Jiang Yan had a deep impression of that stall.
“Blessing Like the East Sea Brand Mattress.”
“Let us cure your illness called aging.”
Although Jiang Yan didn’t believe a mattress could strengthen the body, she genuinely thought the advertising line was clever. At the very least, the concept was interesting—when people get older, they’re easily drawn to things that promise a longer life, and with a little misstep, they can fall into pyramid schemes.
This slogan was definitely the kind that could fool people.
After a moment, Jiang Yan withdrew her gaze and headed back to the factory building with Yu Renwan.
By then, it was already growing dark. A pleasantly cool evening breeze swept by, making them feel at ease. There weren’t many people around, so Yu Renwan no longer hunched as she walked; her steps were lighter, and her long robe swayed behind her calves.
By coincidence, the two of them ran into a neighbour as soon as they reached the ground floor.
Yu Renwan didn’t know him, but Jiang Yan had seen him before.
It was the old man who had pushed a tricycle selling mattresses yesterday.
He turned out to be living in this very building.
The old man was in good spirits, holding a bag of fruit as he headed up the stairs. When he saw them, his greeting was outgoing and familiar.
“Are you two new here?”
Jiang Yan replied, “We just moved in yesterday.”
“Which floor do you live on?”
“Fourth,” Jiang Yan said.
The old man nodded. “Fourth is good, Old Li’s got a weird temper, but he’s kind-hearted. Neighbours matter when it comes to picking a home!”
Jiang Yan casually acknowledged, “And you live on…?”
“Fifth floor,” the old man said, pulling out two apples from his bag and handing them to Jiang Yan. “A welcome gift—wishing you prosperity!”
Jiang Yan accepted the apples for Yu Renwan.
Perhaps he hadn’t seen new faces for a while; on the first floor, the old man started chatting with Jiang Yan, moving his arms and legs as he spoke. Shen Huanhuan also returned with food just then. When she saw the old man from afar, she praised him, “You’re really in excellent shape.”
Pleased, the old man replied, “Of course! I exercise every day—been doing it for decades!”
“But my new mattress deserves some credit too,” the old man added with a click of his tongue, a hint of emotion in his voice. “You know, there’s something special about a famous mattress. It really works! I slept on it just last night, felt extra refreshed in the morning, and exercised for another half hour today. If you have grandparents at home, get them to try it. That’s real filial piety!”
Shen Huanhuan laughed along, “That mattress is that effective?”
The old man stroked his beard and nodded, “Absolutely! Lots of people want it. My son said this mattress is famous in big cities and made me try it too. Turned out, it’s really great.”
Shen Huanhuan replied sincerely, “Your son’s very filial.”
The old man beamed, pulled another apple from his bag, and handed it to Shen Huanhuan. “Here! A lucky gift for you too!”
“Thank you, grandpa, and I wish you good health.” Shen Huanhuan accepted the apple.
A few minutes later, the old man went upstairs, and everyone headed back to their own apartments.
On the second floor, Xu Jinhua heard the commotion and poked her head from the corridor window, “You’re back. Want to come eat at Grandma’s tonight? I made steamed buns!”
Shen Huanhuan declined, “My sister and I have plans tonight.”
“All right then,” Xu Jinhua closed the window, and upon seeing the apples in everyone’s hands, asked offhandedly, “Where’d those come from? They look pretty good.”
Shen Huanhuan replied, “The grandpa upstairs gave them to us.”
Xu Jinhua looked surprised, “From the fourth floor?”
Jiang Yan answered, “Fifth floor.”
Xu Jinhua hissed, “Wow, that stingy old man actually gave someone apples? He’s the type who makes people repay a bag of salt if they borrow a spoon, stinky cheapskate—better make sure those apples aren’t rotten.”
Shen Huanhuan was taken aback, “They’re good apples.”
“Oh,” Xu Jinhua said no more and pulled the curtain shut. Suddenly, Shen Huanhuan called out, “Grandma Xu, if my sister and I have time tonight, we’ll come keep you company.”
Xu Jinhua opened the curtain again, her face breaking into a big smile, “All right, good girls!”
Shen Huanhuan pressed her lips together.
After a few more exchange of words, Xu Jinhua closed the curtain again—this time, much more gently.
Shen Huanhuan turned to Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan: “Let’s see about tonight.”
With that, she and Yu Renwan went up to the fourth floor. At home, Yu Renwan took the groceries to cook, while Jiang Yan sorted through what she knew so far.
In fifteen years, many incidents had happened in this building.
In 2007, Lu Jingrong’s parents, while working at the mattress factory, were injured on the job and lost their fingers. The factory manager, Li Ronghai, refused to give compensation. In despair, they tried to kill themselves by burning coal along with their daughter, but Lu Jingrong woke up midway, crawled out the door, and survived.
In 2012, after years of living alone, Lu Jingrong suffered molestation by Shang Demin. She wrote to her aunt for help, but her aunt had moved away, and all her letters were returned; meanwhile, Shang Demin’s wife Xu Jinhua beat Lu Jingrong several times.
In 2014, Lu Jingrong hid her plea letters and molestation record forms in a paper envelope in the vent, then died after falling from the building that year.
In 2018, the well-known February Bridge case happened in Changxia: three girls’ bodies were found in the bridge arch, sowing panic, and the fourth victim not only escaped but also fought back and incapacitated the murderer. Intern reporter Su Zhiyu covered the story and became friends with the fourth victim, Meng Henshui.
In 2019, Su Zhiyu and Meng Henshui’s relationship suddenly intensified; Su Zhiyu became anxious and promised to help Meng Henshui.
That same year, Su Zhiyu died after falling from the top of the abandoned building.
In April 2023, moulting snakes appeared in the building; Shang Demin brutally killed them, and soon after, he and Li Ronghai died in succession, their corpses showing peeled skin, with their flesh separated from their bones, human skin dangling from their skeletons.
To date, six people have died in the building in fifteen years.
Five were residents, and one was Su Zhiyu, whose reason for coming remained unexplained.
There were so many suspicious points about Su Zhiyu’s case; it was clear that finding Meng Henshui was the key breakthrough.
But Jiang Yan could not immediately think of a good way to contact Meng Henshui.
By now, Yu Renwan had finished cooking. She took off her apron and called Jiang Yan to eat. Jiang Yan, lost in thought, slowly moved her neck from side to side before heading to the table.
With so much on her mind, she ate more slowly than usual.
Yu Renwan quietly ate as well, and the home was silent.
So when a muffled squeak sounded, both stopped chewing at the same time.
The sound was soft, like someone tiptoeing barefoot on the floor—trying not to wake anyone, but too large for their steps to be completely silent. The floor groaned, unable to bear the weight, sometimes there, sometimes not.
The sound came from the ceiling.
Jiang Yan looked up. There was only white, except in the corner, where deep red slowly seeped out, staining a small spot.
The scene looked straight out of a horror movie.
Yu Renwan, also looking up, muttered, “That’s odd…”
Jiang Yan: “What is?”
Yu Renwan whispered, “It’s only seven-thirty. Normally, ghosts don’t come out to scare people this early.”
Jiang Yan said nothing, still gazing at the ceiling. The patch of blood had stopped spreading. Near the spot, something like a handprint appeared. Several minutes later, another bloody handprint joined it.
Between the second and third handprints, Jiang Yan took a bite of food.
Yu Renwan stared, baffled at Jiang Yan.
“Aren’t you eating?” Jiang Yan asked.
“With that above our heads…”
Yu Renwan swallowed. “Kind of lost my appetite.”
Jiang Yan nodded and continued eating unhurriedly; by the time she finished, seven or eight handprints had appeared above, spreading from the corner toward the door.
“I’m going upstairs,” Jiang Yan wiped her mouth.
Yu Renwan quickly stood as well, a bit anxious, “Can I come too?”
“Up to you.”
Jiang Yan opened the door and headed straight for the fifth floor.
Halfway up, at four and a half, Jiang Yan saw a pair of feet.
They dangled at the corner of the stairs, tapping, tapping lightly against the floor.
The toes swung in the air, sometimes bumping into the stairs, making dull little thuds. Soon, the feet slipped lower, revealing a pair of bony ankles.
Jiang Yan stepped forward a few paces and saw a short, elderly man.
He was wearing pajamas, face down on the stairs. His ankles and sticking-out arm were ashen, with a strange, eerie gray tint.
Yu Renwan saw it, too, instantly stunned: “That’s the one who gave us apples…”
Jiang Yan: “Yeah.”
“But we just saw him an hour ago…”
Jiang Yan: “Let’s check the fifth floor.”
Yu Renwan hurried to agree, “Okay, okay.”
They stepped over the old man’s body. Each floor in the building had two apartments; now, one door stood wide open, and Jiang Yan walked right in.
A strong stench of blood filled the air.
A dozen bloody handprints snaked from the living room corner to the front door.
With that, Jiang Yan instantly understood the bloody handprints on their own ceiling—these old buildings didn’t have water-sealed floors; the blood seeped into the boards and showed up upstairs.
Yu Renwan entered, sniffed the air, and blurted out, “So much blood.”
There were bloody puddles all over. After a look, Yu Renwan turned hesitantly to Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan: “What?”
“The scene is strange…” Yu Renwan hesitated, whispering, “It’s as if someone drained all the blood out with a syringe and then splattered it over the floor.”
“Pretty cruel.”
Jiang Yan grunted, stepping over the blood to search the living room. There were no signs of a struggle. Judging by the sounds heard during dinner, the old man had stumbled because something heavy was entangling him. At the coffee table, Jiang Yan paused.
A black snake scale glinted underneath.
She picked it up.
Yu Renwan pulled half a broken scale from her pocket, “Same as this.”
Jiang Yan pictured the scene: “So—the snake wrapped around his limbs, squeezing his guts and organs, then drank his blood while watching him crawl for the door. When he died, the snake spat the blood it drank all over the living room.”
“When there’s no blood left in the body, those who die are left like a skin draped over bones,” Jiang Yan said, “That’s how Shang Demin and Li Ronghai must’ve died.”
Yu Renwan recalled what Shen Huanhuan had heard before.
——When Shang Demin abused the snakes, several old men watched.
So—were Li Ronghai and the new victim both bystanders?
All suffered the snake’s revenge.
But hearing Yu Renwan’s analysis, Jiang Yan shook her head, didn’t give an explanation, and went into the old man’s bedroom.
There was a heavy canvas bag on the desk, and a pile of unused hundred-yuan bills.
Jiang Yan picked up the canvas bag and peeked in—nothing inside. She moved closer and inhaled.
A strong, metallic blood scent.
Sure enough, just being a bystander wouldn’t lead to the same fate as the killer. Otherwise, the snake could have picked a more fitting way, like gouging out their eyes or nailing their legs in place.
Satisfied, Jiang Yan said to Yu Renwan, “Not just Shang Demin. All three who died killed snakes.”
“When we met the old man tonight, he’d just sold the snake bodies and spent the money on apples.”
Yu Renwan suddenly recalled something Xu Jinhua said earlier.
The old man on the fifth floor was famously tight-fisted. According to Xu, he’d make you repay a bag of salt for borrowing a spoon—he never gave gifts, let alone such nice apples.
So the only reason he shared tonight was that he was in a good mood after making money.
Jiang Yan rubbed her brows.
She was thinking about the timing of the snake killings.
There was no way the three all killed snakes at once, while others only said Shang Demin did it.
So, the snakes appeared in batches, separately to Shang Demin, Li Ronghai, and the fifth-floor old man.
And no one knew about the latter two killings.
But why did the snakes keep appearing in this building?
And why did the old man die two weeks later than the others?
Jiang Yan tried to recall everything she had seen and heard since coming.
After a long while, she let out a breath and went to the bed, lifting the sheets.
Underneath was the magnetic therapy mattress he’d praised endlessly.
She ran her fingers around the mattress. After a few minutes, her movements abruptly stopped.
There was a bottle-cap-sized hole in the edge.
Jiang Yan’s lips curled.
She glanced at Yu Renwan, “Take a guess—what’s inside the mattress?”
“……”
Yu Renwan saw the hole too, her eyes wide with a guess—“Sn-snakes…?”
“That’s what I thought too.”
Jiang Yan tore off the plastic covering, then gave it a gentle push. With a loud thud, the mattress split across the middle, revealing a huge hollow inside.
Sticky fluids everywhere.
Trails of snakes everywhere.
“They really did torture snakes.”
Jiang Yan recalled the vanished mattress stall at the alley and said quietly, “But this whole thing was premeditated.”
Yu Renwan stood by the bed, thinking. She squatted down, touched the snake secretions, and said softly, “It’s thick and sturdy, so if you hide some small snakes in the hollow and reinforce it…”
She thought, then concluded: “You wouldn’t notice in a short time.”
“But…”
Jiang Yan: “Got a question? Ask.”
Yu Renwan looked up: “Wouldn’t that small hole at the surface be pretty obvious? You’d see it as soon as you made the bed…”
Her voice grew smaller, afraid she’d embarrass Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan had considered that.
“Of course there was no hole when it first arrived.”
She moved her hand to Yu Renwan’s nose. “What do you smell?”
Yu Renwan froze and sniffed carefully, “Kind of… meaty?”
Jiang Yan: “That’s from the hole I just touched.”
“Snakes need to eat constantly during molting. There’s no food in the mattress, so if you smear animal fat on a weak spot at the edge, the starving snakes will chew at it nonstop until they break through and escape.”
“My guess is, when the mattress first arrived last night, the snakes inside had been fed. Overnight, they got hungry and chewed their way out in the morning. The old man found them and killed them all.”
Yu Renwan understood: “Then this afternoon, he sold the dead snakes and was killed the same night.”
“The one who put the snakes here did it to kill the three old men unnoticed—and keep her own hands clean.”
Jiang Yan nodded.
The two of them spent some effort restoring the room to normal. To be extra sure, Yu Renwan even used a talisman.
After checking the room, they headed downstairs.
Jiang Yan stepped over the old man’s body, pausing on the landing.
Yu Renwan, uncertain what to do, asked, “Should we knock on every door to tell the others?”
Jiang Yan shot her a baffled look.
Yu Renwan shrank her shoulders, “Then…?”
Before she finished, Jiang Yan let out a deadpan scream.
Yu Renwan: “??”
Jiang Yan, exasperated: “Do you really think normal people go door to door after seeing a corpse?”
She screamed again.
“What are you standing there for—just listening?”
Jiang Yan stared at her.
Yu Renwan quickly shook her head and piped up. Seeing Jiang Yan still watching, she screamed louder several times.
Jiang Yan finally looked away.
Now, all the motion sensor lights on all floors were lit, and not just this building’s—four or five nearby ones too.
Curses drifted up from below. Xu Jinhua opened her window and shouted, “Screaming like ghosts at night, what the hell?!”
A burst of footsteps followed.
Shen Huanhuan came first, rushing up in under half a minute, “Jiang Yan, are you all right—was there danger?”
“It’s nothing, we were acting.”
Jiang Yan noticed Shen Huanhuan’s bare feet. To avoid scaring people, the twins usually wore contact lenses and covered their faces when out. Now her pale feet, veined and snow-white, were exposed; Jiang Yan frowned.
Yu Renwan noticed Jiang Yan’s gaze, too. She hurriedly took off her oversized coat and draped it over Shen Huanhuan’s shoulders.
“Stand on the part that drags.” She told her.
At 1.7 meters, Yu Renwan was nearly ten centimeters taller than Shen Huanhuan; the coat covered her completely.
A minute later, Shen Xiaoxiao and Cheng Guang arrived as well. Shen Xiaoxiao, panting, carried Shen Huanhuan’s shoes, “What happened? That scream made me drop my toothbrush! What happened?”
Cheng Guang also asked, “What’s wrong, shijie?”
Jiang Yan repeated, “It’s nothing, we were acting.”
She pointed at the corpse on the stairs.
The body was now completely gray-white. Shen Xiaoxiao gasped but, curiosity overcoming fear, crept closer—only to be yanked back by Shen Huanhuan, “Don’t contaminate the scene. Wait for the residents.”
That was Jiang Yan’s idea as well.
The third similar accident in the same building—she was very curious how the residents would react.
When no one else came, Shen Huanhuan called out, and with her sister leading the way, Shen Xiaoxiao screamed herself hoarse, lighting up all the sensor lights in the area.
People playing cards and chess in the yard all looked their way, and angry slamming of doors sounded from below.
Xu Jinhua’s voice carried clearly from three floors away: “Will you stop? You all have no manners!”
“I knew nothing good would come of you kids moving in! Such a disgrace! If I get sick from this, you’ll all pay my hospital bills!”
At this point, Xu Jinhua had shed all her friendly charm from earlier, sounding more like the grandma in Lu Jingrong’s old letters.
She stomped up to the fourth-and-a-half floor and yelled, “What are you doing—”
Mid-sentence, Xu Jinhua went silent. Her face cycled through several expressions as she stared hard at the body.
At length, she stammered in fright, “Meng, Meng Xiangjiang?”
Corpses, of course, cannot answer.
Xu Jinhua shuffled closer, confirming the body was indeed dead, and her face went deathly pale. Helpless, she glanced around. Jiang Yan volunteered, “I found him first. Now what?”
“Should we call 120?”
Xu Jinhua blurted, “No, don’t!”
Jiang Yan arched a brow.
Xu Jinhua swallowed. “He’s already dead, what’s the point?”
“Not necessarily,” said Shen Huanhuan. “Maybe there’s hope. Let’s find someone just in case—if we waste time…”
Xu Jinhua jumped in, “He’s definitely dead!”
Shen Xiaoxiao took out her phone, “You say so, but I’m calling an ambulance. I don’t want his family blaming me later!”
Seeing her dialing, Xu Jinhua panicked and knocked the phone from her hand, “I told you, don’t call!”
“Such shame—what’s there to save? He’s long dead! Hopeless!”
Xu Jinhua saw the rest weren’t convinced, spat angrily, “That symptom never saves anyone. Just like Li Ronghai upstairs—bled out to death, that’s all!”
She very deliberately didn’t mention her husband, Shang Demin, had died the same way.
Jiang Yan: “Vomited blood? You saw it?”
Xu Jinhua: “No, but when you come home and see blood all over the floor, what else could it be? It comes out the skin—must be vomited! Some experts said it’s a banned medicine from big cities; take too much and you’ll get this illness, vomiting blood until you die, organs and all! No cure!”
Expert.
Jiang Yan glanced at Shen Huanhuan, who gave a subtle nod.
Shen Huanhuan softly asked, “What medicine is so deadly?”
Xu Jinhua snorted, “What else? Old men’s face-losing sex pills! I thought just Li Ronghai and my…”
She broke off, then said fiercely, “Enough asking! No 120! I’ll call Meng Xiangjiang’s family myself. Just leave!”
Jiang Yan mulled over her words.
Actually, the whole affair was already clear.
When Shang Demin died, there was no one at home, so all Xu Jinhua saw was a blood-soaked living room and a corpse. Before she could call for help or the police, along came an “expert.”
This expert claimed it was a side effect of an illegal drug—something meant to enhance male virility. Maybe because she trusted the expert, or maybe because she knew her husband well, Xu Jinhua believed it.
After all, Shang Demin, old enough to assault middle schoolers, taking such drugs for pleasure was believable. Wanting to avoid a scandal, she tried to hush it up. Li Ronghai’s family likely did the same. Though rumors circulated, both families acted like their men had died of sudden illness.
No police, no further inquiry.
Now Xu Jinhua realized Meng Xiangjiang had died the same way as her husband. Fearing the hospital would trace it to a sex drug and expose a scandal, she intended to cover it up again, and just notify the dead man’s family.
It made Jiang Yan want to laugh.
Anyone else would never be duped so easily. The scammer “expert” must know Xu Jinhua, Shang Demin, and Li Ronghai very well.
By now, Shen Huanhuan and the others were heading down, “Jiang Yan?”
“Wait.”
Jiang Yan turned to Xu Jinhua, “Did your family recently buy a new mattress?”
“I saw some at the market—the seller said you bought one.”
“We did,” Xu Jinhua frowned, “My husband brought it home. Why?”
Jiang Yan smiled, “Just curious how you slept on it.”
Impatient, Xu Jinhua looked down, poking at her phone, dialling a number over and over.
Failing to get through, she grew angrier, glaring at Jiang Yan, “Can’t you take a hint?”
“Sure, I can.”
Xu Jinhua glowered, “Then leave!”
“Your call went through.”
Xu Jinhua instantly straightened, her voice turning careful and polite, “Sorry to bother you, calling so late.”
No reply from the other side. Xu Jinhua tried several times, but was met with silence. Worried, she glanced at her phone, only to see she’d never connected.
She exploded, “You little—”
“This time it’s really connected.”
Jiang Yan helpfully pointed at the screen, now showing that a call had gone through.
Xu Jinhua instantly straightened and became obsequiously polite.
Like a performing circus animal.
Jiang Yan gave a slightly mocking smile, stepped up, and took the phone from her hand.
The other party seemed to hear something from this side, but didn’t speak.
Jiang Yan took the initiative, “Good evening.”
“Meng Henshui.”