Twenty-seven. The first collaboration
At 4:57 p.m., the door to the Detective Agency was knocked upon.
Oliver's clock was three minutes fast.
Lu Li was roused from sleep, his eyes, as if coated with a layer of mist, gradually cleared, turning into a deep spring.
This time, he did not fall back into that bizarre and chaotic dreamscape, yet he also could not remember what he had dreamed.
After washing up, he walked to Oliver, who was waiting outside the door, and before leaving, Lu Li took a top hat from the coat rack, then closed the door behind him.
Click—
The door shut, and the dim Detective Agency returned to silence.
...
"Roasted chestnuts for sale, get your chestnuts!"
"Freshly caught eels, 4 shillings a pound—"
"Give me back my hair tie!"
Cries of vendors echoed through the bustling Sailor Street as children ran and played noisily. The fishy scent wafted through the air, emanating from the sailors who had returned from sea or from the fish they brought back.
"Are you coming with me?"
Lu Li tilted his head slightly, asking Oliver who was following alongside.
"No, I'm turning left up ahead," Oliver pointed to the corner ahead and said.
At the corner, Oliver said goodbye and slipped away. Lu Li watched him leave, donned his top hat, and merged into the throngs of people.
...
"Exorcist sir, do you need me to close the gallery now?"
Upon entering the office on the second floor of the gallery, Lu Li was greeted warmly by Benjamin.
The bare bookshelves and the desk as clean as new confirmed that last night's events were no illusion. Lu Li suddenly remembered that he hadn't informed Benjamin about the situation in the office before he left this morning.
But seeing Benjamin's unconcerned demeanor now, Lu Li decided not to bring it up.
"Let's wait until the normal business hours are over," Lu Li answered.
"Uh..."
Benjamin showed a look of embarrassment: "There are no customers in the gallery at the moment."
The gallery eventually closed at exactly 6 p.m. when the business hours ended. The employees left one by one, with Benjamin being the last to depart.
Lu Li stood by the door, watching Benjamin leave and didn't turn back to the gallery. Instead, he descended the steps, walked to the back of the gallery, and came to a window below the second floor.
This was the window of the second-floor office where Lu Li had left the ghost baby the night before, but there was no trace on the ground.
Convinced that it was unlikely for the ghost baby to appear here, Lu Li returned to the gallery's main entrance, took down the 'Open' sign from the door, and locked it.
The sky began to darken, though there was still some time before it would be completely dark. Lu Li lit the oil lamp, placed the wind guard on, and quietly waited for night to fall.
The gallery corridor grew darker and blurrier, becoming invisible. Half an hour later, only a small circle of light from the oil lamp remained around Lu Li.
Whoosh—
A strange scraping noise arose from the depths of the corridor, resounding as it approached.
The sculpture came to life.
Lu Li stood up, picked up the oil lamp, and walked past the desk toward the depths of the long corridor.
After walking about ten meters, he saw a sculpture moving towards him on the corridor.
"Good evening," Lu Li greeted, "I need your help."
Without waiting for the sculpture to reply, Lu Li picked up the sculpture and headed toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
"I know you can hear and think. I need your help to stand guard by the stairway and watch for Asina; you should know her. If she comes out of the rest room, come and tell me," Lu Li said while placing the sculpture at the stairway and looking into its lifeless stony eyes, "If you don't wish to, feel free to leave."
He stepped back a few paces, turned, and walked away. Seconds passed, and no sound of stone scraping against the floor could be heard from behind.
He had succeeded.
As he passed by Anna's portrait, the girl in the painting remained frozen, showing no signs of coming to life.
Lu Li withdrew his gaze and continued forward.
At that moment, however, a pair of somewhat translucent hands reached out from behind Lu Li's head and covered his eyes.
"Guess who?" came a crisp laugh like that of an oriole from behind him.
Lu Li stopped walking, but it was a tad too late—the semi-transparent hands blocking his view couldn't react in time and pressed into Lu Li's head through his eye sockets, frantically trying to retract.
"Anna," Lu Li said.
"Oh c'mon, you could at least pretend to guess wrong for once."
With a pout, Anna let her hands drop and floated in front of Lu Li, puffing her cheeks into a dumpling face.
"...?" Confusion flickered in Lu Li's dark pupils. Was he supposed to intentionally guess the wrong name in this game of guessing who?
Quickly setting aside his confusion, Lu Li regained his composure and said, "Can you sense the presence of other ghosts?"
"If they're not deliberately hiding their aura, yes," Anna nodded.
"Good, I need your help," Lu Li said with a slight nod.
...
"I feel it... It's there!"
Outside the gallery wall, Lu Li held up an oil lamp high above his head.
Anna floated nearby, exclaiming in surprise.
They were searching for something—or rather, a ghost—beneath the wall.
Lu Li looked up, following Anna's direction toward a branch a few meters off the ground and spotted a hanging umbilical cord.
Raising his arm even higher, a Ghost Baby appeared within the light of the oil lamp, suspended from the tree.
Its umbilical cord was wrapped around the branch. Sensing the light from the oil lamp, the Ghost Baby began to struggle and wave its limbs.
Lu Li turned to Anna beside him and pointed up at the tree, "Bring down that Ghost Baby."
"Umm... It looks so strange, is this a human infant?" Anna floated up to the branch, complaining with her mouth, but undid the umbilical cord without any disgust and lowered the Ghost Baby in front of Lu Li.
Lu Li extended his hands, taking the Ghost Baby into his arms despite Anna's puzzlement.
Not fully developed, its hands and feet, still joined together at the joints, clung to Lu Li's arms. Its mouth split open, revealing a full set of sharp teeth—but it did not scream or bite.
It was simply smiling in delight at the sight of its own kind, despite being unable to make a sound with its underdeveloped vocal cords.
If it had been just yesterday, Lu Li would not have been so daring. However, after encountering ghosts like Anna and the statues that did not attack humans and could communicate, Lu Li's attitude had shifted.
Ghosts were once living people, so why couldn't they possess humanity?
Looking down at the Ghost Baby, the spirit that was less than seven months along was not fully developed, its many layers of wrinkles covered with a layer of fine down, and its face resembling more the snout of an animal, making it look like the young of some evil spirit.
Indeed, that was the case.
Lu Li reached out to touch its eyelid and discovered that it could see. Its five fingers, like those of a frog, were connected by a layer of thin, transparent membrane as it reached to grab Lu Li's fingers.
Lu Li looked away and glanced at Anna, whose expression had grown increasingly odd, and then headed back to the main entrance of the gallery.
After locking the door, Lu Li took off his coat to wrap the Ghost Baby and placed it beside the oil lamp on the desk.
He looked up at Anna, whose expression was growing ever more peculiar, and she was about to speak but hesitated, "What are you trying to say?"
"Is it your child?"
"No."
"Then why did you bring it back with you...?"
"It's Asina's child."
"...?"
"It can soothe Asina's resentment."
"So the question is, why are you doing all this?"
Lu Li fell silent for a moment, then looked deep into Anna's eyes and said.
"Because I am an Exorcist."