Black Cat

Su Bai drove Sue back to school.

In fact, Su Bai didn’t want to wander in this car; with the bronze chest in his trunk, he would be accused for cultural relic trafficking if he got caught. Judging by the reaction of that old man and the peaked cap guy, this was definitely something valuable.

But it was night and there was no taxi nearby; as for Sue, as the old saying went: “business might be called off, but friendship would continue”; he couldn’t leave her alone in darkness.

Of course, it was because Su Bai was not hungry.

That old martial master’s blood was of great quality; Su Bai felt stuffed after drinking his blood, and that feeling hadn’t totally disappeared by now.

Pulling over, Su Bai said nothing. Sue didn’t get off in a hurry; instead, she looked at Su Bai:

“After I met you, I’ve never…”

Su Bai raised his hand:

“No need to explain. You know that.”

Sue nodded with tears in her eyes. Eventually she got off and said to Su Bai:

“Farewell and take care.”

Su Bai answered calmly: “Same to you.”

After Sue had turned around and walked towards the school gate, Su Bai started the car and left. He could not carry this bronze chest with him onto a plane, so he had to have someone deliver it for him.

Besides, this was a kind of prohibited goods, so express company would not be an option. He had to ask someone he knew for help.

As far as Su Bai could remember, there was someone he knew in this city.

He drove directly to an express company. It was a SF Express[1], but it also had some illegal business.

That included prohibited goods, even drugs or munitions.

Of course, such a business wouldn’t take up a large part, and it cost a lot.

Parking the car outside, Su Bai went in.

The layout of the store was no different from other normal express shops; a courier boy saw Su Bai coming in and asked immediately:

“Need delivery service? Files or goods?”

Su Bai shook his head, “I’m here for Nine.”

Hearing “Nine”, the courier boy winked toward the inside. A courier girl immediately went through interior door. Soon, she came out and nodded to the courier boy.

“Sure, please.”

Su Bai nodded and walked in. The interior door was a door in the rear part of the store; all the shops were built outside a residential quarter, so Nine must have bought the apartment behind his store as well and then got them connected.

It was a little dim, but after a turn, Su Bai opened a door and it became bright. It was a room decorated like a study; a middle-aged man with a scar on his face was sitting on the end table enjoying his dinner: pork ears, bath chap, and a bottle of Chinese white spirit[2]. He was enjoying the meal with great appetite by himself.

“Nine.”

Su Bai called him, standing by the door.

The man was eating while watching TV, but hearing Su Bai’s voice, he got surprised, stood up immediately and looked outside the door.

“Bai! It’s you!”

Nine seemed to be very happy but also a little shy; he rubbed his hands on his clothes, and then pulled out the chair behind him.

“Have a seat, please. Ha, it’s good to know that you still think of me sometimes.”

Su Bai didn’t sit down; he just stood by his side.

Nine became upset and said bluntly: “Just humor me, please? I would like to see the appearance of your father sitting in the seat of honor in the old times. Please?”

Since Nine said so, Su Bai sat down without arguing. Nine giggled, took out a cigarette, lit it up and then squatted down in front of Su Bai.

“Bai, what can I do for you?”

“I’ve got something and I want you to deliver it to Chengdu,” Su Bai said frankly. But in his mind, there was an image of that rainy night when he was standing by the door of his home, looking at Nine, who was soaked in rain and blood and kneeling on the ground.

That night, something had happened to his parents; Nine was a bodyguard of his father, he came back but his parents never came back alive.

“Okay. I need a detailed address and I’ll deliver it for you in person.”

He agreed without even asking what the delivery was.

“Thank you, Nine.”

“Come on, don’t thank me, I’m not worthy. I owe you the most in my life, you know it.”

“What happened to my parents was not your fault.”

“Forget it, I’m just being sentimental. It’s rare to see you except when it’s Chinese New Year. Have you had any dinner? How about a few drinks with me?”

Su Bai thought about it. His plane would take off tomorrow evening and the blood trade was tomorrow afternoon; it would be really convenient for him to stay here for the night. So he took the bottle, filled up Nine’s cup and then his.

Nine held the cup, smacked his lips and then put the cup down:

“No, let’s deal with your delivery first. I’d better pack it now, otherwise, if I got drunk, it might be delayed.”

“Right.”

Su Bai drove the car through the gate of this residential quarter and arrived in front of the building where Nine’s apartment was. Nine asked Su Bai to park the car in his garage, and then he pulled down the roller shutter door.

The lights were on, and it was bright in the room. When Nine saw the bronze chest, he just quietly grabbed some plastic plates and packed it up, showing no special interest.

After packing, Nine drew Su Bai back to the previous room and they sat down for drinks.

While they were drinking, Nine suddenly asked:

“Bai, if you’re so interested in cultural relics, why not call your family?”

“You know, I don’t really want to bother them.”

“Well, that makes sense. Ha, it’s better that you came to me. Proves that you’re treating me as a real friend.”

That night, Su Bai slept in Nine’s place. It was a hot day; after putting a summer sleeping mat onto the bed, Su Bai could lie down and go to sleep. And it was a sound sleep without a dream. When Su Bai woke up, he felt very refreshed.

He checked the time; it was 9 a.m. already.

He got up, walked into the washroom and found new toothbrush, mug and towel prepared for him. After washing up, Su Bai went out. A courier boy saw him and immediately came to him and said:

“Nine went to delivery the goods early this morning.”

Su Bai nodded. Nine was taking his delivery very seriously and, of course, he trusted Nine a lot; at least he was loyal and devoted to him.

After having some food in a snack bar, Su Bai received a message:

“1 p.m. in the teahouse by the west gate of the park on Charming Road.”

Su Bai read the text and then put away his cell phone silently.

Blood would be a necessity if he was going to Chengdu; he had a way to find some blood reserve here. It would be better than trying to find blood after he arrived in Chengdu and started starving if something happened.

After his meal, Su Bai sat down by the gate of the express shop and checked the official account on his cell phone. He found a few new messages: all mass texting to all the audience.

In those live videos and pictures of stories, someone died a tragic death, but others survived.

Su Bai was especially attracted by an image text; below it, there was a picture of a man stripped to the waist, behind him there were remnants of zombies, blood and flesh all over the place. This man’s face and body were all blurred. In fact, all the people in these image texts were blurred. Only in those image texts of stories which Su Bai had participated could he see the clear images of himself and others.

This must be varying with readers; a person’s image was classified to others.

After reading those image texts, Su Bai suddenly felt that those two stories he had gone through would be nothing compared to someone else’s.

However, Su Bai felt so ridiculous when he thought of the fact that in this world, there were so many creepy audiences made by Dreadful Radio. What was the purpose of this Dreadful Radio? Just to force its audience to taste terror in person? And then to create a bunch of psychopaths with twisted minds and creepy capabilities?

Was it so… boring?

He checked the time and it was almost there, so he prepared to drove to that place. The car was parked outside Nine’s garage. He got in, buckled up and was about to start the engine. But suddenly, he looked around. In the back seat of this car, there was a cat- a black cat. The cat was sitting there in silence, with its amber-like eyes staring at Su Bai calmly.

A man and a cat, staring at each other. But from Su Bai’s forehead, there was cold sweat dripping down. He felt as if his breath was taken away and he was about to fall.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] SF Express: SF Express (Group) Co., Ltd. is a Chinese delivery services company. It is one of the two leading couriers in China,and provides domestic and international express delivery solutions to a wide array of customers. —Wikipedia

[2] Chinese white spirit (or baijiu): an 80–120 proof Chinese liquor.