I leaned closer to the vanity and carefully looked through all the photos.
The chick Guo Yujie had pointed out was a palm-sized plush toy, probably some kind of keychain.
In the photos, the chick appeared on Elena's backpack and shoulder bag. She had even attached it to a hair tie. It seemed to be a toy she really liked.
In one photo, the chick was hanging from Elena's father's key ring. The father and daughter were holding it as they took a big-headed photo that was both silly and cute.
I looked toward the desk on the other side of the room. The backpack was on it, but there was no chick. Several bags hung on the coat rack beside it, and none of them had the chick either.
"Maybe her dad took it with him." Guo Yujie walked over to the vanity, stroked the photo of the father and daughter, and took it down. A date was written on the back. It was the day before her father left. Guo Yujie showed us the date, which seemed to confirm her guess.
I thought of Guo Yujie's father.
I'd only met him once, back when that female spirit had come to Guo Yujie's house and cut off her contact with us. I'd made a special trip to see her then.
At university, though, I'd heard about her father several times. Whenever he came up, it was because she'd lost control of her strength and hurt someone, forcing the school to call her parents in for a talk. The people she'd injured had all been cases of her coming to someone's aid or acting in self-defense. It was just a formality, but the necessary statements and other procedures still had to be completed. University students were adults, but since these