so proud 😁 I wonder if that’s really what happened. Cheng Yang’s growing up…🤭 Yes, sometimes you overthink stuff but the truth is quite simple.
Cheng Yang you’re so confident!! I’m proud of you!!!
Oh that actually made sense.
Cheng Yang actually brainstormed !!! 😵
Wipes tears of joy Baby mom is so proud of you, you’ve worked so hard.
Low aptitude for studying aside, Cheng Yang is clearly capable of discerning things from circumstantial evidence. (‘▽’) I’m proud of him!
I feel like a proud mother haha. Let’s go Cheng Yang!!!!