Chapter 1

1: 1

My first day back in my hometown, the woman next door came to borrow my cat to catch mice.

In my last life, I said yes. I carried the cat over to her house myself.

I never guessed she'd turn around, tear her own blouse open, slap herself across the face a few times, and run out barefoot,

screaming that I'd assaulted her.

The whole village poured out and beat me, smashed my things, and in the end they crushed every bone in both my hands and both my feet,

so I could never paint again. I lay dying on that bed for a month before the sickness took me.

My cat was drowned in the pond too, thrown in as my so-called accomplice by that woman next door.

After I was dead, she moved away, and before long she was auctioning off my paintings as her own.

On the strength of those spirit-filled canvases, she didn't just earn the title of woman painter, she became a rich woman. Living easy, living well.

Now, reborn, facing the same neighbor come knocking at my door, I shook my head, cold.

"Just buy a pack of rat poison. It costs pennies."

...

"You... and you're supposed to be from the city! Who knew you had such a rotten heart!"

"Do you have any idea how many kids in this village get poisoned every year swallowing rat poison by mistake? You tell me to buy rat poison, you want the whole village wiped out?"

The woman next door, Stella Pruitt, froze for only a moment after I refused, then started loudly accusing me.

Her raised voice drew the neighbors nearby.

Aunt Marlene, sour-faced with her hair slicked flat across her forehead, curled her lip and chimed in. "Corey, don't you have a cat? Lend it out so everyone can use it. Fat as it is, it can't just eat and never move, or it won't live long!"

Hearing her actually curse my cat, the anger boiled up in me.

I'd found Tiger in a trash heap, raised him on water and milk drop by drop, and he'd been with me ever since.

To me he was family.

I scooped up Tiger, who'd wedged himself in at my feet to watch the show, and shot back, ice-cold, "So generous. Why don't you lend yourself out instead?"

"You're already way overweight. Better get moving fast and slim down."

"Otherwise..."

I didn't finish, but my expression said the rest for me.

Aunt Marlene lost it on the spot. "You rotten little punk, how can you talk like that? I only gave you a bit of friendly advice. Fine, don't take it, but why put a curse on me?"

"Forget it. I see how it is. This Corey Floyd is a city man, looks down on us village folk, doesn't want anything to do with us."

"So what if he's from the city? City people still eat the grain us farmers grow! What's so noble about that?"

"Right, whose cat doesn't go out and catch mice? Only his cat is special."

"Won't even do one little favor. Cold-blooded, that one!"

Hearing the villagers back her, Stella Pruitt found her nerve again, reached into my arms, and grabbed a fistful of the fur at Tiger's neck, yanking hard to drag him out.

Startled, Tiger raked his claws across her arm, leaving a few bloody streaks.

Stella shrieked and let go. "Damn animal!"

Tiger pulled his claws back and burrowed into my arms, shaking with fright.

But Stella, with her arm scratched, had turned herself into the victim, screaming for money, or for Tiger to be beaten to death.

I was anxious to get Tiger home and calm him down, in no mood to wrangle with them. My face went cold. "You brought it on yourself getting scratched. If you don't like it, we call the police, and I'll have my lawyer talk to you."

At the words police and lawyer, Stella lost her nerve.

But she wasn't willing to let it drop either. She grabbed Aunt Marlene, the one who'd spoken up for her first. "The whole village saw it, you city man bullying a widow like me! Ma'am, when the police come, you'll testify for me, won't you?"

Aunt Marlene snatched her sleeve back fast. "I've got tofu stewing on the stove, I need to run home and check it."

The others who'd come to watch didn't want to get pulled in by Stella either, and one by one they left.

Left with no one on her side, Stella glared at Tiger, seething. "Little beast!"

Then she swung her hips and walked off.

I shut the door at once and carried Tiger back to the living room to settle him down.

Once Tiger had calmed, I called a friend and asked him to find me a new place to live, somewhere with clean hills and clear water and honest people.

This might be my hometown, but the villagers were ignorant and vicious.

I had no intention of staying.

When Tiger fell asleep, I left him in the living room and went to my temporary study to deal with some work first, then started packing my things to move.

I was only halfway done when someone pounded on the door.

"Floyd, get out here!"

"You dare bully a woman from our village, today we're peeling the skin right off you! Beat you to death!"

The pounding grew harder, joined by the sound of someone kicking violently at the door.

I couldn't make sense of it. I hadn't even stepped outside today, so how had I bullied anyone? Who exactly had I bullied?

"Crash!"

The door burst open under the assault.

Five or six villagers stormed in, full of menace.

Aunt Marlene, the one I'd mocked that morning, was at the front. The moment she saw my packed belongings, she lit up as if she'd found proof of a crime.

"Floyd means to run!"

"Quick, smash his things, take his ID, make him pay for the filthy thing he did!"