Chapter 3
DRAGON CITY UNIVERSITY’S original campus had been built during the Chinese Republican era, and it bore the weight of a century of history. There were ancient trees everywhere you looked, creating a canopy that practically blotted out the sky. The architecture of the school buildings hidden within dated back to the days of European Concession; they seemed incredibly old and somehow desolate. Only the administrative office buildings near the west entrance had been built in recent years. They were tall enough to stand out among the older buildings—a sore thumb that ruined the ambiance of the campus.
As soon as they entered this brand-new admin building, Zhao Yunlan’s eyelid twitched reflexively. The building had eighteen floors.6
There had been a time when some real estate developers avoided the number eighteen when numbering floors for residential buildings. But as housing prices skyrocketed and the market boomed, no one could afford to care about that kind of superstition anymore.
A cold, eerie draft came from up ahead. It might have just been the air conditioning. From his place on Zhao Yunlan’s shoulder, Daqing shivered, sharp claws unsheathed and hooked firmly into Zhao Yunlan’s shirt.
Once on the elevator, Shen Wei said, “That student’s ID said she was in the math department. Their faculty office is on the top floor.” He pressed the button for the eighteenth floor.
Out of nowhere, Zhao Yunlan asked, “Shen-laoshi, are you not curious about what happened? Most people have a few questions when they stumble into something like this.”
Shen Wei lowered his head slightly. “It’s the victim who’s important here,” he murmured. “I’m just doing what I can to help you investigate. As for the rest of it, what matters is that you know about it. Whether I know or not isn’t important.”
Zhao Yunlan touched the cat’s back, absentmindedly stroking the black fur. “Not many citizens are so willing to cooperate with our work these days. Our Daqing never gets close to strangers, but he took a real shine to you.”
Shen Wei smiled. He spoke sparingly, as if every word were as precious as gold. “Anyone would do the same.”
Just then, as the elevator reached the fourth floor,7 it suddenly shook and jolted to a halt. The overhead lights flickered twice, perhaps due to faulty wiring. Panicked, Guo Changcheng looked up at Zhao Yunlan, but the man seemed oblivious; he didn’t even blink, just continued to study Shen Wei, deep in thought.
A man’s voice came faintly from the intercom. “Shen-laoshi, what takes you to the eighteenth floor?”
Shen Wei’s expression remained unchanged. “There’s been an accident involving a girl from the math department. These two are police. I’m taking them up to the math department to gain a better understanding of the situation.”
“Oh.” The person speaking seemed slow to react. There was a pause before they continued, voice weak and sluggish. “Okay. Please be careful.”
He’d just finished speaking when everything returned to normal. The lights steadied, and the halted elevator continued upward with a creak, as if nothing at all had happened.
“Scared?” Shen Wei turned around, still only looking at Guo Changcheng while surreptitiously avoiding Zhao Yunlan. “That was probably the building security guard. Last semester, a student died by suicide, jumping from the roof. Since then, if anyone not from the math department wants to go to the top floor, the security guard stops the elevator and asks a few questions to keep such a thing from happening again.”
Guo Changcheng released the breath he was holding, looking faintly nauseated; Zhao Yunlan, however, gave the intercom a considering glance.
The elevator reached its destination, shaking the whole way. The eighteenth floor was desolate, with not even a mosquito or gecko present to provide a spark of life.
Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help but sneeze a few times.
Shen Wei immediately stopped. “Officer Zhao, do you have a cold?”
There was a kind of gentlemanly righteousness to the way Shen Wei lowered his head. Just looking at him was so pleasant that it was nearly impossible to suspect him of anything.
Rubbing his nose, Zhao Yunlan said, “No, no. It’s just that I took one step into this hall and smelled the miserable scent of math homework. Allergies, you know?”
Shen Wei’s eyes crinkled politely at the joke.
“Don’t laugh,” Zhao Yunlan said seriously. “Not that I’m afraid of you laughing. When I was a student, teachers were my mortal enemies. One homeroom teacher confidently predicted that I’d grow up to be a little thug. No one ever would’ve imagined that I’d become a cop. But when I ran into him at a school anniversary and wanted to show off a little, guess what he said?”
“What?” Shen Wei was looking down, watching where he was going, but somehow his side profile gave the strong impression he was listening attentively.
Zhao Yunlan quipped, “That old cynic said, ‘You think I was wrong, Zhao-tongxue? Look at you now—a typical thug in a uniform.”
Zhao Yunlan was used to dealing with all manner of people. He was chatty and articulate, with a silver tongue, and now he quickly dispelled the awkward atmosphere. As the trio walked on, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei continued chatting, still subtly probing each other for information. The echoes of their steps rang off the walls. But hidden beneath the sound of their voices and casual laughter was another noise: the footsteps of a fourth person.
Quiet steps dragged along the floor, rustling like the soft fabric shoes of an elderly person.
The administrative building was constructed in a tower style. As with most such structures, an elevator stood at its center, encircled by the floors’ hallways.
Guo Changcheng couldn’t help noticing that Zhao Yunlan’s watch was silently changing in a peculiar way. Color was spreading from its center, where the hour and minute hands met: a smudge of crimson, darker than vermilion but lighter than ruby, expanded across the watch’s face like ripples on water. This metamorphosis made Zhao Yunlan’s watch seem like an expensive piece of art. The metal straps buckled around his slim, pale wrist gave a strangely uncanny impression of luxury.
Guo Changcheng hesitated. In a small voice, he said, “Director… Director Zhao, your watch…”
“What? Is it turning red?” Zhao Yunlan, who was walking ahead, turned back with his signature smirk. “Know why?”
Guo Changcheng shook his head in total honesty.
Still smiling, Zhao Yunlan said, “Violent ghosts like to wear red. This building’s feng shui isn’t very good. Something filthy could be hiding just about anywhere. Maybe that’s what’s being reflected.”
Guo Changcheng paled as he glanced reflexively at Zhao Yunlan’s watch. This time, the glass showed him a person: an old woman of average build, maybe a bit plump, dressed entirely in black…and looking expressionlessly back at him!
Guo Changcheng’s footsteps stopped abruptly.
But Zhao Yunlan only laughed, as if he hadn’t noticed a thing. He twisted a small knob on the side of his watch, and a cloud of mist erupted within, washing the redness away in a heartbeat. When he looked again, he saw a clean men’s watch of very ordinary design. Its display showed no trace of either creepy red or reflected female ghosts.
“Haven’t you seen those balls under computer mouses that can change color? Same principle. This silly kid—you can tell him anything and he’ll buy it.” Zhao Yunlan abruptly stopped teasing and turned to Shen Wei. “Shen-laoshi is an intellectual who believes in atheism. I’m sure you don’t believe in ghosts, do you?”
“As the old saying goes, ‘Even the most esteemed of scholars does not speak outside the bounds of his knowledge,’” Shen Wei said. “No one can say for certain whether or not ghosts actually exist. Personally, I think that if they exist, then they exist; if they don’t, they don’t. There’s no need to investigate too deeply. ‘Ask not of the people, but of ghosts and gods’ was only done by incompetent rulers in ancient times. If people can’t even figure out their own problems, isn’t it an absurd waste of time to wonder whether ghosts and gods exist?”
He spoke in a very scholarly manner, but his answers danced smoothly around the question. Seeing no use in probing further, Zhao Yunlan smiled and moved on as if nothing had happened. “Shen-laoshi, you teach the humanities?”
“Mm. I teach language classes, as well as a few humanities electives.”
“Ah, that explains it. You know, I heard from a friend in real estate that residential buildings are rarely built like this anymore. Nowadays, it’s usually only commercial office buildings over a hundred meters tall that are built in this tower style. Apart from how hard they are to clean, they don’t have open space to allow for natural lighting, so they aren’t too comfortable to live in. I think that’s the meaning of ‘bad feng shui.’”
Zhao Yunlan took his pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket and shook it. “Oh, right—is smoking allowed here? Do you mind?”
Shen Wei shook his head. Zhao Yunlan flicked the pack with one hand, his other hand in his pocket, and fished a cigarette out with his lips. Eyes slightly downcast, he lit it. A few seconds later, he exhaled a cloud of white smoke with the casual air of an experienced smoker.