Poupée de nuit

Chapitre 9

Su Ying was taken aback, then burst into laughter, her hair falling all over her face. She ran her hand through it, her expression even more unrestrained than in the pool. Then she said to me earnestly, "The first time I saw you, I knew you would be my soulmate. And you were right, you really figured it out. I am a sea person."

"I am a sea dweller."

I was somewhat taken aback by this answer, and even a little nervous. But it was still unlikely that I would believe Su Ying was a sea creature, and I was speechless for a moment.

“Actually, in terms of species, the underwater people are octopus people, did you know that?” Su Ying said to me with a smile.

"ah?"

"Really. When I was shooting commercials, my hair was always flying around, right? Those weren't special effects, they weren't made by the wind, they just moved on their own."

"Huh?" Just as I was surprised, a gust of wind suddenly blew in from the window, causing her hair to flutter wildly. For a moment, I felt a chill run down my spine, a strange feeling washing over me. Su Ying smiled faintly, her hair swaying dramatically, and for a moment I couldn't tell if it was real or not, filled with doubt and surprise.

Fifteen minutes later I was lying on my own bed on the first floor.

I've read many foreign detective novels, and these often feature mysterious or even supernatural events, but those are just appearances, traps, usually concealing a conspiracy. My current situation seems to fit that description. Of course, I don't sense any criminal intent, and I'm not Kogoro Akechi, but one thing I can learn from is that everything that happens should have an inherent connection. My current problem is that I can't distinguish which events can be grouped together. Did the cat incident come first, or the Zhidan Garden incident…? Thinking about it carefully, the Zhidan Garden incident happened a long time ago. My consideration of archaeology is entirely due to Su Ying's influence. Thinking of Su Ying, I can't help but laugh and cry.

However, it's not impossible that the archaeological work at Zhidan Garden is related to these two events, considering both the time and location factors. After all, both events occurred near Zhidan Garden. I no longer have the energy to think about it further.

Having experienced some unimaginable events, I've long since developed the habit of forcing myself to sleep no matter what. After all, maintaining peak energy is paramount. So even though I've encountered many incredible things today—the strange cat, the immortal cockroach, and the question of whether Su Ying is a sea creature—I'm temporarily putting those thoughts aside and going to bed. Although my mind is full of questions, I believe that as long as the cat doesn't make a fuss, I can still fall asleep.

Somewhat unexpectedly, I slept quite well that night; the cat didn't make a sound. Thinking about the cat only made my mind more chaotic—trucks running over people, falls from heights… I roused myself, secretly determined to unravel these mysteries that day, or at least find some clues. If possible, I'd catch the cat and study it. After washing up, I planned to go to the newspaper office first. Just as I stepped out the door, I saw a group of people gathered around a pond near the green space.

Curious, I walked over and found several security guards holding long bamboo poles with nets attached, scooping something up. A few elderly women were watching the spectacle.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard a security guard shout, "Got it! Got it!" followed by a chorus of exclamations from the elderly women. I turned around and was shocked. The net they had pulled out contained the black cat.

The security guards dumped the cat's body on the ground. Judging from the extremely abnormal curvature of the cat's body, I knew this was the same cat. Its body looked somewhat stiff, but its forelegs were still curled up in an arc, which was very strange.

"What happened to this cat?" I asked the security guard who had picked it up.

"Oh, I found this cat in the pond while I was patrolling last night. It's troublesome to look for it at night, and I didn't want to disturb people, so I came to retrieve it this morning. It's been dead for half a day. I think it jumped into the river by itself. What a stupid cat," he explained. The older women nearby muttered, "What a tragedy, what a tragedy."

It seems no one has noticed the cat's problem.

The cat had been drowned for so long that its body was stiff. Even if someone wanted to touch it, they might not notice anything strange about it. Besides, who would want to touch a wet, dirty black cat's corpse? It seemed the trail to this black cat had to end there. Should the cat's body be sent to the relevant authorities for research...? My mind was in turmoil. Perhaps it was my male pride acting up, but I decided to keep this fact, which might only be known to me, a secret.

But strangely, how could this cat, which survived being run over by a truck and falling from a height, inexplicably drown? I don't believe any cat would be so slow as to accidentally fall into a pond, especially since this cat was no ordinary one.

On my way to work, I pondered deeply. There must have been some reason for the strange cat's death. Could it be that the mutation caused a problem, leading it to die while walking near the pool and then fall into it? However, now any questions were irresolvable.

I struggled to recall everything about this cat: being run over by a truck, its cries in the middle of the night, jumping down from the building to attack me, the last time I saw it, its sorrowful eyes, so helpless as if it were about to shed tears... Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

Perhaps this cat committed suicide. Its physical mutations must have caused it unbearable pain, tormenting it with incessant howling every night. Its running into the truck and jumping from the rooftop weren't to attack me or anything; it was seeking death. So it didn't even use its instinct to maintain balance. Yet it didn't die; instead, it suffered more. Finally, it chose to drown. That's why the security guard said he saw it "seem to have jumped into the river itself," and why it didn't make a sound last night. If it had fallen accidentally, it would usually have cried out and struggled desperately, but it was quiet. This is perfectly reasonable and sufficient to prove my conclusion.

After understanding why the cat committed suicide, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for it. But along with sympathy, I still felt extremely regretful about losing this important clue. Uncovering the truth became even more difficult.

Back at the newspaper office, I finally managed to relax. The relaxed atmosphere in the office and my colleagues' casual lunchtime conversations gave me a temporary sense of security. The experiences of the past few days had made me feel somewhat detached from reality, and I needed this environment to calm down.

But ultimately, those strange things have already happened, and I still have to get involved. I've encountered many bizarre events, so I'm convinced that this world is full of unknowns, including details that are often overlooked but readily accepted. Striving to discover these things is one of my joys, and a driving force in my life and work. I think I might make a bold assumption: if Su Ying is indeed a sea person, as she claims, then the Zhidan Garden site is indeed related to sea people, as she says. And since I've already determined that the cat and cockroach are related to the archaeological event, there must be some connection between the sea person and the cat and cockroach.

I pondered this, then casually picked up a pen and pulled out a piece of paper to jot down my thoughts. But there were too many unanswered questions, and far too few subjects for my research. I struggled to determine whether the cats and cockroaches were related to the underwater people, or whether their mutation process was connected to them. At this point, the latter seemed more likely, as a large swarm of immortal cockroaches had appeared, while there was only one cat. So why did they undergo such a mutation? I tried my best to explain it with everything I could think of, until I felt dizzy.

When I came to my senses, I saw my colleagues sitting next to me looking at me strangely, probably because they had never seen me so diligent. I quickly crumpled up the paper.

I thought I should tell them about seeing cockroaches at Shanghai University yesterday. Even if they just take it as a joke, they might stumble upon something interesting. We don't talk much at work, but we're a very casual group in private.

"Hey, I was about to say something when my colleague Xiao Zhang, who's usually quite close to me, walked up to me, patted me on the shoulder, and said in a low voice, "Kid, you're in luck with the ladies. Did you go out and have some fun with a female college student yesterday?"

"Huh?" I was taken aback. "No! Who told you that?!" I said, but I was incredibly nervous inside, thinking to myself, how could this kid be so well-informed? If I really had something going on with Su Ying, I would accept it if they told me. But I was afraid that this baseless accusation would ruin my reputation.

"Hey, look how impatient you are. I was just joking to test you. Really, nothing?"

"No." I was already covered in a cold sweat.

"Oh, it's like this. A female intern from the Film and Television Department of Shanghai University came here these past two days. She said she saw you in her dormitory building yesterday."

"Intern? How come I don't know that?"

Xiao Zhang laughed, "You come here every day but never stay for more than half an hour before leaving. You're always absent-minded, so I don't even notice you when I see you."

I was speechless. However, I really wanted to ask that female intern from the film and television department of Shanghai University about Su Ying's situation.

I soon met the girl, Lu Ye. To be honest, she was far less attractive than Su Ying, but at least she was presentable. I greeted her politely.

After a brief chat, I learned that she was indeed Su Ying's classmate and had also experienced the cockroach incident. We immediately felt a sense of kinship. After cursing the cockroaches for a while, I asked her about Su Ying. Unexpectedly, she frowned, and her expression immediately became uneasy.

I immediately recalled the times I'd run into Su Ying's classmates at school. There must be something wrong here.

"Are you and Su Ying very familiar?" Lu Ye asked me first.

"I'm not familiar with her. I'm just her neighbor, I was just asking casually," I quickly explained.

"Oh...I see. Actually, I'm not very familiar with her. But..." The girl's expression became hesitant again, as if there was something she was reluctant to say.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with her?" I pressed.

Lu Ye indeed changed her attitude. She leaned closer and whispered to me, "She's a lunatic. Really."

"Huh?" I was a little surprised, but not really surprised; I could roughly guess the reason.

Seeing that I didn't seem to believe her, she explained to me even more earnestly, "Su Ying really does have mental problems. She had to take a year off from school when she first came in as a freshman because she was hospitalized. So we're not very familiar with her. But she's a really strange person. She's always talking nonsense, like talking about the sea... underwater people and stuff. It seems like she has obsessive-compulsive disorder. She often says that this is related to underwater people, and that is related to underwater people, but she gets agitated whenever someone mentions it to her. Didn't you notice that when you were talking to her?"

These words struck me like a blow to the head, leaving me speechless. So... so this is what the so-called underwater people are all about. This shock was so sudden that I was stunned for a long time before I came to my senses. I didn't care about avoiding suspicion and managed to ask again, "Then how come she's such a good swimmer?"

Lu Ye replied, "Su Ying used to be on a professional swimming team. It seems she was on the city team before entering university. I heard from others that if she didn't have mental problems, she would have been on the national team long ago with her abilities. She always says she's from the sea, it's hilarious."