“Who is it and what do you want?” Ouyang Turner’s slightly raspy voice came from behind the door.

  “This is Gloria Lee, and I’m here to sell coffee.” Gloria responded.

  The behind the door was taken off, then Sue and Ouyang Turner opened up the dether: “Oh my god, I was so worried! That took you long enough!”

  “It’s not even an hloria chuckled as she locked the door behind her.

  “Yes, but you went out there alone, just to meet some mystery man we didn’t know.” Tae Kuo came out of the kit of this temporary apartment, holding a big bowl of soup, some simple soy sauce fried rid boiled vegetables.

  “It’s Detective Marcus Cai from the 17th Prect, Sue met him before.” Gloria chuckled and sat down with the other three by the coffee table.

  “I know, I know. Ahe ONE copper we trust.” Tae Kuo grinned: “Have some food - there’s not much around, I had to borrow some from the shops nearby and the neighbors.”

  Gloria sighed and looked the Sifu of a coffin hht in his eyes: “You went out?”

  “Just for a little bit. Because no one is really looking for me.” Tae Kued: “Don’t worry, No one followed me. This entire neighborhood is now deserted, I suspect the people here were all moved or evacuated in a hurry. A lot of them still have leftovers in their fridge. So I just - you know, borrowed a bunch of stuff.”

  “Yeah, a coffin home Sifu who knows how to pick locks.” Turner Ouyang shook his head, chug: “I’ve seen a lot these few days.”

  “So what did you talk about?” Sue began p soup for everyohis is not a date, then he must have something important to discuss, yeah? What’d he say?”

  “He’s got a pn to strike at the ‘core’ of everything. And that ‘core’ was an energy dense location, they believed it is a datater” Gloria anized her thoughts before responding to her friend's inquiry: “I - I think I believe him. It fits in with everything we learned so far - the thing with electricity, how it seems to be able to ward off paranormal beings and phenomena, and - why those people tried so hard to cover up the information about the infrastructural project.”

  “He wants to ‘strike’ at them? How?” Sue asked.

  “Wait wait wait - ” Turner Ouyang was just drowned in his own thoughts, and was slow to ask Gloria his questions: “The datater? It’s the ‘core’?”

  “He believes it is. Si is the most energy dense building iy, by far.” Gloria the excited young man with an eyebrow raised: “What? What’d you find? Something important?”

  “Is - is that datater by the water? By - by Lake Aqiu?” Turner Ouyang asked.

  “Yes. And?”

  “Oh! I think it makes sense now. It makes perfect seurner Ouyang ran to the small table at the er of the living room and pulled out a small piece of paper with pencil marks on it from the drawer: “Look! This was something I was w on - sorry it’s just a sketch, but they tried to take it and I had to rip it apart so they don’t know what we’re up to.”

  “Okay, what is it?” Gloria fixed her eyes on the sketch, it was the rough shape of Lake Aqiu, with some lines radiating out from the ke, some straighter, some slightly bent. All of which had dots along them. “What are these?”

  “Proposed sites for those electric substations and transformers.” Turner Ouyang nodded: “These are their locations. And they are going out from the ke like this. And then - I just realized what you meant by energy density - because these substations and transformers all have this - ” He drew one enclosing line eg a few dots around the ke, cutting through to the radiating lines from the ke: “Now, if I remember correctly, these substations, they used simir grades of equipments because of their throughput. And then when you go outside of it, you have lrade equipments.”

  “So - the power lines somehow ter around the ke.” Sue nodded: “That’s not gonna be normal - but why around the ke?”

  “The curse es from the ke.” Gloria almost smacked herself on the face, it was so simple. She could have thought of it, she SHOULD have thought of it.

  “Yes - and - ” Turner Ouyang drew a big circle surrounding everything: “If the electric grid, like you said, was to bee some kind of suppression ritual, it es none simpler and sturdier than a circle, right? And, if things began breaking down - ”

  “Wait - so - ” Tae Kuo opened his eyes wide: “You’re saying those missing sages and schors - ”

  Turner Ouyang nodded, his fingers knocked on the sketched ke on that humble piece of paper.

  Sue gasped, but then proceeded to ask while scratg her jaw: “But where could that be? This is the ke - ”

  “I think I know that answer already - because - this is from a while back, but - ” Turner Ouyang cleared his throat: “There is a tun - ”

  Before he could finish, three quick successive knocks on the door exploded in the empty living room.

  Gloria hopped to the side of the door, with her Qi fully activated while doing a “shh” gesture. The others in the room immediately hid in the er, while Tae Kuo ran into the kit and took out an old kit knife - apparently he did not just “borrow” the food from the neighbors.

  “Open up! It’s Luoshan Zi!”