The man who had been woken by the noise hesitated for a moment when asked to open the window. Then, perhaps because Li Xian was a Dreamcatcher, he obediently opened it.
Li Xian immediately vaulted inside, then chased in the direction the Honey Shadow had vanished, under the man's gaze.
As soon as he pushed open the bedroom door, he spotted the ghostly blue Honey Shadow moving through the living room.
With the lights on inside, it could not move particularly fast. It was currently heading for the front door.
Li Xian immediately extended the pole, aimed at the Honey Shadow, and brought the net down over it!
The net in his hand hit the floor with a clack, grazing the Honey Shadow's edge and just missing its target.
Li Xian had been certain his aim was true, yet somehow the net had gone astray.
He frowned slightly. The Honey Shadow had already slipped through the gap beneath the door leading to the corridor, so Li Xian gave up trying to catch it with the net and hurried after it instead.
Once in the corridor, Li Xian immediately stomped to trigger the motion-sensor lights, but the Honey Shadow still seized the brief interval of darkness to dart out of the apartment building.
Li Xian followed close behind the Honey Shadow. Every time he thought he had a chance to catch it, his net would miss by just enough, and every time he thought he was about to lose it, he would just happen to glimpse its "tail."
After this happened several times in succession, he realized something was wrong.
It felt as though the thing was deliberately keeping just close enough to remain visible but too far away to catch, luring him somewhere.
Every Honey Shadow he had encountered before