I answered the phone, but hesitated for several seconds without speaking first.
Lü Qiaolan spoke first. "Hello? Is this Mr. Lin?"
"Yes, it's me." I took a deep breath.
"This is Lü Qiaolan. We went to Huixiang together before, with, um, the teddy bears..." Lü Qiaolan spoke rather delicately.
"Yes, I remember. Did something happen to the teddy bears again?" I asked nervously.
"Mm, I'm not sure... The bears were a little damaged, so I sent them back to the factory for repairs. The repair shop has sent them back now. They've all been fixed, but..." Lü Qiaolan's voice was full of confusion, and a trace of unease. "But I feel like they're different."
"You mean..." All kinds of terrible thoughts flashed through my mind.
"They're not moving anymore. I feel like they... don't move now." Lü Qiaolan said.
I froze. "They stopped moving? That can't be. They... they're gone?"
My words were a little vague, but Lü Qiaolan definitely understood.
She asked anxiously, "Mr. Lin, what do you mean? They... they disappeared? Why? How is that possible? I thought... It wasn't because of what happened in Huixiang, so they were just taking a break... They..."
Lü Qiaolan was getting flustered.
I could hear how anxious she was.
She'd received the plush teddy bears in the mail and probably thought they were only sleeping for a while, or that they'd just become quiet after being away for so long and returning to her. But if all those bears had disappeared, then the ones in front of Lü Qiaolan were just empty shells. That would be no different from losing all her teddy bears before.
I didn't know what had happened to those bears. My understanding of paranormal events was still vague; I'd never studied them systematically.
Among the people in