On Saturday, he did housework all day long and didn't continue researching that book in the evening. Ma En felt drowsy; he hadn't slept well these past two nights.
He didn't remember dreaming, but he also didn't sleep deeply; his consciousness seemed to be active all along, yet upon waking, his brain was just a blank slate. He suspected it was because of researching that book, but perhaps it was merely that he thought too much, some psychological effect making him mentally drained. Even so, his life's rhythm was not disrupted; he did the things he inevitably did every Saturday, such as cleaning all the rooms, washing all the accumulated dirty clothes, and also purchasing groceries to put in the refrigerator.
While doing these trivial matters, he didn't deliberately think about the book, but he gradually realized that the number of times he unconsciously glanced in the direction where the book was located was increasing, as if a slight addiction, so faint that even he himself could hardly detect it, was being released within his body.
There were no special activities during the day; it was all consumed by housework. In the evening, after eating dinner and cleaning the kitchen, he carried the garbage bag downstairs, planning to take a walk around the neighborhood after throwing out the trash. Although there wasn't any particular place he wanted to go, Ma En sometimes also liked this empty feeling of doing nothing and thinking nothing except walking.
This city's evenings always brought him a special charm, but it must be admitted that this city's night was not special; its night view, placed among all the cities Ma En had been to, couldn't be considered the best. This city had its own pace, different from those rapidly developing cities. However, no matter how slowly it developed, the air wasn't necessarily clearer than other cities, nor was the night sky necessarily brighter.
Regardless of spring, summer, autumn, or winter, this city's sky always made one feel it was a grayish dark red. Even if the daytime was clear and cloudless, it was very difficult to see the stars clearly at night. Even the moonlight, under the backdrop of that grayish dark red, didn't make one feel it was very large or bright. Many people said this was proof of severe pollution, however, Ma En always fantasized that this heavy, hazy sky was actually foreshadowing something rather unusual – such fantasies he had since childhood, accompanying him right up to his current age. He certainly knew, from a scientific perspective, this fantasy of his made no sense at all, but his fantasizing wasn't originally born out of scientific rationality, but merely an emotional sensibility.
This evening, the sky, as always, was a grayish dark red; similarly, not much starlight could be seen. The moon's outline emerged through the clouds; it was incomplete. Ma En suddenly felt that it was actually the eye of some colossal creature, and this thought immediately made him laugh at himself.
Continuously, pedestrians passed by his side. He observed for a bit and noticed that there seemed to be especially many couples this evening, leaning against each other, but their steps were all hurried, as if rushing somewhere.
Ma En couldn't help but suspect whether today was some special day, or perhaps there was some event somewhere in the evening. However, he couldn't think of a specific reason. The couples walking together hurriedly appearing this evening were so numerous, while the number of people usually strolling outside the residential area was noticeably reduced, instead making the streets somewhat deserted.
Something wasn't quite right, but to specify, he couldn't say what; the feeling was dazed, faint, like a sudden whim. No matter how Ma En concentrated his energy, he couldn't eliminate this daze, as if he was walking and walking and about to fall into a half-asleep, half-awake state. That feeling of wrongness was like scratching an itch through a boot, never satisfying.
The night wind blew up, shaking the tree branches, making rustling sounds . He listened closely; this distinct "shā shā" sound was gradually turning into a "gū lū gū lū" ( rolling) sound, changing from a gentle sound to some kind of hard object rolling. What made him feel even more hair-raising was that initially these sounds came from the treetops, but later they seemed to come from behind him, making him feel that something was currently following him. However, looking at the shadow on the ground, there was only his own shadow.
No, not just his own shadow...
Ma En blinked hard; an elongated shadow was gradually surpassing his own shadow, stretching continuously further ahead. This shadow wasn't fixed, but it wasn't moving either; rather, it was elongating. Is this normal? Ma En's rationality told him, this was not normal at all.
It seemed something was becoming not quite right, and the signs foreshadowing this wrongness were increasing.
First sound, then smell, many visible details, those details that would definitely be ignored usually, when he noticed them, all seemed to be undergoing some kind of deformation inconsistent with common sense. And all these things that he would usually ignore, but couldn't help but notice at this moment, seemed to be telling Ma En that something was following behind him.
Ma En quickened his pace, yet found that he couldn't escape these details, nor this hair-raising feeling, no matter what. Around him, the pedestrians were still numerous, and mostly seemed to be male and female couples, but, it was as if these pedestrians also became not quite right in this hair-raising atmosphere – as if, their appearance here, was fundamentally abnormal.
The more Ma En deliberately focused on the thing existing behind him, this indescribable yet chilling aura became clearer, as if gradually closing in on him, forcing him to have to turn his head to look. However, when he abruptly turned his head, he did not see anything more concrete or special, as if this feeling was just his own wild thoughts. But even now, having turned back to confirm, with nothing behind him, that hair-raising feeling did not disappear.
Instead, it was becoming clearer and clearer, closing in more and more... and, always behind him.
Ma En couldn't help but exhale a breath, yet discovered this breath was white, just like breath exhaled from the mouth in severe winter.
All these bizarre, strange, incomprehensible situations were prompting him to feel a fatal depth and obscurity. Something had followed him, was currently attacking him, yet he couldn't see it at all; although unseen, he could feel it. He wasn't carrying any weapons, nor had he brought the tools deliberately designed and manufactured to deal with various envisioned peculiar things. He now felt he was already in a dangerous and peculiar situation, just like the scenes he had only had in his imagination for so many years.
This realization also made him shudder; another kind of fear, entirely different from the fear of death, was bubbling up from the depths of his heart, seemingly about to boil over.
Before this sense of fear surpassed the limit he felt he could endure, he had already quickened his pace, gradually changing from a brisk walk to a fast run, as if being chased by something terrifying, running towards home.
Precisely because he sought peculiar things, precisely because he had imagined how terrifying these peculiar things were, therefore, when this peculiarity vaguely occurred, he felt incomparably deeply that it was far more terrifying than what he had imagined.
Cannot sit and wait for death. A situation that had never occurred in the past had now appeared. Then, all the reasons were actually crystal clear – it was that nameless book, Ma En thought, it must be that nameless book. Sure enough, he had encountered it, something that would completely change his life. However, it came so swiftly, so rapidly, leaving him completely without more clues. If the problem was to be solved, perhaps it could only be sought from within that book.
Searching for peculiar things was his interest; however, waiting for death was not his interest. That murderer, that bookstore owner, perhaps even more people before those two, had already met miserable ends amidst the peculiarity and abnormality brought by that book, and now he himself was facing a similar end.
Although extremely terrifying, hair-raising, impossible not to fear just because one was psychologically prepared beforehand, all this was still within expectations.
Ma En ran swiftly past those couples. He could hear the curses of several people because he almost collided with them. However, that deep and obscure danger would not wait for him to explain to anyone. All this was brought upon himself... it was also the reward he finally obtained after searching for so many years.
Ma En couldn't say how scared he was, but within that uncontrollable fear, he couldn't be certain there weren't other emotions mixed in; it was just that he also couldn't fully decipher these extra emotions.
He successfully returned to the residential building where his home was located. That obscure and deep something was still chasing behind him, constantly closing the distance, yet had consistently never gotten close enough to touch him – this was judged by feeling. He ran upstairs without hesitation, but at this moment, coincidentally, the entire building seemed to have lost power; everyone had gone out, without a shred of light or human presence, falling into a state of absolute deathly silence and darkness. This strangeness almost made him feel he had run to the wrong place, that this wasn't actually the residential building where his home was.
Suddenly, a flash of bright light passed before Ma En's eyes; a figure seemed to sway in the light. He realized it, but couldn't stop his steps in time, crashing right into it.
He collided with a soft body, followed immediately by a woman's scream. Before falling, he grabbed the stair railing, timely catching the other person's waist. The light fell downwards, making it impossible for him to see the other person's face clearly in the interplay of light and shadow. But whether by touch or the hazy silhouette, it was indeed a woman, no mistake; judging by the voice, she was also very young. He didn't have time to apologize, only felt that after this sudden encounter, the invisible thing that had been chasing him abruptly vanished. That obscure and deep sense of crisis also became blank in this instant, along with making his rapidly turning brain also go blank.
He gasped, unsettled and uncertain, also hearing the gasping of the woman he held; the other party also seemed frightened and unsettled. He was the first to readjust, letting go of his hands. The other party seemed to have lost strength, sliding down to sit on the stairs.
"Are you alright?" he asked instinctively, fumbling around, picking up the light, only then realizing it was a small palm-sized flashlight. Understandable, the entire building seemed to have lost power; going downstairs wasn't safe.
He held the flashlight upright, shining it upwards, using the scattered residual light to look at the other person. However, how could that be a woman?
The upper body was a naked, undulating female form, yet perched atop the neck was a cat's face – absolutely not a mask, nor the cat face resembling a human face in paintings, but precisely a vivid, fur-covered, cat's head, its pupils gleaming with a bestial light!