edificio

Capítulo 3

Songming, carrying the Guanyin statue, approached the eaves step by step. He found a ladder somewhere and began to climb. The cats, seeing the Guanyin statue, all moved aside, making way for Songming and the big tabby cat to face each other directly.

"I'll take you down today, you beast, so you won't cause any more trouble!" he said through gritted teeth. I saw an unprecedentedly vicious expression on his face.

The big tabby cat didn't move, staring coldly at Song Ming.

He took one step forward, then two. Because he was on a rooftop, he walked very carefully, making sure each step was firm. He also had to be careful that the Guanyin statue didn't fall.

The big tabby cat stood there motionless.

The distance between them was less than two meters, and the big tabby cat was about to touch the white light emitted by the Guanyin statue.

Just then, it leaped lightly into the air, changed direction mid-air, and flew towards the group of cats. As if receiving a signal, the cats raised their left front paws and scratched their heads fiercely, spurting out streams of blood that sprayed towards the big tabby cat's figure.

When it landed again, the big tabby cat was covered in blood and looked eerily strange. Without pausing for a second, it turned around and pounced on Song Ming.

"Oh no!" Wei cried out urgently, rushing out of our hiding place and shouting, "No!"

Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [8]: I ran out with her, but I was a little too late. I couldn't see how the big tabby cat dealt with Songming. I only saw Songming fall off the roof and lose consciousness. The Guanyin statue was also smashed to pieces.

"Meow!" the big tabby cat cried out pitifully.

“It was wrong of him to kill you, and it was even more wrong of you to kill him. When will this cycle of revenge end?” Wei shouted. “If all of humanity knew that cats were such monstrous creatures, the situation of your living kind would be even worse!”

There was no answer. I looked down at Songming's injuries; a long scratch ran from his brow bone to his jaw. Both Wei and I were terrified by what had happened that night. We had indeed wanted to see something strange, and we wanted to understand a cat's revenge, but neither of us could have imagined that the scene would be so horrific, and that it was truly a matter of life and death.

After taking Songming to the hospital, we were relieved to find that there was no sign of cats inside or outside the brightly lit emergency room.

"Heaven knows what he did to that cat," I said, still shaken. "Such deep hatred. To use the blood of a hundred cats to stain his own body, risking death to take him down with him." Wei stared blankly into the distance: "Humans will never know what they've done to small animals."

"That's terrifying. If he had known he would face such retribution from the undead, would he still have killed it?"

Wei didn't answer. No one could answer. People are always too confident in themselves, thinking they are the masters of all things.

The next morning, Songming woke up with bandages on his head. One of his legs was broken, and he had another scratch on his chest, but it wasn't a big deal because of his clothes.

Wei left early, saying she didn't want to see this person who harms animals.

I had no choice but to stay here and wait for my second uncle and the others to come and visit him.

I didn't ask him about the cat, but he muttered to himself, "I've had enough, I can't live anymore. I can't live anymore."

What exactly happened to you?

He turned to look at me, his eyes separated by gauze, which looked quite frightening: "At first, it was a dream."

I dreamt that my son jumped into my arms, calling "Daddy," but when he looked up, it was a cat's face. I pinched it hard, trying to kill it, and when I woke up, I found my son almost suffocating. In another dream, my wife had a long cat tail behind her, smugly patting the sheets. I grabbed a kitchen knife and chopped her, and she screamed in pain. When I woke up again, I saw a large gash on my wife's arm.

This dream lasted for six whole days. My wife and son had gone back to her parents' house. Unable to reach them, I spent the night chopping everything in my house—the TV, the bed, the dining table…

On the seventh night, it came. It pounced on me and scratched me, but I managed to fend it off thanks to a protective Buddha statue.

Then the nightmare repeated itself. I dreamt that my son was impaled to death by a very thick bamboo pole and hung upside down on the end. Blood dripped down, and my son's eyes were open, his face ashen, staring at me from the bamboo pole.

I also dreamt that I was washing my face in a basin, and when I reached out my hand, it turned into a cat's paw. Looking in the mirror, I discovered that my face was covered in hair. I scratched my face like crazy until the pain woke me up.

When I woke up, I saw it right outside the window, staring at me intently.

I went out to hit it, and it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Later, I gradually learned that it only had a chance to attack me once every seven days. On the second seven days, I was too afraid to sleep all night, holding my amulet the whole time. It stood in front of my bed, eager to pounce, and finally couldn't resist, but was repelled by the light of the amulet, leaving only a few deep claw marks on my pillow. I thought that the amulet could protect me from its attack, but the very next day, the amulet mysteriously disappeared from my house.

I didn't even bother to figure out how it stole the amulet. I packed my things and took the train from Shanghai to Beijing the next day. I tried to escape it, but I couldn't. I didn't expect it to find me on the very first day, and that it would still haunt me with the same nightmares, still waiting to attack me on the seventh day.

I've had enough. I'm going to kill it, I'm going to kill it, kill it!!! I'm going to make it a completely dead cat!!!

“You’ve already killed it once,” I said coldly.

"Hmph, what's the big deal about killing a cat? These little animals don't deserve to live in this world, they don't deserve to live in a house like me and eat hot meals. They don't deserve it, they're just a bunch of trash!!!" he shouted hysterically.

I didn't listen to what he had to say anymore, and just left the ward with disdain.

That evening, I met Wei online. She said, "I'll show you a link, I just found it."

I opened the webpage, and the title was: "Elderly woman on XX Road in XX District brutally kills her beloved cat."

As I read on, the online article described: Grandma Xu was a woman in her seventies who had no relatives and lived alone in a simple apartment in the bustling city. She had seven or eight cats with her, some of which she had adopted, and others of which were stray cats that she fed and made the place their home. The largest of them, a tabby cat, was fifteen years old, and she treated it like her own son, spoiling it rotten.

The old lady lived in poor conditions and could only feed her cats small fish and shrimp, which inevitably had a fishy smell. This drew the attention of her neighbors, who repeatedly reported her cat-keeping behavior to the neighborhood committee and made irrelevant comments such as "it will spread diseases and affect the environment."

The neighborhood committee then sent the most domineering man to negotiate with Old Lady Xu, ordering her to send the cat away within a specified period.

Grandma Xu thought about it for a long time. She didn't know where to send the cats, or what they would eat or how they would survive if they were chased away. In the end, she didn't send any of them away.

The neighborhood committee was furious and sent the same man to lead a group of several grown men into the old woman's house. They used various tools to catch almost all the cats. One of them, a fifteen-year-old, was too old to run or jump anymore; the man caught it on the spot, killed it with a bamboo pole, and impaled it on the pole as a victory gesture. The other cats were put into sacks and taken away; their whereabouts remain unknown.

Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [9]: This article was published on the website of an animal welfare association. It was quite detailed and included many illustrations and photos.

I saw an old woman with a wrinkled face sitting outside her humble home, weeping bitterly.

I saw the only color photo of the big tabby cat before it died; it was nestled happily in the old lady's arms.

I also saw the bamboo pole that had killed it, with traces of blood still visible on it.

Turning the page further, I saw the photo of the man who hit the cat; I don't need to introduce who he is.

Wei sent me a message saying, "Don't pay attention to me, I'm crying."

After a long silence, I replied, "I'm crying too."

The old woman's desperate, weeping face lingered in front of me.

“We saved the wrong person,” Wei said.

I couldn't answer her, because I let the tears stream down my face. The old woman's helpless eyes, the cat's blissful eyes. The only warmth in that simple home. The pure trust and affection between humans and animals.

They were all mercilessly snapped in two by that bamboo pole.

Are they really that irreconcilable enemies? Can you really bring yourself to do it? Will humans really be able to live better lives if there are no more small animals in this city?

"Songming, you deserve to die," I thought to myself. Those who kill animals without batting an eye, you don't actually have the courage to stand up straight in the face of their retaliation.

Sixth, reincarnation, still your son.

For the next few days after seeing the webpage, I felt terrible. I couldn't sleep at night, and I didn't want to contact anyone. I let myself leave a huge pile of manuscripts unfinished, just drifting through the days in a daze. I didn't dare see Wei, and Wei didn't want to see me either.

We were, after all, just two naive people who thought that redemption could make people's souls more sacred, but we didn't know how to face the debts that humanity had already incurred.

Seven days were almost up. Wei suddenly called me and asked, "Are you still willing to go see Songming?"

"Why would I look for him? I'd rather he were dead."

“I want to see that cat,” she whispered.

I cannot refuse such a reason.

We didn't even go into Songming's house. We just squatted by the wall where we'd been before and waited. He'd been discharged from the hospital two days ago, and it seemed he'd been visiting many places to pray to gods and Buddhas; his windows were covered with talismans from various sects, and there were quite a few ritual objects in the house. But, damn it, there wasn't a single cat on his roof.

Time passed by, and the sun set and the moon rose again.

Songming's room was unusually quiet.

Perhaps only Wei's keen senses could hear the cat's footsteps falling on the tiles, softly and delicately.

The cat has come again. This time, it's alone.

It stands on the rooftop under the moonlight, its silhouette lonely and forlorn.

We began to worry about it. Even the most vengeful spirit, could it withstand so many magical artifacts?

Wei involuntarily stood up and looked at it. It turned around and looked at us too.

I remembered the can of food I gave it when I first came into close contact with it. I also remembered the glistening tears in its eyes when it looked up at us after carefully sniffing the can of food.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Wei said softly. “I don’t know your story. I don’t know why you hate me so much.”

It approached us and stood on the eaves. I could see despair in its big eyes, a desperate gamble.

"No." Wei's tears fell. "Don't take the risk, please—no, you will suffer torment worse than death. You will be annihilated and never be able to rise again."

"No, as long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood to burn." I awkwardly tried to comfort it, even though I knew I didn't have Wei's supernatural abilities and it might not understand what I was saying.

It shook its head and wagged its tail.

Then it raised its head and looked at the sky. The moonlight had turned blood red again, and all around was deathly silent. I saw it arch its back, revealing all four claws, sharp as blades.

"No. No." Wei cried helplessly, covering her face.

"Meow," it meowed softly, as if saying goodbye.

Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [10]: “Big Ami. Big Ami.” A voice called out from afar, and we all heard it, yet none of us could believe our ears.

"Big Ami".

The cat pricked up its ears and listened intently in a certain direction.

The sound of faltering footsteps and the clattering of canes against the stone slabs echoed through the alley.

A figure emerged from the shadows and walked towards the streetlamp. She carried a faux leather satchel from the 1950s, her clothes were tattered, and her face was covered in dust.

The moonlight shone on her tattered dress, her gray cloth shoes, and her aged, sallow face.

“Big Ami, I know you’re here, my Big Ami.” She took a few more steps forward, and we realized that she could no longer see the road.

The cat seemed frozen in place, squatting motionless on the eaves.

"Mommy's here. Big Ami. Mommy's here."

The old woman murmured as she groped her way toward us. “Big Ami, Mommy knows you’re here. Mommy dreams of you every night. Even though I can’t see clearly, I can still smell you, hear you, and feel you.”

She stopped outside the courtyard gate, not far from us. I saw two streams of tears flow down her wrinkles. "Big Ami, you're here."

The cat nimbly leaped off the roof and landed right at her feet, meowing softly, rubbing its back against her legs, and nudging her knees with its head.

She slowly bent down, stroked its head, and grinned, tears streaming down her face as she smiled: "Big Ami, Mommy knows what you want to do. Mommy has been following you all this way just to tell you, let's not fight anymore, okay?"

The cat remained silent.

The old woman sat down on the stone steps by the roadside, and the cat jumped into her lap and curled up in a ball.

"It's so good to be able to touch you again... Big Ami, the monks at the temple said that you only have a real body once every seven days. How could you be so confused? Why don't you go see your mother?"

“Big Ami, let’s not seek revenge anymore, it’s useless. When will this cycle of revenge end? This is probably a debt we owed in our past lives. You’re gone, and Mom won’t live much longer either. Let’s reincarnate together, and in the next life, you can still be my son, okay?”