“Yeesh.” Fear and panic could be infectious, and Gloria gasped lightly staring into Gyuu Park’s face: “And - this means she’s dead right? I mean - I could just tell the kid and let him know that he has nothing to worry about. And what does it have to do with Qiyun? Are you telling me that the cat eating some sacrificial food caused some - karmic abnormality?”

“Yes, except: one, not many actually could testify that they saw the team from the community collective taking her down; and two, there were still a lot of things unexplained. ” Gyuu Park raised his fingers and counted: “No one knows exactly what happened. But we know that it involves at least two major factors: for one, that the cat eating sacrificial food, and the woman being recently deceased seemed to have triggered some kind of strange reaction, causing the cat and the old woman to be merged into a single entity; and two, it was a karmic phenomenon due to curious and still unknown circumstances. The reasoning behind the second was that after her being risen, she targeted mainly children, and healthy children at that. The worst thing she did was sneaking into a small daycare center and taking away five out of six children from the room. The only one she didn’t take was a girl, who had some kind of heart condition from birth. She later passed away from it at the age of seven or eight. And it kinda led to people in the clergymen and clergywomen circle theorizing that she was trying to feed on more than the raw vitality of the children, but also the Qiyun and flow of karma that was bestowed upon them. Because, and you did not hear this from me, in theory it can be done, especially to young children. ”

“It’s in a way, like - like stealing the future from them? Is that the right way to look at it?” Gloria asked.

“Close enough.” Gyuu Park sighed and leaned back: “Throughout recorded history, this is not the first time it ever occurred, but it was definitely the latest incident. So - to tell you what I’d worry about. Just like I said, not many could actually say they saw the Cat Granny being taken out. And to be perfectly honest, I am not sure that kind of thing could be killed just with fire.”

“Fuck.” Gloria rubbed her temples, as she finished her tea completely and pushed the cup to the side: “How did she even steal it? I mean, from the children? Just by eating them alive?”

“She might not have done so out of premeditation, if that’s what you’re asking.” Gyuu Park shook his head: “It’s some kind of spontaneous monsterization. And from what I’ve read about the incident, though she was cunning and sneaky, she was definitely not intelligent enough to know about all the forbidden knowledge of Qiyun. The only plausible answer was that after turning into that thing, she just knew.”

“Do cats know?” Gloria thought for a moment then asked: “I mean, how about that cat? What do we know about it?”

“The body was heavily charred, so not very easy to tell. All we know is that it had gray, white and yellow fur.” Gyuu Park shrugged: “And good question - I think the answer is that cats do kinda know. Have you heard about the legend of Nekomata? The unusually old cats that have gained supernatural abilities and would eat the old people in their households and replace them? I think it’s basically the same kind of instinct at play here.”

“That’s concerning.” Gloria scratched her head: “So, what do you suggest we do next? I’m - I gotta admit, I am completely out of ideas for now. With everything that’s going on - ”

“I think first we need to go to the docks and take a look.” Gyuu Park flipped through the pages once again: “I mean - things are bad, just like you suspected. And it’s paranormal in nature, so, your 15 year circle theory does seem to have certain truth to it. The only thing we need to figure out is - if something horrible was about to happen, then what will it be?”

“Wait, so you think everything is connected as well?”

“I’m not ruling it out.” Gyuu Park sighed: “I made some talismans recently - and hopefully they could help us. It should be the closest water that connects the lake to that electrical substation right? If it is indeed water connected, with the aqua weeds and all, then we could possibly find something.”

“Okay, should we go now?” Gloria asked.

“No, no, that would be foolish.” Gyuu Park shook his head and chuckled: “We just need to find the right time - where the energy in the air is balanced between Yin and Yang. In this way, we won’t be in terrible danger if there are indeed some kind of unclean beings in the water, and the traces of paranormal energy would still be lingering. So I am thinking maybe tomorrow morning, early, before sunrise.”

“You’ve got it.” Gloria yawned, with everything she did, she finally began to get tired.

“And then, there’s this thing we can try.” Gyuu Park also yawned, but as he slowly looked through all the pictures from the torn pages, he pulled one closer to his face as he seemed to have found something worth paying attention to: “This is interesting - the pictures - they didn’t blur out the uniforms’ serial numbers. I bet we can find out who some of these victims are. And maybe we can pay their family a visit, and ask them if they had, you know, gone through something unusual or strange. Especially recently.”

“Well - but that would be - a little insensitive, isn’t it?” Gloria sighed.

“I think we have no other choice but to try.” Gyuu Park shrugged: “I don’t know if we’re gonna find something. But it’s a lead. And - let’s face it, it’s the most solid lead to everything we’re trying to look into right now.”

“Ugh. I hate this.” Gloria rubbed her temples again: “I can’t believe this is all happening. I mean - it all started with that weird body, and then everything just - just rolled into a giant turd snowball.”

“Yeah, like you know what snowballs look like.” Gyuu Park chuckled and waved to the waitress.

“I lived in the Northern District when I was a kid, remember?”