It took another five to ten minutes for Gyuu Park to completely stand up straight. His Qi started flowing normally again, and his muscles and bones stopped hurting. It took a while before he could walk without limping, and by the time he exited the docks area, he was finally able to hold his phone in his hand firmly without almost dropping it on the ground.

After a short moment of consideration, he decided to send a text to both Gloria and Sue, telling them that he needed to head back to his temple first: “Hey, I need to head back to my temple first. Can’t come by because I got something dirty on my clothes. Let’s meet either tomorrow or some time after, I’ll need to go clean up.”

“Understood, be careful on your way back.” Gloria responded.

Before he left, Gyuu Park threw down some red paper coins laced with golden lines and burned them with his Qi. It was meant to be a sign of apologies for disturbing the peace, yet he had no idea if it would mean anything right now.

Time was still late at this hour, and he had no choice but to go back on foot. It was quite far away, he had to walk past almost half the entire South Eastern District to get back to the temple. But he did not really have a choice right now, the only thing he could do was avoid traveling through areas that were too dense in terms of local residence.

In Gloria’s temporary hiding place, with Gyuu Park not present, the two young women could finally have a bit of wiggle room in the tight space.

Detective Marcus Cai was indeed sleeping soundly with regular slow and soothing breathing patterns, and he occasionally mumbled something.

“So - what do you think happened? To Gyuu Park, I mean.” Sue asked Gloria: “It’s kinda weird, right?”

“Yes. But he must have a reason…” Gloria shrugged: “Let’s ask him when we get the detective outta here…” Before she could finish, Gloria’s phone started ringing, and it was from none other than Gyuu Park.

“Hey, what happened?” Gloria immediately answered.

“Okay, bring Sue over, find a quiet place so we can chat.” Gyuu Park, sounding like he was running, or at least walking relatively fast.

Gloria gestured to Sue and pointed at the door. They went out of the entrance of this whole apartment building and found a hidden corner on the side between this building and some metal fences.

“Okay, go.” Gloria said as she put Gyuu Park on speaker.

“Okay, first thing - that detective in there seems legit. And I mean well-intentioned legit.” Gyuu Park panted lightly, and sounded like he kicked away an empty can: “I tried something when I was in the docks earlier. That ‘Sitch’ guy? Looks like someone from around here and he got injured from trying to save the man. I can ask around who this is. But at least from now we can sorta conclude he’s a good dude, at least not a bad one. Too bad, whoever that ‘Sitch’ guy was, he’s most likely dead. There are many bodies on the docks area, and the community watch and patrol team should get there shortly, hopefully ayway. ”

“Okay - we can sort of understand that. And what else? Are you okay?” Gloria asked.

“I’m good. I looked a bit too hard and pissed some spirits off. I should’ve known better. My mistake.” Gyuu Park chuckled and sighed: “And - when I fought the spirits, I noticed that they too had some kind of chains or tubes on their backs. I am still not entirely sure what it does, but I think I have some rough idea - it’s that Qi - I mean that particular forbidden nono thing we talked about. I cut it open and some kind of foul liquid leaked out. This liquid triggered an acute reaction from my blessed oil coin - so, be careful. When you’re dealing with them.”

“Thank you - I guess I understand now.” Gloria frowned then looked at the direction of the docks, “And - what else? Have you seen anything else?”

“Not much, aside from the fact that the docks are very dangerous.” Gyuu Park sighed: “But - don’t do anything yet, I need to check on some old records to make sense of what I saw. So - ”

“I understand, don’t do anything rash, wait for you to get back to us. ” Gloria sighed, then snickered: “How long are you going to dive into the records this time? I am still waiting for you to get back to me from last time.”

“I’ll try, I’ll try.” Gyuu Park let out a very long sigh: “And you stay out of trouble. Now I’m gonna need to hang up - there’s no telling if omens and foul flow of Qiyun could flow through the telephone.”

“Alright, take care.” Gloria shook her head, then turned her eyes to the detective lying on her bed: “Sue, what do you think?”

“Well - things are complicated beyond belief now. I don’t know…” Sue sighed and adjusted her position on the desk: “I am beginning to think we should probably try the old ruins.”

“I - I’m not gonna lie, I am beginning to feel the same way…” Sue rubbed her temples, then checked her phone: “Anyway - it’s really late, do you wanna go back? You still have work tomorrow right?”

“...yes. ” Sue sighed: “I’m sorry - but I want to help you with the - well with everything. But let me do something before I leave.”

“Oh, and what is that?” Sue nodded at her friend with a smile.

“Something I picked up when diving into old records with Turner.” Sue shook her head: “I don’t know if it will work, but I’ve experimented a little, and I think it could help.” Then she looked around: “Do you have anything sticky, like ointment? And can I borrow some of your medicinal alcohol?”

“Yeah. Here.” Gloria turned around and grabbed a flat, short metal jar with a lion on the lid, and a small tinted glass bottle: “Will you be drawing some kind of blessed symbol?”

“You saw right through me.” Sue smiled, “And, original recipe Lion Balm! Good for you! It’s harder and harder to get these days.”

“What can I say, I bruise a lot.” Gloria chuckled.

Sue scooped a small ball of ointment from the metal jar, splashed a little medicinal alcohol on it, then took out a small plastic bag of yellow dust - shavings from incense sticks. She proceeded to mix the ointment, medicinal oil and the incense shaving. The mix turned brown, like a blob of clay.

Then with caution and care, Sue drew two symbols on both sides of the door frame: on the left, the traditional character of “still”, and on the right, the traditional character of “steady”.

“Still and steady?” Gloria nodded: “What do these symbols do?”

“They should help you ward off the influence of bad Fengshui and negative aura.” Sue shrugged: “I mean - I don't know if it will work against EVERYTHING, but at least now you have something.”