Lingcheng, located in the western part of a certain province in China, was a small city situated along the border line. The population was not large, but its sources were chaotic. In addition to the local permanent residents, the city would from time to time see some illegal migrants from Southeast Asia. People of all kinds were mixed together, muddy and chaotic, and public security had been poor for many years.
After nightfall, returning home as soon as possible and not lingering in certain districts was a rule that local people followed.
As night descended, at eight thirty in the evening, the sound of the end-of-class bell suddenly rang out, finally awakening the lifeless campus.
The elderly security guard in the gatehouse yawned, picked up his thermos cup from the mottled wooden desk, and took a big gulp of strong tea. Then, wearing his slippers, he slowly shuffled over to open the school gate.
A few minutes later, a crowd of students about to enter their final year of high school rushed out of the teaching building like wild horses breaking free of their reins.
“This weekend, my dad is taking me across the checkpoint.”
“Wow? You went to the Border Control Bureau to get a permit?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey! My chemistry practice workbook!”
“You’ve already finished it anyway. Let me copy it. I’ll return it to you tomorrow morning!”
“No! Give it back to me!”
“Come on, why are you being so stingy……”
……
The surroundings were noisy and filled with clamorous voices.
Xu Fangfei carried a white backpack and quietly walked out of the school gate. She turned sideways and carefully avoided several classmates who were chasing and fooling around, consciously giving them space to pass.
“Xu Fangfei!” Suddenly, a female voice came from behind her.
Xu Fangfei turned her head at the sound and saw a slender figure walking toward her in the night. When the person came closer, she saw clearly that it was Yang Xi, their class teacher.
Yang Xi said, “Xu Fangfei, you usually leave school together with Yang Lu. She’s been on sick leave these past few days. Are you okay going alone? Do you want me to find a male classmate to walk you home?”
“No need, Teacher Yang.” Xu Fangfei waved her hand and gave the teacher a smile. “My home is less than one kilometer from the school. There’s no need to trouble anyone else.”
Only then, at such close range, did Yang Xi notice that although the backpack straps on the girl’s shoulders were very clean, they were already fraying and coming loose from being too old.
Looking at the girl’s obedient and gentle face, Yang Xi sighed softly in her heart.
Xu Fangfei was a good seed for studying. She was quick-minded, had a strong learning ability, and teachers of all subjects spoke highly of her. However, Lingcheng Middle School was not a good school at all. Both the teaching staff and the student intake were very ordinary. Such a good seed planted in such barren soil naturally made Yang Xi, as a teacher, feel somewhat regretful.
Parents who had managed to make something of themselves outside, almost without exception, chose to take their children and flee this chaotic and backward border town.
As for the children who stayed behind, they were either left-behind children or came from families whose conditions were far too difficult.
Yang Xi knew that Xu Fangfei belonged to the latter.
The child’s father had passed away from illness years ago. At home, there was only her mother and her half-paralyzed maternal grandfather left. Xu Fangfei’s mother, Qiao Huilan, rented a small shop on Lingcheng’s funeral street to sell paper offerings. That little shop was the only source of income for Xu Fangfei’s family.
Thinking this over, Yang Xi’s gaze toward Xu Fangfei gained a trace of regret and sympathy. She said, “Alright then, pay attention to your safety.”
“Thank you, Teacher. Goodbye, Teacher.”
After saying goodbye to her homeroom teacher, Xu Fangfei turned and left. Her slender figure quickly disappeared into the night.
*
It was the height of summer. Scorching waves of heat wove together into a massive steamer, roasting this small city.
Xu Fangfei’s home was on Xiwang Street.
This street was quite interesting. It had been given a name full of joy and celebration, yet it was Lingcheng’s most notorious slum.
The street was narrow, with old, dilapidated residential buildings on both sides, all built in the sixties and seventies. Utility poles were propped high and crooked, and tangled electrical wires crisscrossed chaotically in midair, forcibly slicing this patch of sky into several fragmented pieces. The air was filled with all kinds of sounds: adults’ scolding, children’s heart-wrenching cries, and the quarrels of young men and women shouting hoarsely like broken gongs.
Looking along the curb toward both ends, several large red slogans reading “Create a Civilized Society, Foster New Values” were pasted on the publicity boards lining the road. The glue had already failed, leaving them half-stuck and half-hanging there. When the wind blew, they fluttered unsteadily, becoming the brightest and most vivid splash of color on Xiwang Street.
Xu Fangfei had lived here for more than ten years. Every blade of grass and tree, every brick and tile of this street, as well as all its various sounds, were familiar to her.
With the noise clamoring around her ears, Xu Fangfei was used to it. She held onto her backpack strap and recalled in her mind the homework she had not yet finished for each subject: Chinese still had half a test paper left, mathematics still had three pages of the practice workbook, physics still had four major problems, and English was still missing one essay.
Finish Chinese and English first, then mathematics…
Mm, maybe physics first.
Today’s math problems seemed quite difficult, so she would leave them for last and do them carefully.
Xu Fangfei clenched her fist and silently encouraged herself. When she passed a small puddle, she detoured to the left to avoid it. With a turn of her steps, she entered No. 9 Courtyard on Xiwang Street and walked straight toward the entrance of Unit Two, Building Three.
Old residential compounds were like this. Everything was old, filled with a sense of decay from another era.
The corridor light in Unit Two of Building Three had been broken for nearly two months. Qiao Huilan had spoken to the gatekeeper several times, asking him to come and fix it. Unfortunately, the gatekeeper’s salary was meager, and he brazenly made excuses and shirked the job. As a result, the light had no choice but to remain broken.
Fortunately, Xu Fangfei was familiar with everything in the stairwell. Holding onto the wall and going upstairs in the dark would not cause her to fall.
Her home was on the fourth floor.
She quietly climbed the stairs. Step by step. Climbing and climbing.
When she passed the third floor, Xu Fangfei slowed her pace slightly. Her gaze shifted subtly, and she blinked, noticing that the old-style security door that was usually pitch-black actually had faint light seeping through the crack.
It was the light of an incandescent bulb, bleak and cold.
It seemed someone had moved in.
Xu Fangfei lifted her head and glanced at the upper part of the security door. On the mottled old wall was an old doorplate with a dark blue background and white numbers: 3206.
Xu Fangfei did not think much about it and quickly withdrew her gaze and left.
When she returned home, Qiao Huilan was, as usual, giving a massage to the half-paralyzed grandfather. Hearing the sound of the door opening, Qiao Huilan slightly raised her voice and said, “Feifei, the food is in the pot. Heat it up yourself.”
Xu Fangfei changed into her house shoes at the entrance, first put down her backpack and greeted her grandfather and mother, then walked into the kitchen. She lifted the pot lid and saw that a porcelain plate held several large pieces of braised pork ribs and scrambled eggs with tomato. The rice was piled as high as her two fists.
Xu Fangfei twisted the gas stove knob. There was poor contact, so it did not turn on the first time. Only on the second try did the flame ignite.
By the time the food was heated, Qiao Huilan had also come out of the grandfather’s bedroom, rubbing her waist.
Xu Fangfei turned her head, noticed Qiao Huilan’s movement, and frowned slightly. “Mom, is your back pain acting up again?”
“I was a bit tired today. I’ll be fine after resting for a while.”
“I’ll massage it for you later.”
“No need.” Qiao Huilan waved her hand, wrapped the scalding plate with a clean cloth, quickly took it out of the pot, and set it on the table. “You eat first. See if it’s enough. If it’s not, there’s more in the fridge.”
“It’s enough. I probably won’t be able to finish it.” Xu Fangfei picked up her chopsticks and sat down to eat. She quietly pushed the ribs aside, picked up a piece of tomato, then suddenly remembered something and asked casually, “By the way, Mom, did someone move in downstairs in our building?”
Qiao Huilan thought for a moment and said, “Third floor, number six? Seems like it.”
Xu Fangfei asked again, “Is the one who moved in a young person?”
Qiao Huilan said, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them yet. Why are you asking?”
“Nothing.”
Xu Fangfei lowered her head and continued eating, only muttering softly in her heart: I hope the one who moved in is a young person, preferably a boy who can fix lights. That way, when her mother closes up the shop late, she won’t need to use a flashlight anymore.
After hurriedly finishing her meal, Xu Fangfei put down her bowl and chopsticks and returned to her room to do homework.
When Qiao Huilan came out of the kitchen and saw it, she frowned. “Why did you leave so many ribs?”
“I’m too full to eat them,” Xu Fangfei smiled. “You and Grandpa can eat them tomorrow.”
*
Originally, Xu Fangfei had not paid attention to the person who moved in downstairs. That was until two o’clock in the middle of the night, when she rubbed her eyes groggily and was awakened by a strange and unfamiliar sound.
Most of the residents in No. 9 Courtyard were elderly people and children who stayed behind. There were almost no young people. As a result, the residents had no nightlife and all went to bed early. At this moment, everything around was utterly silent. It was precisely this quiet that made that sound especially abrupt and clear——
The man’s panting and the woman’s moans sounded like extreme pain yet also like extreme pleasure, entwining and overlapping with each other.
Xu Fangfei stared blankly at the ceiling.
An inexperienced girl could not immediately react to what kind of sounds those were. After a brief moment, two wild cats seeking pleasure suddenly darted past the windowsill at lightning speed. Accompanied by the shrill cries of animals in heat, they instantly jolted Xu Fangfei back to her senses.
In just two short seconds, it was as if a fire had exploded into flames, burning her from head to toe.
Xu Fangfei’s face flushed bright red. She quickly pulled the cotton quilt higher, hiding her entire body inside and wrapping herself up tightly, trying to isolate herself from those unspeakable sounds.
The noises were close and clear, obviously coming from either the floor above her bedroom or the floor below.
The people living upstairs were two elderly individuals in their seventies. The old couple had only one daughter who worked out of town and had not returned for several years…
3206?
That old, worn doorplate number flashed through Xu Fangfei’s mind. She turned over under the covers, forcing herself not to listen and not to imagine anything, then tightly shut her eyes. While silently chanting “form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” she tried to hypnotize herself into sleeping seriously.
But faintly, the panting, screams, obscene words, lewd talk, and even the sounds made by a wooden bed shaking violently, creak, creak, did not stop, one wave after another.
Starting from her hearing, they spread like a prairie fire, scorching all of Xu Fangfei’s senses.
She grabbed her hair in annoyance, curled up, and tightly covered her ears with the quilt.
*
After that, for seven consecutive days, Xu Fangfei heard the sounds of men and women seeking pleasure downstairs every night.
Sometimes it ended hastily in twenty or thirty minutes.
Sometimes the man and woman were in high spirits and could battle intermittently for one or two hours.
Xu Fangfei’s passive eavesdropping mentality, on top of the initial shock and embarrassment, also gained a hint of curiosity. She somewhat wanted to know exactly what kind of person lived downstairs, someone who could do that kind of thing every day, like clocking in at work, cultivating day after day without rest, enjoying it endlessly. Their energy was simply too excessive.
This day was Friday. There was an evening self-study class for mathematics. In order to finish explaining the monthly exam papers, the math teacher dragged the class on for a while, and it was already close to nine o’clock by the time school ended.
Xu Fangfei hugged a thick textbook and walked home together with a female classmate who happened to be going the same way.
At the street corners and in the alleys, several Burmese hoodlums were gathered, slouching as they smoked. When they saw the two girls, the men cast several lewd, ill-intentioned glances at them and exchanged a few obscene laughs.
They were speaking Burmese. Xu Fangfei could not understand it and did not want to understand it either.
She pulled the female classmate along and quickened her pace.
The female classmate was named Yang Lu, lively and sunny. She chirped nonstop along the way, talking about one celebrity secretly getting married, then another idol’s image collapsing.
Xu Fangfei had a well-behaved and optimistic personality but was not very talkative. From beginning to end, she simply listened quietly by the side. Occasionally, she was amused by Yang Lu’s exaggerated and vivid expressions and let out a soft laugh.
The two girls walked side by side to Xiwang Street, then waved goodbye to each other.
Xu Fangfei rubbed her face, which felt a little sore from smiling. In her heart, she mentally noted down the celebrity names and interesting gossip she had just heard from Yang Lu, planning to tell her mother and grandfather after she got home.
Just as she was about to enter the main gate of No. 9 Courtyard, a sound of footsteps drilled into Xu Fangfei’s ears. Sharp high heels struck the ground, unfamiliar clicking sounds drifting through every corner of Xiwang Street.
Xu Fangfei’s attention was drawn by the sound, and she subconsciously turned her head.
She saw a woman walking over in the dim night. She looked young, at most twenty-four or twenty-five years old. She was wearing a black lace body-hugging dress, the hem just barely reaching her upper thighs, boldly and flamboyantly revealing a pair of plump, fair legs.
Her makeup was heavy, her red lips seductive. Her slender waist was like a water snake, her hips round and full, swaying with every step. Several cheap metal trinkets hung from the purple shoulder bag on her back, clinking noisily as she walked.
Looking at that sensually swaying waist and hips, Xu Fangfei’s eyes went wide.
So… sexy.
“What a crappy place. Such a mess. A slum.” The seductive woman looked full of disdain. She frowned her thin willow-leaf brows, raised her hands with exaggerated manicured nails to fan the air in front of her, then rolled her eyes and noticed Xu Fangfei not far away.
“Hey, little sister, is this Xiwang Street No. 9?” the woman asked, speaking in the local dialect.
Xu Fangfei nodded blankly.
“Such bad luck. Looks like there won’t be any tips for this job.” The woman complained to herself, then stopped paying attention to Xu Fangfei and twisted her hips as she entered the gate of No. 9 Courtyard.
Xu Fangfei, carrying her backpack, also walked in. She quietly headed toward her own building while listening to the seductive woman ahead spewing curses under her breath.
After walking for several minutes, until the woman entered the entrance of Unit Two, Building Three, Xu Fangfei belatedly realized that this woman actually had the same destination as her.
Upon entering the pitch-dark building, the woman stomped her foot. The sound-activated light above showed no response. The woman muttered a curse under her breath, then held onto the wall and slowly climbed the stairs.
Xu Fangfei followed her in. She glanced at the sound-activated light above that still had not been fixed, and a trace of disappointment welled up in her heart. As usual, she held onto the wall and climbed the stairs in the dark.
But that woman in the tight dress…
Could she be a relative of one of the neighbors?
Xu Fangfei pondered this as her steps unconsciously quickened. When she reached the second floor, she heard a series of knocking sounds coming from the direction of the third floor.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. As if following some unspoken rhythm.
Immediately after came a series of clicks from unlocking. The security door that had been locked with multiple bolts opened.
The seductive woman’s voice sounded again, dripping with honey and soft sweetness. “Oh my, boss, this place was really hard to find. But don’t worry, Sister Lan already explained everything to me. I know the rules. My mouth is very tight. I definitely won’t talk nonsense.”
The person who opened the door did not make a single sound from beginning to end.
Xu Fangfei continued climbing the stairs on her own. As she passed the landing corner, she already heard the creak of the door closing. In a hurried glance, she only saw a hand gripping the handle of door 3206.
The palm was broad, the fingers long. The skin tone leaned toward a cool pallor. The finger bones were well-defined and strong, each line boldly displaying an exceptionally sharp beauty. On the back of the hand was an old, roughly round scar, adding an extra three parts of wildness and unruly defiance.
That old scar.
It was like…
In the darkness, Xu Fangfei’s gaze suddenly jumped.
It was like the mark left when a bullet in a gunfight movie had forcibly punched straight through flesh and bone.