Chapter 5

A woman came out, handbag dangling from her hand.

She was young, in a bright red long dress. Her big, loose waves framed a curvy figure, and she was eye‑catching to say the least.

Seeing Chu Yue and Shen Yubi, she froze for a second, then smoothed her expression out.

She let out a wolf whistle, walked up to Chu Yue, flipped her hair back, and tossed him a flirtatious wink.

Then she winked at Shen Yubi. “Hey, little cutie, mind having one more stepmom?”

Shen Yubi tipped his head back and gave her a once‑over from head to toe. His small hand tightened around Chu Yue’s, and he gave a soft huff through his nose without saying anything.

The woman didn’t mind. She fell into step beside Chu Yue as they headed downstairs.

Her high heels clicked sharply against the concrete.

Chu Yue held Shen Yubi with one hand and lightly supported the woman with the other, smiling faintly. “We just moved in. New tenants.”

“I know.” The woman smiled. “You’re here to help Li Ergou look for his knife, right? I heard. Don’t worry, I don’t have a problem with Outsiders.”

Chu Yue followed her lead. “That’s right. But we don’t know much about this place, and Li Ergou wasn’t very clear either. It’s honestly giving us a bit of a headache.”

“I happen to be heading to his butcher shop. Want to come along?” she asked directly, whether or not she’d caught his subtext.

“That would be perfect.” Chu Yue nodded and thanked her softly. “Thank you.”

The woman waved it off.

On the way, she never mentioned her own name, but she did talk about Li Ergou.

“Li Ergou? He’s not much to look at, but he really is a famous good man in this town,” she said.

“Don’t be fooled by him being a pig butcher-he’s gentle as can be. Honest and simple, with a good temper. Listens to his wife. Never messes around with women outside.”

“Everyone’s heard about him getting you to look for that knife. Don’t listen to all that ‘family heirloom’ talk. We all know he’s only taking it this seriously because of his wife.”

“His wife, now, she’s a real beauty. Gentle and soft‑spoken, well‑bred and articulate. It’s a pity…”

She didn’t say what was a pity, just switched back to talking about Li Ergou.

“He really knows how to treat people right. The meat he sells is good quality, never short on the weight, and when you stew it up the taste is amazing.”

It was praise after praise, but what she said about Li Ergou’s wife didn’t quite match what they’d heard from Li Ergou himself.

One version had her swinging a rolling pin at people; the other painted her as gentle, well‑read, and sensible.

Which one was true?

Listening to her, the image of Li Ergou in their minds sharpened a little.

After they’d walked a while, Shen Yubi suddenly asked, “Auntie, are all the people in your town really lazy? It’s so late, and they’re still not up.”

He was young, his voice innocent. Coming from him, the words didn’t sound abrupt or rude.

The town was indeed a bit deserted. They’d been walking for quite a while; aside from the few shops that had already opened, there were barely any people on the street.

The whole town felt like one of those artsy tourist spots that had fallen into a deep sleep.

“That’s not it.” The woman didn’t get angry. “The Festival is coming up. Unless they have to, no one goes out. Everyone’s trying to catch up on sleep. Starting the day after tomorrow, we’ll be doing the Three Days and Nights of Prayer.”

“Prayer?” Chu Yue asked.

The woman smiled. “It’s a local custom. We pray for peace.”

She clearly had no intention of elaborating, and Chu Yue didn’t press her further.
“Auntie, can you tell Xiao Yu what the Monster in the building was last night?”

The woman kept walking, lowering her head with a puzzled look. “What Monster? Handsome, you must have been half-asleep. How could there be a Monster in the building?”

Her expression didn’t look fake; she genuinely seemed confused.

“Last night outside it kept going ‘clang, clang, clang.’ You didn’t hear it, Auntie?”

“No.” The woman shook her head. “I went to bed early last night. Didn’t hear anything strange. Maybe someone was sleepwalking.”

Shen Yubi made a sound of acknowledgment and fell silent.

Li Ergou’s butcher shop was in the market on the west side of town. The storefront wasn’t big, just a window left open for customers to choose their meat.

By the time they arrived, someone else had already gotten there first.

It was the two women who lived on the 2nd Floor, one around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, the other looking already past thirty.

The two came out of the butcher shop one after the other. Chu Yue glanced at them twice, then took his eyes back.

Li Ergou was dressed the same as he’d been that morning. When he saw the two of them, he seemed very enthusiastic.

“You’re here. The door’s over there, you can go in and look. But I’ve searched over and over, the Knife isn’t in the shop.”

After saying that, he turned his head and started calling out to the women.

Chu Yue didn’t stand on ceremony; the man had already said as much.

The two of them went inside.

The butcher shop was a bit of a mess. It wasn’t dirty-the hygiene was actually decent-but the cramped little space was cluttered with tools and various things piled any which way. At a glance it was chaotic and disorganized.

He couldn’t tell if it was always like this, or if those two women had just gone through it.

Chu Yue twitched his nose. The first thing he picked up was the smell of blood-lighter than what he’d smelled in Room 417, but still far from pleasant.

They rummaged around for a while. Shen Yubi even bent down and peered a few times under the cabinet, but the result was disappointing.

They weren’t surprised, though. If the thing was that easy to find, that would be what was strange.

When they came back out, the women buying meat were already gone, but the two from the 2nd Floor were still there, one squatting and one standing not far from Li Ergou’s shop. The older woman’s face was deathly pale.

There weren’t many people buying meat now. Chu Yue walked up to the window and started chatting with Li Ergou.

The counter window looked fairly clean. On the table inside lay a big slab of bright red pork belly.

Chu Yue glanced at it. “Didn’t you say that without that Butcher Knife you wouldn’t be able to keep doing business?”

“Yeah.” Li Ergou picked up a Knife and wiped it twice on the white cloth beside him. “Without the Butcher Knife I can’t slaughter pigs, but today someone brought me meat that’s already been butchered. I can just sell it directly.”

“Someone else does the slaughtering and lets you make the money?” Chu Yue lifted his eyelids. “You’ve got such kind people in this town?”

Li Ergou stared at the chopping block, his voice stiff. “The Assembly is coming up soon. We help each other out-do good deeds and accumulate virtue, that’s all.”

“What do you mean?” Chu Yue asked.

Li Ergou raised his head, eyes a little vacant. It took several seconds before he focused on Chu Yue and let out a questioning sound.

“Dear customer, did you find my Knife?”

“Not yet,” Chu Yue said.

“Do you need some meat? Top up your nutrition, get your brain working.”

“No.”

Chu Yue turned him down. There was definitely something wrong with this Li Ergou.