His expression went solemn. He went back to her in large strides and squatted beside her. “What kind of shadow?”
Shen Wei couldn’t help but speak up. “Both of you be careful of the glass.” He grabbed a broom from the corner and swept the shards off to the side. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “Should I leave?” and turned to his student. “Here, how about I get you more water?”
Zhao Yunlan waved the offer away. “No, it’s good that you’re here. Don’t leave. I don’t have a female coworker with me, and it’s against regulations to question her alone.” As he spoke, he helped Li Qian uncurl and sit up, then handed her a packet of tissues from the little side table. “What kind of shadow? Take your time.”
“When she passed by me, I saw her school T-shirt and realized she was a fellow student. So I greeted her, even though we didn’t know each other. She just said, ‘Excuse me,’ and rushed past. That’s when…” Li Qian looked up, shuddering violently. Her eyes were bloodshot. “That’s when I saw her shadow—her shadows. She had more than one.”
Softly, Shen Wei said, “Multiple light sources will create multiple shadows. Perhaps…”
“That’s not it. It wasn’t like that!” Li Qian cut him off, voice trembling. “It wasn’t that kind of shadow. It appeared out of thin air where there was no light. It was so much darker than the other shadows, and…and worst of all…it didn’t move with her!”
The room was suddenly eerily still. Li Qian shook as if her bones were about to come apart. Shen Wei paused, bent over, and patted her head comfortingly. “Tongxue, please try to be calm.”
“I saw it, Shen-laoshi. I swear I saw it.” Li Qian grabbed the hem of his shirt and burst into tears. “It kept following her. I saw. The second she walked into that alley, it suddenly…it suddenly stood up, like a real person. I was so afraid. I ran for my life.
“I thought I must have been dreaming or having a hallucination, you see? But then you—you just had to ask me. You had to tell me that she…she’s already…”
At that point, she seemed to remember Zhao Yunlan’s description. She jumped up, pushed Shen Wei away, and bolted to the corner, where she threw up.
There was a rebuke in the look Shen Wei threw Zhao Yunlan.
“Uh…don’t worry,” Zhao Yunlan said. “This is a pretty minimal reaction. You weren’t at the scene this morning. One of our newbies puked so much he practically turned into a sea cucumber.”
Shen Wei’s gaze turned helpless. He shook his head and went into the hallway, where he got a bottle of water from the doctor, who’d kept looking inside. Then he let Li Qian rinse her mouth and helped her back up. Li Qian couldn’t quite stand on her own, but she stumbled back to the bed with Shen Wei’s help. Eyes dull, she looked at Zhao Yunlan. “It killed someone, and it’ll kill me too. I saw it. It won’t let me go, will it?”
Zhao Yunlan didn’t answer the question. “Can you describe it for me?”
“I didn’t get a clear look, but…it was human shaped. When it stood up, it must have been about this tall.” Li Qian gestured with her hands. “All black and a little short, so it looked a bit fat.”
Zhao Yunlan’s pen stopped moving. Brows furrowed, he repeated, “A little short and a little fat?”
She nodded.
“Is it possible that it’s not actually short? Could it have run off as soon as you saw it, so it hadn’t managed to stand up fully?”
Li Qian stilled, her reaction even more delayed than before. Then she lowered her eyes, evading Zhao Yunlan’s gaze, and nodded again. “It’s… It’s possible.”
Something odd entered the look he was giving her. “And then?”
“Well, then I ran.” She kept her head down and Zhao Yunlan scrutinized her in silence. Her fingers were tangled together, the tips turning white.
Finally, Zhao Yunlan let it go. He ripped a page from his notebook and wrote down a string of numbers. “If there are any clues, or if you remember anything new, please contact me as soon as possible. My phone is on 24/7. Thank you for your help.” He shoved the note at Li Qian and stood up.
“I’ll see you off,” said Shen Wei.
“No need,” Zhao Yunlan replied. “I’m going to have a smoke outside first. You talk to her. I was a tad brusque just now, so I might have scared the kid. My apologies.”
Shen Wei looked at Li Qian. It was impossible to know what she was thinking; she showed no reaction to Zhao Yunlan’s words.
Once Zhao Yunlan was gone, cigarette already between his lips, Shen Wei asked Li Qian, “Are you hungry? I can get you some food from the cafeteria later.” He kept his voice as gentle as possible.
With Zhao Yunlan’s departure, the oppressive feeling he’d brought with him also dissipated. Li Qian found it easier to breathe, and exhaustion finally caught up with her. She shook her head weakly.
Shen Wei said, “Then I’ll get the doctor to come stay with you for a while. Rest here for a bit. Once you feel better, you can go back, okay?”
Li Qian nodded.
He began to leave, but after two steps, a thought struck him. He turned back. “Do you have any money on you? If not, how about I leave some with you for now?”
It was clear he meant well. With great difficulty, Li Qian mustered a smile. “Thank you, but there’s really no need.”
Shen Wei sighed, as if there was something on his mind. Eventually he said, “Some lies are told deliberately, Tongxue, while some are not. The former serve to deceive others, while the latter deceive oneself. Either way, it’s very sad.”
The words were general enough, but Li Qian froze. Shen Wei dropped his gaze. “Never mind. I wish you well.”
Having said that, he acquired a small bottle of ointment from the pharmacy next door, then hurried outside.
Zhao Yunlan was still in the hallway, in the middle of a call.
“I looked into it. This time it’s the other side’s problem, not ours.” It was a woman’s voice on the line—but not Wang Zheng’s. This woman spoke in a sibilant way, dragging out her final syllables in a faint hiss. It gave her voice a flirtatious note. “Last night, as soon as the Gates of the Netherworld opened, a dozen registered Netherworld souls went missing. Most of them were newly dead, not even seven days postmortem. One, they still yearned for the mortal world, and two, they didn’t understand the rules. But it’s fine—they can’t cause too much trouble. What is a real problem is that a Hunger Ghost apparently also escaped in the chaos.”
“I’m sorry, a what escaped?” Zhao Yunlan thought he’d misheard.
“A Hunger Ghost.”
“How could they let a Hunger Ghost loose in the Mortal Realm? Are they trying to lose their jobs?” If fury could burn, Zhao Yunlan would be a fire hazard.
“The Netherworld’s current government really isn’t up to the job. The other side’s always been like that. They’ll show up if they think it’ll benefit them, but they’ll vanish into thin air at the first sign of trouble. It’s not like any of this is news to you.” The woman paused. “One more thing—we got a message from him. I think he’s probably going to stop by personally, but I don’t dare open it to be sure. Hurry and come back.”
“Why would he be coming?” Zhao Yunlan’s brow creased. “Okay, got it. Meanwhile, I have a few tasks for you. First, the murder happened right across from University Street, and there’s a security camera at that intersection. Maybe it caught something, so get that footage. Second, look into Li Qian, a first-year grad student at DCU. She’s studying Foreign Languages. And third, see if the other side can tell us about an old sundial made of black stone with fish scales carved into it. Find out what exactly that is.”
Glimpsing Shen Wei’s approach from the corner of his eye, Zhao Yunlan lowered his voice. “That’s all for now. I have to go, so I’ll talk to you later. Keep me posted on any developments.”
In the blink of an eye, Zhao Yunlan banished the irritation from his face as he turned, an old pervert magically transforming into a young bohemian. Gently and with great courtesy, he said, “Ah no, Shen-laoshi, you’re much too polite. No need to walk me out.”