“Thank you for ing, Ms. Lee.” The m, at a local chapter of the South-Eastern Distriunity collective, Bulu loria a cup of tea: “Hope I haven’t disturbed your day too much. This should be retively quick, just a few more questiarding what happe the Fuman Coffin Home.”

  “Um, yeah, sure.” Gloria was nervous, for she was called here without any prior unication. “I - I do have some shifts at the coffee shop this afternoon, so I’d appreciate it if we be quick.”

  “I uand. ” Bulu Wang nodded: “And don’t worry, it’s just a few quick questions, wouldn’t even take one hour if everything goes smoothly.”

  “Okay. ” Gloria let out a quick exhale: “Let’s begin then.”

  “Let’s begin.” Bulu Wang hen started going through his notes: “Now, correct me if I’m wrong, you told us that the new body was brought over by an old woman with two younger men, is that correct?”

  “Yes, correct.”

  “Aside from the dots they presented as pt orders ah certificates, they had green bean cakes, paper s and everything, correct?”

  “Correct.” Gloria nodded, but then quickly realized something: “Wait, ‘presented as’? I thought the death certificate was real?”

  “Don’t worry about it. ” Bulu Wang shook his head, still looking at his notes: “There’s some unknown factors in this case, we are not assuming anything. Now, question: when the inse sticks showed an abnormal burn, you locked down the coffin home and locked yourself and Sue Xue, the mortuary makeup artist in the ba and stood guard there right?”

  “Yes, acc to the notes of the watcher.”

  “Thank you. Now, you also mentiohat you went out of the ba after the situation outside from behind the doht?” Bulu Wang looked up from his notes and right at Gloria.

  “Ye - yes.” Gloria was slightly surprised this question ght up again: “That is because I saw - you know, I told you back at the coffin home.”

  “The spirit of the man, now known to the collective as Mr. Jiayu He, somehow angry and malicious?” Bulu Wa staring at Gloria’s eyes, his facial expressions were stern and serious, enough floria to feel the temperature in the room drop.

  “Yes. That is true.” Gloria took a deep breath and began to think more about w her answers: “He first knocked on the door, asking who was in the room and said that he wanted in. We didn’t answer, so he wandered off to the middle of the main room.”

  “And you describe to me again what you sarompted you to go in there? ” Bulu Wang nodded and asked: “It was - quite unsafe, and against the instrus ies, I presume.”

  “Yes. But I felt pelled to. And I moved the ritual dles to the side of the door, which should serve as a barrier to prevent the smell of live humans from leaking out of the room and keep Sue safe.” Gloria sat straight and answered: “I saw him - he stood in the middle of the room, with his arms in the air, seemingly sug something from the other coffins. It’s - some kind of energy, or streams of smoke, like from inse sticks. I felt that he was somehow feeding off the energy drained from the other bodies, and thus being more and more dangerous. So I decided that I had to aot just to prevent him from being more dangerous, but also to prevent him from desecrating the others.”

  “Good answer.” Bulu Wang smiled as he wrote some notes down: “Okay, thank you, just the st few questions: are you a practitioner of any mystic martial arts?”

  Gloria felt her body tensed up, some thoughts fshed through her head, theually she came to the answer: “No. I - I’m just - a bit gifted in dealing with the paranormal. That is all.”

  “Hmm, okay.” Bulu Wang added a few more lihen clicked his ball-point pen aracted the writing tip: “That would be all for now. I on behalf of the unity collective thank you for your cooperation. We would let you and Sifu Kuo know if we have any updates.”

  After this meeting, Gloria immediately rushed to a building in a small alley near a street with a lot of street vendors, some of whom were selling homemade decorations, small handicrafts and some were selling cooked food and snacks.

  Pulling out two small keys, Gloria opened a metal door on the first floor with no number or ag on it. It was a small room with a single bed inside, along with a small table, a wooden shelf with some boxes on it.

  This was a small pce she took over from Luoshan Zi, the owner of the coffee shop. It was actually a pce where she used to e and hide when she was younger, and over the years it became a pce where she would e to hide things, and sometimes to spend the night. Its rent was not that expensive, yet it was the reason that she he babysitting side job. And this time her iion of ing here was to stash an additional copy of the notes she gathered after reading through some of the records she borrowed from the unity archives with Sue. If she had the ce, she would actually find a pce to photocopy some of the more informational records. Too bad not many pces would dare do that out of fear of scrutiny from the unity collective.

  Sue was still staying in her pce, worried and scared but much better than before - at least, she was rexed enough to stay alone while Gloria was busy. This was the reason Gloria had the ce to go out today.

  Time was getting a little te, she still o go for a shift at the coffee shop. And then she would o head to the Fragrant Chrysanthemum Temple - she called Gyuu Park earlier, because with Tae Kuo not being able to help her too much regarding the omens, he would be the only one she could turn to for help and answers, at least for now.

  “Hey, sorry I’m te.” Gloria rushed through the back door of the coffee shop, and was surprised to see Luoshan Zi, a tall and slender woman only a few years older than her w in the shop, instead of Gabby Virs the temp worker, who was assighe shift. “Luoshan, why are you here?”

  “Gabby called in sick today. So I had to e over here.” Luoshan shook her head: “And I know you have a single shift today, and at a busy time, so I figured you could use a hand.”

  “Well - of course, yeah.” Gloria chuckled: “How’s everything? ”

  “Meh, nothing too exg, but ’t piher.” Luoshan Zi shrugged: “I’ve heard business is gettier, but things have bee a little more expensive as well, so, eh - ”

  “So, nothing much?” Gloria ughed out loud, when a young couple wearing matg outfits: beanies, sweaters, backpacks and jeans came in: “Hello, wele, what I do for you?”

  “We want ynature coffee, but use almond milk instead of fresh milk, you do that?” The girl asked, after adjustihick framed gsses.

  “Yes we . But it will be a bit less foamy.” Gloria nodded.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay.” The boy waved his hand: “Two of ynature coffee please, and make them hot.”

  “Okay, ing right up.” Gloria hen typed up the charges on her puter and called out to Luoshan Zi: “Two hot signature coffee! Almond milk instead of milk!”

  “On it!” Luoshan Zi respohen started with the ingredients.

  “Hey, just out of curiosity.” The boy asked Gloria, holding out a printed poster: “We saw this parding the Food Festival retly, do they have a time and pce yet?”

  “Umm, sorry, but I don’t think so.” Luoshan Zi brought two empty paper cups to the front desk: “They are still deg when, but it shouldn’t be too long. Probably just in one or two weeks. The pce I’ll say they’d probably pick the docks though. It’s always there.”

  “Alright, thanks.” The girl smiled.