Chapter 26

Cannibal 1, Sleep Issues

"Oss." Anger called out to Oss, who was looking pale and ready to leave, asking, "Did you search the butcher's letters?"

"Letters?" Oss was somewhat puzzled and replied, "No."

"All his letters, notebooks, diaries, and such, can you find them all for me?" Anger asked.

Oss scratched his head and asked, "The man's been caught, what do you need these for?"

Before Anger could reply, Mo Fei asked, "Is there a computer?"

"Uh, yes," Oss nodded. "He has a laptop."

Mo Fei said, "Then bring the laptop as well."

Oss looked at them both, puzzled. "I can, but what do you want these for?"

Anger looked at Oss with some resignation, "Oss, entrusting S city's security in your hands makes me feel very unsafe."

Oss's face darkened, and he muttered under his breath, "Just because I had a meal with you..."

Anger glanced at him and said, "Bring me the stuff tomorrow."

"Yes... sir," Oss rolled his eyes skyward, walked out the door, and seemed to remember something just before getting into the car. He came back to the doorway and said, "Anger, don't think I'm dumber than a pig. I know you want to find out how the butcher knew the addresses of all the victims right away, don't you?!"

Anger, holding a teacup, glanced at Oss, his lips barely moving as he uttered a single word, "Foolish."

Oss snorted, thought for a moment, and then smirked, "I'll have you know, in some ways, you're even dumber than a pig! I can cook egg fried rice, can you? And I can use a fax machine too!" Saying this, he swaggered away.

Watching Oss's retreating figure, Anger sipped his tea with narrowed eyes and turned to Mo Fei, discontentedly asking, "A fax machine?"

Mo Fei touched his face, gathered his things, and went to wash the dishes in the kitchen.

That night, Anger stayed secluded in his room, painting, while Mo Fei wandered around the gallery, looking over everything from front to back. After making a few phone calls and noticing it was nearly ten o'clock, he locked up the gallery and prepared to sleep.

Just then, the phone rang.

Mo Fei went to answer it, "Hello?"

"Hello..." A woman's voice came through, breathy and strained, as if she was struggling to breathe.

"Who are you looking for?" Mofei asked.

"I... Ahh!" The woman's words were cut off by a sudden scream.

Her piercing scream indicated severe fright, followed by the sound of shattering glass and then chaos.

"Hello?" Mo Fei frowned, shouting into the phone, "Hello? Are you alright?"

From the other end of the line, suddenly came the low growl of a beast, mixed with the woman's screams and pleas for mercy, "I was wrong... I was wrong... Help me!"

"Hello!" Mo Fei was startled by the voice, sensing the woman was being attacked by something.

Moments later, silence fell on the other end of the line. Just as Mo Fei was about to ask more, the phone clicked sharply as it was hung up.

"Hello?" Mo Fei called out again, his brow deeply furrowed. Without a doubt, something had happened to the woman... And what was that beast-like growling sound? Attacked by a dog? No, there were no barks.

"Mo Fei." Puzzled, Mo Fei then heard Anger's voice from upstairs. Looking up, he saw Anger leaning on the corridor railing, looking down at him.

"Your shouting was heard all the way on the second floor," Anger inquired, "What happened?"

"Uh..." Mo Fei thought for a moment, then turned off the downstairs lights and went upstairs to tell Anger about the phone call.

"A beast's growl?" Anger wondered.

"Yeah." Mo Fei nodded, then suggested, "Anger, how about installing a phone recording device? Or maybe upgrade to a more advanced phone, so we don't miss important information like this."

After listening, Anger looked at Mo Fei and asked, "Do you know how to use a fax machine?"

Mo Fei, half-amused, half-exhausted, looked at Anger, "Using a fax machine is just pressing a button, what's there to learn?"

Anger, growing more discontented, turned and went into his room.

Seeing Anger's displeasure, Mo Fei followed him in, saying, "You're just unfamiliar with those gadgets, not dumber than Oss. I think there aren't many people on this planet smarter than you."

Anger, sitting on the sofa with the morning's newspaper, looked up at Mo Fei and asked, "Really?"

"Yeah." Mo Fei nodded, relieved to see a smile return to Anger's face, then suggested, "Shall we take a bath and sleep?"

Anger nodded, "Yes, I'll shower first."

Mo Fei fetched his clothes, and Anger, taking them with an air of ease, went to bathe. Meanwhile, Mo Fei headed to Anger's studio to look at his latest painting. As expected, lately, Anger seemed to particularly enjoy painting himself, with various sketches of his form surrounding the room, and scattered sketch papers also depicted his pencil-drawn self.

Sitting on the floor, Mo Fei meticulously examined each sketch by Anger. He enjoyed seeing how Anger portrayed him, curious about the perspective Anger used. In Anger's art, Mo Fei appeared wonderfully crafted, making him appreciate his own image for the first time.

After an unknown length of time, Anger emerged, drying his hair and dressed in pajamas and slippers, and walked to the studio doorway, observing Mo Fei.

"Finished showering?" Mo Fei asked.

"Yes." Anger nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

Mo Fei, as usual, couldn't guess what was on Anger's mind and went to grab his clothes for a shower.

Anger returned to his room, glanced at the bed, then left the room again, heading back to the studio. There, he approached a corner where a bucket of primer for his canvases and several cans of paint for lacquer paintings were stored.

Anger selected a can of black paint, pried open the lid with a palette knife, grabbed a brush, and walked out, heading into Mo Fei's room.

……

After Mo Fei finished his shower, he noticed that the light in Anger's studio was off. Approaching Anger's bedroom door, he saw Anger reclining on the sofa, reading the newspaper. After a moment's thought, Mo Fei decided to return to his own room to sleep.

Entering the room, Mo Fei wiped his hair while turning on the light, planning to read a bit before sleeping, but...

Mo Fei noticed something different about his surroundings... He remembered his room's walls and bedding... all white, but now, looking around... Standing in the middle of the room, the walls and bedding had transformed into zebra stripes... He touched the bedsheet and felt its stickiness, bringing it to his nose, a smell of paint lingered.

Mo Fei squatted down to search and indeed found an empty paint bucket and a brush underneath the bed. Sitting powerlessly on the floor, he looked around at the absurd zebra stripes...

Discarding the brush and paint bucket in his hand, Mo Fei stood up, left his room, and pushed open the slightly ajar door of Anger's room.

"Anger," called Mo Fei.

"Hmm?" Anger continued to read the newspaper, appearing utterly unconcerned.

Mo Fei walked in, not saying a word, and stood beside him, watching him.

After a long while of reading the newspaper, Anger raised his eyes to Mo Fei, his face innocent.

Mo Fei sat down on his bed, looking him in the eye.

Anger continued to read the newspaper.

"Hey," Mo Fei called out to him, saying, "Why are you so bad?"

"What?" Anger looked up at Mo Fei, an air of feigned ignorance about him.

"Did you create those zebra stripes in my room?" Mo Fei asked.

"No," Anger replied, his head still buried in the newspaper.

"It must have been the dog!" Mo Fei murmured.

"You're the dog," Anger glared at Mo Fei, "the big dog!"

Mo Fei, half laughing, half crying, said, "How am I supposed to sleep with my room painted like that?"

Anger, still holding the newspaper, pointed at his own bed with his toe.

Mo Fei, exasperated, touched his forehead and asked, "You want to sleep together?"

Anger blinked and said seriously, "It's because your room is unlivable. I'm kindly offering you refuge."

Mofei shook his head, looking at the sky, and decided not to argue with Anger anymore. He climbed into his bed, covered himself with a blanket, and settled in to sleep. After about ten minutes, Anger put down the newspaper, walked over to Mofei, and nudged him.

Mo Fei opened his eyes and asked, "What now?"

Anger pointed inside the bed, "Move in a bit, I'll sleep on this side."

Mo Fei, puzzled, asked, "Does it matter which side we sleep on?"

"It does," Anger insisted, wanting him to sleep on the other side.

Resigned, Mo Fei shifted to the other side of the bed.

Anger, satisfied, burrowed into the bed, occupying the warm spot Mo Fei had just vacated, pulling the blanket over himself and snuggling close to Mo Fei.

Mo Fei stared blankly for a long while before realizing and looked at Anger, "You sleep cold, huh? So, you had me warm the bed for you?"

Pretending not to hear, Anger poked him again, "Turn off the light."

With no other choice, Mo Fei reached out to switch off the electric light and earnestly said, "Anger, do you know there's something called an electric blanket?"

Anger found a comfortable position and settled down next to Mo Fei, stubbornly shaking his head, "Don't know it."

Though Mo Fei was helpless, he didn't move anymore, tucked Anger in properly, and quietly fell asleep.

……

The two slept till dawn. Anger woke up refreshed, while Mo Fei got up and returned to his room for another look. The black paint had dried, but the zebra stripes all over the room were still unnervingly conspicuous.

During the day, many people visited Anger's gallery. Outside, there was a bustle of activity, with people who seemed like construction workers. Anger, hands in his pockets, stepped outside to look and saw these workers busy at something.

He asked Mo Fei, who was bustling around, "Who are they?"

"I hired them," Mo Fei answered. "They're installing a security door for the gallery, setting up a camera, and there's also an alarm on the balcony. Additionally, I've replaced the locks on the windows and doors with more efficient ones.

Anger pondered for a moment, then without a word, went back to sit on the sofa and read the newspaper.

Soon, the sound of an electric drill installing security doors and windows began outside.

Anger covered his ears, glaring at Mo Fei in dissatisfaction.

Mofei laughed, "Just bear with it, it'll be quick."

Anger crinkled his nose and continued flipping through the newspaper. At that moment, someone arrived with a telephone of complex design.

Curiously, Anger approached and saw Mo Fei reading the manual while operating it. He inserted a cassette into the phone and then said to Anger, "Try the phone's recording feature."

"How do I test it?" Anger asked, puzzled.

"Just say, 'This is Anger, I'm not at home right now, please leave a message after the beep,'" Mo Fei explained the usage. "There's caller ID, so if there's a call you don't want to answer, you don't have to. Just wait for them to leave a message."

Anger blinked his eyes, silent.

"And this," Mo Fei pointed to a "Fax" button, opened a compartment, and placed a roll of fax paper inside, saying, "This button is for receiving faxes. In the future, if you need any documents, you won’t have to make a trip to Oste. Just have him send a fax."

"Hmm…" Anger pressed the fax machine's receive button and said, "It's so simple, no wonder Oste can do it."

Mo Fei shook his head; Anger really held grudges.

After a busy day, Anger's gallery seemed wrapped in a layer of iron, with security doors and windows installed outside. At night, everything could be securely closed, complete with a security system and alarm.

In the afternoon, Aust sent a computer to Anger, stating there were no letters.

"The computer is password protected," Mo Fei said as he booted it up, "Perhaps we shouldn't tamper with it ourselves. Shall we let the professionals at the police station handle it tomorrow?"

Left with no other choice, Anger nodded. However, a pattern on the laptop's exterior caught his attention—a black rose on the white case.

……

That evening, after Mo Fei showered and returned to his room, he was surprised to find that the zebra stripes had turned into tiger stripes. On the floor lay an empty can of yellow paint and a brush.

Sighing, Mo Fei simply gathered his clothes and went into Anger's room to store them in his drawer.

Anger continued to read the newspaper, a triumphant smile playing at the corners of his mouth.