Chai Si, did you think the rumors had stopped spreading?

"Hm? Hmmmm?"

A long, shrill note of confusion rose from the resident's throat, as though it could not understand why Chai Si refused to die in his memories and insisted on getting up off the floor again and again.

"Memories, where you, can die, thirty-eight-"

It was saying thirty-nine just now, Chai Si thought. So it's counting down.

Once it had used a memory, it could no longer use that memory to attack him, was that it?

Good. He had had enough of that weak, useless, helpless five-year-old who could do nothing but cry and scream, too.

His loathing for powerlessness far exceeded even his loathing for the resident.

Chai Si kept his eyes tightly shut and took a deep breath.

"Hmmmmmm?" Seeing him still standing, the resident seemed extremely displeased, its voice growing far more grating. "Thirty, eight-"

"Stop making that noise," Chai Si said quietly. "As long as I don't see your face, I won't pass out. Right?"

Every time his gaze touched its face, he immediately collapsed and sank into a memory. Even an idiot could connect that cause and effect.

"By resident standards, you're a crude, lousy thing." As Chai Si spoke, he took a step back. "Hardly any tricks up your sleeve, but plenty of weaknesses-"

Before he finished, a gust of wind rushed straight at him.

The faint slap of bare soles striking the floor, the tiny currents stirred by countless fluttering strips of torn cloth, the heavy, cloying stench that suddenly thickened around him...

With his eyes closed, his other senses grew sharper.

Chai Si stepped back again. Broken glass crunched beneath his shoes, and he knew he had reached the window the resident had climbed through.

He abruptly ducked, reached forward, and grabbed. His hand seemed to plunge into a sticky miasma, and sure enough, it caught a wad of fabric. That sickening, familiar electric shock of contact with a resident shot from his palm all the way to the crown of his head-yet despite being caught by the chest, the resident gave a short, smug laugh.

Chai Si knew why it was laughing.

It probably thought the discomfort would incapacitate him; most people could not even stay on their feet under the physiological impact of their first few instances of physical contact with a resident.

But it did not know that, compared with the resident from when he was five, it was nothing but a cheap imitation.

Chai Si gritted his teeth against the trembling in his muscles. Closing his fingers tightly around the robe over the resident's chest, he swung his arm and hurled it through the broken window beside him.

The resident only had time to utter a startled "Huh?" The next second, it landed on the tracks outside the carriage window with a distant, muffled thud.

Now came the crucial question-what exactly was this resident's Pathway into the human world?

It had climbed in through a "pitch-black carriage window," but that could not possibly be the only condition.

Otherwise, with all the "pitch-black carriage windows" in everyday life, it would have entered the human world long ago. Why would it have waited until today?

Besides the "pitch-black carriage window," at least one other condition must have been met for it to crawl into the human world-and however he considered it, Chai Si could think of only one.

In the space of a thought, he opened his eyes and sprinted through the carriage. Halfway there, he stretched out an arm and scooped up the T-shaped bar, then skidded to a halt beside the semiconscious subway driver.

"'Rumor,' send it back."

Chai Si could already hear rustling outside the carriage window behind him, as though the resident was about to climb back in. He raised the T-shaped bar high. "Otherwise, I'll smash your host into pulp right now."

He never made empty threats.

The instant the T-shaped bar bit into the subway driver's shoulder, the tiny voice in the driver's cheek began shrieking over and over, "Revoke the invitation to 'Memory Kill'! Revoke the invitation to 'Memory Kill'!"

...What a stupid name.

Panting, Chai Si lifted the T-shaped bar out of the driver's shoulder bone. He stood there and waited a second or two. Bright white light filled the silent carriage.

Slowly, he turned to look at the window the resident had climbed through.

He had actually prepared himself to see a body hanging halfway through the window, a face smiling at him-but the window was empty. Only a few remaining shards of glass stood in the frame, oblivious to the fact that they had become useless.

Carrying the T-shaped bar, Chai Si approached the window step by step. He was cautious, not looking outside directly, but opening his phone's camera and scanning the surroundings through its screen.

Since it was a resident, it might naturally enjoy toying with people, too. Perhaps it was crouching outside the carriage, giggling behind its hands as it waited to disappoint him.

But outside was nothing more than a dim subway tunnel, empty and quiet.

Treading over shattered glass to the driver's pained groans, he returned to "Rumor."

The blow to the shoulder had jolted the driver awake from his near-unconscious state. Seeing Chai Si approach, he twisted around and tried to crawl backward, his voice thick with tears-Chai Si set the tip of the T-shaped bar against his chest. "Don't move."

The driver stopped moving, his face covered in fear and cold sweat. "Wh-what was that just now...?"

"A dream," Chai Si said flatly. "You had a nightmare."

If the expression on the driver's face had been translated into words, it would probably have read, "Even if you're going to lie to me, you should put a little effort into it."

But Chai Si had never liked dealing with cleanup or loose ends, and had even less patience for finding reasonable explanations for everything that had just happened. He was considering how to extract the Rumor Phantasm when the driver spoke again.

"In my mouth... what's that thing in my mouth?" With a dazed expression, the driver said, "You called it Rumor just now... why is it Rumor again...?"

Chai Si's attention instantly pricked up like a dog's ears catching an unfamiliar sound.

"'Again'?" He leaned closer, frightening a hiccup out of the driver. "Who else said the word 'rumor'?"

Whether from physical pain or mental terror, the driver's lower lip was wet and shiny, trembling incessantly. "A few days ago, someone said he'd lost his glasses and couldn't see properly. He asked me to read a couple of sentences for him..."

Chai Si froze, but did not interrupt.

"He asked me, does it say, 'I have a rumor to tell you'? I looked at his phone and said no, it says, 'I heard a rumor'... It was pretty strange. I had no idea who'd sent him that baffling message, so I remembered it."

"What did he look like?" Chai Si asked immediately.

"I don't know..." the driver said shakily. "He was wearing a mask. All I could tell was that he was a man in his twenties or thirties."

No wonder the driver had not reacted to the description of Evan's appearance earlier-for a moment, Chai Si almost wanted to burst out laughing.

He understood everything.

The answer was actually that simple. Looking back now that he knew it, he even wondered how he had failed to think of it.

Since the thing in question was a "rumor," naturally, it would be passed on through "speech," wouldn't it?

The person who had asked the driver to help read a message that day had undoubtedly been Evan.

And Evan's goal had not merely been to make the driver read a message, but to trick him into completing an exchange-

"Now say this: 'I have a rumor to tell you.'"

Chai Si watched a bulge rise in the driver's cheek as the tongue pressed against it, then slide past. "Once you've said that, I'll leave immediately. I won't touch you again."

"R-really?" The driver paused, then immediately seized this lifeline. "I-I have a rumor to tell you!"

Chai Si took a deep breath.

"...I heard a rumor," he answered quietly.

The exchange was complete.

Silence fell over the carriage. Chai Si watched the driver's cheek; there was no movement at all in his face.

Suddenly, Chai Si felt his own tongue lick the inside of his mouth without his control before settling back into place.

He slowly broke into a grin.

"You... you said you'd leave..." Trembling, the driver propped himself up and inched backward, staring at him. "You can't..."

"Don't worry."

Chai Si stood and took a wallet from his suit's inner pocket. He pulled out the entire thick stack of banknotes inside and tossed it onto the driver. "Consider this compensation for the undeserved trouble I've brought you. Remember to choose your words carefully when you call the police."

As the driver's eyes settled on the money, Chai Si turned and left.

He would certainly call the police at the first opportunity. Chai Si did not care.

"Rumor," Chai Si called softly as he jumped onto the platform. "How much time do you have left?"

He waited patiently for a moment. Sure enough, a tiny voice came from inside his cheek-"'Rumor,' countdown: 3,405 days, 16 hours, 15 minutes."

Chai Si did a rough calculation. As expected of Wei Xilai's Phantasm, it was first-rate in every respect. It still had nearly nine years and four months of use left-many Phantasms did not have that long even when they first left the Nest.

It must have spent quite a few years in Wei Xilai's hands, too, hadn't it? After Wei Xilai died, how had it passed from a dead man's mouth to Evan?

For the moment, Chai Si could not think of an answer.

The police pursuing him seemed to believe he had long since slipped into the arriving passengers and left the station.

He tousled his hair, letting his bangs fall over his forehead, then took off and discarded his suit jacket and shirt, leaving only the white short-sleeved shirt underneath. He walked out of the subway station almost openly-though a few police officers had remained to watch the entrances and exits, and one called out to him, "Hey!"

Chai Si stopped and asked agreeably, "What is it, officer?"

The officer looked him up and down.

When he had crossed the tracks earlier, he had shown the police only the back of a man in a suit, never giving them a clear look at his face. With the tunnel so dim, Chai Si was quite confident they would not recognize him. Although he was tall, his height was hardly unusual.

"Where did you come from?"

"Ninth Street."

"When did you get off the train?"

"Just now. I went to the bathroom, so that held me up a little."

The officer thought for a moment, then waved a hand. "All right, thanks for cooperating. You can go."

Just as he was about to leave, Chai Si suddenly found himself asking, "...I heard there's a Subway Serial Killer. Is that true?"

The officer paused.

"Oh... yes." As though the memory were slowly surfacing, he first glanced at his colleague, then said, "Right, there is a rumor like that... but he's not the one we're after today. No, probably not."

"Good luck, officer." Chai Si smiled, turned, and walked out of the subway station.

Actually, I'm rather pleased with the part about Chai Si's childhood. Let me stand with my hands on my hips for a moment. His part will be over in one more chapter!

(End of chapter)