“Thank you for coming, Ms. Lee.” The next morning, at a local chapter of the South-Eastern District community collective, Bulu Wang poured Gloria a cup of tea: “Hope I haven’t disturbed your day too much. This should be relatively quick, just a few more questions regarding what happened at the Fuman Coffin Home.”
“Um, yeah, sure.” Gloria was nervous, for she was called here without any prior communication. “I - I do have some shifts at the coffee shop this afternoon, so I’d appreciate it if we can be quick.”
“I understand. ” 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 nodded then 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 documents they presented as placement orders and death certificates, they had green bean cakes, paper coins 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, next question: when the incense sticks showed an abnormal burn, you locked down the coffin home and locked yourself and Sue Xue, the mortuary makeup artist in the back room and stood guard there right?”
“Yes, according to the notes of the watcher.”
“Thank you. Now, you also mentioned that you went out of the back room after observing the situation outside from behind the door, right?” Bulu Wang looked up from his notes and right at Gloria.
“Ye - yes.” Gloria was slightly surprised this question got brought 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 Wang kept staring at Gloria’s eyes, his facial expressions were stern and serious, enough for Gloria to feel the temperature in the room drop.
“Yes. That is true.” Gloria took a deep breath and began to think more about wording 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 can you describe to me again what you saw that prompted you to go in there? ” Bulu Wang nodded and asked: “It was - quite unsafe, and against the instructions in the notes, I presume.”
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“Yes. But I felt compelled to. And I moved the ritual candles 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 sucking something from the other coffins. It’s - some kind of energy, or streams of smoke, like from incense sticks. I felt that he was somehow feeding off the energy drained from the other bodies, and thus becoming more and more dangerous. So I decided that I had to act, not just to prevent him from becoming 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 last few questions: are you a practitioner of any mystic martial arts?”
Gloria felt her body tensed up, some thoughts flashed through her head, then eventually 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 lines, then clicked his ball-point pen and retracted the writing tip: “That would be all for now. I on behalf of the community 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 name tag 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 place she took over from Luoshan Zi, the owner of the coffee shop. It was actually a place where she used to come and hide when she was younger, and over the years it became a place where she would come to hide things, and sometimes to spend the night. Its rent was not that expensive, yet it was the reason that she needed the babysitting side job. And this time her intention of coming here was to stash an additional copy of the notes she gathered after reading through some of the records she borrowed from the community archives with Sue. If she had the chance, she would actually find a place to photocopy some of the more informational records. Too bad not many places would dare do that out of fear of scrutiny from the community collective.
Sue was still staying in her place, worried and scared but much better than before - at least, she was relaxed enough to stay alone while Gloria was busy. This was the reason Gloria had the chance to go out today.
Time was getting a little late, she still needed to go for a shift at the coffee shop. And then she would need to 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 late.” 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 working in the shop, instead of Gabby Virs the temp worker, who was assigned the shift. “Luoshan, why are you here?”
“Gabby called in sick today. So I had to come 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 exciting, but can’t complain either.” Luoshan Zi shrugged: “I’ve heard business is getting better, but things have become a little more expensive as well, so, eh - ”
“So, nothing much?” Gloria laughed out loud, when a young couple wearing matching outfits: beanies, sweaters, backpacks and jeans came in: “Hello, welcome, what can I do for you?”
“We want your signature coffee, but use almond milk instead of fresh milk, can you do that?” The girl asked, after adjusting her thick framed glasses.
“Yes we can. But it will be a bit less foamy.” Gloria nodded.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” The boy waved his hand: “Two of your signature coffee please, and make them hot.”
“Okay, coming right up.” Gloria nodded, then typed up the charges on her computer and called out to Luoshan Zi: “Two hot signature coffee! Almond milk instead of milk!”
“On it!” Luoshan Zi responded, then started with the ingredients.
“Hey, just out of curiosity.” The boy asked Gloria, holding out a printed poster: “We saw this poster regarding the Food Festival recently, do they have a time and place yet?”
“Umm, sorry, but I don’t think so.” Luoshan Zi brought two empty paper cups to the front desk: “They are still deciding when, but it shouldn’t be too long. Probably just in one or two weeks. The place I’ll say they’d probably pick the docks though. It’s always there.”
“Alright, thanks.” The girl smiled.