“What happened? Did someone just walk by?” Mick was still on the floor examining all the floorboards.

“Looks like I misheard.” Marcus sighed and said: “But just in case, let’s keep the door shut for now.”

“Hey, there’s another.” Mick smacked one of the floorboards and let the board jump out of place so he could lift it up. But there was nothing underneath, just cement covered in dust and cracked wooden debris and saw dust.

“Try checking the mattress?” Marcus went into the bedroom again: “Let’s sweep as quickly as possible.”

As quick as possible they did, they looked at almost all corners of the room, and they found nothing aside from the straw doll from under the loose floorboard.

“You go check in the bathroom, I’ll check this storage room. Be careful.” Marcus looked around in the living room, then made a decision. For some reason he felt that the small storage room on the side of the bedroom might have contained things that were of more danger.

“Yes, sir.” Mick nodded and headed into the bathroom.

The small storage room could be barely called a “room”, it was more like a side cabinet embedded in the wall. Inside of it there were two brooms, one big and one small. Some dried cloth wipes dangling from a thin bar bolted on the side, and an empty wooden drawing frame with nothing inside. On the floor there were a few square and round spots with no dust, which seemed to be the result of objects being placed there for prolonged periods of time. What was strange about them was that they only covered a very small portion of the ground inside the storage room. The square spot was in the middle, and the other round spots were surrounding it in a circular fashion.

Marcus knelt down and measured the sizes of those spots with his hand and fingers so he could have a general idea of what kind of things were put in here. Small altars, with some candle holders around. He had seen something like this before while he was young and living in the South-Eastern District. This kind of setup was commonly used in smaller South-Eastern households as repellents against unclean beings or as bringers of good luck and fortune. He activated his Qi once again and concentrated it on his eyes. Then something unusual was revealed: there were some strange light red and light yellow marks on the floor and on the wall around these spots. They were definitely not the same kind of ominous marks left by “unclean” entities like dark tendrils in the air or dark hand prints. Maybe they were the legitimate “positive energy” radiated from the altar.

“Marcus? Can you come and take a look at this? I am not sure what this is.” Mick’s confused question resounded in the empty apartment.

It was a small round mirror in a eight-trigram wooden frame, hanging on the corner of the ceiling.

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“I don’t understand - what is that? Some kind of supersti - I mean religious decoration?” Mick pointed at the mirror.

“Don’t point.” Marcus immediately pushed Mick’s arm down: “That’s a Bagua Mirror. It’s a - uh, well, a religious artifact many in the South-Eastern District use to neutralize sharp, aggressive auras. From the looks of it, it’s probably installed by the landlord.”

“Could there be something behind it? It’s in the corner, so there could be some room behind it …” Mick shrugged: “That’s the last place I could see right now.”

“Yeah - ” Marcus looked at the mirror and frowned - he could not see any traces of Qi or any other kind of special energy around it. But he just did not feel good about doing anything to it: “Let’s not do that right now - if it’s bolted to the wall, then if we try it could cause some damage. Let’s just go back and get a warrant first.”

“You sure? Looks like I could just find a boost and pull it down.” Mick looked around: “I could just get a small stool or a chain - ”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea - ” Marcus shrugged, “There’s no hidden compartments anywhere else? No small secret stashes?”

“No, I knocked on all of the tiles, no empty spots anywhere.” Mick shook his head: “It’s understandable though. I wouldn’t want to hide anything here, unless I don’t care about moisture ruining what I want to hide.”

The sound of wooden flip flops appeared in the hallway again. Marcus immediately turned to the door. Though he was pretty certain it was properly closed and locked, there was no way he could be certain that the man wandering outside could not go through doors.

“Ouch!” Just this moment, Mick’s painful groan came from behind. Marcus turned back again, and found that Mick was holding his right arm with his left hand, while his right arm seemed to be limp and powerless.

“What happened?” Marcus rushed to Mick’s side.

“I - I just tried to reach for the mirror. ” Droplets of sweat appeared on Mick’s forehead, his face turned slightly pale as he spoke through his teeth: “Something seemed to have poked me - or I tore something in my arm… I don’t know what!”

“Fuck.” Marcus moved to Mick's right side and slowly lifted up his right arm. Mick gasped as he did so, and the entire arm was trembling uncontrollably. Seeing that Mick was under intense pain, he pushed a little bit of his Qi into Mick’s arm, in an attempt to provide him with some relief.

“Oh, god - I think I need to sit down.” Mick’s entire face became more pale and he was sweating and shaking more profusely than before. Before long, his legs gave out. Marcus caught him by his shoulders just in time to prevent him from falling onto the ground. Instead, Mick was able to sit on the edge of the dirty bathtub, taking long deep breaths in an attempt to not pass out.

This was definitely not a delusion of his, with just a tiny trace of Qi in Mick’s arm, Marcus felt that there was some kind of sharp energy inside Mick’s muscles and meridians. It was not moving, but just stayed and laid dormant. Marcus was relieved by the fact that it was calm for now, otherwise he would have no doubt that Mick’s entire arm could sustain serious damage or even be destroyed. But even so, it was still a ticking time bomb. So without a hint of hesitation, he pushed more of his Qi into Mick’s arm, in an attempt to soften, chip away and dissipate the sharp energy lingering.

Marcus’ plan worked - to a certain extent. Before, the energy was like a piece of sharp glass in Mick’s arm. And now, it was like a piece of dull and melting shard of ice. Marcus’ Qi melted the hardest and sharpest exterior, and the life force of Mick himself should be able to gradually handle the rest.

“Ugh - I - ” Mick took a few deep breaths: “I - I feel a bit better now… But - but I still can’t lift my arm.”

“Okay, let’s go back. You might need the help of a medic, or even go to a hospital.” Marcus checked Mick’s entire arm and his wrist just to make sure there was no other presence of dangerous sharp energy he missed. “You okay to walk?”

“Yeah - yeah.” Mick let out a long exhale: “It just - just got better. I don’t know what happened. Did you do something?”

“No, not really.” Marcus shook his head and helped Mick stand up straight: “Let’s go back, okay?”

Before they left, Marcus looked back at the Bagua Mirror one more time. There were no traces of energy on the mirror itself.