Chapter Fourteen: Shadowy Rain

"Still no leads," Sam said, tilting his head back and downing his cup of tea.

"Are you determined to get to the bottom of this?"

"Yes."

"I see…" The Professor once again began to roll the prayer beads between her fingers. "Then you must take care of your health and look after yourself."

The smoke from the incense wafted upward, blending with the misty rain outside the window, creating a kind of delicate, entangled beauty. Night had fallen, and the electronic candles in the room remained steady and bright. The lifeless candle "flames" made my eyes burn with heat.

"Alright, I know you still have things to take care of. Most people around here are elderly and go to bed early, so if you're planning to ask around, you'd better get moving."

"Professor, are you sure I can ask people... here?"

The professor smiled and said, "Go ahead. Everyone will cooperate with you."

I stood up, ready to go with Sam, but he told me to wait here. I felt a bit awkward.

This place was completely unfamiliar to me, and being alone with his foster mom, I wasn't sure... …

"It's alright. She won't bite." Sam whispered in my ear.

**********

After he left, the professor tilted her head slightly and smiled at me, then closed her eyes and began to turn her prayer beads again. The room fell into complete silence. I didn't dare to make a sound for fear of disturbing her, so I sat obediently on the floor cushion, not even turning my head.

It was too quiet.

The only sound in the room was the faint crackling of burning incense. But if you focused on a sound too much, everything around would start melting away, distorting like a hallucination.

So quiet, it felt like being suspended in the void... ...

Looking out the window, I could see dark mountain ranges not far away, and occasionally, the flash of rescue searchlights along the slopes. Closer in, I could make out most of the uneven little houses in town below. After all, the Rawn district was the highest point; the terrain sloped downward from north to south.

Then, the lights suddenly went out.

Unlike filament bulbs that glow dimly for a while even after going out, the electronic lights were instantly severed, plunging the room into complete darkness.

Almost at the same time, the incense burned out!

The last glowing specks of ash fell onto the table, the light rapidly shrinking into a pinpoint.

The gods and demons painted on the ceiling became blurry and surreal in the dimness, as though they were about to descend into the human world with the darkness... ...The thought made my scalp tingle. I wanted to call out to the professor, but my throat had become sticky from the long silence.

I couldn't make a sound!

Darkness, silence, a stiff body, and being unable to speak... ... This familiar combination suddenly broke through the dam of memory in my mind.

A whimpering wind swept through the hallway outside.

"Whoosh—Whoosh—Whoosh—"

I sprang up from the cushion, but after sitting still for so long, the blood in my legs hadn't circulated properly. My legs gave out, and I collapsed to the floor. Fear caught me in my throat. I lost control like an animal.

I began kicking wildly in spasms, flailing at the air. The entire room flipped over like a crashing bus... As the thought popped out in my head, my body stiffened beyond biological limits, like a corpse. 

I panicked to the point of losing my mind: couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything. Just then, I felt a woman approaching.

Her presence wrapped around me, soft and dreamlike.

When I came to, the professor was rubbing my freezing hands, whispering soothing words over and over again. She even placed her prayer beads in my hands for me to hold, hoping they might offer a bit of comfort.

"Ever since the rain started, the circuit here has been tripping frequently. I'm so sorry—I forgot to warn you," she said when she noticed I'd regained my senses. She quickly turned the lights back on.

"Are you feeling better now, Elin? Here, have some tea to calm down."

"Why are you crying…? Are you feeling unwell? Do you want me to take you downstairs for a checkup?" she asked, gently touching my forehead.

I reached out with trembling hands, and only then did I realize—the prayer beads in my palms had somehow snapped.

**********

I'm not the "bothering" type. Usually, when something happens, I try my best to handle it myself. But at this moment, not only had I completely lost control in front of a stranger, I had also damaged something clearly very precious to her.

What should I do now?! In a moment of panic, I started crying like a fool, forgetting even to apologize.

The professor gently helped me back onto the cushion and made sure I was sitting comfortably before she took the broken prayer beads from my hand. One of the beads slipped from her fingers, rolling far across the floor and letting out a long, echoing sound that only made things feel worse.

I stared at the bead, completely frozen in embarrassment.

"Have you come back to your senses?" she asked, watching me with an amused but unreadable expression.

"I-I'm sorry, Professor…" I lowered my head in shame. The words about compensation rose to my lips but didn't come out. Something like that clearly couldn't be made up for with money. The thought made me even more uneasy.

"I know you didn't mean to," she said, gently placing the beads back on the table. Her voice was soothing. "It's alright. There's no need to feel so troubled."

The prayer beads looked expensive, and the way she'd kept them hidden in her sleeve made it clear how much she valued them.

I stared at her, full of doubt—could she really let it go just like that?

She gave a soft sigh and smiled. "I remember when I was little, following my mother around as we tried to make a living. Life was hard back then. We never stayed in one place long... usually just three to five days before moving again. I watched as streets, houses, and people I'd only just begun to know were left behind again and again. I hated it.

"Nowadays, lots of young people talk about the romanticism of a nomadic lifestyle, right? It sounds poetic. But in truth, it's just the drifting of people with no roots. As a young kid, I truly envied those children who had a home to go back to. Even a remote little town like this one would have been irreplaceable to me."

Her voice grew tinged with sorrow. I listened intently, not daring to interrupt.

"Every time we arrived in a new city, on the first night, my mother would always recite the Heart Sutra before bed. She wasn't particularly devout. I was young and full of resentment, so I couldn't understand why she did it.

"One time, I shouted at her, 'Stop chanting! You don't pray regularly, and now you're just clutching at straws! That stuff is for sending off the dead—it'll only bring more bad luck!' I thought she'd scold me for saying that. But she didn't.

"After I spoke, she just hugged herself tightly, staring fearfully out the window at the unfamiliar city beyond."

The professor's eyes were gentle as she looked at the broken prayer beads on the table. "Since then, I realized that a person's heart is fragile. Anyone can have a fear of the future, fear of misfortune, fear of loss, and fear of pain. And these scriptures, beads, rituals, and even words ... ... are nothing but tools that comfort the heart. If these beads can give you the slightest comfort, then their value has not been wasted."

Night had already covered this side of the land, I curled up on the futon, holding the warm cup of tea tightly in my hand, and for a moment, I felt very inclined to the moon shadow and wind caressing outside. I suddenly realized why the lady in front of me had the "professor" temperament.

It came from a gentle understanding of the human heart, a person who doesn't understand the fears of others can't be trusted and relied on.

"I've heard some of your story from Chowie. It must be difficult to fight through so many accidents. If it were me, I'd still be lying in a hospital bed in a state of delirium! Elin, you are a strong and gifted girl." Saying this, the professor held my hand.

My nose soured and tears almost fell from my eyes, but I forced myself to ask the teacher about the missing cases in town. After all, that was the purpose of today's visit.

However, she didn't show much of a reaction to the names Vivian or Amelia. With apologetic eyes, she told me that although she had lived in the town for more than thirty years, she didn't know everything about what had happened here. If I wanted to look for any clues, perhaps I should ask the group of old people living in this nursing home, who were the group of people who knew the most about the town.

"But didn't Sam say 'bodies of children have appeared again'?Did this kind of thing happen in the past?" If so, could there be a pattern of crimes? I pursued the question with some reluctance.

The professor looked at me with wide eyes for some minutes before speaking. "A similar incident did occur in the town eleven years ago ... The name of the child who had the accident was Daniel Chow, Samuel Chow's little brother."

My brain roared, my entire body froze there. Speechless.

"There was never a clue in that case, although a long time has passed. As you can imagine, Chowie's heart is still full of obsession about it. And this child, who recently had an accident, is close to Daniel's age, so it's no wonder that he cares so much about it.

Regarding these two cases, Chowie should know the most. As for your friend Vivi, I'm sorry, I really have no impression, children from the town always come and go in waves. The missing cases, over the past decades, are not a few. Most of them, in the end, were just young people who insisted on going out into the world despite their parents' objections, and then just 'disappeared', left for their dreams."

So still no clues. I rubbed my head in frustration, and just then, there was a "pop" behind me.

I reflexively jumped up and jerked my head back, but it turned out to be a book that had fallen off the shelf.

The professor was a little surprised at my overreaction, but kept the same smile on her face as always. "Speaking without even noticing, it's already this late."

I comprehended the meaning of her words and very sensibly prepared to say goodbye and leave. The professor nodded and walked me all the way to the elevator door.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you, Elin."

"Not at all! Talking to you has been very rewarding for me, besides, I broke your prayer beads."

The elevator doors opened, and I entered only to see her standing still, slightly playfully cocking her head at me.

"If you shift the direction of your investigation a bit, you might get some clues. I'm afraid that just focusing on the town itself isn't enough; after all, the town is unchanging, and the people are the variables living through it. For example, you could look into why Amelia came here? Why did Vivian, Larry, Chowie, and yourself, come back to the town ..."

The elevator doors closed.

Standing within this four-sided cold copper wall, I recalled her words and couldn't help but feel my heart racing. The elevator traveled to the second floor and suddenly stopped. I remembered that this floor was the nursing station, the door was open towards the front ... ...

"Creak-" Oddly, the front doors didn't move at all. This time, the back doors opened.

I turned around only to see a pitch-black hole in the corridor, and through the light in the elevator, the visible range is only about two meters.

The quiet darkness seems to be a beast that devours people's sanity. I hastily backed up, my whole body tightly pressed against the front doors of the elevator.

Hurry up and close the damn doors!

I stared at the darkness without blinking, afraid that if I didn't pay attention, something would come out of it.

As if to echo my imaginings, a misty white figure suddenly floated out from a short distance away and moved quickly toward the other end of the hallway!

I couldn't help but scream out in shock. Hearing my voice, "it" immediately hid behind a pillar, and then slowly poked its head out to peer. A head of long, curly hair fell like rain... ...

Oh no... ... I shrieked radically, but couldn't move my eyes.

Luckily, the elevator doors closed peacefully, otherwise I was afraid I would have peed my pants.

I ran out from the first-floor hallway in shock, and from afar, I saw Sam talking to a few old people. Just as I was about to call out to him, an old man stepped in front of me.

"Are you the little girl from LaPau family?"

"How, how do you know?" My voice sounded unusually dry.

The old man huffed. "You look exactly like old LaPau's wife, Norah Jade!" He suddenly narrowed his eyes and looked in that direction of Sam.

"What a pity... pity ..."