“But - what does this have to do with what we’re dealing with now?” Sue asked.

  “Well - it’s because the people who ran that underground temple, they trolled two big gangs that ran the docks area. In fact, they were one of the biggest, if not THE biggest importer of illegal goods at the time.” Gyuu Park shook his head: “But - I don’t know - I’ve read some of the sealed records, I don’t think it’s ected. They were practig the forbidden arts, yes. But they were very crude and unskilled in their implementation. And that’s one of the reasons they got exposed before they could grow bigger. The neighborhoods around them had bee practically graveyards.”

  “Yes. But you might have also known that, mostly only mid to low level hench freaks were arrested. Most of the leaders of the group were still at rge.” Tae Kuo sighed: “What if they were at it again? What if some people picked up their memo and started - started something?”

  “And the 15 year cycle would - would be a good time to start again?” Sue hen turo Gloria: “If - Gloria, IF, this 15 year cycle thing is true, then we might be dealing with some kind of really - really messy situation here.”

  “Yes.” Glrunted and started scratg her head.

  “I - I’d suggest you go out of the city for a period of time.” Tae Kuo thought for a moment, then said: “You know, I actually know someo there - and I have some family members that could spare a room or two for us for a few weeks. So if we make the arras, you guys e with us - ”

  “Thank you, Sifu.” Gloria shook her head: “But I’m not gonna - I ’t - ”

  “I’m not goiher. But thank you very much, Tae. It means a lot.” Gyuu Park also shook his head: “I - I just have something I want to finish. And I don’t have a lot of time. Maybe when this is all over?”

  “Geez, Gyuu, what’s with the mencholiness?” Gloria could not help but chuckle.

  “Nothing - it’s just - like I said. I am quite close to something. I will go back to che a few old records.” Gyuu Park nodded: “Now - if you’ll excuse me, I should get going. I o head bay temple, before the bureaucratic power hungry dicks e at me and give me another reason tret taking over the temple.”

  “Wait - wait.” Tae Kuo raised his hand and stopped Gyuu Park: “There’s something else. Something I think you’d all be better off knowing.”

  “Okay - okay, what is it?” Sue immediately took out a small notepad.

  “Do you guys know anything about Blue Envelopes?” Tae Kuo asked, with his voitentionally lowered as if he was afraid anyone else would hear him.

  “Uh… no?” Gloria looked at Sue, then Gyuu Park.

  “It’s okay - it’s a categorization of cases by the city. The collective doesn’t use it.” Tae Kuo leaned in: “Whenever a case outside of our district bees too weird, or is showing signs of paranormality, the city will cssify them as Blue Envelope cases, and trade intelligeh the unity collective in order to solve them. And - needless to say, there are quite a few of them iy’s folders and archives. So - if you have es iy, it’d be a good idea to take a look at the Blue Envelopes dating back to that time. In this case, givehing we know - I’d say the cat granny cases would have been categorized as such.”

  Sue and Gyuu Park fixed their eyes on Gloria. Gloria shook her head and sighed after a moment of sideration: “I’ll try - I don’t know if the ‘e’ I have will be able to help with this. But - we’ll see.”

  —-------

  The first thing Gloria did whe home was to start boiling two pots of water so that she could cook the medie for her and Sue. The medie was mostly dried up barks and grass of different sorts. When boiled in water, they gave off a powerful bitter and even slightly pu stench. These were not the same as the “modern” medie only used iher districts, which meant the process was more messy, but would most likely involve less unnecessary chemicals. At least, that was what the care ters told the people in this district.

  When the medie was ready after more than two hours, all Gloria and Sue could drink was dark brown liquid that tasted like bitter, grassy soup. It seemed to have worked though, floria could feel that her body became slightly lighter after finishing the first pot.

  Sue coughed and almost dropped her pot. Her tongue was dark brown just like Gloria’s, and she even had a bit of her medie dripped on her shirt.

  Sue’s rea to the medie was different from Gloria’s but it robably better - she immediately felt sleepy and actually needed Gloria’s help to get into bed.

  Gloria checked her friend’s meridians and made sure there was no ing residual energy. Then just when she was about to go to bed, she heard someone knog at her door.

  It was a wooden box with a printed note on top, left by a delivery man. Judging from the was a highest priority expedited package. It was cheap at all, and would have cost whoever sent this to her a fortune.

  It was a byuu Park, and ihere were a few piles of records, old scriptures and some handwritten notes. Just uhe lid, there was a fresh note, seemingly ripped from a new notebook.

  Gloria took only one look at the note oop, and immediately rushed out of her apartment and started running like hell toward the Fragrant Chrysanthemum Temple.

  “Gloria, please take these records. They tain some answers I have found. Please take care and do what you think is right with them. This knowledge is precious beyond anyone could imagine. So please pass it on…”

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