Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Many people at the age of 20 did not fear heaven or earth. They weren’t really afraid of anything, especially when they were in a group of people. If they even lagged behind by a few steps, they feared being mocked by their friends.
The guy in the baseball cap brought a group of wealthy, second generation heirs to the place where he had heard the laughter. They were standing near the wall that bordered an older community. The community was open, and bicycles and electric cars were often stolen from there. There were a few broken bicycles that had not been ridden for many years. There were also several shared bicycles that had been locked up.
It was very humid near the wall, and it was covered in dark green moss. There was the slight smell of human waste.
“Big brother, are you sure it’s here?” someone asked.
“I think so…” The guy in the baseball cap couldn’t be sure because the lamp was dark, but his ears were still very keen. The laughter had surely come from that area, but there was no way forwards unless he went over the wall.
“Big brother, you definitely heard it wrong! Ai, I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t hold it anymore!” The other person laughed. He walked in front of the foot of the wall, then unzipped his pants and started began to urinate. “Oh, oh! Feels great!”
The rest of the guys did not want to be left behind. They chuckled as they stood in front of the foot of the wall, then lined up and started to pee, too. The strong, disgusting smell of urine overtook the area.
“The f*ck! Are you heaty? Why is your urine so smelly?”
“Do you want to come over to help me disperse my heatiness?”
“Get away!”
The urine at the foot of the wall flowed horizontally, and the guys who had just finished peeing were very relaxed.
“Let’s go. We’ll go back now!” They were just about to return to where they had stopped their car when they suddenly heard light laughter not far away.
That time, they had all heard it. They looked over at the same time, but it was too dark. They could not see anything clearly.
“Who is it? If you have the guts to, come on out!” the guy in the baseball hat increased his voice and shouted. He felt safe with his group.
It was very quiet; there was no response.
They switched on the flashlight function on their phones, but the light could not reach far enough. It could not show them what was happening.
“It can’t be a ghost, right?” someone muttered. Everyone looked at him angrily, so he hurriedly added, “I’m just joking, brothers. Don’t take me seriously! It’s broad daylight. How could there be ghosts…?”
He had yet to finish speaking when he immediately thought about how it was not broad daylight––it was actually late at night, and it was the best time for ghosts to be out. He forcefully swallowed his words back down.
“Such a scaredy-cat! Ghosts aren’t real!” the guy in the baseball hat said loudly.
There was someone who said, “It’s probably some loser who hates the rich and is jealous that we have money. They are pretending to be a ghost!”
“Of course! It must be like that!” The others agreed.They all felt extremely angry. “That group of stinky losers! What right do they have to be jealous of us?”
They were not in the city center, but the area was still quite populated. There were a lot of lights on in the nearby residential buildings. No matter how it seemed, it was not a place that would be haunted.
They prepared themselves and walked over towards the laughter together, their phone lights shining all over.
“Aiya? It’s a few cats!”
There were no ghosts there, and there no people there, either. It was just a mother stray cat and a young kitten; they were probably scavenging in the trash cans. Their eyes reflected the light from the phones.
“Like I said, ghosts don’t exist.” The guy in the baseball hat spit.
The others relaxed, then scolded the person that said there was a ghost severely.
“But… Can cats smile?” someone asked, having a bit of a big mouth.
The rest of the people quieted, as if they had been splashed with cold water. That laughter really did not seem like it was made by a cat.
“…I’ve never owned a cat before. How would I know?” the guy in the baseball hat said impatiently. “If you want to know, isn’t there a readily prepared cat here? Won’t you know after trying?”
He even shocked himself when he said that. The sentence didn’t go through his mind at all; it just naturally left his mouth.
Try…? Try how?
The female stray cat seemed to see that their group was not well-intentioned, but they were standing in the way of the kittens. It looked around helplessly, trying to find a way out of the encirclement. It was easy for it to break out of the enclosure alone––it could just jump up to the wall and run away––but what about its children? It could only pick up one of them and run away, but as for the rest…
“Right! Big brother is right! It just happens that there’s a cat. We can try to see if a cat will smile or not. How’s that?” someone added.
“Haha! Good idea! When we go back we can boast to girls!”
Some people with them hesitated, saying, “This… this isn’t very good, right? I think we should just stop delaying. We need to hurry to the second ring…”
Suddenly someone fiercely jumped up and said, “The f*ck is the second ring? I want to know if cats can smile!”
As they were arguing, there was the third round of light laughter.
The stray cat suddenly raised its head when it heard the sound. Humans’ eyes were blind and dull at night, but its eyes were keen. The cat saw a light, smoky figure passing by in their vicinity. It laughed when it was closest to it.
Even though it was between spring and summer and the temperature was comfortable and a bit warm, it felt that there was a chill in the air. It felt like they were in an ancient tomb.
The rest of the people did not notice that figure, and that time, they were sure that it was this stray cat laughing, not some kind of ghost.
“The f*ck! It’s so evil! Even cats dare to laugh at me?” The guy in the baseball hat was actually quite cowardly in his heart and was all talk. He might have been scared of humans and ghosts, but he was definitely not scared of a cat.
“Watch carefully. Today I want to see if cats know how to smile or not!” He folded his sleeves up and walked towards the stray cat quickly.
The mother cat and the kittens could not escape. They could only wail bitterly.
At that moment, a fierce wail emitted from the darkness. A few seconds after, a second wail sounded loudly, and it was obviously much closer than the first one. A third one and a fourth one sounded, all coming from different directions.
Sou! Sou! Sou!
Suddenly, quite a few stray cats appeared on top of the wall, their eyes flashing as they stared at the rich, second generations heirs. Their calls were continuous. Moreover, loud whistling sounds rang continuously, proving that even more stray cats were approaching.
“The f*ck! What’s going on? Are these stray cats elfins?” The rich, second generation heirs watched in shock. The stray cats’ eyes stared at them until their hearts felt cold.
“I… I think that we should probably just go race to the second ring?” someone asked shakily.
That time, he said what everyone else was thinking; no one disagreed. They did not know who led them, but everyone ran off in a herd. They had not run that fast since secondary school.
When they returned to the roadside, they were panting. They were bathed in the light of the street lamps again. They suddenly smelled the piercing smell of the urine from under their sports car. The smell was even stronger than their urine by ten times over, and the smell refused to go away for a long time.
