The next morning, Du Bai came back to his precinct, with a fresh canister of black dog urine in his trunk, and a shirt pocket full of Wu Xiaoming’s talismans.

“Officer Du, how are you?” Detective Brian Tracy greeted Du Bai near the coffee station: “They said you didn’t check in last night, and I was getting worried - ”

“Yeah, I gave him a notice to appear, and a warning. ” Du Bai scratched his head: “Listen, detective, I need your help.”

“Yes, and I have some questions to ask you as well.” Detective Tracy gestured at the break room on their side: “Come, let’s have a chat - you have breakfast yet?”

“I did - a very early one.” Du Bai followed the detective into the break room: “I know this is an unusual ask, but - can you put me in contact with the - the MAGLAA consultant working with you? I - I think I need his help.”

“Oh? ” Detective Tracy raised an eyebrow: “I thought you were not interested in that kind of talk, what’s changed?”

“Actually - something rather unfortunate - ” Du Bai shook his head: “I - when I was escorting Mr. Wu back, you know - I was planning to drive him back to our precinct. And - while I was on my way - and I got attacked by something unintelligible.”

“Attacked, you mean?” Detective Tracy narrowed his eyes: “What attacked you?”

“A shadow of some kind.” Du Bai raised his jaw to show the detective his neck - even after one night of rest and Wu Xiaoming’s help, even after his own rubbing some black dog urine over it, there was still a very light visible hand mark on his neck: “I - it was pretty frightening.”

“Holy shit, man, are you okay? You wanna go visit a temple?” Detective Tracy looked at the hand print left and right: “I - I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know - ”

“It’s okay. But I need help WE need help, - I think anyone involved with this case could be in danger. ”

“So - I guess that tied in with my question for you.” Detective Tracy sighed then looked Du Bai in the eyes: “What happened last night? I didn’t get the pager and I just heard of it earlier this morning.”

“Well - it was around 9:15 at night, I was on patrol duty around the area when I got a call from dispatch about some disturbance in the hotel. I went in with Jennifer - Officer Williams. And then I found Mr. Wu Xiaoming, the actor-slash-TV-host that came to the hotel more than a week ago.

It was on the eighth floor, in a hallway where some kind of luxury suite used to be. Allegedly, our suspect broke the facade the hotel put along the wall to hide the suite. And he allegedly splashed some - some dog urine all over the suite, and burned something - allegedly.”

“Is it ‘the Queen’s Suite’?” Detective Tracy’s eyes opened wide.

“Yeah - I think that’s what the night manager told me - what about it?” Du Bai asked.

“Fucking hell - this is not good.” Detective Tracy took out his phone: “I’m sorry, Officer Du, but I need to call my consultant.”

“Oh, no problem. And please - I think we all need help as well.” Du Bai nodded.

Detective Tracy turned his head and nodded at Du Bai, without looking at him at all, before speaking into the phone: “Yeah, it’s me. Did you hear what happened at the hotel? … okay, you didn’t? I thought all those preparations you did were just so you’d know - never mind. One of our officers answered to a disturbance call there last night - and he just told me he was attacked by a - a shadow. Uh-huh - okay.” He put down the phone, and gestured Du Bai to close the door to the break room. Du Bai stood up and shut the door, locking it as well.

“Okay, you’re on speaker now.” Detective Tracy placed his phone between him and Du Bai facing up: “Mr. Lee, I have Officer Du with me, he’s working with us on the case in Sproutlinger Hotel, and he’s the one who was attacked by the shadow.”

“Hello, officer.” On the other end of the call was a man with a gentle voice: “Can I say that I am very, very glad that you are alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Lee, me too.” Du Bai sighed: “But - but since I am pretty sure it got its eye on me because I was at the scene at that unfortunate time, I was wondering - ”

“Sorry to interrupt, officer, but I have a question first if you don’t mind.” Mr. Lee interjected: “Can you tell me what happened? How it went down?”

“Ah, sorry, okay - ” Du Bai proceeded to retell Mr. Lee the version of the story he told Detective Tracy, with the same details about how they expelled the shadow omitted.

“Wait - so the shadow just - just left?” Mr. Lee sounded confused and unconvinced.

“I - yeah, kinda.” Du Bai scratched his face and nose.

“And this man, whom you brought back and gave a notice to, he was with you, right? What did you do after that?”

“Well, he kinda - kinda witnessed what happened, and he seemed to know a thing or two about what happened, so I went to his place and spent the night at his place.” Du Bai’s mouth was a little dry as he got to the less well thought out portion of the story: “To be honest - he was a childhood friend of mine, so - ”

“What does he know? And did you do anything to cleanse yourselves?”

“I - uh - we both took hot showers, separately, I mean.” Du Bai thought for a brief moment: “And then we both slept in salt circles, and he recommended that I go to a temple or a church today.”

“Your friend - he’s a - an amateur paranormal investigator, right?” Mr. Lee asked.

“I - he couldn’t tell me what he had been working on, but - maybe?”

“Gentlemen, we are kinda off track here, please get back to the case.” Detective Tracy raised his voice slightly.

“This is relevant to the case, detective, because Officer Du here was attacked by the entity, and we need to evaluate the severity of the attack, the means of the attack and the distance it was from the hotel so we can decide on how dangerous it is.”

“Okay.” Detective Tracy sighed: “And - assuming that nothing and no one actually intervened and Officer Du thwarted the attack by himself, what will the danger level be?”

“That will depend on how that attack was thwarted. If the attack was unable to go on due to its distance, or the natural life forces of your officer, then it should not be as dangerous.” Mr. Lee spoke with a slow and steady tone, almost one word at a time: “But - if it was thanks to something on Officer Du, or some kind of protective artifact on him, then it means that the entity is more powerful than we previously imagined. So, please be honest and transparent - did you have any protective artifacts on you, or anything that could have defended you from the attack?”

“I - I - ” Du Bai hesitated for a brief moment, then rubbed his face: “Okay, okay, what the hell - actually… Um - let me tell you about the attack - I was escorting Mr. Wu, and we were arguing, because he’s my childhood friend, and I thought he went back to drugs again, and - and then all of a sudden, something cold just grabbed me out of nowhere - and - and I was losing my strength, my brain was getting foggy. But then - the shadow just screamed and left the car, and Mr. Wu came out to catch me while I’m falling. ”

He took a deep breath, then Mr. Lee asked: “And what did your friend say about that?”

“Is your friend a member of MAGLAA?” Detective Tracy narrowed his eyes.

Du Bai scoffed and shook his head: “Oh, nonono - he didn’t even know what MAGLAA was before I told him. He’s just - very interested in these kinds of things, and he - helped me understand the situation. Which led to a theory - I mean, only a theory - ”

“It’s okay, out with it, officer, it’s nothing to be cagey about.” Detective Tracy raised his eyebrows.

“During the attack, my body temperature was dropping like I was in the freezer, and I lost control of my body, and I - I had a lot of coffee earlier because it’s been a busy week - ”

“Male virgin urine.” Mr. Lee chuckled and interrupted: “Very old fashioned, but it works. You ARE a virgin, right, officer?”

Du Bai winced, then reluctantly replied “Ye - yeah, fortunately.”

“What does this mean for us, Lee?” Detective Tracy asked.

“Male virgin urine is indeed one of the most powerful raw material contents against malevolent spirits - and if that shadow was a manifestation of the spirits lingering in the hotel, it will fear that as well.” Mr. Lee said: “Detective, it would be very prudent of you to make sure that the hotel is evacuated - if not, at least the floor.”

“What about our officers? There are at least ten of them who have been to the hotel!”

“If whatever evil was there is indeed strong enough to kill your officers, it would have already. The only reason it attacked you last night was probably because it just got out and just had enough energy to pull off ONE kill.” Mr. Lee continued with his theory: “But, in order to be safe, I think we need to protect the civilians on that floor last night, you, Officer Du, and whoever got close to the location yesterday.”

“What are you gonna do?” Detective Tracy asked.

“I have enough evidence to ask for back up from MAGLAA, I will arrange a group to handle this.” Mr. Lee sighed: “Believe me, this is way out of LAPD’s paygrade.”