"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? You're blocking the road!" Two people got out of a police car and shouted at the crowd as they pushed their way through.
When they saw what was happening in the middle of the crowd, both police officers froze.
The person who had called the police had obviously not said anything about ghosts. Perhaps they had just seen a crowd gathering here and slowly moving forward, and reported it for something like obstructing traffic.
The officers were baffled. The young people were excitedly telling them what they had discovered.
"...It's definitely a crime of passion! Someone jumped into the river and died!"
"What river? There's no river around here!" someone objected, spontaneously joining the discussion.
"Then it must be a swimming pool!"
"A bathtub would work, too!"
The police quickly put a stop to the discussion. They didn't seem to know what to do, and eyed the young people who had spoken first with suspicion.
"Did you do this? Did you set something up?" an older officer asked, reaching out to feel the air above the water stain.
The people around them cried out in alarm.
The officer jumped and quickly pulled his hand back. But his hand had indeed passed over the water stain.
Nothing happened.
He hadn't touched anything, and the water stain hadn't changed.
Li Yu was still carrying the corpse, moving forward mechanically.
The officer frowned and reached down to touch the ground.
The ground was wet. That much was certain.
The officer's actions changed the mood, too. Until then, no one had thought that someone might be behind this—that it wasn't really a haunting. Maybe some people had considered it, but anyone who did wouldn't have stuck around to watch. They would have left long ago.
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