It was already after nine o’clock at night when we returned to the hotel. Dali’s cold had gotten better. He had been watching TV in the hotel room alone for the whole day and was already bored to tears. When I opened the door, he greeted me as if we hadn’t seen each other for years.

I, on the other hand, had been busy all day. All I could think of was getting some rest. I took a hot shower, then snuggled into bed and watched TV. As I flipped through the channels, I accidentally stopped at a channel that was airing a romance drama. It was right at the moment when the protagonists slipped and fell on top of each other and accidentally kissed.

“Look at how fake that is, dude!” mocked Dali with a big hearty laugh. “If only real life was like these stupid dramas! When will I finally get to fall on a hot girl and kiss her like that?”

“Wouldn’t the girl slap you and hate you if that happened in real life?” I asked.

“Damn right she would, dude!”

My heart sank. But I didn’t understand why.

“There are… exceptions, though,” Dali suddenly remarked.

“What exceptions?” my interest was piqued.

He said that it happened to a buddy of his in high school. One day, a girl accidentally slipped and fell on his lap as he was sitting on a chair in the classroom. It was summer, so the girl was wearing a short skirt uniform. Dali’s buddy had a physiological reaction to that, so what followed was very awkward and embarrassing for both of them.

Their classmates noticed it and ever since then they would make fun of Dali’s buddy for it—calling him ‘Laz-E-Boy’ and all that. But after a while, they found out that the two hit it off and were actually dating!

Dali stared at the ceiling wistfully and lamented, “But that buddy of mine was tall, handsome and a good basketball player too. People even compared him to Takeshi Kaneshiro! It probably wasn’t so surprising that he could get a girlfriend so easily. Ah, life is so unfair!”

As I dried my hair with a towel, I asked him, “Dali, what do you think of my looks?”

Dali stared at me for a moment, and replied, “If you clean up a bit, you look kinda like that K-Pop singer Lu Han. It’s just that, uh…”

“What is it?” I asked.

“I think all of your talents went to your IQ…” Dali analyzed. “Your social skills and emotional intelligence are completely zero, no, actually, they’re in the negative!”

I sighed heavily. Why did everyone say that about me?

“You probably never even noticed it,” Dali added, “but when we were in our second year, Xiaoli had a crush on you. You were none the wiser, of course. Later, Xiaoli started dating this gym monkey and they eventually got into a serious relationship. We all felt sorry for you even though you were completely clueless about it.”

I was shocked. I had always thought of myself as a boring guy destined to be single until at least the age of twenty-five. Who would’ve thought that I would ever catch a girl’s eye?

“Shit, I didn’t notice it at all!” I exclaimed. “Every time I saw her, she was always glaring at me. I ran into her on the stairs once and wanted to say hello, but she quickly turned and ran away. I thought she hated me!”

“Don’t you get it, dude?” asked Dali. “Girls only act awkward and angry around you when they have feelings for you!”

“But… why?”

“Because girls often feel very shy and don’t want to admit that they like you, so their face turns red when they see you.”

“Ah, okay…” Dali’s words really hit home with me.

Dali looked up at the ceiling again and sighed, “I used to be friends with the girls in my class a lot, thinking that it would give me better chances of getting a girlfriend. But none of them ended up with me because they regarded me as a ‘sister!’”

“Don’t worry, Dali. You’ve still got me!” I comforted him.

Dali reached out and patted me, his eyes full of gratitude as he said, “Thanks a lot, bro!”

I lay down in bed and pondered on Dali’s words. “Girls only act awkward and angry around you when they have feelings for you.”

To be frank, I wouldn’t call Dali an expert in love and relationships at all. Could I trust him on this?

I struggled about it for a long time, and tossed and turned in bed for quite a while before finally falling asleep.

Early the next morning, Huang Xiaotao announced in the task force WeChat group, “Special Consultant Song will treat everyone to breakfast this morning!”

It was followed by numerous cheers and thanks.

I then received a private message from her that said, “Don’t worry. I’ll pay for the breakfast.”

I marveled at how good Huang Xiaotao was at dealing with people. We used the police officers like coolies yesterday, so naturally the least we could do was buy them breakfast today.

I might be an expert when it came to dealing with dead bodies, but I had to concede to Huang Xiaotao when it came to dealing with living people.

Then she asked me, “What do you want for breakfast, Song Yang?”

“Anything,” I replied.

She then sent me a message saying, “And where can I buy this ‘anything’ of yours?” Followed by an emoji of a knife with blood dripping from it.

“Soy milk and doughnuts are fine I guess,” I replied.

I checked my emails and found that Lao Yao had sent me some very interesting information about cat spirits. Apparently, there was an ancient cult that secretly worshipped cat spirits. These cat spirits were the spiritual remnants of dead cats’ souls, and black cats were said to contain the most spiritual power. These cat spirits had to constantly feed on their master’s spiritual force, and by nature they were just as stubborn and difficult to tame as wild cats. If the master didn’t treat them well enough, these cat spirits would suck the life force out of the master and kill him. However, once they were successfully tamed, they could bring in immense good luck to the master, apart from helping amass great wealth. It was said that these cat spirits were even more powerful than the nine-tailed foxes![1]

Worshippers of this cult could also use the cat spirits to put a curse on someone. First of all, the cursed person would feel a piercing pain in their four limbs as if they were pricked by needles. Then, the symptom would spread throughout the body and until it finally reached the heart. Once the cursed person felt a piercing pain through their heart, they would cough up blood and die within minutes. After that, the property of the victim would in some way or another fall into the hands of the worshipper.

For this reason, cat spirits were given another name—Wealth Beckoning Cats.

Lao Yao also found another legend concerning cat spirits called Jinhua Cats. They were just like the Wealth Beckoning Cats, but Jinhua Cats were normal living cats raised by their masters, and they were usually black cats. After three years of nurturing with special food and treatment, these normal cats would turn into Jinhua Cats.

Jinhua cats often sat on the roofs late at night. They would open their mouth wide towards the moon to absorb its essence and energy. When the sun rose, it would go back to sleep.

Jinhua Cats could hypnotize people and bend them to their will. They could shapeshift freely into any form they liked, but usually, when they met a man, they would turn into a beautiful woman; when they met a woman, they would turn into a handsome man.

Jinhua Cats sometimes snuck into people’s homes and urinated in their drinking water. When people drank the water, their bodies would gradually weaken. In this case, a green garment should be placed on the afflicted person, and they should be observed overnight. Ifa layer of cat hair was found on the green garment the following day, that meant that the Jinhua Cat was responsible for their ailment.

The way to treat them was to hire an experienced hunter to bring in a few of their hunting dogs to catch the Jinhua Cat. Once it was caught, it should be skinned to prevent it from being able to shapeshift again. On the other hand, the afflicted should be given cat’s meat—if it was a man, he should eat the meat of a female cat; if it was a woman, she should eat the meat of a male cat. The patient should recover soon after eating the meat, but if they didn’t, they would die in a matter of days.

Apart from that, Lao Yao also found some information about a bizarre murder case from ten years ago. A man was found dead at home. The victim was only twenty years old, yet his body looked like an old man. The police found a broken cat figurine in his house, and there was black cat hair inside the sculpture.

If Lao Yao’s information was correct, then this man must’ve died because of his failure to treat his Wealth Beckoning Cat well enough—hence all of his life force was sucked out of him!

I noticed some gaps between the legend and reality. Based on the clues at hand, Wealth Beckoning Cats and Jinhua Cats were probably one and the same. There was also no trace of needle pricks on the victims, but their bizarre death and money transfer matched the legend perfectly.

But what was the mechanism behind this mysterious Wealth Beckoning Cat? Was it a biological magnetic field or a pure supernatural force?

I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t discouraged. No matter what the murder weapon was—whether it was a dagger or a cursed figurine—they were ultimately just the tools. The real culprit was the person who used these tools to harm other people.

In other words, the person who benefitted the most from the two murders had to be the real murderer!

1. The fox spirits in Chinese folklore.