Close to midnight, Chu Shuzhi and Daqing finally returned, both looking worse for wear. All they’d managed to bring back with them were a few IDs, phones, and keys that had been scattered over the ground. It seemed that whatever they were facing, it only consumed living things. These lifeless belongings remained untouched.
The police station was still as bright as day, and in the meeting room that had been co-opted for relatives of the missing, chaos reigned. Chu Shuzhi held Daqing in one arm, pinching his brow tiredly with the other hand. He waved at Guo Changcheng, beckoned him into a small office, and shut the door.
Guo Changcheng had a bad feeling. Looking from Chu Shuzhi to Daqing, he said, “Chu-ge, where are Director Zhao and the others? Did you find Lin-dage? Zhu Hong-jie went to find you guys. Did you see her? Is there any sign at all of the missing people?”
Chu Shuzhi silently took a small evidence bag from his pocket and handed it over.
Accepting it, Guo Changcheng peered inside and saw only a handful of dust. He froze. “What is…”
“Bone ash.”
The evidence bag hit the floor with a soft splat.
Chu Shuzhi gave a succinct summary of what had happened at the resort, then told Guo Changcheng, “Call headquarters immediately. Tell Wang Zheng to treat these people as disappearances for now. But a death is a death, and we won’t be able to keep the truth under wraps for long. Tell her to think of a reasonable explanation we can give people.”
In utter disbelief, Guo Changcheng asked, “A reasonable…explanation?” Chu Shuzhi seemed to be saying that he wanted Wang Zheng to think of how to cover up the truth.
After a silence, the Corpse King delicately said, “Under normal circumstances, we can only do DNA testing if there are remains to test. It’s not possible with cremated remains, never mind this. There’s not much we can do about it. Even if we gathered every speck of dust in the resort, it’s impossible to tell the families which heap of dust was whose loved one.”
“Then we at least need to have a culprit…”
Chu Shuzhi laughed helplessly. “Guo Changcheng, do you know who the Soul-Executing Emissary is?”
Guo Changcheng thought the Emissary was scary, but he had no real idea about his background. He shook his head.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Chu Shuzhi said. “My thousands of years of cultivation allow me to walk under the sun. All corpses and skeletons bow to my will, so those in the know flatter me with the title ‘Corpse King.’ The next level up for me would be a ba,10 or a ‘Corpse Immortal.’ But even if I attain that level, if it weren’t for Director Zhao, I’d still never dare approach someone like the Soul-Executing Emissary. At the bare minimum, I’d keep a good two kilometers away from him. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Chu Shuzhi paused, then continued, “We’re dealing with someone who can catch the Soul-Executing Emissary off guard. Even if he only managed that by being sneaky, it means his power is at least on par with the Emissary’s. Whoever this is, he’s too powerful. This isn’t something we can handle.”
Guo Changcheng stared at him blankly, unable to accept what he was hearing. “What about their souls? If the victims’ bodies are gone, there should still be souls, right? How could anyone born into this world just…just disappear like that for no reason?”
Daqing jumped from Chu Shuzhi’s arms and sat on the desk. “The souls are still there.” The other two both immediately turned toward him, but the black cat seemed distracted and didn’t elaborate.
After waiting a while, Chu Shuzhi prompted him. “Daqing?”
And then, right before their eyes, the cat’s body began to elongate slowly, his glossy fur melting away. As Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi stared, mouths hanging open, he transformed into a young man whose hair fell all the way to his ankles! He was barefoot, clad in garments from some unknown era; really, it looked as though he’d carelessly wrapped a length of cloth around himself…but none of that seemed important. Most shockingly, black fur had been replaced by pale skin; and while the cat had been tremendously fat, the beautiful youth before them was slim!
“D-Daqing?!” Chu Shuzhi blurted.
The lazy expression that crossed the young man’s face was unmistakably feline. “Mhmm, yes.” He spared Chu Shuzhi a glance. “It’s me, your lord.”
As he spoke, he jumped down from the table, landing without even the faintest sound. Every movement, every step, radiated felinity. Awestruck by the magic that had unfolded before them, Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng both made way for him.
Daqing kept speaking. “I don’t know who sealed away my memories. I still can’t remember much from all those years ago. But when I went up Kunlun Mountain with Zhao Yunlan, the Great Divine Tree awoke something in me. Now I can take human form again. Even though transforming makes me hairless, and thus, hideous, I at least seem to be able to remember some things now.”
Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi, who were both hairless and, apparently, uglier than “hideous,” wore the same peculiar expression.
“The Netherworld officially calls the things we ran into today ‘youchu,’ but more accurately, they’re gui,” Daqing said. “I’m not exactly sure where the gui are from, but I know they’re linked to the demise of Fuxi and Nüwa. You heard Shen Wei. When the gui came into the world, not a single blade of grass survived in the Great Wild. But as far as I know, the gui don’t have souls, so even though they drink blood and gnaw on bones, they don’t eat mortals’ souls because there’s no benefit to it for them. I think what happened here must’ve been too sudden. All those people died before their time, so even though their bodies disappeared, their souls are still souls of the living. Since the Netherworld couldn’t reach them in time, those frightened spirits probably ran off somewhere.”
“Then I’m going to go find them!” Guo Changcheng said.
“Why?” Daqing asked, bewildered. “Losing souls is the Netherworld’s problem, even if they aren’t in the mood to care about that right now.”
It took Guo Changcheng a while to think of what to say. “But… But I promised the families of the people who disappeared that I’d give them an explanation…”
“You won’t be able to,” Daqing said patiently. “Besides, they won’t believe you.”
“So I need to go find the victims’ souls! If a person existed, they can’t just disappear for no reason.” Guo Changcheng was absolutely adamant on this point. “That… That’s not right.”
Chu Shuzhi scoffed. “There are plenty of things that aren’t right. Do you think you can fix them all? How do you even plan on finding these souls?”
No answer occurred to Guo Changcheng for that. He gave it some thought, then looked down, embarrassed. But Chu Shuzhi didn’t keep laughing at him. Instead, he pulled out a little bottle and threw it to him. “Cows’ tears. They’ll help open your third eye so you can see the souls of the living.”
Guo Changcheng looked up in disbelief.
“Go take care of official business first. Call Wang Zheng and tell her to send someone to come help after she gets the official story sorted.” A bit awkwardly, Chu Shuzhi avoided Guo Changcheng’s too-warm gaze. “I need to look for Lin Jing either way, so you might as well come along. If you can find the souls, we take them with us. If you can’t, then forget about it. Just don’t give me any extra trouble.”
“You two go ahead. I need to find Zhao Yunlan,” Daqing said. “He’s on his own, and I’m worried about him.”
He took a few awkward steps as a human, but it didn’t seem to occur to him to use the door. He leaped onto the windowsill, then had a thought. Turning back, he added, “If the kid’s too naive and doesn’t understand, please try to be understanding, Corpse King. Be very careful. We only just got our new office. We haven’t even had a chance to renovate yet.”
With that, he jumped out the window into the darkness, blinking out of view.