The Way which can be spoken is not the unchanging way.
The names which can be spoken are not unchanging names.

These two lines come from the Daode Jing (the Scripture of the Way and Its Virtue). Although just a few words, it told the truth of the world. If one was to try to properly and completely explain these two sentences, I’m afraid that a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to do so. But to briefly discuss its meaning, perhaps we could understand it to mean: The things we can reason and speak out are not universal truths. The things that we put a name to are not everlasting.

The world is large and full of wonders. There are strange, fantastical, and unexplainable stories that happen every day. Stories circulate and get printed, eventually becoming gossip for the general public. Everyone has their own experiences and their own views. When they come across rumors and hearsay, they will naturally add on their own ideas, and by the time they tell the next person, the story has already changed.

So as falsehoods are piled atop one another, the story becomes unrecognizable and even contrary to the original. It can even be reduced to a ghost story that senior students use to scare the new kids. But who would have ever thought that compared to the legends that were pa.s.sed down, the truth would be even more absurd and ridiculous.

My name is Mu Shenyu. As a child, I was constantly sick, so my mother was worried she wouldn’t be able to raise me well and ‘sent me off’ to someone else. Although in actuality, they had just found me a G.o.dmother. My mother’s family had a strange custom, that is, searching out a sorceress to act as a G.o.dmother for children who were often ill. They believed that this would allow the child to grow up healthily.

My G.o.dmother was known as Witch Ling, the most famous sorceress in my hometown. Every year, the number of people who sought her out to become their children’s G.o.dmother was no less than one hundred. However, becoming a G.o.dmother was no simple feat. She would only make a contract with nine children each year. It was said that she was afraid that her powers wouldn’t be able to handle it if she had too many G.o.dchildren.

I was born in the Month of Ghosts (Note: the 7th month of the lunar calendar; roughly August), and it was also a premature birth, so I was often ill after I was born. My mother said that when I was 18 months old, I had a continuous high fever for three days. At one point, the fever even reached 40C. After two days in the hospital, the medicine stopped working and the doctors didn’t know what else to do. From the looks of it, things weren’t going well. Fortunately, my grandmother quickly arrived and told my mother to seek out Witch Ling’s help.

My grandmother was from a fishing family, and she spent more time drifting on the sea than on land. That year, she returned to sh.o.r.e and was greeted with news that I was on death’s door. Without even taking care of her catches, she headed to the hospital urgently and brought my mother and me to find Witch Ling.

Witch Ling was a distant relative of my grandmother’s, and she lived on an old, stone boat. The so-called stone boat was actually a boat-shaped house that was built on the sh.o.r.e, constructed with stone, wood, metal, etc. Although from afar, it looked no different from a fishing boat, it was fixed in place and unable to move.

That day was the eve of the lunar new year, and the sky was already dark when we arrived at Witch Ling’s residence. Because it was nearly New Year’s, she had put away her alter and was unwilling to perform an exorcism for me. Only after Grandmother’s pleas did she reluctantly agree.

According to my mother, when I entered the stone boat, I was still drowsy with sleep. Witch Ling prayed in front of her witch matron idol for divined tea, and after she worked on me, making me drink the tea, my spirit immediately livened. When I left the stone boat, I was full of energy and vigor. After I returned home, I decocted in the herbal medicine she gave me, and then my fever broke.

After the start of the new year, my mother requested of Witch Ling to become my G.o.dmother. At the start, she was adamant in her refusal. And once more, only after my grandmother implored of her did she finally agree. I heard that during that year, I was the only person she contracted with.

The day of our pledge, G.o.dmother gave me a beaded chain made from soul iron. She said that my soul was easy to scare away, so I must always wear the chain on by body to keep the soul steady.

Actually, all the children on my mother’s side of the family wore a bracelet or pendant made from soul iron. My mother had once tried to seek one out for me, and while they weren’t extremely valuable objects, they weren’t easy to find either. From then on, I always wore the chain on my wrist. However, as I grew older and my wrist grew thicker, more beads had to be added to the chain. The extra beads were provided by another distant relative whom my grandmother sought out.

Every New Year’s and on festive occasions, I would pay a visit to G.o.dmother. Although from the outside, her stone boat didn’t look very out of the ordinary, the inside looked like a small temple. The walls were made of sandalwood for the Buddhist prayers to reverberate. Two walls in the main hall were decorated with banners, offerings from those who’d received her help. Each time I visited, I would find more banners than the last time, and in recent years, she’d received so many that there was no s.p.a.ce left to hang them. This likely had to do with the changing social climate, for when I was younger, G.o.dmother had been looked upon as an ‘evil monster.’

Behind the main hall, there was a small storage room filled with strange medicinal herbs. I don’t call them strange because they are rare. Contrarily, you used to be able to pick them right from the side of the road. The odd thing about these herbs was that they could not be found in all of the pages of the ‘Compendium of Medical Herbs.’ But when I was younger, no matter the ailment I’d been diagnosed with, these herbs cured me every time. Speaking of strange things, my mother told me that after my contract, I rarely got sick. When the occasional cold and runny nose came around, we just asked G.o.dmother to make some tea with the herbs, and I would recover quickly. Before then, the time I spent in the hospital was no less than the time I spent in my own home.

Around the time I was 11 or 12, we went to visit G.o.dmother for the new year. After she looked at me in silence for a long time, she let out a sigh and said earnestly, “Dear boy, I don’t have such great abilities, so I’m afraid I can only protect you until you reach your majority. When you grow up, you’ll definitely become a policeman…”

G.o.dmother said that I was born in the Month of Ghosts, so my life was destined to be one filled with ghosts. My yin energy was particularly strong so I would lure in evil spirits. The reason I had often gotten sick when I was young was because I had offended a fox immortal in the hospital where I was born. As for why there was a fox immortal in the hospital, G.o.dmother said she didn’t know.

G.o.dmother believed that the witch matron was a deity that protected young boys and girls, and so after one’s coming of age ceremony, the witch matron didn’t care about you anymore. While wearing the spirit iron beads helped to ward away some evil spirits, it had little effect on the more powerful evil bringers.

I could never figure out what type of immortal the witch matron was, and G.o.dmother never gave me a clear explanation. From my understanding, she was most closely related to Grandmother Pillow, the very Mother Yin of legends.

G.o.dmother said that when I grew up, I must rely on the police to keep away evil spirits, that I wouldn’t be as easy to mess with that way. Although at the time I didn’t understand that she’d meant the relations between a man and woman when she said ‘grow up’, it was during that time that I became determined to become a good policeman who brought peace to the people. She said that even if I had the police to protect me, I should still act very carefully because my fate was tied to them. My life was bound to be filled with powerful winds and tides, and a small mistake could end my life.

Time flew by, and with the blink of an eye, I’m nearly 30 years old and I’ve been in the police force for several years. I’ve seen my share of tides, but I was still a n.o.body. Although my fate was currently unfavorable, I’d had better days… Ah, a man doesn’t lament on his past glories. The past isn’t worth mentioning now, and it’s better to face the present before you!

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“Stop there!” In the past two years, I’d called out this sentence tens of times each day. Because I am a policeman. An unlucky policeman in the Theft Prevention Department.

The one I ran into that day was a new face, but seeing that he was as good as a marathoner on the run, he wasn’t an amateur. He must have come over from a different neighborhood. A pickpocket would probably be considered a rather fluid profession, and one wouldn’t stay to work in a single place for too long… By proper terms, they are committing a crime and earning dishonest meals. If they stuck around in a place for too long, a fatal disaster was bound to come knocking on their door.

On the bustling street, there were countless pairs of eyes watching coldly as I pursued the pickpocket. If even a single one had stepped out, I wouldn’t have had to run until I was out of breath. Unfortunately, in my two years with Theft Prevention, I had yet come across any such good citizen.

I wasn’t even ten meters behind the pickpocket. I just had to run a little more and I’d be able to grab onto him. But my d.a.m.ned right leg started cramping at the worst time, yet again, and I could only limp after him. In an instant, the distance between us widened. He turned back to glance at me. Then he pulled out the stack of 100 yuan bills from the stolen wallet and tossed the wallet to the ground. As he was about to turn into a dark alley, a pale hand grabbed at his collar and yanked him back.

I ran over to the pickpocket and started huffing nonstop. I finally caught my breath and then I saw that the person who’d caught the thief was a tall girl. She looked pretty delicate, with shapely eyebrows, long and flowing hair, a pair of slender legs, and her arms didn’t really look thick and st.u.r.dy. If I hadn’t seen with my own eyes, you could beat me to death, and I wouldn’t have believed that she’d pulled back a grown man with one hand. Although the pickpocket was kind of short, he was at least 50kg. If it were me though, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it.

“Did he steal your wallet?” the girl asked in a dignified tone, like that of a hero.

Just then, a young man came over and picked up the wallet from the ground. He ran over to us and quickly said, “He stole my wallet.”

I pulled out my police ID and showed the girl. She glanced at it and then said disdainfully, “So your name is Mu Shenyu… Someone like you can be a cop too. No wonder the state of public security is so bad right now.”

I tried to cover up my embarra.s.sment with coughing. “…Thank you for your help. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Then the girl pulled out her own police ID, and I discovered her name was Li Zhenzhen. “I’m afraid you’ll get another cramp and let him get away. It’s probably better for me to capture. Senior!”

The word ‘senior’ sounded very ear-piercing when she said it. It was clear that she was aiming for a cutting remark. Ah, I really wanted to find a trash can to crawl into. d.a.m.ned cramping leg!

“If you two lovers want to play with each other, go home and do it. Stop wasting my time!” The pickpocket was obviously unhappy about being caught, and by a girl at that. He looked to be in a worse state than me, and that restored my mood.

Zhenzhen released him, but she still held on by his collar and mercilessly threw a punch at his lower back. It was so painful that his tears nearly started flowing out. After he cried out that the police was beating someone, the pa.s.sing people suddenly crowded around.

“You think that because you’re cops, you’re so great?! I didn’t steal anything. You think you can extort a confession from me (by torture)?!” Looks like he was trying to pretend he hadn’t done anything. Acting wasn’t just a skill that actors studied. It was a compulsory subject for thieves as well.

I pulled out the wad of bills from his pocket, about ten 100 yuan bills. I waved the notes in front of him. “Didn’t you steal these?”

“Steal?! What do you mean?! The money was in my pocket. Of course it was mind! Everyone, come and make up your minds by yourself!” It was really a loss for the entertainment industry that this guy wasn’t filming movies. As he continued shouting, the crowd grew larger. Ah, why wasn’t everyone so enthusiastic when I was chasing him earlier?

“Say that one more time!” I raised my fist, getting ready to hit that wretched, rotten face of his. Of course, he wasn’t dumb enough to suffer at my hands, so he quickly raised his arms above his head. The crowd started to discuss, and they seemed to conclude that I was violent and abusing my power.

I pulled back my fist and waved the money in his face again. “I’ll ask you again. Are you sure this money is yours?”

“Of course!” He spoke with a very confident and righteous tone, as if it really were the truth.

“Then I’ll have to arrest you for possession of counterfeit bills.” I smiled at the onlookers and held up the bills.

“What?” His eyes widened as he looked over the fake bill in my hand. This was indeed a wad of counterfeit money, very obviously so. Even the onlookers could tell.

“That money’s not mine. It’s his.” Panicked, he pointed at the owner of the money. “It’s his, his.”

The owner quickly waved his hands and shook his head. “That money’s not mine. It’s not mine, I don’t have any counterfeit money.”

I ignored the foolish looking owner and spoke seriously toward the pickpocket. “Then you admit that you stole his wallet?”

“This…” He nodded his head helplessly.

I raised my fist again and he covered his head with his arms. “You’re still hitting me after I admitted to it?”

“Who said I was going to hit you? Look at this money again…” I waved the bills in my hand for the crowd to see once more.

“It’s real? How?” He couldn’t understand at all. Zhenzhen’s expression, which had been looking at me like I was a clown, suddenly grew uncertain.

As the crowd started again, a little girl cried out excitedly from among them. “Mister Policeman, you must be a magician!”

I smiled, pleased. I walked over to the little girl, crouched down, and pat her head. I pulled out a piece of candy. “You’re right. Here’s your reward.”

An hour later, I was sitting in an office, kneading my right leg and smoking. The pickpocket was caught, but the owner ‘disappeared.’ This kind of thing happened every day, and in the end, of course, the pickpockets pat off their b.u.ms and walked out. This was one of the reasons behind the difficulty of improving public security.

“What is it? An old illness?” My colleague Zhu Yong came over to sympathize. Although his concern couldn’t ease away the physical pain of my leg, I still felt a bit comforted inside. I tossed him a cigarette and tried to put on a smile. “It’ll be fine after I rest a bit.”

He sat down next to me and lit his cigarette before complaining, “I don’t know what the guys on top are thinking. You solved tons of major cases when you were in the Investigation Bureau, and then they dropped you here to catch petty thieves. The tiger’s fallen to the land! (…and will get insulted by dogs)” (Note: i.e. a man who loses his position is subjected to indignity)

“Ah…” I sighed. When he put it like that, it really made me sentimental about the past. Two years ago, I was at the Criminal Investigation Bureau, and Xiao Xiang and I had both been awarded top rookie awards. If not for that strange case about the ancient sword serial killings, I wouldn’t have fallen so far. Not only did I nearly lose my right leg, Boss was even dropped into the Anti-Vice Department. And my old partner, Xiao Tong, was still unaccounted for. Still, if I was given the same chance again, I would still chase after that case. Until the rocks are revealed in the water (the truth is revealed), I won’t give up. This is my principle as a person.

After chatting a bit with Zhu Yong, Team Leader w.a.n.g Bin came over with a notice. “Ah Mu, your work’s finally paid off. When you get promoted, don’t forget about us guys here!”

“Coffin?! I’m still alive!” (Note: being ‘sent off in a coffin’ sounds like the word for ‘promotion’) I grabbed the notice from his hands and felt rather confused after reading it. It was a transfer notice, notifying me to report to the ‘Strange Investigations Team’ (SIT) immediately. But after working so many years with the police, I’d never heard of such a department. I asked the guys if they’d heard of it.

“Who cares what department it is. It’ll still be better than catching petty thieves here.” Zhu Yong pat my shoulder in encouragement.

He was right. There was no department more depressing than Theft Prevention. Although I felt very hesitant, I still got ready. Of course, w.a.n.g Bin wouldn’t let me off that easily. I wouldn’t be able to get out of a celebration dinner.

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The notice said that SIT’s office was located within the Public Security building, but I’d been here for four or five years, and there was no such team, which means it must have been founded recently. I asked several of my seniors, but none of them knew about it. I roamed around the entire building and finally found an inconspicuous room near the toilets on the third floor with a sign that said ‘Strange Cases Management Team.’

I pushed the door open and walked inside, finding that it wasn’t as shabby as I’d been expecting. The place was pretty big and the lighting was adequate. There were five desks and rows of cabinets along two walls. Farther inside was the team leader’s office. There was one male and three females inside already. A short girl and a tall girl had their backs to the door as they chat. The other girl was standing in a corner where the light didn’t reach. The only male inside was sitting in front of a computer, tapping on the keyboard. He wasn’t very tall, and he was rather thin, so much that he looked like a monkey. A monkey that hadn’t bathed in days. I suddenly felt that he seemed a bit familiar, like a suspect I’d previously arrested.

“Wei Bolun? What are you doing here?” After I moment, I finally remembered that this monkey had been brought in for questioning regarding invasion of government computer systems. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough concrete evidence at the time, so he hadn’t been prosecuted.

He raised his head to look at me, a helpless expression on his face. “Forced amnesty.”

“You two know each other?” The two females who’d been chatting walked over. One of them was Zhenzhen, who had helped me catch a thief not so long ago.

The woman standing in the corner also walked over to us, so we all started to introduce ourselves. I was the first to speak up. “I’m Mu Shenyu and I joined the police force more than six years ago. I’ve been working in Theft Prevention. You can call me Ah Mu.”

“I’m Li Zhenzhen and I graduated from the Armed Police Force Academy. I’ve been working with the Armed Police Force for two years.” Intentional or otherwise, Zhenzhen glanced at me, as if making a point. To be honest I never thought there was anything that great about the police academy. After all, weren’t they the sort who could only use their fists and not their brains!

“My real name’s Wei Bolun, but my internet buddies call me Wei ge. If you all don’t mind, you can call me Wei ge. After all, I’m a bit older than the rest of you. I used to be a top hacker, and I’ve done a lot of big things in the past. You police used to be completely helpless about catching me, but then some guys came and trampled into my house for no reason this morning and dragged me here. They said they were giving me amnesty or something, and if I didn’t want to help, they’d lock me up for a few years first. What kind of world is this, ah…” Wei ge shook his head and sighed, as if he’d suffered major grievances.

“I’m Le Xiaomiao, but my friends like to call me Miao Miao. I just joined the police force and I don’t know much about anything. Please take care of me.” The one who just spoke was the short girl who’d been chatting with Zhenzhen earlier. She was probably about 156cm tall, with shoulder length hair and big, shining eyes. Her face looked like a doll’s. I really had my suspicions that she’d mistaken this for the police academy and had walked through the wrong door. No matter how you looked at her, she looked just like a student! A high school one at that. Considering her height, unless she had connections, there was no way she’d have made it into the police force.

The only one left was a slim and mature beauty. The way I saw it, her maturity was most obviously shown in her chest area. From my years of handling cases, I was sure that she was at least a C cup, and D cup was also very possible. As I tried to deduce her cup size from her side profile, I noticed that she was hiding something behind her waist, on the right side. She had a coat covering it, so it wasn’t easy to discover. Her expression was very cold, and when she spoke, she seemed as cold as falling snow. “I’m Yuan Xueqing, from the Forensic Firearms Division…”

Just as Xueqing started speaking, someone pushed open the door to the room and walked in. He was a portly, middle-aged man. He walked over to us with a case file in his hands. “Looks like everyone’s here. I’m Liang Zheng and I’ll be your team leader from henceforth.”

Liang Zheng, a name I hadn’t heard in a long time. I should have known he was the one who brought me in. “Boss, aren’t you living well in the Anti-Vice Department? What’s going on with this Strange Investigations Team?”

“The director established SIT to specifically take care of the supernatural cases that happen in the province.” Liang Zheng handed the case file over to me and said, “The medical university’s in a big mess right now. Two dead, one injured. The director said that if we can’t solve the case in a week, the team’s going to be dismissed and everyone will be laid off.”

Wei ge feebly raised his fist. “I’m not one of you guys!”

The boss’ calm face suddenly tightened up and he glared at him. Like an angry tiger roaring, he shouted, “Cut your c.r.a.p or I’ll have you shot for espionage! You actually dared to hack into Hong Kong PD’s system and even left a Trojan.”

“I just wanted to see a few more body art pictures that Xi ge shot…” Wei ge gave an embarra.s.sed laugh. But the boss was being ruthless. He pointed at him and yelled out, “Xueqing, I order you to immediately execute this pervert!”

“Yes, sir!” Xueqing pulled out a Type 54 pistol from her coat and aimed it between Wei ge’s eyebrows.

Wei ge immediately raised his right hand and put up three fingers. “I swear on the name of the hacker, from today forward, I will exhaust all my abilities to a.s.sist in the investigations. If I’ve spoken any false words, let my body be covered in tiny d.i.c.ks!” It was only a brief moment, but his face was already covered in sweat.

“Chief, confirming the order to kill?” Xueqing stared at Wei ge, loading her gun without hesitation. Her tone was indifferent and emotionless, as if there was just a practice target in front of her.

“Let him live a few more days. If he dares to make a mess, you can turn him into a eunuch.” Boss glared ferociously at Wei ge, who couldn’t help but tremble.

“Yes, sir!” Xueqing glanced at Wei ge’s lower body and then skillfully unloaded the bullets. She replaced the gun into her coat, as if nothing had happened just now. The expression on her face was still cold. Wei ge covered his legs with his hands, afraid the other party would suddenly shoot at his crotch.

“What do you think about this case?” Boss asked me after taking care of Wei ge.

I skimmed over the case file. It was a murder case involving a ghost legend, but from the evidence, it was unlikely to be the work of a ghost. “I don’t think it’s really a ghost. The victim of the alleged ghost attack died from a heart attack, from being scared to death. But the report states that there were obvious physical wounds.”

“Mm, your a.n.a.lysis seems reasonable. I don’t care whether the murderer is a person or a ghost, but we’ve got to solve the case within a week. Go to the hospital with Zhenzhen to find out more about the situation from the surviving victim. Report to me if you find out anything.” When the boss finished speaking, he left the office.

Zhenzhen looked me over with suspicious eyes. I helplessly shrugged. “Let’s go. There’ll be time to look at (this) handsome guy later.”

Zhenzhen rolled her eyes. “Tch, you, handsome? You might want to take another look in the toilet.” (Note: This is a mocking phrase, said to someone you don’t believe to be attractive. Not sure if this explanation I saw was a joke or not, but it’s spoken with the intent that ‘(you think) you’re so handsome, you’d be able to see your own beauty in the reflection of your urine.’)