“Sir, was it you who locked this door?” Han Fei turned to the old man on the stairs with the kindest expression on his face. His hand though reached into his pocket to grab the taser. The old man appeared to not have heard Han Fei. He was old with age spots on his face. He kept one hand behind his back while holding an empty bird cage with the other. “Sir, can you hear me?” As Han Fei made to move towards the old man, the latter instantly turned around and headed back upstairs. While the old man made his retreat, Han Fei noticed that there were 2 stray feathers stuck to the old man’s empty hand. That explained why the cage was empty.
‘Such a strange man.’ Encountering such an individual, most people would ignore it but Han Fei was not most people. He chose to chase after the old man. “Sir, do you need help to get back home?” Han Fei offered like a Good Samaritan as he caught up to the old man. When he reached out to hold the man’s body, the old man flinched.
“I’m here for a movie. I apologize on the crew’s behalf if we have created any trouble for you.” Han Fei’s approach was brimming with kindness so even if the old man felt discomfited by his presence, it would feel wrong to chase this kind young man away. Han Fei accompanied the old man up to the 5th floor. Strangely enough, the old man stopped before his door and did not go in. Instead he turned around to look at Han Fei who showed no sign of leaving either.
“Sir, can you remember anything about the writer who once lived on the 4th floor?” Han Fei stood his ground and appeared like he would not be moving until he got his answer. The old man stared at Han Fei for a long time before saying, “He died more than 10 years ago.” The old man’s voice was low and hoarse. It sounded like nails scratching on glass.
“I know he’s dead but did he do anything strange when he was alive? You were neighbours with him so you should know him well, right?”
“I can’t remember things from more than a decade ago.” The old man lowered his head to avoid eye contact.
“Really?” Han Fei was an acting master, that meant that he could easily tell when someone was acting as well. “Did someone also come to ask you about Spider recently?”
“Yes.” The old man’s voice was so weak that Han Fei could barely hear him.
“What did they enquire about?”
“I can’t remember anymore.”
“Do you have their contact info?”
“He too is dead.” The air froze as the old man suddenly lifted his head. He pointed his crooked finger right above them. “He jumped down from this place. Like you, he was not afraid of anything but curiosity kills the cat.” The old man’s voice lowered even further. Fear started to color his muddled eyes. “Certain things are definitely real, you can choose to believe them or not, that is your prerogative but do not wander around the 4th floor after dark, or you might be the next one jumping down from the rooftop.”
“Sir… have you seen something?” Han Fei was not only a good actor, he had also studied psychology and had a wealth of ‘clinical’ experience. He could discern many things from the old man’s expressions alone. When the old man heard that question, his eyes which had been darting about focused on Han Fei. His cracked lips slowly open to reveal yellowed teeth. Just as he was about to say something, the sound of bell tingling came from one of the rooms on the 4th floor. Almost the same moment the tingling happened, the old man abandoned the conversation, opened the door and scurried into his room. It was like something bad would happen if he stayed outside any longer. Han Fei did not stop the old man. Instead, after the old man escaped into his room, Han Fei very naturally followed behind him and even helped the old man close the door.
“Sir, what was that sound earlier?” There was supposedly no one staying at the 4th floor anymore and all the doors were locked so where did the tingling come from?
“It was the wind chime. When the author was alive, the wind chime at his home would often ring around dusk.” The old man stood inside the living room holding the empty bird cage. He did not expect Han Fei to follow him home. He now suspected that Han Fei was someone with ulterior motives who had infiltrated his way into the film crew, that was because be it from his appearance or demeanor, the young man before him did not present himself like an actor.
“Is that so?” Han Fei memorized this detail about the wind chime. His gaze slowly strayed away from the old man and looked around the room. There were many altars placed inside the rather small room. The altars were of different sizes and most of them were draped under a black cloth so Han Fei could not tell what divinity they were for.
“Sir, why do you pray to so many different gods? One should be more than enough.” Han Fei had encountered an altar in the Iyashikei game so he was quite familiar with them.
“I don’t really pray to them. It’s just that these altars keep mysteriously appearing inside the building, no one knew who left them there. Whenever I come across one, I would bring them home with me out of respect.” Seeing that Han Fei showed no intention of leaving, the old man sighed, “I really mean you no harm. I stared at you in the staircase earlier because I wanted to warn you from getting too close to that author. Anyone who got entangled with him would have a bad ending. In fact, many strange events at this place are related to him.” When he was in the comfort of his own home, the old man was clearly more willing to share.
“Bad endings? What do you mean?” Han Fei was instantly reminded of the Butterfly’s MO. He now suspected the Butterfly had been killing off people who came to investigate the Spider. If that was the case, that meant that the Butterfly had something to hide, perhaps the Spider knew some weaknesses of the Butterfly!
“Looks like you really don’t know anything.” The old man shook his head. “10 years ago, many strange events occurred at the meat packing factory.
“When the factory started its business, everyone loved their product because their meat had this alluring fragrance about them. But later, there were rumors that the fragrance came from the fact that their machines had killed some hapless worker.”
“That has to be a false rumour, right?”
“Of course, but a rumour can still be quite powerful. People started to question their cleanliness and stopped purchasing their product.” The old man looked out the window and the view allowed him to look right into the factory next door. “After their sales dropped, the quality of their meat suffered as well. Instead of fragrance, their meat began to have this rancid staleness to them. No one knew where the new smell came from, in any case, their business plummeted. Eventually they could not keep the business running anymore and were forced to close. Right about then, the partner of their boss suddenly disappeared. People said the boss had him removed to cut losses.
“The police were called in to search for the man but they could not find him. However, when they checked the warehouse inventory, they realized that the number did not match. There was one extra living pig in the pigsty. Perhaps this was just a coincidence but that did not stop the gossip mill from rolling. Everyone stayed even further from the factory.” The old man sighed. “Eventually the factory closed and the boss became the first to commit suicide at the meat packing factory. He jumped from the rooftop and landed on his secondhand car.”
“There was no concrete evidence to suggest that the boss had anything to do with the disappearance, why did he kill himself?”
“It was due to public pressure and oppressive rumours. To be honest though, people like us who were familiar with the actual man knew that he was innocent, he was a fine young man. Who would have thought his life would end up like this.” The old man sighed. Then his voice dipped as if the things he was to speak next shouldn’t be uttered loudly, “But that was just the beginning. After the boss’ death, even this living compound started to play host to weird occurrences.”
“What do you mean?”
“For example, the tenants could hear inexplicable footsteps at midnight. There would be a strange smell of stale meat that drifted into the rooms. Many people said that it was the dead boss who had returned.” The old man did not give Han Fei any opening to cut in, he continued in one breath. “Everyone was so afraid, well, most of us were anyway. There were some youngsters who did not believe in such things. They decided to form a night patrol.
“They kept up the patrol for several nights and did not encounter the boss. However, they did manage to follow the trail of the stale meat smell to the author’s room on the 4th floor. The smell originated from his room. The tenants normally left the author alone. He rarely left his room and when he was seen outside his room, he acted strangely. He was occasionally kind and passionate, other times aloof and cold. Depending on his mood, he would be strangely confrontational but also caring like a woman.
“Normally the tenants gave a wide berth to his presence, we rarely communicated with him. But now that the evidence pointed towards him, people started to suspect this strange man. However, suspicion was merely that, a suspicion. No one had any actual proof so the investigation halted.
“However, 3 days later, one of the young men who formed the night patrol suddenly committed suicide at this building. He died the same way as the boss, jumping from the rooftop. The young man was single and there was nothing wrong with him mentally. His suicide was completely unexpected. Officially, the Xin Lu Police deemed his death as suicide but the tenants all knew that this was the doing of the meat packing factory boss.
“Those who were able instantly moved away from this place, while the remaining tenants had to resort to homemade wards.” The old man glanced at the altars surrounding them. “Some of the tenants collected money to hire a sensei. After the sensei heard about the exaggerated stories about the author, he inadvertently came to the conclusion that the author’s house was haunted. He needed to enter his room to exorcise the demon.
“The author refused him entry and so the sensei forced his way in. He finished the ceremony that afternoon and claimed that he had dealt with the spirit of the factory boss. With the tenants begging him, the sensei agreed to stay one night at the living compound. In the mood of celebration, they drank quite a bit that night. Right after midnight, they found the sensei missing. The tenants only found him the next morning outside the 2nd floor window. The man appeared to have gotten too much to drink. He stumbled his way over to the 2nd floor balcony and tripped over the edge. On his way down, he got his neck entangled between the electric lines and was strangled to death.”
The old man glanced at the setting sun outside the window. No matter how hard Han Fei urged, he refused to continue the story. It was as if it would bring tragedy to tell these tales after dark. Seeing how adamant the old man was, Han Fei did not force him anymore. However, he did remember that they were supposed to rehearse their script at the living compound that night and the content of the script was based on Spider’s own life.
‘I wonder what will happen if we greatly discuss the script within this building after dark…’ Gripping the script tightly, while feeling the pressure, there was also a glow of anticipation in Han Fei’s eyes.
