January 17, 2007, received a call from the client. Call recording 200701171236.mp3.
"Hello, Ms. Fu."
"Hello. Um, I... There's a little patient in the pediatric ward at my hospital who's been drawing lately. He's drawing... those little people."
"Do you mean outlines of people drawn with white lines?"
"Not white. Colored pencils, on paper. I only heard about it from a colleague. The child used to play with the other kids, and his drawings were perfectly ordinary too—sunshine, the moon, clouds, things like that. These past two days, he's started drawing people, the kind you see in comics, simple stick figures. No eyes or nose, no clothes, just the outline of a person. The staff were talking about it and thought the child was acting... strangely... Over the past two days, he's become especially withdrawn and stopped playing with the other kids."
"I see. Do you have a photo of the child? Also, does he tend to talk to himself, as if he were having a conversation with someone?"
"I—I'm not sure. I only heard about it from my colleague today, and it worried me."
"Don't worry. We'll go to Minqing and look into it."
"Okay."
January 18, 2007, visited the pediatric ward at Minqing Seventh People's Hospital. Audio file 04020070118.wav.
"That's the child. Is he..."
"The colleague of yours who died—was he a pediatrician?"
"No, he was in neurosurgery too. But... when he was rotating through departments, he worked in pediatrics as well and got along well with several of the pediatricians. They often spent time together. I do too. Our department has a good relationship with pediatrics."
"Mm, I understand."
"Is there something wrong with him?"
"There's yin energy around him. He must have come into contact with something. Can I talk to him?"
"Sure. His parents aren't