I thought that Lin Feng was an honest man. After all, he didn’t pick up any girls when we were in the Sinology Center, where there were many female students. However, this time, my impression of him was renewed. He was actually dating Chongxi’s old classmate – Yuan Yuan.

When Chongxi and I went for dinner, we happened to find Lin Feng and Yuan Yuan were in the same restaurant. And they didn’t notice us. Therefore we started to eavesdrop on their conversation and snickered along. In the end, they caught us. After that, Yuan Yuan asked me if what Lin Feng told her was true, about spirits. I acknowledged her in silence. Then she asked again why she had never seen one, to which I replied, “How could you be sure that the people you met were all humans?”

In fact, she wasn’t wrong. People often said that seeing is believing. However, the saying, ‘words are empty’, did not mean that everything seen by the eye was real. Yuan Yuan said that she didn’t believe it when she didn’t see it. I felt slightly helpless. However, Lin Feng wanted to show off in front of his sweetheart, throwing me a pleading look. I smiled helplessly and said, “I could show you. But you need to keep it a secret. Do you promise me?” Yuan Yuan nodded her head immediately, expressing that she would follow our lead. Then I brought out a pair of glasses from my pocket, handed it to Yuan Yuan, and said, “Put these glasses on and follow us.” Yuan Yuan took the glasses and asked, “Are these monster-revealing mirrors?” I smiled helplessly and didn’t reply.

I took them to the central square. It was around 8 p.m. Many people gathered there after dinner. There were kids roller skating, some people jogging around the square, and a bunch of old people doing the Yangko dance in rows. I pointed to the dancing group and said to Yuan Yuan, “Look at the person standing at the end of the line.” Yuan Yuan looked in that direction and widened her eyes. She took off the glasses, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. Then she put on the glasses and looked again.

At the end of the Yangko dancing line, there was an old man with a medium body figure, who was dancing with his body shaking and his head wagging. He seemed quite happy, smiling in a silly way with his eyes rolling. Through the glasses, Yuan Yuan saw clearly that this man at the end of the line was a mouse as tall as a human, with its tail moving up and down to the music. And it looked quite intoxicated.

At this moment, Lin Feng smiled beside Yuan Yuan and said, “Do you believe it now?” Yuan Yuan nodded with her eyes wide-opened under the glasses, showing that she believed. I took off the glasses from Yuan Yuan’s face, and said, “Don’t tell anyone about what you saw. Otherwise, it will cause a lot of trouble.” Yuan Yuan nodded seriously to show that she would keep her mouth shut. We took a walk around the square and started chatting. Although Lin Feng was embarrassed by us two third-wheels, Yuan Yuan didn’t think the same. Instead, she enjoyed it quite a lot.

During our conversation, Yuan Yuan asked if we could all see spirits. But only I nodded my head and said, “If you mean to see with the eye, I am the only one who can see them clearly without any assistance. But as for the ability to differentiate between humans and spirits, the three of us all have it.” After hearing what I said, Lin Feng and Chongxi both laughed smugly. Then I said, “You are just an ordinary human. So it’s normal that you can’t see spirits. But the three of us are different. I was born with Spirit Sight. If there is a spirit, I can see it at a glance. Therefore, that’s my gift.” Then I pointed at my eye.

Yuan Yuan looked at Lin Feng again. Lin Feng pointed at his head and said, “Spirits are animals who cultivate. Therefore there are some behavioral differences between them and humans. I practice Kung Fu and so I’m sensitive to motion. Therefore it’s easy for me to recognize whether the one I’m looking at is human or not.” Yuan Yuan finally looked at Chongxi and said, “I didn’t know you had this ability, Round Potato!” Chongxi glared at her and said, “Round Potato my ass!” Yuan Yuan laughed and said, “Then Yuan Chongxi, what’s your ability?” Chongxi pointed at his nose and said, “This is my ability!”

Yuan Yuan stared at Chongxi’s face and burst out laughing, “Are you a dog? Sniffing around!” Chongxi got irritated and yelled, “What do you know! Leave me alone, right now. I feel rather bothered with you in my sight!” The rest of us also laughed out loud. Then I explained, “Chongxi is a prodigious augur. Otherwise, his master wouldn’t have taken a nerd like him as an apprentice. You should know that Chongxi is a master in numerology, anthroposcopy, and augury. And that’s rare. In terms of anthroposcopy, it doesn’t just include physiognomy, but also voice recognization and smell recognization, etc. The smells of spirits are different from those of humans. Chongxi can smell out the differences of the spirits. Of course, what I mean by smell out is not just smelling in an ordinary way.” Yuan Yuan then had a look of realization and said, “Oh.”

While we were walking aimlessly around the square feeling bored, someone rang my phone. I took a look and found that it was a Wechat message sent by Zheng Shuang. After knowing it was a message from Zheng Shuang, Lin Feng and Chongxi gathered around to check. Yuan Yuan also squeezed in for fun. I clicked on the voice message, in which Zheng Shuang came through, “Brother Yan, we have a situation! One of my classmates from the Police Training School posted a picture on his Wechat moment asking if anyone knows it. He said that they found it in the den of the criminal gang when they were handling a case!” Right after the voice message ended, I received a picture. I clicked the picture and saw there was a piece of yellow paper on it. And there were some strange runes written on the paper with red pigment. Lin Feng said, “That’s a charm.” Chongxi said with his eyes half-closed, “This is not an ordinary piece of charm. The red pigment on it is not cinnabar. It’s human blood!” Yuan Yuan asked, “What’s written on the charm?” Lin Feng said, “You need to ask Shiyan. He’s an expert in charms.” Then everyone looked at me. However, I shook my head and said, “I had never seen a charm like this. I don’t know its use. But one thing is certain. It’s not a good thing!”

Thanks to the charm that suddenly appeared, our pace got interrupted. Lin Feng had to say goodbye to Yuan Yuan, then the three of us returned to the center. After that, I called Zheng Shuang immediately and asked for the details. On the phone, Zheng Shuang said, “Here is the thing. I found it on Wechat. It was posted by my classmate, asking if anyone knows about it. This man was a classmate of mine from my police training school. He was assigned to a station in Inner Mongolia after we graduated. I asked about the other details of the matter. He told me that it was also a large-scale child trafficking criminal gang. Then I think, would it also be related to the cult case we just uncovered…”

I nodded in agreement, but then I realized that we were on the phone so he wouldn’t see me nod. So I said to the phone, “Yeah.” After hearing my agreement, Zheng Shuang got excited immediately and said, “What the hell is the charm for? And, the other station doesn’t know that this child trafficking case is related to the cult. I am calling them right away to discuss this issue and start a trans-provincial joint investigation!” I said with my eyes half-closed, “Wait. We should keep this down-low for now. If we give wide publicity to handle the case trans-provincially, we would alert them. How about this, I let my dad take a look at the charm and ask him about it. Then we make a plan and investigate secretly…”

After hanging up, I spent the whole night driving back home, with the intent to ask my dad about the use of the charm. After I opened the door, I saw dad and mom lying on the couch watching TV as usual. Without even looking at me, dad said, “That thing is to control the souls of babies. The men you captured previously, they had those charms too before they opened their jars.” I got shocked and said in my mind, “Oh shit. That’s the use of the charm! But if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be true that the cult did it?”

Early the next morning, Zheng Shuang knocked at the door of my home. It turned out that he went to the center looking for me, but I wasn’t there. Then after being told that I was home, he asked Lin Feng for the address and came over.

It was my mom who opened the door. At the door, my mom asked with a warm smile, “Hi, how can I help you, police officer?” (Actually, with her supernatural powers, there was no way that she didn’t know that this man was my friend. However, my mom has this bad hobby where she likes to tease others to make them embarrassed with her youthful face.) Apparently, Zheng Shuang fell right into her trap such that he got quite embarrassed at the door. He said incoherently, “Erm, hello. I am Brother Yan’s friend. Erm, is this Shiyan’s home? Erm, may I ask…” Zheng Shuang hadn’t formally met my parents, therefore he didn’t know that they would look this young. Obviously, his imagination ran wild – He came looking for me, but a beautiful woman opened the door. However, what he didn’t know was, this beautiful woman was my mom!