602 Man-Eating Apartment

Chapter 9

Summoning all his courage, Su Yang pushed open the iron gate and slipped inside. The gate slammed shut behind him with a loud "click." Su Yang felt a chill; perhaps this foreshadowed his fate—once he stepped inside, there was no turning back, only forward.

The stairwell used motion-activated lights, but Su Yang had no intention of disturbing their deep slumber. He groped his way up the stairs in the darkness, step by step. Silently, without a shadow, only his zombie-like body moved. "If anyone saw me now, they'd probably think I was a ghost," Su Yang grinned in the darkness. His gleaming white teeth reflected a faint light, but were quickly swallowed by the darkness.

Room 602, sixth floor.

Su Yang stood at the door, panting heavily. The door was still the same as it had been two years ago—the same iron door handle and lock, the same rust, the same desolation. The only difference was that the horizontal inscription "Great Fortune and Prosperity" had been replaced by a large "Joy" character, revealing that the homeowner had changed. However, with the relentless passage of time, that "Joy" character had lost its bright red festive meaning and was now tinged with a paleness, like an eyeball that had stopped moving; although every organ remained, it could no longer reflect a single flicker of light.

Su Yang stood silently at the door, waiting for the next moment to begin, just as he had two years ago. Only now, the surging hormones of two years ago had been replaced by a surge of adrenaline.

He waited for an unknown amount of time, but there was no sound whatsoever; even time seemed to stand still. Finally, Su Yang couldn't bear it any longer and reached for the iron gate. To his surprise, the gate opened instantly. Su Yang froze. He slowly reached out to push the wooden door behind the iron gate, which was indeed ajar. In that instant, Su Yang distinctly sensed the chilling presence of death.

"That's just a relief." Su Yang smiled coldly, resolutely pushed open the door, and went inside.

The room was pitch black, without a single ray of light. There was a musty smell in the air, along with the eerie stench of death, mixed with the stench of blood. Su Yang had another unsettling feeling, as if he were inside a coffin, desperately listening to the hollow sound of hammers tightening the coffin lid.

Su Yang shifted slightly. He felt a breeze brush against his face, and then, a pair of dry eyes stared at him.

"Who is it?" Su Yang asked, his voice equally dry.

There was no movement at all.

Su Yang opened his arms and groped his way toward the window in the dark.

He felt his foot touch something soft and furry, and goosebumps immediately rose on his back.

Su Yang slowly crouched down and reached out with his hand. "Ah!" Su Yang screamed, his body jerking back abruptly. The thing had bitten his finger! In the darkness, Su Yang felt the resentment in those eyes intensify.

No longer caring what he might bump into, Su Yang stumbled and ran towards the window he remembered. Finally, his fingers touched the soft curtains, and with all his might, he yanked them open.

The light from the streetlights outside shone through the window, illuminating the indistinct outlines of the room.

Su Yang turned his head and was stunned. He saw a pair of eyes—green eyes that glowed in the darkness! Panting, Su Yang grabbed a vase from the windowsill and approached the eyes. The eyes showed no fear whatsoever, remaining there, staring at Su Yang defiantly.

Su Yang finally gave up his duel with those eyes. As he passed the sofa in the living room, he plopped down on it, causing the vase to fall from his hands and shatter. The sound of the porcelain breaking was somewhat jarring in the silence of the night, making one's nerves tighten.

He recognized them: a pair of cat eyes, malevolent, set in the body of a completely black cat. Su Yang covered his face with his fingers, as if to escape the control of those eyes. Su Yang guessed that it must be the black cat that had gouged out one of the policeman Huang Kun's eyes and lured Lu Xiao to his death. It hadn't died after jumping from the sixth floor! Why was it still lingering in Zhu Su's house? Because it was its home?

Another question arose in Su Yang's mind: "Could it be that all the doors opening just now were caused by this black cat?" Thinking this, he felt a chill. This was too unbelievable! How could everything that entered Room 602 be tainted with something strange? He loosened his grip and opened his eyes to look at the black cat. It was gone!

Where did it go? Su Yang turned around in horror to look around, but the black cat seemed to have really vanished from room 602, leaving no trace!

Su Yang's chest heaved rapidly. He searched the house thoroughly, but all the windows in the living room were closed, and the doors leading to other rooms were also tightly shut, yet the strange black cat had truly vanished without a trace.

"Could it have gone into the room by itself and then closed the door?" Although Su Yang thought this idea was a bit absurd, it was the only slightly reasonable explanation he could find for the cat's whereabouts.

Su Yang hesitated for a moment on the bedroom doorknob, then mustered his courage and tried to turn it. Perhaps because no one had touched it for quite some time, the lock was stiff, and it took Su Yang considerable effort to open it. The door was pushed open silently, and a pungent smell of blood and mildew assaulted his nostrils, almost suffocating Su Yang.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part 12 (3)

Looking at the pitch-black darkness inside, Su Yang hesitated and stopped. Nothing is more terrifying than entering an unknown, enclosed, dark space. This fear might be traced back to the arduous experience of entering the world through the womb.

"The lock is so stiff, there's absolutely no way that cat could have gotten in," Su Yang reassured himself, timidly closing the door. Just as the door slammed shut, he heard a low sigh. That same sigh again! He felt all the blood rush to his head, and blurted out, "Who's there?" His hand froze on the doorknob, his whole body like a startled rabbit, ears perked, sensing danger around him, ready to leap away at the slightest sign of trouble.

Then came a long, unbearable silence.

"Could it be my imagination?" Su Yang couldn't calm down. Although he had anticipated all sorts of strange events before entering 602, and even the possibility of seeing Zhu Su's ghost, the thought of having a pair of eyes watching his every move still filled him with panic.

Su Yang strode to the living room window and drew the curtains wide to let in more light. He carefully searched the living room and finally found two candles and a lighter in a drawer under the TV cabinet.

Su Yang was overjoyed and lit the candles. The faint light instantly filled the entire room, and his heart felt much warmer.

Su Yang carefully shielded the candle flame with his hand and approached the bedroom again. This time, the door opened easily, and the airflow stirred the flame, burning his hand. Su Yang's hand trembled, and the candle fell to the ground and went out instantly.

In that instant, Su Yang felt a desperate urge to cry: Why does the light always seem to leave me whenever I'm in darkness? Am I really destined to live in such a bleak environment?

But in the end, Su Yang did nothing. He simply lit a lighter, found the candle, and relit it. The candlelight, like a patrol officer, revealed the entire silhouette hidden in the darkness. The room was simply furnished: a double bed, two bedside tables, a dressing table, a wardrobe, and nothing else.

Looking around at the ordinary furnishings, Su Yang suddenly felt an inexplicable weariness, like someone who had traveled for a very long time, gazing at their distant home, enveloped in sorrow and exhaustion. He approached the double bed and placed a candle on the bedside table.

That double bed, which once held joy and love, had been stripped of its sheets after the bloody ordeal, leaving only the mattress, waiting for the next tender moment with infinite desolation.

Ignoring the thick layer of dust on the mattress, Su Yang moved his body onto it, lay down, and closed his eyes, looking like a zombie.

The world fell silent, broken only by the crackling of the candle wick. Although Su Yang's eyes were closed, his ears were strained, listening intently to every sound outside. He didn't want to miss his appointment with Zhu Su. He hoped to see Zhu Su and clarify the truth, even if she really was a ghost.

For a long time, the surroundings remained deathly silent. There was no sign of Zhu Su's visit, not even the sound of the cat. Such silence was most likely to break a person's spirit. Su Yang's mental will could no longer hold on, and he collapsed, sinking into the abyss of sleep.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Chapter Thirteen (1)

Perhaps because he had something on his mind, Su Yang slept very restlessly, feeling as if he was constantly having dreams.

He dreamt he was walking through a long tunnel filled with terrifying creatures like spiders, rats, and bats. There were no lights, and he could only stumble and fall forward, feeling his way along the tunnel walls. The screech of bats felt like needles piercing his bones, rats gnawed at his feet, his hands, even his head, while spiders spun intricate webs, hindering his every step. A voice constantly echoed in his ears: "You shouldn't have met her, you shouldn't have..." But Su Yang knew he had no way out, because the spiders, rats, and bats behind him had blocked his escape route; he could only run. Finally, covered in blood, he reached the tunnel's exit, only to find a huge black cat guarding it, its gleaming green eyes staring fiercely at him. Su Yang's eyes widened, and he walked step by step towards the black cat. As he approached, blood suddenly gushed from the black cat's eyes, then its fur began to fall away, revealing white flesh and bone. Finally, maggots crawled out of its ears and mouth—it was no longer a cat, but a human head! Watching this, Su Yang felt his stomach churn, vomiting rising in waves. "Are you scared? If you're scared, go back," the voice continued to echo in the cave. But Su Yang showed no sign of backing down. He stepped forward, kicked the head away, and strode confidently out of the cave.

The scene in the dream shifted to Zhu Su's living room. Su Yang and Zhu Su sat facing each other on the sofa.

"Why are you looking for me?" Zhu Su asked Su Yang coldly.

“Because…you are my girlfriend,” Su Yang replied.

"You really like me?" Zhu Su still sneered.

Su Yang nodded affirmatively.

"So you see clearly now, do you really like me?" Zhu Su stood up, her hand groping her face. Suddenly, she ripped off her neck, and Su Yang was horrified to see that Zhu Su's face had been replaced by the human head that had been at the entrance of the cave. Maggots crawled around inside, and corpse fluid seeped down from time to time.

Su Yang couldn't help but take two steps back; he smelled a very familiar stench.

Zhu Su looked at Su Yang with a mixture of triumph and sorrow, and laughed hysterically: "You men are all like this, lecherous bastards, cowards! Hahaha, so you all deserve to die, you deserve to die!" Zhu Su's long fingernails jabbed at Su Yang, as if she wanted to poke thousands of holes in him.

Su Yang took two or three steps back, suppressing the nausea and terror in his heart, and continued to question Zhu Su: "What about those policemen? They had no grudge against you, so why did you kill them?"

"Police, police..." Every muscle in Zhu Su's face began to move and distort, squeezing out the maggots and causing them to fall down in a rustling sound, as if she harbored a deep-seated hatred for the police. "They deserve to die even more! I want them to die without a burial place!"

"Why do you hate the police so much?" Su Yang seemed to understand something. "Is it because of your father?"

"That's a beast, not my father!" Zhu Su roared, and a maggot flew out of her mouth and landed in Su Yang's mouth.

Su Yang cried out in surprise and sat bolt upright in bed. He strained his throat, trying desperately to spit out the maggot. After choking for a while, he finally remembered that it was a dream, not reality. But he still felt an itch in his throat, as if something was really wriggling inside, making him want to vomit immediately.

Su Yang weakly laid himself back on the bed, recalling the scenes and dialogues in his dream. The first half seemed somewhat similar to his current situation. Having experienced a series of terrifying events in the darkness, he was searching for the truth of one thing, and the most crucial element, or rather, the thing weighing heavily on his mind, was the heads—the heads of Zhu Su, Chen Lijuan, and Zhang Chengtin. The most intriguing part of the dream was his conversation with Zhu Su. Undoubtedly, due to childhood trauma, she harbored resentment towards her father, a policeman. So, could all this bloodshed truly be aimed at the police? But if that were the case, were Zhang Chengtin, Chen Lijuan, and even Su Yang merely bait for Zhu Su? But this reasoning didn't quite work. Even if Zhu Su truly hated everything associated with her father, shouldn't she have targeted her father first, not these innocent victims? Unless… Zhu Su's father was currently living a life worse than death!

"Worse than death!" The thought of this phrase sent a chill down Su Yang's spine, like a sharp blade piercing his heart. He felt his ordeal was worse than death, but ultimately, he was just an outsider. Even if Zhu Su had truly cast a curse on him, it probably wouldn't amount to half the debt of the wronged or the culprit.

Furthermore, Su Yang recalled his dream message to Zhu Su, "I'm your boyfriend," and fell into a state of confusion. He had fabricated this statement to coax Liu Changge into revealing Zhu Su's family secret, but why was he so certain in his dream? Was it a thought from his subconscious, or a projection of Zhu Su's own feelings onto him? Was he truly in love with Zhu Su without realizing it, or was Zhu Su's "ghost" believing he loved her, thus inducing him to say it?

"How could I possibly love Zhu Su?" Su Yang's mind was in turmoil. He admitted that when Liu Changge recounted Zhu Su's fate, he felt a pang of sympathy for her misfortune, but that sympathy paled in comparison to the disruption Zhu Su had caused to his life. "Could it really have been Zhu Su invading my dream just now?" Su Yang felt a chill. He suddenly remembered that Zhu Su's neighbor had mentioned that men visited Zhu Su almost every month, but no one had ever heard anything about what happened afterward. The only difference between him and them was that bag of red grapes! He had bought those grapes to try and make their relationship more than just a one-night stand, hoping to add some warmth. Now, thinking back, it was probably those grapes that made Zhu Su's "ghost" fall for him and then haunt him relentlessly.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Chapter Thirteen (2)

Thinking about this cause-and-effect relationship, Su Yang felt a mix of amusement and frustration. How absurd! His life, his career, even his very existence, had been changed by a bag of red grapes. How ridiculous, and how cruel! Su Yang suddenly realized that he had forgotten to ask Zhu Su the most important question in his dream: Did she actually use him to kill someone?

"Shit!" Su Yang cursed under his breath. He escaped from the dream, opened his eyes, and looked around, only to find the surroundings dark and the candle extinguished. Startled, he hurriedly reached for the bedside table, only to find the candle had burned less than halfway before going out. But Su Yang clearly remembered that all the doors and windows in the room were tightly closed; there couldn't have been any wind. How could the candle have been blown out?

"Could there really be someone else in the room who blew it out?" Su Yang suddenly remembered that Zhao Lixu and his wife had died tragically on the very bed he was lying on, and his heart filled with panic. He frantically searched everywhere for his lighter, but couldn't find it anywhere. Su Yang couldn't help but regret not putting the lighter in his pocket earlier, but instead placing it on the bedside table along with the candle. But the bedside table was so small; how could the lighter have vanished like a fallen ginseng fruit?

Just as Su Yang was in a flurry of activity, he suddenly felt a chill on the soles of his feet, as if a cold wind had blown by. He hurriedly pulled his feet back, curled himself up tightly at the head of the bed, and stared wide-eyed, nervously sensing the movements around him, but the wretched darkness rendered his eyes almost completely useless.

In the dead silence, Su Yang suddenly heard rustling footsteps, first pacing in the living room, then a soft knocking on the door, before entering the bedroom. In the darkness, Su Yang could almost see a pair of small, slippery feet, ignoring his presence, moving about the entire bedroom. "What is she doing?" Su Yang gripped his hands tightly, finding his whole body trembling uncontrollably, even feeling a burning sensation in his groin.

"Why isn't she coming to me soon?" Su Yang thought in despair. He felt like the old man in that joke, waiting for the other shoe to fall until dawn, or like a death row inmate waiting for the noose to tighten around his neck, waiting for the final burst of pain before everything returned to nothingness.

The rustling footsteps finally stopped at his bedside. Su Yang desperately opened his eyes to look, but still couldn't see anything, only feeling his body trembling even more violently. "Come on, come on quickly," he cried out in his heart, a desperate struggle.

But the rustling footsteps seemed oblivious to Su Yang's intentions, stopping abruptly and falling silent. Su Yang couldn't contain himself any longer. He stretched his slightly numb body, preparing to bravely get out of bed, when suddenly he felt a dark shadow flash past, bringing with it a foul-smelling gust of wind. Startled, Su Yang cried out, feeling a contraction in his lower abdomen, a surge of heat, and urine trickling from his pants.

But what happened next filled Su Yang with such shame that he wanted to die. He heard a sharp squeak, and then he saw a pair of gleaming green eyes. A black cat! Even in the darkness, the black cat's eyes still gleamed with an eerie light. Su Yang then realized that the rustling footsteps he had heard were the sound of mice crawling. When he was a child, living in the countryside, he was often woken up in the middle of the night by such sounds, terrified, thinking a thief had broken into the house. Later, he would cry to his grandmother, who would laugh and comfort him, saying it was just the sound of mice crawling. He never imagined that almost twenty years later, he would be so scared by a mouse that he wet his pants again—it was utterly humiliating!

"Damn it!" Su Yang was furious and embarrassed. He grabbed something from the bedside table and hurled it at the black cat whose eyes were glowing green. He knew the culprit was the rat, but the rat had been caught by the black cat, so all his anger could only be directed at the cat.

The object Su Yang threw didn't hit the black cat. He realized he didn't hear the object hit the ground at all; it was as if a hand in the darkness caught it.

"Who?" All of Su Yang's anger turned to icy coldness. He felt every pore and blood vessel on his body contract sharply, squeezing his heart.

There was still no response. Su Yang felt another gust of cold wind rush into the room, swirling around him, getting closer and closer, more and more urgent, like a sheet of damp paper that could not be opened, trying to isolate him from the world and suffocate him in this damp, dark room.

Su Yang was terrified. He reached out and tried desperately to disperse the air current, but it felt as if two hands were gripping his hands tightly, and he couldn't exert any strength. In an instant, the word "death" flashed through Su Yang's mind, but a strong will to survive made him instinctively struggle. However, it seemed that the more he struggled, the tighter the air current pressed down on him.

"Am I really going to die here?" A sense of sorrow washed over Su Yang. To die in Room 602 would probably just add another wronged soul to the list, at most adding to the atmosphere of the ghost stories in Room 602, and perhaps no one would ever know of his death, because this place had already become a forbidden zone for the world, a forbidden place for death!

Just as Su Yang was about to give up in despair, a sudden thought struck him. He remembered what the old folks had said: ghosts are most afraid of human filth. If you curse at them or throw filth at them, they will stay far away from you. And hadn't he just urinated in his pants? That was the perfect weapon against ghosts!

Thinking of this, Su Yang was overjoyed; the hope of survival gave him strength. He felt he could finally break free from the invisible hand's restraint and mustered his strength to start pulling down his pants. With great difficulty, he ripped the pants off his stiff body and desperately threw them into the darkness ahead. The urine actually worked; the current of energy vanished instantly!

Su Yang gasped for breath, feeling a sense of relief at surviving a close call. He didn't want to stay in this damned room for another minute. He jumped out of bed, not even bothering to look for his shoes and pants, and ran towards the door.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Chapter Thirteen (3)

He had been worried that the ghost would continue to haunt him, grab his hands and feet, and prevent him from leaving, or even seal the door shut, leaving him to wander aimlessly in the room. But all his worries seemed unnecessary. He easily found the door and prepared to escape.

The moment he ran out of the bedroom, Su Yang clearly heard the sound of the iron door being pushed open. Instantly, his entire body froze, his face turning deathly pale. All the smooth sailing had been an illusion; he couldn't escape the manipulation of fate, couldn't escape Zhu Su's grasp. Su Yang gave a bitter smile, leaning against the corner of the wall and slowly sliding down to the floor.

He heard the door being pushed open again, followed by footsteps, very light. "Ghosts have no weight," Su Yang thought, closing his eyes.

He heard the footsteps approaching him cautiously, little by little, until they finally stopped in front of him. He opened his eyes helplessly and saw a pair of white women's sneakers.

"You've come." Su Yang uttered three words blankly.

To Su Yang's surprise, the eerie ghostly voice he heard was not the one he had imagined. Instead, it was a clear female voice, though there was a slight tremor in her voice, revealing her fear: "Are you human or a ghost?"

Su Yang looked up in confusion. In the dim light of the streetlamp shining into the living room, he saw a woman's face with distinct features. Although he couldn't see her full face, he was almost certain that she was not Zhu Su.

"Who...who are you?" Su Yang was bewildered by the unexpected scene before him and could not even speak coherently.

"So you really are human, not a ghost." The newcomer breathed a sigh of relief. "You almost scared me to death. Who are you, and what are you doing in this house?"

Su Yang struggled to his feet, leaning against the wall. He could finally see the newcomer's face clearly. It was a very young and handsome face, but the shadow of fear lingered on his face, and a wary glint flashed in his eyes.

"I am...who are you?" Su Yang felt completely disoriented, unable to distinguish between reality and a dream. He suddenly realized he wasn't wearing pants and instinctively covered his genitals. "Don't look!"

The woman giggled. "Where are your pants? You didn't say a ghost stole them, did you? Or..." A mischievous glint flashed across her face. "You were actually raped by a female ghost?"

"Don't talk nonsense." Su Yang's face turned red, and he wished he could find a hole to crawl into.

The woman covered her mouth and chuckled secretly, then shoved a cold, hard object into Su Yang's hand. "Here, take this!"

Su Yang was startled and instinctively pushed it away. "What is that?"

"Flashlight!" the woman drawled. "Go look for your pants."

Su Yang awkwardly took the flashlight and turned it on. The bright white beam tore through the darkness, instantly lessening his fear. Su Yang suddenly realized that with the room lit up, wouldn't she be able to see his disheveled state more clearly? His face flushed even more, and he felt embarrassed to even turn around. After a long pause, he blurted out, "You're not allowed to peek!" Then, like a thief, he slipped into the bedroom.

Using the flashlight's beam, he quickly found his pants on the floor and hurriedly pulled them on, ignoring how wet they were. He then realized that wet pants could be a weapon against ghosts, but they could also be a "hidden weapon" that would render him powerless, especially when facing a beautiful woman.

The woman followed him in, glanced around the house, and then fixed her gaze on Su Yang, asking with some curiosity, "Why did you take your pants off?"

"I..." Su Yang's face was redder than a ripe tomato, and he stammered, unable to speak.

The woman picked up a power outlet from the ground. "Hey, why is there a power outlet here? Did you throw it here?"