That one sentence left me unable to react for a moment.
"Missing? No... How could he be missing?" I stammered.
If the Slender Man had died, that would have made a little more sense. But... missing?
"He left the hotel for work this morning. To be safe, Nangong Yao had linked his phone to its location tracker yesterday. The signal vanished before he left the hotel. We searched the hotel but couldn't find him or his phone. The security cameras didn't catch him either. He just disappeared."
"You didn't find the ghost? You didn't find Qi Bai?" I asked accusingly.
"No." Wu Ling answered calmly. "It's possible Qi Bai wasn't the one who did it."
I froze.
"We were just about to check her parents' home. Her parents died under strange circumstances, but the killer hasn't been found. The police never found them, and we never confirmed that Qi Bai was the one who did it. Are you free today? If you are, it'd be best if you came with us. You've seen Qi Bai's ghost, so you should be able to recognize her yin energy."
I agreed, of course.
I called Chen Xiaoqiu, then told my old supervisor I needed to take the day off.
This time, I was taking the day off along with the Slender Man. I could only say that he'd suddenly fallen ill and I was taking him to the hospital.
It was a terrible excuse, but also the most common reason for calling in sick.
My old supervisor didn't ask any questions. He didn't even offer any concern for the Slender Man, and simply approved my leave.
When I hung up, I felt a strange unease, but didn't dwell on it.
My old supervisor knew people everywhere. It wouldn't be surprising if he knew