Chapter Two: South Suburb Slaughterhouse
Li Weiyi did not know how long he had been staring at the phone on the table. By the time he finally forced himself to calm down and face the unknown fear, it was already past ten forty at night.
He had tried various methods to save himself, but sometimes a person doesn’t realize what despair means until they put in the effort.
The phone was busy, the live stream was instantly banned, the messages couldn’t go through… It seemed as if there was a strange force preventing him from contacting anyone.
Amid his continuous attempts, he finally received a warning from the New University City Urban Legends Chat Group review group.
[One hundred and three-quarters of a cat: @Humble Little Li Please complete the review task alone, or your review qualifications will be canceled.]
Li Weiyi stared blankly at his phone for a long time, finally realizing that there was no way for him to escape.
Now he had been pushed to the edge, and it was either madness or d*ath.
He didn’t dare to think about the terrible things that would happen if he was disqualified from the review.
He just had a vague feeling that if he wanted a glimmer of hope, he had to go to the South Suburb Slaughterhouse alone at midnight and wait until dawn.
…
Exactly ten thirty at night.
Li Weiyi stood in front of the door of his home, wearing a black fisherman’s hat and carrying a bulging travel bag filled with his homemade talismans.
Only at this moment did he realize how unreliable the protective items he normally bought were; this full bag did not bring him a shred of safety.
“Whoo—!”
He took a deep breath, grasped the doorknob, gently turned it, and pushed the door open.
The hallway in the dark was eerily quiet, with an old incandescent light casting a dim yellow glow. The smell of incense still lingered in the air, and a damaged paper effigy abandoned in the corner was missing half its body, lying on the ground, its pale face adorned with bizarrely vibrant blush.
Li Weiyi didn’t want to linger in this once familiar, now eerie hallway, and he quickly jogged through the corridor, down the stairs, and out of the building.
At this time, there were very few taxis on the street. He stood anxiously by the roadside, waiting for over ten minutes before finally hailing one.
“Go to the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.”
Hearing the name of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, the driver, a middle-aged man, was obviously taken aback, his complexion turning pale as he glanced nervously at the passenger in the rearview mirror.
“Kid, the South Suburb Slaughterhouse has been closed for three years!”
Li Weiyi looked at his watch and impatiently said, “I know. Just drive, I’m in a hurry.”
After saying this, as if he remembered something, his eyes, hidden under the brim of his hat, brightened slightly. “Hey, I won’t hide it from you, I’m actually going to…”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Before Li Weiyi could finish his sentence, the driver hurriedly interrupted, “I’m just a driver; where you go and what you do has nothing to do with me.”
“South Suburb Slaughterhouse, right? Just so you know, I can only drop you off nearby, can’t take you to the door.”
“Okay.” Li Weiyi replied and leaned back in the seat, glancing at the small metal box filled with business cards near the driver’s seat, a flicker of hesitation crossing his eyes.
This driver named Zhang Shan might be involved with those urban legends. What ordinary driver would dare to wander around outside at night? Li Weiyi thought.
The car started, heading from the west of the city towards the South Suburb.
Zhang Shan glanced at the resting Li Weiyi in the rearview mirror, a cold sneer forming in his heart.
Want to tell a story? Not a chance!
I’ve seen more of you weirdos than I can count.
After listening to stories, you get entangled—this trick isn’t new for me!
…
Half an hour later.
Zhang Shan parked the car beside the road, two kilometers away from the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, turned around and said to Li Weiyi, “Kid, we’re here.”
As he spoke, he pointed to the intersection ahead, “See that intersection? Go in there, keep heading south without turning; it’s about two kilometers.”
“Okay.” Li Weiyi replied, opened the car door, and was about to get out.
“Come back, come back! You’re leaving just like that?”
Confused, Li Weiyi looked at Zhang Shan, “What? Do you have something else?”
Zhang Shan rubbed his fingers together, “What about the fare?! You think you can just get out without paying after taking the ride?”
Ever since he successfully collected fare from the white-haired monster last time, his audacity had grown; he dared to collect fare from anyone.
What’s wrong with urban legends? Don’t they have to pay for rides?
“How much?” Li Weiyi asked impatiently.
Zhang Shan shrugged, taking out two QR codes, one blue and one green, from under the steering wheel and handing them to Li Weiyi.
“Eighty-seven, no cash payments!”
Li Weiyi glared at Zhang Shan, slightly parted his lips, suppressing his anger, took out his phone, scanned the QR code, paid, then turned to walk towards the intersection.
He was now even more certain that Zhang Shan was in cahoots with those urban legends.
He had ridden in taxis at night before, but those drivers were all meek and afraid of attracting strange things. Zhang Shan was the first one to act so presumptuously.
…
The night had turned very dark, the street was chilly, and there were no pedestrians; dry leaves rolled in the wind.
Following Zhang Shan’s directions, Li Weiyi turned into the intersection and soon found himself on a very secluded street.
The cottages on both sides were low and dilapidated, with tightly closed doors and pitch-black windows that revealed no signs of life.
After walking for a while, there were no more houses on either side; the road beneath his feet had changed from asphalt to a rundown concrete road.
The streetlights flickered out precisely where the asphalt met the concrete road, and ahead seemed to be swallowed by darkness, with only the outlines of overgrown vegetation visible.
Li Weiyi paused for a moment, shifting his travel bag to his chest and fumbling to take out the flashlight he had prepared earlier.
“Click—Click—!”
He pressed the switch several times, but the flashlight did not turn on. Li Weiyi cursed quietly, “Huh? d*mn, why won’t it turn on!”
Just as he uttered those words, he felt a tap on his back.
Li Weiyi turned around abruptly and found an old woman appearing from nowhere behind him.
“Old lady, you…”
Upon seeing her face, he couldn’t help but shiver, momentarily at a loss for words.
It was a face as white as chalk, with a texture resembling wrinkled bean skin covering her entire aged visage.
“Have you seen my grandson?”
The old woman’s voice trembled, her throat seemingly blocked, her words unclear and muffled.
“Whoo—Whoo—!” Li Weiyi took deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down, “Old lady, I…I haven’t seen your grandson, I just arrived.”
“Oh…you haven’t seen him…”
The old woman spoke slowly, her murky eyes fixed on Li Weiyi but also appearing to stare at the dark road behind him.
“Are you going to the slaughterhouse?”
“Y-Yes.” Li Weiyi stammered in response.
“That place…that place…” The old woman murmured as if she knew something but was unwilling to say it.
“Do you know something, old lady?” Li Weiyi asked.
“Hehe!” At Li Weiyi’s question, the old woman suddenly laughed, her fragile breath making her laughter sound thin and eerie, her wrinkles contorting into a mass, her cloudy eyes trembling, “My grandson is there! If you see him, tell him to come home early.”
After saying that, the old woman turned and ran down the desolate street, which was devoid of people.
Her limping gait appeared to be enchanted, yet she moved quickly, far from the pace of a frail old woman.
Ahead was the South Suburb Slaughterhouse; she said her grandson was there… Li Weiyi’s expression changed, and a chill surged uncontrollably within him.
Just then, a flicker came from the flashlight that had been failing to turn on, flashing a few times before suddenly illuminating with a “click!”
“Gulp—!”
Li Weiyi swallowed hard, standing frozen for a moment before rummaging through his backpack, pulling out two strings of prayer beads, a couple of crosses, and a string of garlic hanging around his neck, before finally mustering the courage to pick up the flashlight.
…
The dilapidated concrete road was thick with dust, in some places piled up with mud. Worst of all, amidst the dirt, there were scattered remnants of joss paper almost rotting away.
With the weak glow from the flashlight, Li Weiyi nervously walked along the road, not knowing how long he walked before finally arriving at the legendary South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
It stood alone in the wilderness, its courtyard walls towering high, overgrown with long grass. The paint on the main door had long since peeled away, and three rusty iron characters hung above it.
Slaughterhouse…
Li Weiyi silently read those three characters in his mind, a fierce look flashing in his eyes as he pushed open the slightly ajar iron door and walked in.
As he passed through the door, a foul smell of animal waste hit him, and a few steps further, he spotted a cluster of green-tiled houses in the distance.
Li Weiyi hesitated for a moment at the spot; just as he was about to continue moving forward, a loud clang resounded behind him.
“Bang—!”
His body trembled, and he nervously turned to look back.
He saw that the three big characters on the door had lost part of themselves, possibly due to weathering.
Corpse Ground…
A sense of foreboding surged wildly within Li Weiyi’s heart. In the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder; looking down, he saw an iron hook used for hanging pigs piercing through his collarbone, bright red bl**d gushing out.
“Whoosh—Whoosh—!”
Heavy breathing echoed behind him, blowing across his back, and his body felt as if it had rusted, frozen in place.
In the next moment, he felt a terrifying pull on the iron hook, intense pain surged, and Li Weiyi’s body was flung backward into the darkness.
…
“Help! Help! Save me…”
In the midnight hours, a terrified and desperate scream echoed above the South Suburb Slaughterhouse before quickly falling silent.
Not far from the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, in the wilderness, a man stood silently in the darkness, gazing at the flickering crimson glow within the slaughterhouse.
He was tall and thin, with a messy mop of hair, his waxy face marked with dark circles, and an exhausted demeanor, as if he hadn’t slept for days.
He was cloaked in a pitch-black cape, with a bright yellow emblem pinned at the neck; upon closer inspection, it was a skull-themed funny emoji.
A breeze blew, fluttering his cloak, revealing his painfully thin yet hairy legs, which were barely visible.
Suddenly, a shadow darted from afar with a swift “whoosh!”, landing steadily beside the man.
The newcomer was a very small girl, appearing to be about seven or eight years old, with a mix of colors in her short hair, sporting a pair of black cat ears that wobbled back and forth.
She wore a black cloak identical to the tall man’s, the high collar obscuring half her face, with the same emoji badge pinned to her chest.
The girl crouched beside the tall man like a cat, casting a sidelong glance at him as she began to complain.
“Ah Se, you should quickly report to the boss and move that guy named Wang Buliu to another review group! I really can’t take it anymore!”
The tall man glanced at the girl, “What? Has she reported the review group again?”
“Not again; it’s every day!” the girl replied irritably. “Ever since she found out that re-reviewing is just a bluff, she has reported an average of twice a day over the past month! The most in one day was seven times!”
“Do you realize what seven times means? Does she really think we can handle her reports without consuming spirit energy?”
The tall man scratched the back of his head and laughed dryly, “Isn’t it just a report? It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?”
“If it were just a simple report, that would be fine!” The girl rolled her eyes, “Other than privately messaging me a bunch of garbage every day.”
“Last week, she somehow sent me a Trojan horse! If I hadn’t reacted quickly, my information would’ve been stolen by her!”
“And yesterday, she again got her hands on a heap of inappropriate pictures, dozens or even hundreds of different ones sent in the group…”
At this point, the tall man’s eyes lit up, “Oh—!? Inappropriate pictures? I like that.”
“I get it now. I’ll go find the boss and request to meet her!”
The girl stood up, crossing her arms across her chest, and said softly, “The boss said that female group members cannot be allowed to pass the review; otherwise…”
“Otherwise what? Are you going to tarnish their reputation? Nonsense!” The tall man interrupted, “I have no interest in three-dimensional women at all.”
“Hmph!” The girl coldly laughed twice, “You really won’t do anything to them, but you will arrange their review locations to…”
At this point, she paused, her head slightly lowered, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks, her words becoming stammered.
“To…to…that kind of place!”
“What kind of place? I don’t know?” The tall man shrugged and pretended to be clueless.
The girl stomped her foot in anger and growled, “It’s that kind of…brothel! Do you need me to say it out loud? You idiot! LSP!”
“Tsk! What do you know, little brat? That’s called paradise! Do you even know what paradise is?” The tall man rolled his eyes.
“Filthy, I can’t be bothered with you!” The girl stuck out her tongue at the tall man, her gaze unintentionally drifting towards the South Suburb Slaughterhouse. She paused for a moment, then looked at her wristwatch, perplexed, “Where’s that Master Li?”
“It’s already twelve thirteen; why hasn’t he come? Did that kid run away? What’s going on?”
“He arrived a long time ago!”
“And then? Where’s the person?” The girl eagerly asked.
“And then…” The tall man glanced towards the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, pursed his lips, “Then, as soon as he stepped through the door, he was taken out; what’s there to say?”
“Ugh, I’m done!” The girl rolled her eyes, “He’s so useless yet still has the audacity to call himself Master Li who can traverse heaven and earth? It’s a pity I came all the way here to watch a show!”
“Isn’t it true that he has already changed his name to Humble Little Li? In my opinion, weren’t we a bit too cruel, making him review in such a difficult place?”
“Bull! He’s on the blacklist; we were commissioned! The more miserable he dies, the better!” The girl put her hands on her hips angrily.
“Besides, when he deceives girls’ feelings, why don’t you say he’s cruel? When he sells fake goods, causing people to be attacked by urban legends, why don’t you say he’s cruel? He…”
“Alright, alright! I got it, enough!” The tall man impatiently waved his hand to interrupt the girl, changing the subject, “By the way, have you chosen a review location for Wang Buliu?”
“Hmm…” The girl furrowed her brow in thought, her peripheral vision drifting towards the distant South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
Under the night sky, the long-abandoned slaughterhouse was shadowy and ill-defined, as if hiding some ghostly thing, and faint cries of animals being slaughtered wafted in the wind.
“This will do.”
The tall man was momentarily stunned, turning to look at the girl, “Are you kidding? Isn’t she an up-and-coming urban legend? She’s also a key priority on the red list; bringing her here…”
“Oh! I get it! You’re engaged in personal vendetta! Little girl, you may not be big, but your strategy is pretty deep!”
“Do you think I’m like you?” The girl rolled her eyes, “The boss holds her in high esteem; since she’s so strong, why not let her conveniently deal with that guy on the blacklist inside the slaughterhouse?”
“…” The tall man fell silent for a moment, then said, “Whatever you want!”
“By the way, how much has she been paid?”
“She was paid…”
The girl hesitated, as if suddenly remembering something, her lips twitching.
“Ugh! Just don’t mind it, within a week, I’ll definitely have her take over the review!”
…
The next morning, in front of the Jingyi Apartment Complex.
Luxianbei stood at the entrance, resting her chin on her hand, gazing thoughtfully at the wallet on the ground, while people rushing to work and school passed by her, seemingly oblivious to the wallet.
Luxianbei, “……” It has been several days in a row! Which fool designed this fishing trap? Not even as clever as Mr. Rabbit.
At the same time, on the stone pillar of the apartment entrance, a lovely-looking tabby cat secretly watched her. Seeing her bend down to pick up the wallet, the cat’s eyes flashed with excitement, and its mouth slightly opened, revealing a human-like smile.
She picked it up; finally, she picked it up! I thought she was so noble! Not picking up one, not picking up ten, not picking up a hundred! Was she waiting for more? Now it’s all in one go!
As the tabby cat was thinking, its ears suddenly twitched; from afar, it heard Luxianbei’s voice from the police station at the street corner.
“Officer, I just found a wallet over there with several thousand in it! I have to hurry to school, so I’ll hand it over to you first!”
“……”
“Meow (d*mn)——!” The tabby cat exclaimed a curse, slapping the stone pillar with one paw, leaving a smoky paw print behind.
