Strange Investigations Team

In a hospital room filled with the scent of disinfectant, a patient with his entire arm bandaged up was lying on a bed. His name was Yu Zhen and he was a second year medical student, the only survivor of the medical university’s female ghost case. He told me and Zhenzhen about the terrifying events that led to the present situation. After he spoke a bit, his entire body started to tremble uncontrollably. These events might have been the most terrifying thing he’d ever experienced—

That day, my parents sent over some money, so I said I’d treat Fatty and Four Eyes to some drinks. We ran into two decent looking chicks, and we were going to get them drunk, but who’d have expected them to hold their liquor so well? Not only didn’t we get them drunk, we wasted our time for getting back to the dorm.

The old man in the security room is pretty contemptible. He’d let us inside without saying a word, but the next day he’d report us to the head teacher. We already suffered multiple times because of him during our first year, so this time, we decided to climb over the back wall.

Heading to the dorm from the back wall means we had to pa.s.s through a grove of camphor trees. It’s extremely dark there. We’d heard that there was a female ghost that roamed about there, but that was just a legend, so we didn’t pay much attention to it. Who’d have thought that we’d really meet her.

After we walked into the woods, I felt something wasn’t quite right. It felt colder than usual. At the time, I was thinking that it might have been because we’d drunk too much, so I let it go. I just wanted to get back to the dorm and sleep. But not long after we walked into the woods, we heard the faint sound of a woman singing. It sounded like a nursery rhyme or something. I was terrified and my head went numb. If I were by myself, I’d definitely have just run. Even though it was the first time I heard it, it’s still very clear in my mind.

……

Hiss, hiss, hiss, the white snake immortal
With unlimited powers, a thousand years old
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the chilling wind blows
A fresh, tasty heart into its belly goes
Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze, paying no heed
In the immortal tomb, a hundred years of sleep
Rumble, rumble, rumble, a guest is here
Instead of bringing gifts, they’re ready to sear you

……

The song sounded both near and far. It was faint and secretive. I couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from, but the longer I heard it, the more frightening it was. Fatty was braver, more solid too. So he walked in front. Me and Four Eyes felt a little more at ease, and the three of us ran back to the dorm. But before we could run very far, we saw that female ghost…

At first, we thought it was just someone with a white gown, playing a joke on us. Because the trees in the grove grew thickly, the moon was obscured and we couldn’t see well. We just saw a white figure in front of us. By the time we realized she was a white robed ghost carrying a baby, she’d already charged at us. We cried out in terror and ran as fast as we could.

Fatty was fat, so he ran slower. He was the first to get caught by the female ghost. I heard his tragic screams, calling out for help. I even imagined that he was on the ground, being ripped apart by the female ghost, his heart being pulled out. But I was really just too scared. I didn’t even dare to turn back, and I just kept running through the woods.

Four Eyes was originally in front of me. Maybe he couldn’t see well so he tripped. If I had helped pull him back up then, maybe he wouldn’t have died…

(At this point, Yu Zhen suddenly stopped shaking. Instead, tears poured out from his eyes. Perhaps his cowardly act of leaving behind his friend made him feel guilty. And perhaps this guilt would torture him for the rest of his life.)

As I ran out of the forest, a blood chilling shriek came from behind, and then my arm was grabbed by a blood covered ghost. Although the female ghost’s fingers were long and elegant, she had a death grip on my arm as if her hands were pliers. Her dagger-like nails dug into my skin, and blood gushed out onto my clothes. I was so scared I nearly fainted. Being that close to a female ghost was that kind of terrifying. Even though I only caught a glimpse, I can still remember that horrifying image– A blood red right eye, visible beneath the messy hair covering most of her face. Her lips were raised up, revealing a secretive smile. Her white clothes were stained with bright blood, like roses in the snow, emitting a stifling aura.

I don’t know where my courage came from, but I suddenly tried to kick her foot. Only, my aim was off and I didn’t hit her. Instead, the baby in her arms went flying through the air. That baby was probably only three months old at most. It wasn’t wearing any clothes, its skin white as snow. When it went flying, it didn’t even cry. It was probably dead. But she was very concerned about him and with a scream, she rushed after him. I figured she would let go of me, so I started running out of the woods as fast as I could. When I got out, I kept running until I got back to the school.

That’s when I realized that my shirt sleeve had been torn and my entire arm was covered in blood. I thought the female ghost had only dug into my skin a little, but when I looked more carefully, I saw that all the skin had been pulled off…

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After listening to Yu Zhen’s account, I organized my thoughts and picked out the main points:

First, the female ghost was able to sc.r.a.pe off all the skin on his arm. Aside from proving that her wrist was extremely strong, it also confirmed my previous guess– She used a physical body and wasn’t some mist-like ghost. Which also meant that she was likely a living person, or at the least, something like a zombie.

Second, the ‘baby’ that Yu Zhen sent flying is very possibly the key to this case. Suppose the female ghost was a living person. That would mean she either suffered from a severe mental illness, or she was possessed by the soul of a dead baby. I’m more inclined to believe in the former as the existence of ghosts is difficult to believe.

Something else to note is the nursery rhyme that the female ghost sang. The words were very strange and the meaning wasn’t immediately clear. Perhaps this nursery rhyme didn’t have any special meaning, but I still suspect that it’s somehow related to the case at hand.

After Zhenzhen and I left the patient room, we went to find the resident physician to better understand the student’s ailment. His physician was the vice president of the hospital, so it seemed the hospital placed great importance on his condition. The vice president flipped through his charts and said, “His condition is currently stable. We haven’t found any signs of poison…”

“Poison? Why would he be poisoned?” Zhenzhen asked in confusion.

“Mm…” The vice president hesitated. “Perhaps you should make a trip over to the forensics investigators.”

The Ministry of Public Security Forensics Department, a place I hadn’t set foot in for two years. And prior to that, it was was a place I frequented. As we walked down the hall, I greeted a few old friends, and then I led Zhenzhen into the office. A wretched man in a white lab coat sat in front of the computer, organizing his files. When he saw me, he immediately put down his work and walked over towards me with open arms, wanting to give me a lively hug. “Hi, Old Mu! What wind blew you this way? Are you back in the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB)? Should we celebrate? Take me out for a few drinks!”

I immediately jumped back. “Old Ye, please remember that your field is a disgusting line of work. Don’t cover me with the smell of corpses as well.”

Ignoring my taunt, his eyes landed on Zhenzhen who was standing next to me. He extended his arms to shake hands. “I’m Forensic Investigator Ye Liunian. You must be Ah Mu’s partner!”

Zhenzhen wasn’t a total idiot, and she quickly hid her hands behind her back as she bowed her head forward. “h.e.l.lo, Dr. Ye! I’m Li Zhenzhen. Please take care of me.”

Liunian let out a helpless laugh and snapped at me, “What do you want?”

I pinched my nose and said, “Rubbish. Why else would I need you other than to see a dead body?! Hurry up, I can’t stand your smelly corpse scent.”

“Stinking Mu, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d, cursing me out when you see me. See if I won’t mess you up…” Liunian, this guy. Although he was a bit strange, his IQ wasn’t low. When I mentioned the corpse smell on him, he quickly walked towards me for a hug, and he even pursed his lips for a kiss. Oh G.o.d, seems like I’m going to have to bathe in rice water tonight, or this corpse smell won’t disappear.

Zhenzhen looked at us with disgust. She might have even thought we were gay.

After the jokes, Liunian brought the two of us to the dissection room that reeked of formaldehyde. He pulled over two corpses covered in white sheets, and then said attentively to Zhenzhen, “It’s your first time, right? Make sure to ready yourself!” Then he pulled off a white sheet.

Under the sheet was a thin body, likely the one Yu Zhen called Four Eyes. His fists were clenched tightly and there were several long wounds on his right arm with some dark blood that had oozed out. There were no signs of livor mortis. The muscles on his face were distorted, his complexion was dark, and his lips were black like ink. His eyes protruded slightly, as if he’d died with grievances. It was horrifying to say the least. If you saw that corpse in the middle of the night without any preparation, you might even die of fright.

When Zhenzhen saw the pair of eyes, she frowned. Liunian picked up the report, and with a serious expression, he read out, “The diseased, Luo Weiguang, 20 years old. Right arm shows four scratches consistent with being grabbed. Bite mark on the right side of his neck. No other obvious signs of trauma. Cause of death is suspected to be poisoning.”

“Do you know what the poison was?”

Liunian scratched his head. “I tested it, and it’s an unknown alkaloid substance. The toxicity level was extremely high, several times more toxic than that of a poison dart frog.”

From what I knew, the poison dart frog was the most poisonous animal in the world. Less than 5 cm in length, its poison could kill 20 thousand rats, and they would die almost instantly. If this was more poisonous than a poison dart frog, there was likely only one answer. “It can’t be witch poison?!”

“I wouldn’t be able to tell you that, and I can’t write that on the doc.u.mentation. What I can tell you is that the venom was injected via the neck of the diseased. A conservative estimate would be that the poison killed him within a minute, but more realistically, the process probably only lasted a few seconds. And his brain might have died the very moment the venom was injected.” Even Liunian, who had inspected countless corpses, couldn’t help shivering as he spoke.

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Because of Liunian’s explanation, I was even more convinced that this was likely witch poison. Although I don’t think that the killer was a ghost, if her teeth or saliva contained extremely toxic poison, would she still be considered human? Perhaps I should presume that the killer was a zombie.

“Look at the diseased’s arm.” Liunian pointed at the scratches on the diseased’s arm and they were very strange. There were only four scratches, and the s.p.a.ce between the second and third was significantly larger than than between the others. “The scratches on the other body are the same. Since the scratches appear this way, the killer’s right hand probably didn’t have a middle finger.”

“Was this one poisoned too?” I pointed at the corpse that was still covered up.

“No, but the method of death is even more frightening…” Liunian covered up Four Eyes’ body with the white cloth and then uncovered the other body. Fatty. The skin color of the corpse was normal, and the livor mortis on his chest and abdomen suggested that he’d died lying down. His lips were pale and his eyes were closed. There were multiple scratches on his arms, shoulders, and neck, but no signs of bite marks. Looking over his body, there didn’t appear to be any fatal wounds, so I wondered what Liunian meant when he said ‘more frightening.’

“Doesn’t seem like he was poisoned, and there are no fatal wounds, so what was the cause of death?”

“You’ll know when you see the back. Help me out, I can’t flip him on my own.” Liunian signaled for me to put on a pair of gloves. Although I wasn’t excited about the prospect, I helped him flip over the body. This fatty didn’t just look heavy. He was probably more than 80kg, and the two of us exerted quite a bit of effort to turn him.

When we’d nearly turned the body over, Liunian made it a note to tell Zhenzhen, “Hey Beautiful, make sure you ready yourself!”

“Oh,” Zhenzhen responded, without much heed to Liunian’s warning. And then when we got the body flipped over, with just a glance, she ran over to the garbage can to vomit.

On the back of the corpse, there was a palm sized hole. It was empty and looked like a bottomless pit. The endless depth made a person indescribably afraid.

“The heart is gone?” I couldn’t help frowning.

Liunian picked up the other report and read out loud, “The diseased, Liu Dahai. Thirty six scratches on his body. Cause of death was removal of his heart. The wound on his back is relatively flat. Although it may seem incredible, the killer must have dug it out while he was alive. However… No heart tissue was discovered on the scene.”

“Do you think it was eaten?!” My words caused Zhenzhen to vomit even more intensely.

After parting with Liunian, I jokingly asked Zhenzhen, “You must have vomited all the contents of your stomach. Do you want to eat something first? There’s a shop nearby that’s famous for its spicy duck hearts.”

Zhenzhen’s face contorted in disgust, as if she wanted to vomit again, and then she violently kicked my bottom. “If you dare say it again, I’ll show you what being a mixed martial arts champion means.”

I pat away the footprints on my pants and shrugged. “Alright, let’s go then. We’ll investigate at the medical university…”

Since the boss and the university’s President Lu were friends, we first stopped in to his office, but he happened to just have gone out. Perhaps he was troubled by all the stories about the female ghost holding a baby! If we couldn’t meet the president, then the only thing left to do was check out the crime scene.

The crime scene was a very dark camphor wood. Our colleagues at the CIB had already been by, and all the evidence at the scene was collected already. What couldn’t be taken away would have been recorded. We made a few rounds around the place, but other than the lush camphor trees and dense foliage that blocked out the sun during the day, we didn’t find anything new. Then I had the thought to question some people at the dorm.

 

The camphor wood was right behind the female dorms but quite a ways away from the male dorms. As we exited the woods, I struck up a conversation with a pa.s.sing female student. “Pretty girl, can we talk for a bit? Aiya…”

Zhenzhen kicked me from behind and pushed me to the side. She walked forward and roughly grabbed onto the female student’s shoulders. She showed her ID and called out, “Police! What’s your name?”

The student’s face was covered in panic. “M-my name is Yaxian… Zhao Yaxian. I haven’t committed any crimes. Why are you grabbing me?”

“You don’t need to tell me whether or not you’ve committed a crime! I came to ask you, tell me everything you know about the murder case from the past few days!” Zhenzhen’s att.i.tude was very forceful, likely a habit from her days in the Armed Police. After all, the men and women they dealt with on a daily basis probably weren’t a devout bunch.

“I don’t know anything!” Yaxian looked like she was going to cry.

“Look at you, scaring the poor girl. Let me handle this!” I couldn’t stand watching Zhenzhen’s method of work, so I pushed her hand away from Yaxian. Of course, it was a very ‘gentle’ push because I didn’t want to get kicked again.

Naturally, you treated criminals with more force, but you had to be polite and courteous with civilians. When speaking with a gentle and cute girl, you had to be more tender. “Don’t be afraid, I’m not here to take you away. I just wanted to ask a few things… Ah, there’s some chocolate growing on your head…” I pulled out a piece of chocolate and handed it to her. Her hands were very smooth.

“So you were a magician, haha!” Yaxian’s emotions calmed. I told her a few jokes to get her laughing. Zhenzhen scoffed and slipped off to the side, muttering to herself. She thought I couldn’t hear her, but my ears were long enough to catch her saying, “Tch, just knows how to trick girls.”

After we spoke a bit, I started to question her. “Yaxian, can you tell me if anything else out of the ordinary happened the night of the murder?”

“I don’t know if this counts…” Yaxian hesitated before telling me about a strange occurrence at the female dorms that night—

Room 106 on the first floor of the female dorms had been vacant for a long time. It was said that a girl had died in there and that it was haunted, so no one dared to live in that room.

When I first got to the school, I heard about it, but since I hadn’t seen anything with my own eyes so I was a bit skeptical. After I moved into room 105 across the hall, I often heard footsteps in the corridor in the middle of the night.

In the beginning, I used to think that someone was just using the restroom, but after I kept hearing it, it didn’t seem quite normal. The restroom is located at the head of the corridor, but the footsteps always started at the main entrance and then disappeared when they got to room 106. Then, from room 106, they would head back to the entrance.

I was chatting with one of my seniors and then this topic came up. She told me that there used to be a girl who lived in room 108. Once, she wanted to go to the restroom in the middle of the night. When she opened the door, she heard the sound of footsteps, so she popped her head out the door to take a look. Who would have guessed that what she saw was a female ghost with white clothes and disheveled hair, carrying a bag of things from the main entrance. She was so scared she nearly wet her pants. She immediately closed her door and got back into bed. The next day she moved out of the dorms to an apartment off campus.

“Did you hear it on the day of the murders as well?” I asked after listening to Yaxian’s account.

Yaxian nodded. “Mm, usually, I can hear it every night. My bed is against the wall by the door so I can hear it very carefully. I just never had the guts to open the door and take a look. Actually, everyone in the dorm knows about it. No one on the first floor ever dares to use the restroom in the middle of the night.

“Can you take me to see your residence supervisor?”

“Of course I can take you, but the supervisor’s pretty strict. You’ll have to be careful!” Yaxian grabbed my arm affectionately and led us to the female dorm. She told me that the supervisor was a Ms. Yu, and she told me about how she always gave the girls a hard time. Zhenzhen followed behind us in a bad mood.

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Yaxian didn’t dare to provoke Supervisor Yu, so after she brought us to the front, she left. Inside was a 50 year old woman sitting there, dozing off. I called to her and woke her up. After explaining our purpose for coming, I asked to be taken to room 106 to investigate.

“That’s a storage room, and it’s been locked for a long time. No one goes in or out of it. What’s there to investigate about it? But if you want to see, follow me.” Supervisor Yu was obviously unhappy about being woken from her slumber, an angry look on her face as she led them to the room.

Although Supervisor Yu said that room 106 had been locked a long time ago, she didn’t have a hard time opening the door at all. The door was unlocked in an instant. Just as she’d said, the room was being used as a storage room. Other than being filled with boxes of junk, there was nothing particular about the room. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that although the floors were a bit dirty, there wasn’t much dust. The boxes of things, however, were very clearly covered in a layer of dust.

Zhenzhen opened up a few boxes and found that they were full of old sports equipment. She asked, “Why isn’t this stuff stored in the gym?”

“There’s no s.p.a.ce in the gym, and no one dares to live here anyway.” Maybe because she was used to treating the students fiercely, but Supervisor Yu didn’t look at Zhenzhen pleasantly either.

“Why?” Zhenzhen’s att.i.tude was also pretty poor.

“Why? Because someone died here!” Supervisor Yu answered cynically. “Ten years ago, a female student died here. After that, people said the place was haunted and no one dared to live here. All we could use it for was storage.”

Zhenzhen shivered and looked around. “Is this place really haunted?”

“There are no such things as ghosts. Tons of cowards though. I’ve been the supervisor here for ten years and I haven’t even seen the shadow of a ghost.” Supervisor Yu ridiculed. Zhenzhen’s face reddened in embarra.s.sment. (Note: Though I’ll probably miss a bunch later– wordplay alert; a word for word translation of ‘cowards’ would be ‘cowardly ghosts’)

“Some students say that they hear strange sounds in the middle of the night. Do you know about this?” I asked.

“Don’t believe in their nonsense. After lights out, I check several times before going to sleep. I’ve never heard any strange sounds before.” Supervisor Yu’s tone was very firm, and I suspected that she was an atheist.

There was nothing particular in the room, but the windows caught my attention. I walked over to them and tried to open them, but even after exerting a lot of strength, they wouldn’t budge. The window seemed to have been broken by someone before, with a great amount of force. But could a woman be that strong?

Supervisor Yu glanced over at me. “The window’s been broken a long time. I don’t know how many years it’s been since it was opened.”

It was a sliding window with an aluminum frame. Through the dust and grime-covered window, you could just barely see the the woods where the murders took place. Although the fact that the window faced the woods couldn’t prove anything. If the window could be opened, then this room would be rather suspect.

I stared at the window and lit a cigarette. Supervisor Yu quickly became unhappy with me. “Mr. Police Officer, please don’t smoke here. This is a storage room after all. If a fire starts, who will take responsibility?!”

I shrugged and waved at Zhenzhen. “I’m going out for a smoke.”

Just as I stepped out into the corridor, I saw Yaxian wave at me from room 105. I walked inside and was surrounded by her and her roommates. Actually, I was getting quite the welcome!

After I spoke with Yaxian a bit, we started playing cards. Of course, I also asked if she’d heard any more news. One of the other girls spoke up that Uncle Liu at the guard room would know the most about the case, and she suggested that I have a chat with him.

“You’re playing hooky! Go and die!” While we were playing happily, Zhenzhen charged in unexpectedly and kicked me over. The frightened girls huddled together.

“Who’s playing hooky? I’m working here!” I pulled myself up and cleared off the dust on my clothes.

“Playing cards is working?” Zhenzhen’s big eyes were filled with anger as she gave me a death glare, as if I’d murdered her whole family or something.

“Since you weren’t playing cards, did you find any leads? If not, just stay on the sidelines and don’t interrupt my work. Go, go, go…” In order to keep myself out of harm’s way, I quickly pushed Zhenzhen out of the room and then continued playing cards. Her fists were pretty good, but when it came to words, she was way behind me.

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After about an hour of playing cards, Yaxian and her roommates had to head to cla.s.s, so I parted with them reluctantly. Just as I exited the dorm, Zhenzhen appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto my collar. She asked peculiarly, “You played cards for half the day. Did you find any leads? If not, don’t count on me staying polite!”

I pushed her hand away. “Do you know what it means to run before you can walk? If you want some clues, follow me!”

“We’ll see what kind of game you’re playing,” she huffed as she followed along behind me.

I led Zhenzhen to the guard room at the main entrance of the school. Inside was an old man playing chess by himself. Uncle Liu. After I looked over his chess game, I said, “Cannon, horizontal two to six.”

Uncle Liu lifted his head and looked at me. Then he moved the piece according to my directive and thought for another moment. “Chariot, forward one to three.”

“Horse, forward six to eight.” I sat down in the chair opposite him and started playing chess.

“General, horizontal four to five.”

“Horse, back eight to seven.”

“Cannon, back two to one.”

……

The two of us went back and forth like this for an hour before the game finally ended in a tie. I laughed and said, “Uncle Liu, you’re really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve come across an expert like you.”

Uncle Liu wanted to continue, “Kid, you’re not bad yourself. Want to have another match?”

I checked my watch and then looked over at the impatiently waiting Zhenzhen. I shrugged helplessly, “I’d really like to, but I still have some things to take care of…” I showed him my ID and told him that we were currently investigating the female ghost murder case, but we didn’t have any leads.

“Instead of running around outside, why don’t you just ask me? I’ve been a security guard here for more than thirty years. There’s nothing I don’t know about. Come on then, I’ll tell you about the female ghost as we play another match.” Uncle Liu seemed to be afraid that I wouldn’t agree. He quickly set up the game board and started telling me about the female ghost—

We have to start ten years ago. Back then, there was this girl living in room 106. One night before graduation, she suddenly went mad and killed her roommate. She even pulled out her heart and ate it.

When I went to take a look at the room the day after, the floor was covered in a puddle of blood. It was terrifying. But there was a rather curious thing. That girl died so horrifically, so it stands to reason that she must have screamed loudly. But none of the girls in the neighboring rooms heard any cries for help that night. They didn’t even hear any arguments or sounds of quarreling. At the time, there were also two other girls who lived in that room. They both said they’d gone to sleep early and didn’t know anything. It seemed like the girl who died had willingly let herself get killed.

In order to maintain the school’s reputation, the school board buried this matter. I heard that they’d paid off the dead girl’s parents. And girl who went mad was sent off to a mental inst.i.tution. From then on, no one dared to live in room 106.

About two or three months later, I recall the new semester starting around then, a pair of lovers secretly sneaked out to the camphor woods behind the dorms. After that, no one ever saw them again. At the start, everyone laughed it off and said they’d run off to elope. But a few days later, there was a foul smell in the female dormitory. That’s when they found the lovers’ corpses. Their deaths were terrifying. The boy’s face was black. But it was even worse for the girl. Her heart had been pulled out.

Everyone grew scared and anxious because they never found the murderer. Moreover, it was just like the case with the girl from room 106. The girls’ hearts had been pulled out of their chests. That’s why people started saying that the female ghost’s spirit hadn’t left, that she came out to haunt and attack people.

After that, there were a few more deaths that occurred in the woods. The causes of death were nearly the same. If there was just one person, their heart was pulled out. If there was more than one person, the others faces all turned black. There were two or three that made it out alive, and they all said that the killer was a female ghost holding a baby.

I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence or not, but every time it happened, there was a full moon. As the story got pa.s.sed around, people would add their own details to make it more frightening. After that, the school couldn’t do anything except create a rule that students couldn’t go out to the camphor grove at night. The last time there was a case like this was probably five or six years ago. Most of the new students don’t know about it, and they think that it’s just a legend. Who’d have thought it would happen again…

After more than two hours, the chess game ended with a tie once more.

“Do you know the names of those girls who lived in room 106?” I handed Uncle Liu a cigarette and lit it for him.

“There are at least ten thousand students in this school. How could I remember that. Moreover, it’s been ten years. Mm…” Uncle Liu let out a puff of smoke. “Take a walk around the library. They should have the student files in the archives, but it might be troublesome to find.”

“Then I’ll take a look in the library. When I have time, I’ll come back for a game of chess.” I said my goodbyes and then motioned to Zhenzhen, who was probably growing moss by now, to head out.

Uncle Liu waved us off reluctantly. “Remember to come back when you’re free. I’ll be here every day.”

The sun was going to get off work soon, but we wouldn’t be able to get off work in such a timely fashion. In order to solve the case by our deadline, we couldn’t delay. We quickly headed over to the library.