602 Man-Eating Apartment

Chapter 10

Su Yang took the socket with a puzzled look and found that the wire was broken. He was taken aback and shone the flashlight over the headboard. Sure enough, he found a broken wire there. "Could it be that this socket and wire were what bound me just now?" he wondered. He turned around and found the woman pinching her nose and looking at him with a flushed face.

"Why do you smell like urine? Did you wet your pants?" The woman fanned her nose with her hand, a hint of mockery on her face.

Su Yang blushed again. He argued, "What do you mean by wetting your pants? That's for scaring away ghosts."

"Scared away a ghost? What do you mean? Did you just encounter a ghost? What kind of ghost was it, a male or a female ghost? And how did you scare it away with urine?" the woman asked with interest.

"I don't know," Su Yang said dejectedly. "In the darkness, I couldn't see anything. I just felt it gripping my hands and feet tightly, making it impossible for me to move..."

The woman chuckled. "So you wet your pants?"

“You…” Su Yang was both ashamed and angry.

"Alright, alright, I'm not going to tease you anymore." The woman said seriously, "Let me introduce myself first. My name is Zhao Lirui, and I'm the owner of this house for the time being. And who are you, and what are you doing breaking into someone else's house in the middle of the night?"

"You? Master?" Su Yang could hardly believe his ears. "You mean you live in this haunted...house?"

The woman rolled her eyes at Su Yang. "Hey, what kind of house is this? My brother bought it with a loan of over 200,000 yuan. Okay, just tell me honestly, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

Su Yang then realized, "You're Zhao Lixu's sister?"

"You know my brother?" A hint of surprise flashed in the woman's eyes.

Su Yang shook his head. "I don't know her. I only know the original owner, Zhu Su."

"Ah?" the woman exclaimed. "Who are you? How do you know Zhu Su? She hasn't really become a ghost, has she?"

Su Yang gave a wry smile. "I also came here to find the answer."

"Oh." The woman looked puzzled. "You still haven't said who you are."

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Chapter Thirteen (4)

Su Yang hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure if revealing his true identity would endanger him, but intuitively, he felt it wouldn't. He believed this woman was also pursuing the same question as him: whether ghosts truly commit murder. Furthermore, carrying Zhu Su's "mission" alone for so long was exhausting. He needed someone to share the burden, to analyze things for him, to help him uncover the truth, or even just to hear her recount her absurd experiences—that would be a tremendous encouragement and support. He didn't want to die mysteriously one day, all his secrets lost to the sea, like those police officers, his ghost an unknown figure, with no one to seek justice for him.

"My name is Su Yang," Su Yang said frankly.

"You are Su Yang?" Zhao Lirui's expression of surprise and doubt deepened. "You're still alive? Tell me quickly, what exactly is going on with Zhu Su?"

"You're investigating the truth behind your brother's death, aren't you?" Su Yang countered.

Zhao Lirui nodded, her eyes reddening. "My brother died such a tragic death. But people believed the rumors, saying that evil spirits killed him. I had no choice but to rely on my own strength to investigate the truth."

Su Yang couldn't help but feel admiration for the woman in front of him. "Aren't you afraid of ghosts?"

"I don't believe in ghosts! If there are ghosts, it's only because people have guilty consciences." Although Zhao Lirui spoke toughly, a hint of fear showed on her face. "And you, won't you tell me you really encountered a ghost?"

Su Yang sighed, sat down on the edge of the bed, and recounted to Zhao Lirui in detail how he met Zhu Su online, how he was summoned by the police because of Chen Lijuan's death, how a series of strange events happened in apartment 604 of Shangling, how he inexplicably boarded the train to Qinglan Town, stayed near Zhu Su's hometown, and mysteriously met Zhu Su's grandmother, listening to her tell Zhu Su's past experiences and the purpose of his visit today, including his ghost encounter just now.

Zhao Lirui stared wide-eyed. She couldn't quite believe that Su Yang had experienced so many bizarre things, but looking at Su Yang, he didn't seem to be lying, so she fell into deep thought. "Then do you think my brother was really killed by Zhu Su's ghost?"

“I don’t know. But I think it must be related to Zhu Su,” Su Yang said dejectedly. “Maybe she used someone else to kill your brother and sister-in-law. Maybe… I’m one of her serial killers.”

Zhao Lirui pondered silently for a long time. Then she stood up and said with certainty, "I studied psychology, and I still can't believe that ghosts exist in this world, let alone that ghosts have power. I think there must be a conspiracy behind this, or it's the power deep within our consciousness at work."

"Then how do you explain what happened to me tonight?" Su Yang couldn't help but retort.

“That’s easy to explain,” Zhao Lirui said fluently. “People are most prone to fear in the dark. Also, because you can’t see anything in the dark, your nerves are very tense, and your attention is highly focused. After a while, this can easily lead to fatigue and hallucinations. Combined with the original fear in your heart, this creates a suggestion that there are ghosts, and such a suggestion further influences your feelings and subconscious behavior. For example, you’ve heard of Ouija boards, right? A few people are in the dark, with candles lit, and then they take a pen and write on a piece of white paper. After a while, they feel an external force pushing their hands to draw all sorts of characters on the paper, as if they’ve really summoned a ghost. But from…” In psychology, these characters were unconsciously written by trembling hands during periods of intense concentration and tension, and have nothing to do with ghosts. Scholars have conducted experiments to confirm this. Therefore, your encounter with a ghost at night is mostly your own psychological suggestion. The eerie wind you mentioned is probably just normal airflow caused by the open door, and the thing you threw away was this electrical outlet. It didn't make a sound because its cord wasn't long enough to reach the ground and got tangled in your hand, making you feel like a ghost was holding your hands and feet down. Once you broke free, like now, you were naturally freed.

Su Yang had to admit that her analysis made some sense. He had always suspected that many of his experiences were hallucinations he had created under pressure and fear, but he also felt that some things couldn't be explained by just a hallucination. "Then how do you explain meeting Zhu Su's grandmother at her old home? I don't have hallucinations that accurate, can I predict a murder case from over twenty years ago? Also, how do you explain the many police officers who died in connection with Zhu Su's case? You can't possibly say that they were all driven to their deaths by hallucinations, can you?"

“This…” Zhao Lirui was speechless. “Then perhaps there really is residual spiritual energy after a person dies, which can interfere with the thinking of normal people, or rather, some people with particularly sensitive nerves are more likely to receive this spiritual energy and be affected. I’ve heard that after a normal death, a person’s weight will decrease, and some people say that it is the weight of the soul. But… psychology has not yet proven that the soul really exists, only the subconscious.”

Just as Su Yang was about to retort, he suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the living room, like something gnawing on a violin string, extremely sharp and piercing, almost tearing one's nerves apart. His expression changed drastically.

Zhao Lirui also heard the strange sound, and fear appeared on her face.

Su Yang waved to Zhao Lirui, signaling her to be quiet. He switched off his flashlight, cautiously walked to the bedroom door, peeked out, and then suddenly switched it back on. What he saw nearly made his heart leap out of his chest. He saw countless rats crawling all over the living room, infesting the floor, sofa, and cabinets. The little animals bared their teeth, and the shrill sounds coming from them were theirs. Behind them, on the windowsill, sat the black cat, ignoring the rampaging rats, its eerie eyes fixed on Su Yang, its green pupils so deep they revealed no emotion. Su Yang felt that those weren't the eyes of a cat, but rather eyes that held a human soul, because a cat's eyes couldn't possibly be so deep, and they seemed to harbor such hatred.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Chapter Thirteen (5)

Su Yang had never seen so many rats in his life, scurrying around so brazenly right at his feet, under the black cat's nose, making his heart pound with fear. Just then, Zhao Lirui let out a piercing scream, the kind of scream one makes when someone is extremely frightened, a scream that nearly tore Su Yang's eardrums apart. Before Su Yang could react, the door slammed shut with a bang; if he hadn't pulled back quickly, his head would have been crushed in the crack.

Su Yang turned his head and saw Zhao Lirui's face was ashen, her body trembling like a withered branch in the autumn wind. Her teeth were chattering: "How could there be so many... rats?"

"It seems like it was summoned by that black cat." Su Yang's heart pounded as he recalled the black cat perched on the windowsill, looking down on everyone. He felt that black cat was incredibly eerie, as if it possessed psychic abilities. From mysteriously opening doors to mysteriously disappearing, from suddenly leaping out of the darkness to catch mice to now controlling them, it was practically omnipotent. "Could it really be a spirit possessed by a ghost?" Su Yang shuddered at the thought.

"How could a cat attract mice? They're their natural enemy!" Zhao Lirui was still immersed in fear. It's understandable; mice are terrifying to girls, let alone a house swarming with them. The fact that Zhao Lirui didn't faint shows how resilient she is.

"Oh no! It sounds like rats are gnawing on the door." Su Yang heard the rustling sounds outside the bedroom door and immediately became alert. He quickly realized the seriousness of the problem: so many rats gnawing on a wooden door at the same time, it would hardly take long for them to chew the entire door into pieces, and then... Just thinking about Grandma Zhu Su's face, which had been bitten in half, sent chills down his spine.

Zhao Lirui jumped up as if someone had stepped on her tail, her face looking worse than if she were crying. "Then... then what should we do?"

"Quickly, push the bed over here." Su Yang jumped to the bed and dragged it with all his might.

Zhao Lirui snapped out of her daze and rushed over to help, the two of them bracing the bed against the bedroom door. But they quickly realized this was futile; it only temporarily slowed the rats' advance, not completely stopping the rodents' sharp teeth. In less than five minutes, the rats had chewed a large hole in the door, and the hole kept widening. Some rats continued gnawing at the bed, while some cats simply leaped onto it through the hole. Soon, the entire bed was crawling with rats, and then the floor was successively occupied by countless rats.

Zhao Lirui's face was ashen. She and Su Yang were huddled together on the bedside table, trembling all over. If she hadn't been gripping Su Yang's arm tightly, she probably would have fallen to the ground by now.

Su Yang was terrified as he looked at the rats crawling all over the ground. He could hardly imagine whether they would be able to resist once the rats covered their entire bodies. He feared that he and Zhao Lirui would become the food of these small animals that they usually hated and despised.

Suddenly, a mouse climbed up the bedside table, and Zhao Lirui screamed. She stomped her feet frantically, almost tipping the bedside table over.

Su Yang bent down, waving his flashlight and swatting the rat to the ground. The flashlight beam swept across the ground, revealing a glittering object. It was a lighter!

Immediately, Su Yang had an idea. He yelled at Zhao Lirui, "Take the flashlight and stand still!" He shoved the flashlight into her hand, grabbed the curtains by the bedside table with one hand, and quickly put one foot down to pick up the lighter.

The rats seemed to sense Su Yang's intentions, and they hissed even more violently, swarming towards the bedside table and quickly surrounding it.

With a "waaaah," Zhao Lirui could no longer control her fear and burst into tears.

Su Yang, his face ashen, ignored Zhao Lirui's emotions and ripped off the curtain, setting it ablaze with a lighter. Flames quickly leaped up the hemp and cotton fabric. Su Yang waved the burning curtain, howling and shooing away the swarm of rats gathered around the bedside table.

In the firelight, Su Yang saw the black cat slowly stroll in like a general. The rats, as if receiving a command, automatically made way for it and fell silent, ceasing their attack.

Su Yang stared intently at the black cat, his anger blazing like the flames on the curtain in his hand. The black cat responded with its own cold gaze, showing no fear.

Su Yang was completely enraged. He removed the drawer from the bedside table, held it in his hand, then jumped off the bedside table, waving the curtains with one hand and the drawer with the other, slowly approaching the black cat.

The black cat looked at Su Yang's actions with disdain. It shook its head, and immediately the rats swarmed towards Su Yang like a tidal wave, like Japanese suicide squads in World War II. They disregarded the threat of the fire and the drawer, and fearlessly climbed onto Su Yang's trouser legs, biting his feet and calves.

Su Yang jumped around like a madman, trying to shake off the rats that had crawled onto him. But it was all in vain. Suddenly, he felt a piercing pain in his hand, screamed, and the curtains fell to the ground.

Without his most powerful weapon, Su Yang turned ashen-faced and stopped all struggle. He knew that all his desperate efforts were futile and would only increase the black cat's contempt.

The black cat gave a low growl, and all the mice, as if on command, jumped off Su Yang and scattered in all directions.

The black cat circled Su Yang as if he were a mouse on the verge of despair under its claws, finally letting out a low growl, seemingly threatening Su Yang never to set foot in its territory again. Then, it slowly strolled out, just as it had entered the room earlier. All the mice followed behind it like a swarm of generals, disappearing completely in an instant. If it weren't for the mess and chaos on the ground, Su Yang and Zhao Lirui would hardly believe that a huge army of mice had just surrounded them. Everything was like a wave, surging in and then quickly receding, leaving only a sense of awe and lingering fear.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part Fourteen (1)

Su Yang quickly pulled the still-shaken Zhao Lirui out of the room. The living room was indeed empty; not a single mouse remained, only traces of their tracks on the floor and sofa. Su Yang didn't have time to examine it closely; he simply dragged Zhao Lirui out the door and slammed it shut, only then feeling a sense of security.

“Hey…” Zhao Lirui awkwardly tugged at the hand that Su Yang was holding tightly, but Su Yang was so nervous that he held it too tightly and she couldn’t pull it away for a moment, which made her face turn red.

Su Yang finally came to his senses, hurriedly let go of Zhao Lirui's hand, and apologized repeatedly: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." He bent over so low that his waist was almost at a right angle.

Zhao Lirui chuckled, "Alright, no one accused you of molestation, no need to exaggerate like that, lest I feel bad and have to give you a hug or something."

"Okay. Then I'll bow a few more times," Su Yang said with a grin.

"Pervert!" Zhao Lirui playfully punched Su Yang.

After their playful banter, the tension between them eased considerably. Su Yang glanced at the sky; it was already getting light. He stretched and realized that after a night of activity, his stomach was empty. "Let's go get something to eat," he said.

Zhao Lirui nodded.

The two quickly found a small breakfast shop near Buyun Garden, ordered two cups of soy milk, a steamer of dumplings, and a steamer of xiaolongbao, and began to wolf down their food.

“Oh, right,” Su Yang suddenly remembered something, “why did you suddenly think of opening the door and checking in the middle of the night? Did you see me come in?”

“I have eyes that can see through the heavens,” Zhao Lirui said with a playful smile. “Actually… my real identity is a police officer, sent by the people to monitor you, this dangerous individual.”

"Me? A dangerous individual?" Although he knew Zhao Lirui was just joking, Su Yang's mood suddenly became heavy. "Maybe so. I really am the most dangerous person in the world. Everyone who gets involved with me is in danger of losing their life."

"Hey, hey, hey, I was just joking with you. Don't make it sound so tragic and sad, okay?" Zhao Lirui clearly didn't want Su Yang's mood to sink back into Zhu Su's shadow. "Okay, okay, I can't stand you anymore. Let me tell you, I've been monitoring you, or rather, monitoring the situation in 602."

"Is it because of your brother?" Su Yang asked in a low voice.

Zhao Lirui's mood immediately plummeted, and her eyes reddened. "Yes, it's because of my brother. Because I once swore to investigate the truth behind my brother's tragic death. So I rented a room in the building across the street and observed the activity in apartment 602 every day. Because I still don't believe that my brother was killed by some ghost; it must have been someone secretly doing this..."

"So what did you find out?" Su Yang asked hurriedly.

“There’s nothing there,” Zhao Lirui said dejectedly. “Except for observing your entry at night.”

"So you don't suspect that I'm the murderer who killed your brother, and you're still sitting here eating with me?" Su Yang teased.

"You?" Zhao Lirui put on a disdainful expression. "With your figure and your guts, even two more of you would only be good enough to stretch my brother's muscles."

"Tch, what a snob!" Su Yang retorted. "Whose sister was crying over there just now, and who was that bear fighting?"

"That's a girl's right, what's it to you? Besides, I can admire you for fighting against the heavens, the earth, and people, but fighting against a cat and a bunch of mice? Who can respect you for that?"

Su Yang's heart skipped a beat. He felt it was necessary to discuss the black cat with Zhao Lirui. "Don't you think that black cat is too strange? Have you encountered it before?"

Zhao Lirui thought for a moment and said, "I don't think so. But I can't be sure. Anyway, I did encounter a black cat, but I don't know if it was this one. I definitely didn't see it in room 602. What's wrong? What do you suspect about it? Don't tell me you think it's the murderer?"

Su Yang shook his head, seemingly trying hard to remember something, while also trying hard to drive away some of the memories. "I just felt that its last meow at night was very familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before. Also, I felt that its eyes were very strange, not like the eyes of a cat, but more like those of a human."

"Don't scare me." Zhao Lirui glanced around timidly. "But there's always been a legend that cats have psychic abilities, especially black cats. Could that cat really be some kind of messenger from hell?"

Su Yang's mind was caught in fragmented memories, like trying to catch bubbles on the surface of water. You could see them, but when you tried to grab them, there was nothing there. This continued until his head was throbbing with pain.

Su Yang suddenly remembered what Zhao Lirui had said in room 602 and hurriedly asked, "I heard you say earlier that you studied psychology, right? Do you know anything about hypnosis?"

Zhao Lirui looked troubled. "I've studied a little hypnosis, but it's all superficial. What's wrong? Do you want to do psychoanalysis? How about I help you contact my mentor? He's a well-known authority in this field in China."

A burning desire ignited in Su Yang's eyes. "You don't need to find your mentor. Just do your best to find out what I did after being hypnotized and whether I killed anyone."

“But I’m worried I can’t do it,” Zhao Lirui said anxiously. “What if I end up making you schizophrenic?”

“Schizophrenia is a kind of relief,” Su Yang said with a wry smile. “It’s better than me being trapped in doubts about whether I committed murder all day long.”

"Then why can't you accept having my mentor hypnotize you?"

“Because I can’t trust him.” Su Yang took a deep breath. “Do you think he could accept all my bizarre experiences?”

"This..." Zhao Lirui was speechless. If it weren't for her brother's murder, her learning about the strange things happening in Room 602, and witnessing Su Yang's experience of controlling the black cat and rats today, she might have classified Su Yang as mentally unstable based solely on his account.

Apartment 602, the Man-Eating Apartment, Part Fourteen (2)

“But I believe you wouldn’t kill anyone,” Zhao Lirui said sincerely. “Because you don’t give me any feeling of bloodshed or murderous intent. On the contrary, I feel very safe with you. And I always feel that what you said about being hypnotized is just a kind of psychological self-suggestion. Including the time you said that you heard the phone ringtone change to an unfamiliar ringtone and then you lost consciousness, it could all be your self-hypnosis, rather than external hypnosis.”

"But how do you explain that when I woke up I found myself in a strange time and space?" Su Yang felt an overwhelming sense of grief and indignation. "I must have done something, while I was unconscious, including possibly killing someone..." Su Yang grabbed his hair and began to sob. "I'm a murderer, a murderer..."

Zhao Lirui looked at the man before her with sympathy. She felt he was like a child who had lost his mother's embrace, and unconsciously, a maternal feeling welled up in her heart. She reached out and stroked Su Yang's hair, gently comforting him, "It's okay, don't cry. I'll hypnotize you and help you find your lost memories."

Su Yang looked up with tearful eyes and gazed gratefully at Zhao Lirui.