I couldn't understand what Ye Qing meant. Ye Qing hadn't intended to explain everything to me.
Perhaps Ye Qing had been making some kind of arrangement behind our backs all along, including behind the backs of the people in Greenleaf.
Ye Qing disappeared in front of me, with no intention of speaking to me again.
I sat in the office for quite a while. Then my phone rang. Mom had called because she'd noticed I was gone that morning. I made up an excuse and brushed her off.
After hanging up, I swiped my finger across the screen and called Wu Ling.
I told Wu Ling about the dream and what Zheng Xiaoxi had said. I also passed along Ye Qing's baffling words.
Wu Ling gave an "Oh," then asked, "Have you seen the latest news?"
I'd only seen the news about the reporter from J Country finding Little Lily. I hadn't seen anything else.
Wu Ling told me what had happened there.
Two or three hours earlier—that is, at the time of my dream—there had been a carbon monoxide poisoning incident in the women's bathhouse. All the women inside had died of suffocation. The police had hastily closed the case. With an accident this serious, the local government, the police, and the bathhouse operators would all have to take responsibility. The film crew had made the headlines again. This time, there was also a report featuring an interview with that Kyoto sorcerer. Things were increasingly taking on a supernatural cast.
"Didn't they try to control the public opinion over there?" I asked.
"Master Yuan Kong belongs to another faction. They advocate making everything public, nurturing new talent, learning magic and incantations to fight ghosts and monsters," Wu Ling said calmly.
I opened my mouth, but couldn't say a word.