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Ziya watched as the large-headed cat with fierce eyes repeatedly slammed against the window. With each hit, the glass emitted a sound that suggested it might shatter at any moment. Inside the room, aside from Wang Mei, who was in a semi-conscious state and unaware of the danger, Ziya and Sun Meng were terrified, nervously biting down on the corners of their blankets, fearing that any sound they made would provoke the cats further.
"Are they out there?" A voice came from outside. Zhiqing and others shone their flashlights on the cats crowded on the windowsill, waving tools to scare them away.
The cats, which had been staring intently at Ziya and her friends, hesitated for a moment before jumping down from the windowsill and scattering when they saw so many people. Rescuing Wang Mei was their priority; Zhiqing and the others didn’t bother chasing after the cats and rushed straight to Ziya's dormitory.
A strong villager picked up the unconscious Wang Mei and headed for the hospital. However, upon arriving at this C-grade hospital, they were refused admission for Wang Mei. The group had no choice but to take her to the county hospital instead. The wind continued to howl, the rain seemed to have lessened significantly, and the thunder gradually faded into distant rumbles.
When Ziya and her two companions returned from the hospital, Zhiqing informed her about a death that had occurred. The three of them trembled in shock and hurried towards their dormitory without stopping.
Suddenly, rain began to fall again in a light drizzle. Several streetlights had gone out during the recent storm, leaving dark patches along their path. In the shadowy bushes nearby, cats with raised tails lurked in wait for Ziya and her friends to pass by, their eyes glowing like sinister green lanterns ready to pounce.
Ziya quickened her pace but hesitated to stop. Zhiqing and Sun Meng behind her looked on in confusion.
"What’s wrong? Why aren’t we moving?"
"Shh... Did you hear that? There’s something," Ziya whispered, raising a finger to signal silence as she glanced toward the dark bushes just a few steps ahead.
As soon as she finished speaking, a large black cat with glimmering red eyes suddenly emerged from the bushes. It strutted confidently toward Ziya with its tail held high.
Zhiqing raised her wooden stick, ready to strike it down. "Don’t..." Ziya quickly stopped her. She noticed that behind this cat and all around them were more cats appearing. It was clear they were surrounded; tension filled the air as three of them realized that a single wooden stick wouldn’t be enough against these suddenly aggressive felines.
The cats closed in around them, purring ominously. The sound alone was unsettling, yet strangely enough, it seemed these cats did not intend to attack; rather, they appeared to be herding them somewhere.
"They won't eat us, will they?" Sun Meng said, her voice trembling.
"No, let's just follow them!"
Ziya nodded at Zhiqing and grabbed Sun Meng's hand, watching as the leading cat moved forward. They had no choice but to follow behind. The scene was truly absurd; the three of them were being escorted by the cats toward Yellow Crane Tower.
What was inside Yellow Crane Tower? Aside from the information revealed by their teachers about the 48 cats that had already been shot, there were also these stragglers. What did they want? Ziya glanced around at the dark surroundings, the wind lifting her bangs, making her feel a bit chilly. The rain continued to fall, branches swaying on either side, and the sky looked like it had been smeared with a layer of black soot, obscuring any depth.
Among the three, only Zhiqing had her phone with her. They cautiously moved forward into the increasingly dark entrance of Yellow Crane Tower. "It's so dark..." Sun Meng nearly cried out, tightly gripping Ziya's hand. Zhiqing aimed her phone's light ahead of them, worried about tripping on the stairs. For now, she could only look after both of them, quickly helping them up whenever they stumbled. As they stepped onto the wooden stairs, a series of creaking sounds echoed; the three felt miserable but dared not voice their fears. The cats behind them jumped around energetically, following closely. A strong smell of blood wafted up to them as they reached the second floor, prompting Ziya to cover her nose in an attempt to resist that scent invading her nostrils.
There were no beams of light; they could only feel things on the ground that occasionally tripped them or felt wet and sticky underfoot. Zhiqing knew it must be the bodies of dead cats along with their blood. The limited beam from Zhiqing's phone illuminated only about a meter ahead.
The ground was soaked in blood; uneven objects were the corpses of dead cats. A shadowy specter stood by the window. Zhiqing shook her phone to get a better look at its form when a sudden gust of wind rushed in and knocked her phone away.
"Heavens... Zhiqing, are you hurt?" Ziya called out in panic.
"No, I'm fine."
"Woo..." Sun Meng clung tightly to Ziya's arm, burying her head so low that she didn't even notice when Zhiqing's phone had disappeared.
"Hahaha! You have guts; since you do, don't be afraid. Let me tell you a story." A strange voice came from the window as the man spoke.
"Who... are you?" To be honest, standing there he seemed unremarkable; it was his voice that was truly terrifying. It was hard to find an appropriate comparison for that voice—hoarse and eerie, both unsettling and grating—it echoed right next to your ear, making it impossible to ignore.
“Ha ha ha, who am I? A good question! I am me, a person despised by the world, a person who can achieve immortality. I am a great figure, the one who has discovered the secret to eternal life. Unfortunately, you have become my stumbling block, so you must…”
Before he could finish his words, a sudden flash of lightning accompanied by a deafening thunder struck the windowsill, startling him into silence for a moment. This brief panic provided Ziya and the others with a glimmer of hope. Sparks erupted from the windowsill where the lightning had struck, causing the cats to scatter in fright. Taking advantage of the chaos, Ziya and his companions dashed toward the stairs as a fierce wind howled around them. Lightning continued to strike the roof of Yellow Crane Tower, and just as Ziya and his friends made their escape from Yellow Crane Tower, a massive fireball suddenly descended upon the building.
Yellow Crane Tower was ablaze. The wind fueled the flames, and with most of the structure made of wooden pillars, it quickly ignited into a roaring inferno, filling the floors with screams of terror. Ziya and his two companions could only watch helplessly as the fire spread. Zhiqing’s phone had been knocked away by one of the cats, leaving them unable to call for help amidst their panic as they fell to the ground. The wind howled violently, seemingly trying to uproot everything in its path as they rushed toward their dormitory. Just as they passed by Huangguoshu, a branch was suddenly ripped from its roots by the fierce wind.
“Quick! Tornado…” Ziya felt as if the wind was tearing at his skin painfully. They looked back in horror as one of the two massive Huangguoshu trees collapsed, its enormous branches crashing down onto the roof of a classroom.
This wind was too sinister, like a meticulously planned horizontal line; with each rumble of thunder, it straightened out misaligned structures until those that were meant to fall did so while the corridor remained unscathed. The school’s entrance Guard Room was also swept away by the wind, its doors and windows gone. The Guard Room, built from bricks and topped with cement tiles, had lost its roof long ago.
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