Chapter Seventy-Nine: Meimei

And so, as the film drew to a close, Ning Shuyi’s notebook was covered with a string of time stamps. The moment the lights came up, she rose to her feet, calling Ho Yan to leave the screening room with her ahead of the others.

The young couple seated behind them watched their hasty departure with disappointment, sighing as their figures vanished.

“This guy had a pretty good plan, but he probably didn’t expect his girlfriend to be so bold!” the young man remarked to his girlfriend.

The girl couldn’t help but sigh as well. “I thought that young lady looked so delicate—not at all the type to be fearless. She must be really angry with her boyfriend, so even if she’s scared, she’d rather pretend she isn’t. No matter what, she won’t let his scheme succeed! But to refuse even when he arranged a movie for her—how serious must their quarrel be? Do you think it’s one of those cheating exes begging for reconciliation?”

Unbeknownst to Ning Shuyi, the two inquisitive youths behind her had spun a tale of love and betrayal around her and Ho Yan as they left. In truth, her nights had been disturbed for days by the tenants upstairs, leaving her unable to rest properly. She’d asked her parents about it; their room was quiet enough at night, as if the upstairs commotion was reserved solely for the ceiling above her own bedroom.

With her days occupied and her nights unrestful, her sleep quality lately was worrisome. During the first two-thirds of the film, she was able to focus intently on her notes as the frequent scare points kept her alert. But as the plot grew dull in the final third, she found herself growing drowsy. Only when the last fright came near the film’s end did she perk up a bit, and as soon as the movie finished, she hurried out of the screening room to the restroom, splashing cold water on her face to refresh herself.

As she washed, voices from the inner room drifted to her ears, immediately capturing her attention.

“Sister Li, are you going to clean that locked screening room later? I heard up front the manager intends to reopen the one that had the incident,” came the voice of a middle-aged woman from inside.

“Not going! I told everyone—I’ll never set foot in there, not for anything! I’m telling you, you shouldn’t go either. Stay away from that room from now on; it’s got bad vibes!”

“Huh? Why do you say that? Didn’t the manager say what happened before was because the woman had a heart condition and ignored the ticket notice? She was scared to death during the movie—it wasn’t our fault!”

“You believe everything he says? All he does is talk nonsense, haven’t you noticed? You know, that room first saw a little girl die; the police were here and everything. As soon as they left, he had us go in to clean. Once inside, we found Mimi dead!”

“What? Mimi died?!”

“That’s right! She was fine when the police were here, but the moment they left, Mimi died in that room—so strange!”

“But the police checked the room, didn’t they? Nothing happened to them…”

“You can’t compare yourself to the police! They deal with all sorts of things every day, they’ve got a fierce aura about them, enough to keep ordinary evil at bay!”

The more Ning Shuyi listened, the more peculiar it all seemed. She quickly dried her face with a tissue, lifted the curtain, and entered the inner room.

Two middle-aged women in cleaner uniforms stood inside, each leaning on a mop as they chatted. Startled by her sudden entrance, they stopped speaking at once and didn’t continue.

“Excuse me, I overheard you discussing a screening room where someone died, and then another named Mimi died as well. Is that true?” Ning Shuyi approached and asked directly.

The two cleaners exchanged glances, sizing her up quickly. The older one waved her hand. “No, no, you heard wrong! Just idle chatter—it’s nothing to do with you. If you need the restroom, go ahead. We’ll get back to work.”

With that, she nudged her colleague toward the door, clearly unwilling to discuss their topic with a stranger.

“Please wait,” Ning Shuyi said, not wanting to waste time with small talk. The situation sounded sensitive—especially since the police hadn’t been notified after the second incident. She took out her credentials and showed them to the two cleaners. “I’m with the W City Public Security Bureau, investigating the previous death in the screening room. You said after a female audience member died there, another named Mimi died as well?”

“Huh?” The cleaner who had been eager to leave stopped in her tracks at the sight of Ning Shuyi’s badge. Her expression shifted from avoidance to confusion as she listened to the question. “A person? No, no! Oh dear, you misunderstood! Not a person—Mimi!”

The other cleaner realized the misunderstanding and quickly explained, “Yes, Mimi is a stray cat the cinema took in—not a person! Oh, you startled me! Mimi is a cat, beautiful one, always sneaking into the mall to steal food. Security would chase her out, but somehow she ended up on our floor, and the manager decided to keep her. Moviegoers loved her—said she had one yellow eye, one blue eye, so pretty, that’s why we called her Mimi!”

“You’re saying the cat was found dead in the screening room after we left the scene that day? Where exactly?” Ning Shuyi relaxed a little at the revelation that it was a cat, but remained puzzled. On the day of the incident, they had thoroughly checked the screening room—no sign of a cat.

“The cat was found wedged between two rows of seats,” one cleaner gestured. “Oh, the way it looked! I still feel scared thinking about it. We don’t know when Mimi slipped in. After you police left, about an hour later, we couldn’t find her anywhere. Everything else had been checked, but that screening room was locked after you left. Nowhere else to look, so we opened it up, and there she was—dead, stone cold! Mimi looked fine otherwise, but the way she died—twisted up, looked like she suffered. People say cats have nine lives—they can survive falls from tall buildings. How could she die after wandering into the screening room for just an hour? That room is so big, not stuffy at all. So everyone started wondering if there was something unclean in there. Screening that kind of film in the first place… just not auspicious…”