Zhao Yunlan got out a cigarette and lit it, then gave her the faintest hint of a smile. “You don’t know what came over you? Miss, I’ve only ever heard of someone killing somebody else on impulse. Someone killing themselves on impulse is a rare sight indeed. What, were you possessed?”
At the word “possessed,” Li Qian immediately paled.
Zhao Yunlan refused to go easy on her. “What were you afraid of? Tell us the truth. What exactly did you see up on the roof?”
Li Qian let out a dry chuckle. “Just… Just the roof. What else is there to see?”
“Well, I saw…” Zhao Yunlan gazed straight ahead and exhaled a languid breath of smoke. “When you jumped, I saw a lot of people up there. They were all watching you and laughing.”
Li Qian hugged herself as shudders racked her body. She was clenching her teeth so hard that from up close the grinding was audible. Zhao Yunlan observed her for a moment, flicked his cigarette, and then reached out to push her shoulder. “All right, in you go. We’re here.”
After greeting the teacher on duty at the clinic’s entrance, Zhao Yunlan passed Li Qian over to Shen Wei, then went to stand near the entryway, cigarette still dangling between his lips.
Right out in front, there was a man-made creek with a small bridge over it. Zhao Yunlan leaned against the wooden railing lazily. Slowly, he blew a puff of smoke over his watch. The white smoke dispersed quickly, leaving a thin haze within the watch face. An old woman’s face faded in and out of view, as if she were meeting his gaze through the watch.
“The old cat wasn’t wrong. A newly made ghost who died within the last seven days, showing up on Clarity in broad daylight? Not even a neighborhood committee official in life would be that fierce, usually.” Zhao Yunlan raised a brow as he muttered to himself. “So, Granny, where did you come from?”
At the sound of footsteps behind him, he gently wiped the watch plate. The silhouette within vanished. Unhurriedly, he blew a few smoke rings, then turned to see Shen Wei approaching with a small tray of first aid items. Setting the tray aside, Shen Wei caught hold of Zhao Yunlan’s scraped arm without leaving him room to protest. Eyes lowered, he rolled up Zhao Yunlan’s sleeve carefully before reaching for some distilled water.
“I can do that myself,” Zhao Yunlan said.
“How would you propose to do that?” Shen Wei kept his head down. After rinsing the scrape with the distilled water, he cleaned it with cotton, a bit at a time. All the while, he held the arm as if it were a fragile treasure. “Let me know if I’m too heavy-handed.”
“A quick rinse with tap water would’ve been fine.”
Still not looking up, Shen Wei said, “In this heat, there’s a risk of infection if it’s not cleaned properly.”
Shen Wei’s eyelashes were very long. With his head bowed, his features appeared delicate. The shape of his eyelids was so perfectly defined that they might have been drawn on. With every blink, his lashes fluttered ever so slightly, and Zhao Yunlan’s heart fluttered along with them.
Zhao Yunlan had extraordinary self-confidence, but he wasn’t confident enough to think he could make anyone fall in love at first sight. Besides, Shen Wei looked virtuous, with a hushed, tranquil air—not the sort of shallow person whose heart could be stolen by appearance alone.
Then why…
Shen Wei cleaned the scrape and applied ointment, but when he attempted to bandage it, Zhao Yunlan put his foot down.
“It’s just a scratch. Who’d wrap something so minor in gauze in such hot weather? Anyone who saw it would wonder what’s wrong with me.” Zhao Yunlan put out his cigarette, then slung an arm naturally around Shen Wei’s back. “I’m going to check on that girl. Shall we go together?”
The gesture turned Shen Wei as rigid as a board. He staggered for a few steps as Zhao Yunlan steered him, flushing from his neck to the tips of his ears. Then he scrambled out of Zhao Yunlan’s hold, smoothing his shirt in an attempt to appear composed.
“Why are you like a girl?” Zhao Yunlan smiled nonchalantly, but he switched gears before Shen Wei could catch his breath. “Shen-laoshi, have you ever seen me before today?”
Surprised, Shen Wei met his gaze, mind going blank. For two full seconds, he could only stare at Zhao Yunlan, unable to look away. Finally, his throat a little dry, he said, “I… Yes. I saw you before.”
Zhao Yunlan raised an eyebrow and waited for him to finish.
“I…” A conflicted expression flitted across Shen Wei’s face. Just as Zhao Yunlan thought he was about to tell a fantastic story of how incredibly their lives were entangled, Shen Wei’s tone lightened. “Actually, I saw your team working on a case.”
Zhao Yunlan felt a sudden pang of disappointment, as though his hopes had been lifted just to be let down gently. “Oh? When was that?”
“Five or six years ago, during that string of twelve suicides at the twin towers near Wanqing Bridge. It was when I was about to graduate. I’d just moved off campus and happened to be looking at apartments in that area. Because of the deaths, business was bleak for that building, so the rent was cheap. I was one of the few people who felt brave enough to live there.”
Zhao Yunlan tried to recall. “I was there, but I’m sure I’d remember seeing you.”
“You didn’t see me, but I was living on the top floor. I saw you, and I also saw…” Shen Wei paused, schooling his face into an expression of disbelief at just the right moment. “I saw you capture a black shadow from one of the rooms up there. You stuffed it into a bottle, then turned to someone and said, ‘I’ve caught the suspect. Everyone can wrap up.’ Except…you were clearly the only person there.”
Astonished, Zhao Yunlan asked, “You not only dared to live there but lived on the top floor? You sure had a lot of guts.”
“At the time, I didn’t believe in that kind of thing. I was a poor college student.” Shen Wei lowered his head. Then—not making himself sound any less suspicious—he said, “You can check the records. I’m telling the truth.”
From Zhao Yunlan’s glance, it wasn’t clear how much he actually believed. “That’s negligence on my part,” he joked. “Regulations say we should’ve wiped the memory of any bystanders, but the success went to my head and I didn’t notice you. My sincere apologies. Did you feel like your whole atheist worldview completely collapsed back then?”
Shen Wei offered a strained, reserved smile but didn’t answer.
When the two of them entered the clinic, they found Li Qian sitting up in bed in the room she’d been put in, holding a glass of hot sugar water the doctor had given her. She was backlit against the window, making her expression seem even gloomier.
Zhao Yunlan raised a hand and knocked on the door. Li Qian looked up in alarm. Recognizing him, she slowly let out a breath of relief.
He checked his watch. It still reflected the old woman’s shadow, but the watch’s hands hadn’t turned red. Bizarrely, the new ghost’s vitality seemed to be getting stronger.
If signs of death appeared on a living person, it meant their life was about to be snuffed out like a candle. But what could it mean to see life blooming on someone who was dead?
Was she about to reincarnate?
As Zhao Yunlan pondered it, he boldly sat on the bed across from Li Qian and got out a notebook. “Okay, Tongxue, I still need to ask you a few things.” Li Qian looked at him, her face pale.
Since Shen-laoshi had made it plain that he knew the nature of Zhao Yunlan’s job, there was no need to beat around the bush. Bluntly, Zhao Yunlan asked, “Have you recently been able to see things you shouldn’t have?”
Li Qian’s expression of utter terror was all the answer he needed.
“I understand now.” Zhao Yunlan stared at the spot between her brows. He leaned forward slightly, hand resting on his knee. “But I can tell your third eye hasn’t been opened. Theoretically, you shouldn’t be able to see anything. Were you touched by these things because your birth chart11 is too troubled, or did you mess with something you shouldn’t have?”
Li Qian bit her lip. Her fingers twisted together until her knuckles whitened.