Our party of three young men and six female ghosts walked through the wormhole rimmed with sparkling lights that shone like diamonds. The familiar scene and sensation moved Lin Feng to tears. He wiped his wet eyes, gasping, “Oh, my God! I really thought we would be trapped forever in the past! I’m so relieved that we’re back!”

Recovering from the shock and consternation, we found ourselves in an empty stairwell. Lin Feng rubbed a hand on the steel railing and felt a hand emotionally on the wall peeling with paint. “It’s true,” his eyes were ringed scarlet and wet and he said, “We’re really back! Steel railings and heating radiator, oh!” Lin Feng had always longed to return since we stepped into the past. We had spent such a long time there that we were beginning to forget how modern-day Wu Zhong looked like.

I left Lin Feng to his histrionic revels about returning to the present and began looking around. It had been so long and we were losing touch with modern society that there was this surrealistic sensation to being here. Half of my mind was still in the past while another half was struggling to attune myself to the surroundings. Yet, I was certain of one thing: we have come to this building before. Something about this stairway seemed oddly familiar although I could not put it how. Xiao Qi darted up the stairs, complaining, “Where are we?! It’s terrible here! Open your gourd, Shiyan! Let us go back in!” I could only open the gourd and whisk all six of the Ghostly Sisters back into my Spirit Gourd.

Chongxi was stroking his chin, talking to himself absentmindedly, “Heh heh heh… Amazing, Qiaoyu, you sly bastard!” I slapped the back of his head. Clearly, Chongxi was still stuck in the past and had not yet realized that we were back in the future. He gave me a stunned look, uttering a surprised “Ah”.

I patted Lin Feng. “Enough fretting, Lin Feng. Help me find out where we are! This place looks very familiar!” We looked at each other and began looking around, but to no avail. Not only we knew nothing about how long had time passed in the present, but our awareness about Time had also become obscured. Yet if there was one thing I was certain of, it would be that we were not in Father’s National Studies Institute.

Just when we were at a complete loss of what to do, a man came into view, turning the corner into the corridor that stretched from the stairway, guzzling down a cup of noodles hungrily with his crude, lascivious eating sounds echoing off the walls. Chongxi saw him and giggled. “Look! I was just talking about Qiaoyu, and now we have our modern Qiaoyu coming our way!”

The man chomping ravenously on his cup noodles was our friend, Zheng Shuang! He looked absolutely tired and he had not realized us standing in the stairway until he noticed us waving at him. He choked and coughed and a tiny strand of noodles peeked cloddishly from his nostrils. He coughed and coughed again until we walked up to him and I patted his back to help ease the discomfort. “Come on, there’s no need for such a surprise! Look at you!”

Zheng Shuang tugged the wretched string of noodles out of his nose and grabbed at both my sleeves, screaming with his eyes brimming with tears, “Shiyan! You’re finally here! Oh, my God! You don’t know how terrible I have been!” I stared at him, not knowing if the tears were coming from his vehement emotions or the noodles that nearly choked him.

“Why are you like this?” I chuckled. “Something went wrong when we’re away?” Zheng Shuang nodded quickly. “Did anyone saw you guys coming in?” I shook my head. “You’re the first person we’ve seen since coming in.” Bobbing his head, he dragged us all into his office.

His strange behavior left us all confused and puzzled. Why are we sneaking around like thieves? This is the Wu Zhong police station! A Captain of the Criminal Investigations Division sneaking suspiciously like a thief! We must have been so long away that either our minds are going haywire or Zheng Shuang’s mind is! An annoyed Chongxi asked, “What is it with you, Zheng Shuang? What are you doing? What’s going on?”

Zheng Shuang dove to the windows to check if anyone was watching. Satisfied that the coast was clear, he drew the curtains and finally slammed his cup noodles on his desk. “Where have you been? For an entire week, you lot have been missing! Do you even know what happened here?!”

All three of us looked at each other dubiously. It appeared that we have only been away for a week. The time was hardly long, but something must have happened, judging from Zheng Shuang’s behavior. “Tell us in detail,” I told him, “What happened?”

“Ah, damned… You! You!” Zheng Shuang screamed, pounding his fist. The few years we have had in the past have seen Lin Feng a more matured and composed person now. He smiled thinly as he looked on Zheng Shuang venting his frustrations. Even Chongxi was no longer the block-headed dimwit of the team that he once was. “What’s up? Were we involved?” He asked and Zheng Shuang’s head nodded vehemently again. I chuckled. “Then tell us. Everything, starting from the beginning. Tell me, was it the descendant of Tribe Nine Li, the pretender Jin Qichen, or Zhang Zhigui?”

Zheng Shuang jabbed a finger repeatedly as I listed the names, stammering with fright and consternation. “That’s it! Tr-tribe, tribe Nine Li!” “I see… Then I know what it is all about… Was it something Huang Li has done, I presume?” Zheng Shuang nodded again profusely, “That’s it. You were not here when we received a complaint from the District Headquarters about a murder! A murder!”

Zheng Shuang paused and looked at each other us, especially at Lin Feng and me. We stared at him wordlessly.

Zheng Shuang struggled with his words, mumbling incomprehensibly for seconds until he was finally able to string proper sentences, saying, “Just last week. The District Headquarters received a report about a murder. The scene of the murder: the Nanhu Villa Precinct!” Lin Feng and I shared a quick look as we instantly understood what happened.

The look did not go unnoticed by Zheng Shuang, who went on, “Officers from the District Headquarters closed the area and investigated the corpse, finding numerous heavy burn marks and three stab wounds, all caused by something sharp like knives. Am I right in guessing that the burn marks are caused by you, Shiyan?” I nodded. Lin Feng interjected, saying, “Those stab marks are not caused by knives. It was by my throwing darts.” Zheng Shuang broke into a loud, grimacing howl. “Come on, Shiyan, Lin Feng! What am I to do now?! It was that Huang Li who had reported the murder and the District Headquarters officers had a look into the surveillance cameras and saw you three! Then they realized that they were part of this Wu Zhong police department and they have tossed this case to us! Our chief, the Director, I have never seen him look so haggard before except now. Since this goddamned case found its way here!”

“And then?” I asked, with a furrowed brow. Zheng Shuang stomped hard on the floor, embittered. “After some bureaucratic wrinkles which my chief managed to finally iron out with a firm word of his that we should investigate deeply before making conclusions. He personally vouched for all you three, insisting that you cannot be murderers. Up until now, we’ve yet to locate any proof implicating you and there were none of your fingerprints at the murder scene. The post mortem report indicated that the cause of death was not the wounds, but loss of blood. He had been left there for too long without being discovered. All these lent credence to the chief’s arguments to keep the matter under wraps, at least until the investigation is completed. But this was made worst with the disappearance of the three of you! Don’t you realize what does this means? You could be suspects feeling guilty and now you’re trying to flee! Well, I guess it’s fortunate that you’re back, otherwise I don’t know how we’re gonna solve this!”

“Why did you not look for my father?” I asked, frowning slightly and Zheng Shuang slammed his fist on the desk again, “Come on, what you take me for? Of course I knew I had to look for Mr. Murong immediately! But when I got to the National Studies Institute, he’s not there! Apparently, he’s missing and so is your mother too! I rushed to your home and found only your sister and your wife, all of whom could do no more than a string of “I don’t know”! Some guys at the station then began digging deeper and they found that your sister’s ID was only recently made. This made her identity very fishy and of course, your wife! Everything about her background was dug up and laid out to dry! You should have told me about her past! There I was, telling everyone who would listen that your background’s as clean as a sheet of paper! They even found out that your wife was once slapped into jail for 6 months for battery! Now, in the eyes of the brass, you are contaminated liabilities to keep away from! Radioactive!”

I giggled. “Well, I suppose I can only say I really did not know much about Edelweiss’ past. Well, my parents’ disappearance has nothing to do with this case. I have an idea. How about you inform the top brass that we’re back. I don’t think we’d be in much trouble, considering that they don’t have any concrete proof against us yet.”

Zheng Shuang grabbed my hand. “Wait a minute, Shiyan! This is serious, we’re not playing games here!” “What if I can revive Cao Xuedong?” I muttered nonchalantly and the remark surprised Zheng Shuang so greatly he almost jumped. “Oh, God! You’re right!” He swooped on the phone on his desk and hit a series of numbers. He waited several seconds then he spoke into it, “Hello, this is the Wu Zhong Police Station. Our police consultants are back! They’re not suspects! I told you, they are not suspects until we’ve found proof! They are one of us!”

But Zheng Shuang’s rousing defense of us did little to convince the person on the other end of the line, who only ended the call after a long and expectedly stern remark which we were not privy to. In the end, after placing down the phone on its cradle, Zheng Shuang looked at us with a bleak smile. “It seems the guys at the District Headquarters are determined to pin this on you. They will be here in a moment and I don’t think they’d be nice. But please try to hold your temper, I implore you.”