From what he said, I understood this was the professional Princ.i.p.al Zhang had invited. His clothing wasn"t very professional.

I went to Mr. Saw"s room first. Not only was the chainsaw not there, Mr. Saw was gone, too.

"No need to look for him. I"ve already taken care of it." The young man looked at me with his arms crossed. "You must be very bold to dare to sleep in this apartment for a whole night. Leave quickly. If you stay in this apartment any longer, I don"t know how you"ll die."

Then he quickly left the room. He came and went like the wind, without even telling me his name.

I stared into s.p.a.ce for a while. I didn"t really understand what he meant by "taken care of it" and "don"t know how you"ll die." I hadn"t seen any trace of Mr. Saw. Had the young man already taken him to be treated?

If that was the truth, then I could rest a.s.sured. But whatever way you looked at it, everything about the young man, from his get-up to his speech to his behavior, didn"t seem like a psychiatrist or a policeman. I was uneasy. I took out my phone to contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang, to question her about what exactly this professional did.

As soon as I unlocked my phone, I saw two text messages. They had come while I"d been asleep. One was a notice of a transfer from my bank: Princ.i.p.al Zhang had transferred 15,000.00 yuan to me. The other text was from the 94444 number:

"Ten thousand is in compensation for emotional distress. Five thousand is your first month"s wages in advance, to help you settle into your new residence. Mr. Saw has been taken away by the professional to be taken care of appropriately. There is no need for you to worry. Two other colleagues live in Room 404, including one who will move into Mr. Saw"s former room. They work during the day and will only come home at night. They won"t bother you. Our inst.i.tute"s cla.s.ses are all scheduled at night. I will send the cla.s.s schedule to you tonight. You are free to do as you like during the day."

I haven"t said yet that I want to work for you guys! What kind of person would want to work at a place where he"d nearly gotten his legs sawed off by a prospective coworker the day before?

But when I looked at the fifteen-thousand yuan, I...

I decided to get in contact with Princ.i.p.al Zhang and talk things over. As long as she could guarantee that Mr. Saw hadn"t committed any crimes and that he was getting proper treatment, and that the other two colleagues didn"t share Mr. Saw"s hobby, I was willing to work at the training inst.i.tute for the sake of those fifteen-thousand yuan.

But Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s phone was still out of service range. Was she in the mountains in some foreign country? Why was the signal so bad?

I went around the apartment a couple of times. Those fifteen-thousand yuan in the bank were really galling. The employer had already demonstrated so much sincerity, wouldn"t it be unfeeling of me to still refuse?

That was when I got a call from the manager of my school dormitory, asking when I planned to move out. There was a new graduate student who wanted to move in.

I looked yet again at the message about the fifteen-thousand yuan transfer. I clenched my teeth and steeled my heart, then told him that I had already found a new job and would be coming back to move out.

I couldn"t miss out on this job because of the other workers. I had to move.

Now that I had money, I was no longer thinking of renting a pedi-cab. I went back to school, packed my bags and boxes and hired a moving company to come help me move.

After moving my things to the Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate, I went to the supermarket to buy some basic goods. I changed the bedding, cleaned up the rooms and swapped the curtains for thinner ones.

I didn"t dare touch the other two colleagues" rooms. I only tidied up the common areas.

The rooms were very dusty. I had no idea how the others had lived here before. How could they stand to live in such a dirty apartment?

Room 404 was well supplied with appliances, anyway. There was a washing machine, a refrigerator, and a water heating tank. But the pots and bowls were covered in rust. I really couldn"t use them. I planned to cook my own food in the future to save some money, so I bought new kitchenware.

I didn"t throw the old ones out. I used all my efforts to clean them.

The faucet in the kitchen must not have been used for a very long time. When I turned on the tap, the water was red as blood, full of rust. After I"d run the water for a while it finally cleared up. The tap in the bathroom was the same.

Cleaning such a dirty apartment was a great labor. By the time I was finished, it was already six in the afternoon. I"d had no time to cook. I ordered some take-out, ate it and threw out the trash, then went to take a shower.

In regards to taking a shower, I was luckily quite clever. I remembered in time how there had been rust in the bathroom and kitchen faucets, so I first let the water run until it was clear before daring to shower. Otherwise I could have ended up stained red all over.

After showering, I felt exhausted. I lay down in bed and fell heavily asleep amid the glow of sunset.

When I opened my eyes, it was completely dark. I looked at my phone and saw it was 23:59. There hadn"t been any texts or calls.

Hadn"t Princ.i.p.al Zhang said she was going to send me the cla.s.s schedule tonight?

Now that I"d been paid, I couldn"t slack off. I took the initiative and called Princ.i.p.al Zhang myself. This time the signal was all right. The call went through.

"Princ.i.p.al Zhang, why don"t we add each other on WeChat? Your signal is always bad. My WeChat signal is the phone"s signal." As soon as the call connected, I got straight to the point. I had to say the important things right off. What if the call dropped again and I lost my chance to say them?

"Bzzt...All...right...bzzt..."

Was Princ.i.p.al Zhang elderly? Her speech kept getting slower and slower.

We added each other on WeChat and I sent her a message at once: Princ.i.p.al, how is Mr. Saw?

Hospitalized.

She also sent me a picture of Mr. Saw wearing a hospital gown. He seemed to be abroad. The name tag on his chest wasn"t in Chinese. It read "jutuigui[1]."

It seemed his surname really was Ju. What was his full name, then?

I spent a lot time trying to work out what the name could be, then gave up. Anyway Mr. Saw was hospitalized. The surroundings looked pretty good. I could finally relax on that count.

So Mr. Saw really didn"t hurt anyone?

He didn"t. Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s answer was just as succinct as before.

I believed her, because I was personally inclined to believe Mr. Saw hadn"t hurt anyone. After all, he was scared of blood. He wouldn"t have voluntarily harmed anyone.

Now that he was receiving specialist treatment I hoped he would be able to get past this psychological shadow and face life with a positive att.i.tude.

Princ.i.p.al Zhang, please send me the cla.s.s schedule and cla.s.s syllabus. I hope to have time to prepare.

Tomorrow night at midnight, Benevolence Middle School, Third Year, Fourth Cla.s.s cla.s.sroom. Lecture on anything you like.

"..."

The time went completely against my expectations. This wasn"t an international enterprise that needed to make contact with partners abroad. Why would the cla.s.s be at night? And hadn"t Benevolence Middle School closed three years ago? Apparently a student had jumped off a building. Many students had changed schools. The private school, which had once had such a high enrollment rate, couldn"t continue; it had closed. How could there be cla.s.ses there? But the school buildings were still there. It would be possible to rent them out.

Putting aside the first two points, there was still the last one, about lecturing about anything I liked. What did that mean? Don"t you guys know what you teach at your training inst.i.tute?

I was about to discuss this with Princ.i.p.al Zhang when she quickly sent two messages:

I"m going to sleep.

Good night.

Then she recalled her messages one by one, as if she didn"t want me taking a screenshot. Everything from "Hospitalized." to "I"m going to sleep." was recalled. Only the "Good night." remained.

Had we really been talking for less than two minutes? She had even been able to recall the first message. What kind of shady technology was this?

It was very irregular. I called her again. Of course she was out of service range.

I was astonished by her casual manner and stared emptily at the wall. Then I heard the sound of the toilet flushing in the bathroom and thought my colleagues had arrived.

I should ask my colleagues, get some advice from my seniors. They had been working at the training school for some time. They should know about what to teach and what kind of students we had to deal with.

I walked out of my room and saw that both the other doors were tightly shut. I didn"t know which to knock on.

It didn"t seem like a good idea to bother people in the middle of the night. I went hesitantly into the bathroom, wondering whether it wouldn"t be better to ask the next morning. It was already midnight. I should sleep.

I meant to go to the bathroom then go back to sleep, but when I opened the toilet lid I saw a tangle of long black hair floating in the toilet.

At this sight all the blood in my body flowed outwards. I immediately left the bathroom and stood in the middle of the living room. I said:

"Who threw a wig into the toilet? Don"t you know it"s going to clog? Don"t you have any public spirit?"

I was really furious!

[1] 锯腿鬼 - Leg-sawing Ghost