Chapter 2
THIS WAS A SIDE DOOR on Dragon City University’s perimeter wall.
Dragon City University was a renowned institution with a long history. Like many other schools, DCU had relocated its main campus to the city’s outskirts. Within the city proper, where land was worth more than gold, only a fraction of the administration offices and a few graduate departments remained on the old campus. As a result, the few students there were outnumbered by tourists.
Zhao Yunlan had been standing at the entrance to a dorm building holding the black cat for half an hour when Guo Changcheng finally arrived. That was when Zhao Yunlan began to realize that the intern he had so hastily greeted the night before was a useless embarrassment. Guo Changcheng shrank into himself when he walked, shoulders hunched; his head was always down as if he was ashamed, and his hair nearly covered his eyes. All of this, along with his funereal, all-black attire, made him seem lethargic. He resembled nothing so much as a mushroom swaying in the breeze.
Narrowing his eyes, Zhao Yunlan whispered to the cat in his arms, “What do you think Wang Zheng said to him? You’d think he’d been forced into a life of crime.”
The black cat yawned lazily. “Mama Zhao, you’re exaggerating.”
Guo Changcheng shuffled up to them, for all the world as if he’d been kidnapped and dragged into the mountains to be a bandit’s bride. On the verge of tears, he mumbled, “…told me to meet you at the crime scene.”
Very deliberately, Zhao Yunlan asked, “Sorry, who did you say sent you? Can you speak up, or do we need to get you a microphone?”
Guo Changcheng shuddered violently. “W-W-Wang, Wang—”4
“Meow,” Daqing put in.
Disappointment darkened Zhao Yunlan’s mood. The previous night he’d brushed past Guo Changcheng without registering that his new employee could barely string a sentence together.
He went through the motions in a tone that didn’t quite sound sincere. “You already know what we saw at the crime scene, right? This is the dorm the victim lived in. Come with me and we’ll take a look.”
He turned and entered the dorm as he spoke but didn’t hear anyone coming in behind him. Looking back, he saw that Guo Changcheng’s eyes had locked on to the fierce-looking auntie who oversaw the dorm; fear had struck Guo Changcheng silent and rooted him in place. Zhao Yunlan could only rein in his temper and gesture patiently, as if calling to a dog. “Why are you standing at the door like an idiot? I already spoke to her. You don’t need to announce yourself. Just come in.”
It would’ve been better if he’d kept his mouth shut. As soon as Guo Changcheng heard, he reflexively straightened up and announced himself, “I-I’m here!” Then, realizing he’d made a fool of himself, he went completely stiff; he became a blushing plank in the entryway.
This time, Zhao Yunlan bit his tongue. His first impression of the intern could best be summed up as “What a dumbass.”
Inside the girls’ dorm, room 202 was a standard double. The black cat jumped down from Zhao Yunlan’s arms and carefully inspected under the bed and cabinet, then leaped to the windowsill, where he lowered his head and sniffed. Suddenly, he turned his head and sneezed heavily.
Guo Changcheng had suffered a great scare the night before, but now, after some observation, he had confirmed that his attractive boss did in fact throw a shadow in daylight. Mustering up the courage to study Zhao Yunlan more closely, he concluded that, although the overnight shift had done a number on Zhao Yunlan’s appearance, he might be genuinely human. Thus reassured, he finally relaxed a little and stuck close to his boss’s heels, like a little tail.
Zhao Yunlan reached into the box of cigarettes in his pocket and took one with the ease of long practice. Putting it between his lips, he lit it, then went to the window and patted the cat’s backside in a signal to move over. Bending toward the windowsill, he squinted and exhaled a puff of smoke.
The smoke’s smell wasn’t pungent. It held a note of mint and a refreshing herbal scent, and combined with his subtle cologne, it had a relaxing effect. It took a special kind of talent to be so ragged and yet so provocative.
“Look,” he said. Guo Changcheng obediently looked down. A shudder racked him at the sight of a print on what had been an unmarked windowsill—the handprint of a human skeleton.
Zhao Yunlan leaned closer and sniffed it calmly. “There isn’t any stench. Only an old, experienced cat would be able to smell it.”
The black cat’s mouth opened. “So it wasn’t this?”
Suddenly hearing the cat speak, Guo Changcheng whipped his head around hard enough that his neck cracked.
Zhao Yunlan shook his head within the smoke, looking pensive. Disregarding Guo Changcheng entirely, he turned to the cat and said, “I’m afraid not. Things that can kill don’t smell like this.”
As he pushed the window open, his gaze inadvertently fell on Guo Changcheng, who was so pale that he seemed like he might drift away. It was clear that his entire view of the world had been toppled and his nerves were tying themselves in a bow. Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help wanting to mess with him. “Okay, kid, get up there and see what’s outside the window.”
“Um…” Guo Changcheng replied.
“What do you mean, ‘um’? Smarten up, young man! Hurry!”
Guo Changcheng swallowed hard. He stuck his head out and realized just how high up the second floor was, and his knees went weak. But the thought of turning to Zhao Yunlan and saying “I’m too scared” was clearly even further beyond his courage and communication ability.
Ultimately, the poor child was caught between a rock and a hard place. His boss was more frightening, so he could only climb onto the balcony window, slow as a snail. There he crouched, too afraid to stand up, clutching the lattice as if his life depended on it. Immobilized by fear, he found he could only move his neck. He turned his head with great effort, trembling as he surveyed his surroundings.
Just then, far too clearly, he saw a reflection in the window. Instantly, every hair on his body stood on end. Terrified and panicked, he realized that the glass wasn’t only reflecting him!
Impossibly, a skeleton lay where he was crouched. The bones of its hand went straight through his ankle, lined up exactly with the handprint on the windowsill, and it was peering into the room.
Guo Changcheng quickly looked down, but there was nothing there!
For a time, he couldn’t tell whether his vision or the window was lying to him. His chest went cold. Even his breathing trembled. Then the skeleton turned, meeting his gaze in the glass…and in the skull’s empty eye sockets, Guo Changcheng saw what seemed to be a person.
The person’s head and body were covered by a cloak and wholly shrouded in black mist, and there was something in their hand…