Night Shift

Tang San squatted down at the street corner and used a charcoal pencil to draw a simple diagram of the Elder Hall's interior on the bluestone pavement. He drew quickly, with concise lines, marking the location of the side doors, the direction of the corridors, and the location of the archives.

"The pre-trial room is on the second floor, east side. The list will be locked in the filing cabinet there tonight. The cabinet is a regular iron cabinet with an old-fashioned pin tumbler lock, without any Soul Power restrictions. A patrol team will patrol the second-floor corridor every 15 minutes at night, passing by the pre-trial room door. The Soul Power sensing array on the side door is in a semi-activated state at night, so it won't trigger an alarm unless someone forcibly enters. I've been through the side door once; the latch is a regular bolt that can be opened from the inside."

Long Tian squatted down next to the structural diagram and looked it over, memorizing the corridor layout and the location of the pre-trial room. He stood up, took off his coat, folded it neatly, and placed it against the wall. Wearing only his old, close-fitting shirt, he left his leather bag with Yu Jin, carrying only a piece of thin wire and an old access token he had obtained from Tang San.

"You wait here, I'll go in and get the list and come right back out." He stood at the alley entrance for a moment, confirmed the changing of the guard time outside the side gate of the Elder Hall, and slipped out of the alley during the shift change, feeling his way along the wall to the side gate.

The side door was an ordinary wooden door, with a magic circle on the door frame emitting a very faint red glow in the darkness. He affixed the access card to the edge of the magic circle, and the red glow of the magic circle briefly lit up where the access card touched before going out, and the latch was sprung open from the inside. He pushed the door open and squeezed in, and the door closed silently behind him.

The corridor was dimly lit, with only a low-wattage wall lamp shining in the corner. Long Tian walked quickly along the wall, his footsteps absorbed by the carpet. He turned left at the end of the corridor marked on the floor plan, went up a narrow staircase, and stopped at the second-floor landing, listening for any sounds from the corridor. The sound of patrolling footsteps came from afar, rhythmic and moving in his direction. He waited until the footsteps had passed the landing and continued eastward before emerging from the landing and quickly walking in the opposite direction of the corridor to the interrogation room door.

The interrogation room door wasn't locked. He pushed it open, slipped inside, and gently closed the door behind him. Against the wall stood a metal filing cabinet, its door secured with an old-fashioned pin tumbler lock. He squatted down in front of the cabinet, inserted a thin wire into the keyhole, and flicked the lock twice until it popped open. Inside were several documents stacked, the top one bound with thin hemp rope, its cover reading "Patrol Team - Northern Route List - Awaiting Interrogation." He untied the rope, pulled out the list, unfolded it, glanced at it, confirmed the names and Zhao Xiaopang's alias, folded the list neatly, tucked it into his coat, put the empty folder back in its place, and locked the cabinet door.

As he stood up to leave, the sound of patrolling footsteps approached the interrogation room doorway from the direction of the corridor. He crouched down in the shadows beside the filing cabinet, waiting until the footsteps had passed the door and receded into the distance before emerging from the shadows, pushing open the door, and quickly retreating back to the stairwell. The wall lamps in the corridor flickered briefly as he passed, then returned to normal. He went down the stairs to the first floor, unlatched the side door from the inside, pushed it open, closed the door again from the outside, and retreated back into the alley along the wall.

Tang San and Yu Jin were still waiting at the alley entrance. When Long Tian emerged from the shadows, he took out the list from his clothes and handed it to Tang San. Tang San unfolded the list, scanned it, confirmed the names and aliases on it, nodded, folded the list, and put it into his sleeve.

"I'll take the list and process it. I'll replace the original registration materials in the E District archives with the cleaned-up version before the preliminary review. The patrol team will only see an old, cancelled file during their preliminary review." Tang San put the list away, stood up straight at the alley entrance, turned around and took a few steps back, then stopped and turned back to add, "Zhao Xiaopang's alias has already been crossed off the list. The patrol team won't be pursuing that name anymore."

Long Tian stood at the alley entrance for a moment, put his coat back on, and fastened his collar. Yu Jin handed him the leather pouch, which he took and slung over his shoulder. The two walked along the alley towards the east of the city. The main street was sparsely populated in the night, and the streetlights swayed slightly in the wind, casting their shadows long and short on the ground. When they reached the door of the old house in the east of the city, Long Tian pushed it open and went inside. He stood under the pomegranate tree in the courtyard for a while, looking up at the starry sky above. Yu Jin squatted down by the well and divided the remaining water in his water bag into two bowls, placing them on the well platform. Long Tian sat down by the well, picked up a bowl, took a sip, and sat in the moonlight for a while before standing up and going back inside.