That answer took me by surprise.
The word "starvation" felt so distant to me. Hunger and famine were things I only ever saw in the news.
The kid looked malnourished, but he hadn't been reduced to skin and bones. How could he have starved to death?
"It's true." As if he'd sensed the doubt in our silence, he hurried to insist. But then he hesitated himself. "Maybe I did starve to death..."
He mumbled for a while. "I, I escaped outside and hid in that phone booth... I passed out... Later, later I became a ghost... I was so hungry, maybe that's why... Uh..."
"Where did you escape from? Why did you run?" Wu Ling asked.
The kid thought for a long time again, his eyes darting about. He didn't look shifty so much as unwilling to meet anyone's gaze.
"I just ran away... from Lan Ji..."
"Who's Lan Ji?"
The kid stared blankly at Wu Ling. After a moment, he seemed to come to his senses. "Oh, you don't know... Lan Ji, Lan Ji is the ghost where we're from. She's, she's the Ghost King..." He racked his brains. "It's just, she's in charge of everything there. She, she doesn't like people like me... The others don't like us either... I, I just... just ran away... I don't know... Big Brother, Big Brother told me to escape. Go outside... As for the other Ghost Kings... We were together, then got separated..."
"Start from the beginning and tell us what happened. Take your time," Wu Ling said.
She exchanged a glance with Liu Miao. I saw Liu Miao give her a slight nod. He must have confirmed something. Wu Ling's attitude had changed; she wasn't being so stern anymore.
Luo Mu shifted his body, still keeping his head down, his