The Lighter

Lanlan's tears stopped abruptly. Ma Yibing grew nervous again.

"She disappeared." I glanced at the others in the ward and lowered my voice.

The three who hadn't seen it happen sucked in sharp breaths.

"Qi-ge, when you say she disappeared, do you mean the kind of disappearing I'm thinking of?" Fatty asked.

I nodded firmly.

The doctor came over and examined Lu Mann­ing, then scolded us for fooling around and taking someone with a broken leg outside.

The woman in the same ward tried to explain things to us. She got halfway through before her face turned pale.

I could tell from her expression that she had probably just remembered Lu Manning had undergone surgery and had a metal plate put in her leg. Then she recalled Lu Manning walking out in a kimono and scared herself.

When the doctor saw that the woman had nothing more to say, she continued scolding us. "What did you take her out to do? Why is she in such bad shape?"

"It was our fault. How is she now?" I sidestepped the question.

"She needs to be observed." The doctor wasn't sure, either. "We'll wait until she wakes up, then take an X-ray and see if there's anything wrong with the wound."

We wanted to wait for Lu Manning to wake up, too, and ask her what had happened with the kimono. But who could have known that after waiting all afternoon, she still wouldn't wake up? Her breathing grew faint, and she became weaker and weaker.

Seeing that things weren't looking good, the doctor hurriedly wheeled Lu Manning off for tests and called the school and her family.

Lu Manning's hometown wasn't in People's Celebration City. Her parents had visited after the car accident, but they'd gone back not long ago. That gave us some leeway. Otherwise, her parents would surely have blamed us; even a beating would've been too lenient. Ma Yibing was the most distraught of all.

When the woman in the next bed saw that Lu Manning still hadn't woken up, she left the ward in a panic without even packing her things. We didn't know whether she'd run out of the hospital or gone to make do in another ward.

We were all frantic with worry, but there was nothing we could do.

"We have to find that kimono, right?" Fatty said.

"Where are we supposed to look?" Skinny took out a cigarette, saw the no-smoking sign in the hallway, then crushed it.

"I... I really did burn the clothes. Not a single scrap was left." Lanlan spoke in a daze.

"They really were burned. Someone saw it, and the clothes were definitely gone." Ma Yibing echoed her, staring blankly.

"Let's go look." I spoke up and glanced at everyone. "Either it's at the school, or... we go find Chen Xiaoqiu."

Lanlan jumped to her feet. "My cousin!"

"Ah Rui, go with Ma Yibing to look at the school," I said to Skinny, then turned to Guo Yujie and Lanlan. "You two go check on Chen Xiaoqiu."

"Are we staying here?" Fatty asked.

"Daguang, you stay here and keep an eye on Lu Manning." I let out a long breath. "I'm going to Greenleaf."

"Huh?" Skinny and the others all widened their eyes at once. Ma Yibing and Lanlan didn't know what Greenleaf was, so they looked at me in confusion.

"I'm going to see if they have any way to deal with this," I said.

They thought I was going to look through the files for clues.

"Can you manage by yourself?" Guo Yujie asked. "I could help you look."

"No need," I refused.

Guo Yujie didn't feel comfortable leaving Lanlan alone to check on Chen Xiaoqiu, either, so she didn't bring it up again.

We split up. With two lives at stake, everyone except Ma Yibing, who was a little timid, wore a tense expression. Right then, we couldn't spare the thought to question whether the supernatural events were real, much less think of an effective way to deal with the kimono. We could only do everything in our power and leave the rest to fate.

I went to the Greenleaf office. I still felt a chill when I reached the sixth floor, and the creak of the door echoed through the hallway. I took a deep breath and stepped inside, but I didn't go looking through the files as Skinny and the others had expected.

I closed the door behind me. Gradually growing accustomed to the darkness, I walked over to the sofa and slowly sat down.

The sofa groaned, a sound that seemed especially jarring in the silent room.

The sofa opposite me was empty, and so was the coffee table. There was no one here, and no recorder. Aside from that, everything should have been just as it was when the people from Greenleaf were here. Their clients sat where I was sitting and told them about their terrifying experiences.

In the darkness, I began to speak. "Do you remember the 'Like a Shadow' case? The client was a girl named Zheng Xiaorui. You got a kimono from her, and the files say you burned it. That kimono has appeared at the drama academy. No, I shouldn't say it appeared just now. It's been there for years. Everyone who wears it dies within two years. Zheng Xiaorui died, too, a year after you resolved the case. I... saw two figures beneath the cherry tree in the photo of the kimono you took. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but today, a girl burned the kimono, and it appeared on a girl who'd worn it. I saw that there weren't two people under the cherry tree, but five. They were all wearing that kimono, and they were moving. I think the kimono is killing people."

I recounted the important details and stared intently into the air. "Is there any way you can deal with it? One of my colleagues and another girl both wore the kimono. They're in danger now, and their bodies are extremely weak. Maybe it's what you call weak yang energy, or maybe the kimono has some other way of harming them."

There wasn't a sound in the room.

I waited for a while, feeling a little disappointed. Unable to hold back any longer, I stood up and went into the office at the back.

The filing cabinets stood silently. The room was still the same as before, with nothing out of the ordinary.

Last time... had I imagined it?

I called out, "Ye Qing?"

There was no response.

"Liu Miao?"

Still no response.

I thought for a moment. "Mushroom? Ling?"

Those were the four names I knew, but after calling them, there still wasn't the slightest movement in the office.

I laughed at myself.

Did I really think I'd suddenly gained the ability to see spirits and communicate with them?

I opened the door and left, wondering where I could find a monk, a Daoist priest, or a medium at this hour of the night.

As I was about to close the door, I suddenly heard something moving inside the office.

Clatter, clatter...

I saw a flash of light on the floor. It came all the way from the office to the entrance. The object spun in a circle, then stopped right on the threshold, abruptly halted as though there were an invisible wall there. I saw what it really was.

A lighter.

My heart beat faster. I looked toward the office, but there was no one there. My body stiffened as I picked up the lighter. It felt ice-cold to the touch, but it was solid. As I stood up, the office door slammed shut right in front of me, nearly hitting my nose.

Cold sweat trickled down my forehead. I still held the lighter in my hand, gripping it tightly.

It wasn't an illusion! It wasn't a dream!

My phone rang, and I answered with trembling hands.

"Qi-ge! We found it! The kimono is at the drama club! It's right there at the drama club!"

I stared at the closed door in front of me.

The notice from the police station was still stuck to it, lending the door a little life.

"Come to Greenleaf," I said to Skinny. "Bring the clothes, and buy an iron bucket and some oil. Come to the Greenleaf office. We'll burn it here!"