By the time we got back to the hotel, it was already after 9 o'clock. Wang Dali's cold felt a little better, and he was bored watching TV alone in the hotel room. He was very happy to see me come back, as if I was his savior.
This day had really worn me out. I took a hot shower, then lay in bed comfortably watching TV for a while. When I was changing channels, I came across a romance drama. I'd never watched this kind of thing before. It just so happened that the drama was showing the male and female leads accidentally falling down together, and accidentally kissing in the process.
Wang Dali slapped his leg and laughed heartily: "How cliché! These screenwriters really don't use their brains when they write this stuff. If only I could run into good things like this in real life!"
I asked him: "Hey, if something like this accidentally happened in real life, the girl would probably be annoyed, right?"
"Of course!" Wang Dali replied.
I felt a bit discouraged, but I wasn't even sure why I felt discouraged.
But then Wang Dali slowly said: "But there are also special circumstances."
"What do you mean?" I immediately perked up.
He said that when he was in high school, one of his buddies accidentally had a girl sit on his lap while they were horsing around. It was during the summer, and the girl was wearing a skirt. The boy had a physical reaction, as you can imagine how awkward that situation must have been.
After that, their classmates kept teasing those two about it, and even gave that guy the nickname "Chair Bro". But surprisingly, after some time, people discovered that those two had actually started dating!
After finishing the story, Wang Dali gazed up at a 45 degree angle at the ceiling and gloomily said: "That guy was good looking. People said he looked like Jin Chengwu. He was tall, and good at basketball. It's just not fair! Even a rogue like him could pick up girls if he's handsome."
I slicked back my still-wet hair after my shower and asked: "Dali, what do you think of my looks?"
Wang Dali looked at me for a moment before replying: "If you clean up a bit, you kind of look like that fresh meat celebrity Lu Han, it's just... "
"What?" I asked.
"I suspect you've put all your skill points into intelligence and left your emotional intelligence at zero, no, in the negatives!" Wang Dali analyzed seriously.
I made a long face at his words. Why does everyone say that about me?
Wang Dali went on: "You probably don't know this, but during sophomore year, Xiao Li in our class had a thing for you, but you were completely oblivious. Later on Xiao Li started dating some jock from the athletics department, and we all felt bad for you."
I was very shocked. I'd always thought I was destined to be single until 25 because of my unlucky stars. Turns out I had missed opportunities for romance before. So I said: "Damn, how did I not notice back then? She would always glare at me, and one time on the stairs she turned and ran away when she saw me. I thought she disliked me."
"Please, can you have some emotional intelligence? Girls only get prickly with you when they have feelings for you," Wang Dali imparted his wisdom to me.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Because girls are shy, they don't want to admit it openly, so they blush and avoid you when they see you."
"I see!" I suddenly understood, that did make sense.
Wang Dali gazed gloomily at the ceiling again and said: "Sigh, I used to be pretty close with the girls in our class. I was trying to cast a wide net and focus my efforts. But in the end they all ended up with other guys, leaving me high and dry. Turns out they just saw me as a brother."
I said: "It's alright, you still have me!"
Wang Dali reached over to pat me on the shoulder and said emotionally: "Good brother!"
After lying down, I mulled over Wang Dali's words again: "Girls only get prickly with you when they have feelings for you."
With Wang Dali's expertise in romance, could this be true?
I agonized over it for a while, though I didn't even know exactly what I was agonizing over. Finally I sighed, counted over a hundred sheep, and slowly fell asleep.
The next morning, Huang Xiaotao announced in the task force WeChat group: Professor Song is treating us all to breakfast this morning! This was met with cheers and applause.
She sent me a private message: "Don't worry, I'll foot the breakfast bill."
Huang Xiaotao did seem rather adept at managing people. Yesterday we had the cops working as our errand boys, and today she threw them a little perk like paying for some soy milk and fried dough sticks for the dozen-plus people on the task force. It wouldn't cost her much at all.
I had more experience handling dead people, but I had to admit she had more expertise handling the living.
Then she asked me: "Song Yang, what would you like to eat?"
I replied: "Anything is fine."
She shot back: "Anything from where?" followed by a knife-bleeding emoji.
I said: "How about just soy milk and fried dough sticks, I'm good with anything."
I opened my email and saw that LaoYao had dug up some stuff. According to legends, some people secretly worshipped cat ghosts in ancient times. Cat ghosts were indeed the vengeful spirits of dead cats, with black cats having the strongest spiritual powers! Cat ghosts needed to continually absorb their master's essence, and their temperaments were as unruly as cats, hard to tame. If not handled properly, they could even kill their masters. However, once successfully tamed, they were more powerful than fox spirits.
With a cat ghost, the master could curse someone. The cursed person would first feel stabbing pains in their limbs, then the symptoms would spread through their body until reaching their heart. When the heart started feeling stabbing pains, the cursed person would cough up blood and die, and their wealth would be transferred to the cat ghost's master.
Therefore, cat ghosts had another special name - Wealth Transfer Spirit Cats!
LaoYao also found some legends about golden Huacats. Like cat ghosts, golden Huacats were raised by humans, usually black cats. After being raised for three years they could turn into demons.
Golden Huacats often crouched on rooftops at night, facing the moon with their mouths open, absorbing its essence. When the sun came up they would go back inside and sleep.
Golden Huacats could bewitch people, shapeshifting freely. If the target was a woman, it would transform into a handsome man. If the target was a man, it would turn into a beautiful woman.
Sometimes golden Huacats would sneak into homes and urinate in people's drinking water. After drinking the water, the person's health would gradually deteriorate until bedridden. If this happened, a green garment should be placed over the sick person and monitored overnight. If there was a layer of cat hair on the garment in the morning, a golden Huacat was the culprit.
The way to save them was to have an experienced hunter bring some wolves and dogs to capture the cat. Once caught, its skin should be peeled off right away so it couldn't transform. The sick person eating the cat meat would then recover.
If the sick person was male, he should eat female cat meat, and vice versa, otherwise the person would die soon after.
In addition, he found a bizarre unsolved case from ten years ago. A man was found dead in his home. He was only 20 years old but his body was as decrepit as an old man's. Police found a smashed cat figurine in his home, inside of which were some black cat hairs.
According to the theories above, this man must have failed at raising a Wealth Transfer Spirit Cat and been struck down!
I pondered this information. Legends and reality clearly had some discrepancies. But based on the clues at hand, Wealth Transfer Spirit Cats and golden Huacats could be the same thing. The deceased didn't have any signs of being stabbed, but the bizarre deaths and transfer of wealth aligned perfectly with the legend.
What was the underlying truth behind Wealth Transfer Spirit Cats? Was it biological magnetism or a legendary vengeful spirit at work?
I couldn't say for sure, but I wouldn't let that deter me. Whether it was a dagger or a cursed figurine, those were just tools. The one wielding the tools was the real killer.
In other words, the one who greatly benefited from these two bizarre deaths was the mastermind!