Chapter 8: Midnight Snack

“Old Mo, weren’t you an electrician before? Go check the wiring first.”

Dan stood in the middle of the hall, feeling the flickering lights sting her eyes.

Old Mo shook his head. “It’s no use. It’s not a wiring issue.”

Dan had to drop the matter, changing her approach. “Then let’s start from the first floor, checking each floor one by one. Shen Xin, go to the dorm manager’s office and get the keys.”

Shen Xin acted immediately. He had lived in the dorm for over a year and was quite familiar with the manager’s office. Amid the wavering lights, he found a large ring of keys and led the group, checking room after room.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary from the first to the fourth floor, but by the fifth, Shen Xin’s heart was pounding in his chest.

Two of the jumpers had lived on the fifth floor, and another on the sixth.

Barely had they set foot on the fifth floor when, suddenly, a shadow emerged from the wall.

Old Mo reacted instantly, hurling the knife in his hand at lightning speed.

The blade passed easily through the shadow, striking the wall with a metallic clink.

The shadow seemed furious, letting out a series of shrieks—like hundreds of babies crying at once, terrifying and piercing.

The noise made Shen Xin’s mind buzz.

Suddenly, the scene shifted. The lights brightened, and Yu Yanan stood before him, lively and pretty, her face lit up with delight. “Shen Xin, how did you get into the girls’ dorm? Did you come to find me? There’s no one here, let’s do something naughty together!”

“Bah! Shameless creature, I can tell you’re not human. Reveal your true form! Great Thunder Dragon, World Honored Earth Treasury, Prajna Paramita!”

Shen Xin shouted, and the vision before him shattered like glass, falling away, returning him to the dim, flickering corridor.

“Shen Xin, what are you staring at? Quick, restrain that ghost!”

“Oh, oh!” Shen Xin finally saw clearly, by the light, what the ghost was—a heap of rotten flesh made from hundreds of infants, the largest no bigger than a fist, the smallest no larger than a thumb.

Seeing the ghost attempt to slip through the wall, Shen Xin immediately moved it back into the corridor.

An odd and eerie scene unfolded—the ghost moved in loops, as if stuck in an animated cycle.

“Jiawang, hurry and film this. We can’t let this ghost remain; I want its soul destroyed! Purify!”

Dan shouted, and dazzling white light shot from her palm, smashing into the ghost.

The ghost melted away like snow under blazing sun, vanishing into a wisp of smoke in the blink of an eye.

Shen Xin wasn’t sure if he imagined it, but he felt the temperature around him suddenly rise several degrees. The chilling cold was gone.

The lights returned to normal, no longer flickering.

“All done, Jiawang, make sure you got it all on film,” Dan said.

“Dan, you can count on me,” Jiawang replied.

Dan nodded in satisfaction, smiling. “Send me the video, I need to submit it for the task.”

“Got it!”

The four went downstairs together. Shen Xin returned the keys and joined the others as they exited Dormitory Building 21.

Once outside, Shen Xin glanced around uneasily. His eyes could see auras; he didn’t expect what he saw next.

On the rooftop of Building 20 stood two figures.

Both wore white lab coats.

Under the cold moonlight, he saw they were old, white-haired, motionless, continually scattering paper money down the building.

“Dan, look at the rooftop of Building 21—there are two suspicious people.”

Dan followed his pointing finger and laughed. “They’re funeral specialists—the White Couple. We keep out of each other’s business. Let’s go! Time for a midnight feast! No going home sober tonight!”

“Whoa! Dan, you’re awesome!” Jiawang, long accustomed to such things, cheered up at the mention of food.

Old Mo shook his head at the wrong moment. “I’m not going. I’m too old for late night snacks. Beer gives me gout.”

“Eh, party pooper! What about you, Shen?”

“Can I bring someone?”

Shen Xin thought Yu Yanan would finish work around ten; it was nine now, so she’d make it in time.

“Who’s that? Your girlfriend?” Jiawang’s gossip senses flared.

“Uh, not sure if you’d call her that, we’re not really official.”

Jiawang thumped his chest, promising loudly, “Ha! Look at you. Just bring her over, brother’ll help you win her heart tonight. You’ll be the groom!”

Dan said lightly, “Shen Xin, you’ve got potential. You might go further, just don’t let romance cloud your mind.”

Shen Xin chuckled inwardly, surprised Dan could misjudge too.

They got in the car, and soon Shen Xin received a payment notification for two hundred thousand.

“Dan, didn’t you say I’d only get a hundred thousand?”

“You believed I was serious? You contributed a lot this time—more than the other two.”

Jiawang and Old Mo, for once, showed rare embarrassment, having barely contributed during the mission.

First, they dropped Old Mo off at home. Once he got out, Shen Xin couldn’t help but ask, “Has Uncle Mo got a family?”

“Of course. But he married late; his kid is still in primary school.”

Shen Xin glanced at Dan, wanting to ask about her marital status, but thought better of it.

When they reached the riverside food stalls, it was already ten at night.

This was the peak hour for the stalls.

May’s crayfish were now in season, and customers crowded in for them.

The riverside stalls were bustling.

Jiawang parked and, familiar with the area, led them to a stall neither facing the street nor the river.

Business here wasn’t great.

The owner was a gray-haired middle-aged man with no helpers.

Shen Xin wondered why Dan, with her status, would eat at such a place. But since he wasn’t paying, he didn’t mind.

Once seated, Jiawang went to order, while Shen Xin called Yu Yanan, inviting her for a late-night snack. As expected, she excitedly agreed.

He sent her the location and sat quietly, waiting for the food.

After ordering, Jiawang handed the menu to Shen Xin. “Anything else you want to add?”

Shen Xin glanced at the list: ten pounds of crayfish, five pounds of jumping frogs, forty skewers of beef, forty of lamb, ten grilled chicken wings, ten grilled kidneys, twenty grilled oysters, and ten skewers of chives.

“You’re feeding pigs!” Dan glanced at the list and said blandly, “Add a ‘Farewell My Concubine’ as well.”

“That’s plenty, Dan, really enough. That dish isn’t necessary, right?”

But Jiawang happily went to add the dish anyway.

“Farewell My Concubine” was turtle stewed with chicken.

Soon, Yu Yanan arrived on a shared electric scooter.

“Yanan, over here!”

Shen Xin got up to welcome her. She hopped over and asked, “Hey, what made you invite me for a midnight snack? And at a place like this—come on, what’s your secret agenda?”

“Uh, just a meal, Comrade Yanan, don’t overthink it. Besides, someone else is treating, we’re both just freeloaders, so watch your tongue.”

When Yu Yanan saw Dan, sparks flew between the two women.