"Rachel, the beauty from Lanzhou, you're here! Come on up, your table's reserved."
Rachel Lan is a regular at this little restaurant. As soon as she walked in, quite a few patrons greeted her, and the owner grinned from ear to ear, ushering her over.
We headed up to the second floor and took a seat by the window at a square table. The walls were covered with wallpaper, but around the edges you could still see the dark, grimy wall underneath.
The food was served: three dishes and a soup. Just some ordinary fare, but the taste was pretty good.
Rachel Lan started eating heartily; she looked really hungry.
"Miss Lan, um, when you have time, could you teach me a few things?"
"Sure."
Rachel Lan agreed instantly. I stared at her in surprise.
"Aren't you even going to ask what I want to learn?"
"Why are you so annoying? I'm willing to teach you, isn't that enough?"
I quickly nodded.
After we finished eating, Rachel asked the owner to bring over a pair of ordinary chopsticks. I had no idea what she was up to. She took two chopsticks, crossed them, and placed them on the table.
"Do you know how long a chopstick is?"
I let out a confused sound and shook my head. Rachel waved a pair of chopsticks in front of my eyes. Her fingers moved nimbly as she spun the chopsticks, making me dizzy just watching her.
"Now I'll teach you a simple Astral Shift Rite."
I watched closely.
"Chopsticks are seven inches and six tenths long, representing the seven emotions and six desires. The square end symbolizes earth, the round end symbolizes heaven—this is the balance of heaven and earth, and the numbers represent yin and yang."
I suddenly remembered that night, when Rachel Lan taught me the Three-Cup Ghost Lure over the phone.
"Watch carefully."
As she spoke, Rachel Lan held the two chopsticks in her hands, her palms facing each other, one upright and one reversed.
"Heaven is Qian, Earth is Kun. Qian and Kun are the two poles, yin and yang in constant flux..."
Suddenly, I saw Lan Ruoxi's figure blur, and with a whoosh, something pale drifted out from her body—it looked exactly like her.
"Soul leaving the body?"
"Not entirely." I sprang to my feet in shock. Lan Ruoxi's voice seemed doubled—one was her own, the other like a recording.
"This is the Astral Shift Rite. For us in the Hades Circle, there are places our physical bodies can't reach. Sometimes, we have to let the soul temporarily depart to investigate."
I gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment.
"Qian is upright, Kun is reversed. Qian and Kun cycle endlessly, returning..."
With another whoosh, Lan Ruoxi's soul slipped back into her body. I watched as she set her chopsticks down on the table.
Just then, I noticed Lan Ruoxi's handbag glowing, pulsing with waves of red light.
Puzzled, I looked over. Lan Ruoxi pulled out a token, emblazoned with a large character for 'spirit,' flashing continuously.
"So annoying. Time to get to work."
With that, I followed her and got into her car.
Lan Ruoxi looked deeply troubled. I didn't dare ask where we were headed.
All the way, Lan Ruoxi slammed the accelerator, running several red lights. The world outside the window blurred past, and my heart thudded in my chest.
"Miss Lan, please slow down." Watching the speedometer climb to 140 kilometers per hour, I felt my chest tighten.
With a screech, the car came to a halt. Luckily, I was smart enough to buckle my seatbelt as soon as we sped up. After getting out, I realized we were at a construction site.
A crowd had gathered. The flashing lights of ambulances lit up the scene as Lan Ruoxi walked over.
We pushed through the crowd and saw, outside the site, a bus crushed by falling steel beams from above, its front smashed into a wall.
I took a few steps back—the scene was gruesome, blood splattered everywhere.
Unable to stand it, I moved aside to catch my breath. Then, I saw a cluster of pale spirits right in front of me—I jumped in fright.