While Wu Xiaoming was only halfway through microwaving some frozen dinner, Du Bai came into the kitchen, with the canister of black dog urine and a gun in his hand.
“You’re here - shit, I thought - ” Du Bai let out a breath of relief.
“It’s okay. This place is protected by - by some old-timey Fengshui stuff, you’re safe here.” Wu Xiaoming nodded, then gestured at the microwave: “I’m reheating some chow mein because I’m starving, you want anything?”
“Eh, chow mein sounds fine.” Du Bai sat down in a chair. He almost put the canister on the dining table, before he realized what it contained and put it by his feet instead.
“I’ll get you a fresh can afterwards.” Wu Xiaoming shook his head: “But - I believe you will probably have better protection when you report back to your station right? You guys have consultants from MAGLAA. You can just report it to the LAPD and ask for back up right?”
“Yes, but they’re only consultants. It’s a cooperation, so they don’t always answer our call for help.” Du Bai sighed: “And the total number of consultants is limited, which means they’re very busy as is. And - to be honest I’ll probably need to rethink everything - ”
“Hey, this might be a long shot, but have you ever heard of anything happening while inside of any of your stations and precincts?” Wu Xiaoming asked, frowning.
“I - I am not sure, why?”
“In ancient Chinese folklore, places like government ground, or even royal ground, tend to possess some kind of special energy or aura - a bit like Fengshui, but a different kind of energy field. It was the power inherent to governmental power - the same kind of power that can even suppress supernatural energy - ”
“No - not really. There’s plenty of rumors and stories about how - about spirits and apparitions haunting different precincts - especially evidence lockers and holding rooms and cells.” Du Bai shot down Wu Xiaoming’s theory before he could even finish.
“Oh well.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged: “Then I guess the next best choice to stay safe is to be in a place with plenty of people - preferably men. The more people are around you, the more Yang energy there will be, thus better your protection.”
“Woah woah woah, I’m not just talking about that yet.” Du Bai waved his hands and interrupted Wu Xiaoming: “I’m not - not scared, but I still need to rethink how I approach this case - if that - thing already doesn’t have any reservation of killing me, then everyone on the squad investigating the case could be in danger.”
“Another reason to ask MAGLAA for help.” Wu Xiaoming shrugged: “Like - I’m sorry, but I am really not able to help you with a lot of this - all I know is some basic exorcism stuff, okay? I don’t know any protection sigils or rituals or - or whatever regular exorcists do to protect people.”
“Why are you trying to sell me on MAGLAA?” Du Bai frowned.
“Because I am telling the truth - I cannot keep you safe, apart from these talismans and the - the dog urine.” Wu Xiaoming sighed. He meant it, he could handle himself just fine, but having been locked in the back seat of a police car, the fact that his power and sway was limited in this matter had never been so clear. “And - in the meantime, it will be great if you can help me get to the Queen’s Suite again, there’s some more I need to do. Also, this bears repeating - I don’t want to be under MAGLAA’s radar.”
“Okay, dude - ” Du Bai rubbed his temples: “ - I don’t know if I can do that. And I am pretty sure the hotel management would have already banned you from the premises, okay? Even if they are not going to press charges. I’m pretty sure they can file restraining orders against you.”
“Oh, you think they will?” Wu Xiaoming scoffed: “Because I think having that suite in there can be considered endangering the public - okay? How can they think they’re on the moral high ground on this?”
“It doesn’t matter. Based on the facts at hand - reported facts at hand, you trespassed. And even though MAGLAA has an official working relationship with the police, no judges will consider ‘I was just fighting an evil spirit in the hotel’ a reasonable defence. Unless your law says you’re crazy.”
“Okay, okay. What about the other guy? Can you at least look into the other guy? The other exorcist?” Wu Xiaoming shook his head.
“I’ll definitely look into it. Do you remember what he looked like?”
“Uh - he’s an Asian-looking guy, a bit taller than me - ” Wu Xiaoming scratched his jaw: “Look, I’m not good at this, alright? Can you show me a picture of that consultant so I can tell if it was him?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Du Bai began searching on his phone, before long, he put it in front of Wu Xiaoming with a photo in fullscreen: “Is this him?”
Wu Xiaoming took less than two seconds to tell that this was indeed the man he ran into in the Sproutlinger Hotel. Under the picture was a name: “Erik Lee, senior paranormal consultant, MAGLAA registered exorcist.”
“Yeah, that’s him.” Wu Xiaoming nodded: “He’s the consultant, right?”
“Right, he’s working with Detective Tracy, the lead detective on the Sproutlinger Hotel case.” Du Bai frowned: “He was in the hotel?”
“Yes he was, and apparently he was trying to deal with the situation himself.” Wu Xiaoming groaned: “And - uh - he was in a fight with some possessed guy when I got there.”
“You exorcists like to do things alone, huh?” Du Bai shook his head, chuckling: “And - I hate to ask this, but how’d it go?”
“It went - it went not-super-good.” Wu Xiaoming shook his head: “That thing was really powerful, and we were not on the same page, so - I believe we managed to hurt the thing, probably why it was super pissed. And then you pissed it off more - ”
“Do you think it has the ability to do that again? Like - trying to kill me, or someone else?” Du Bai interrupted, slightly blushing.
“I don’t know. But I don’t think so. ” Wu Xiaoming took the reheated chow mein out of the microwave: “Mr. Erik Lee landed a pretty heavy blow, I splashed some dog urine on it, and that shadow got YOUR virgin pee on it, so I guess it should be more seriously injured, and would be unable to do anything serious for a while.”
“Okay, good to hear - ”
“But unless it still has more energy to pull off some kills, and like old folktales it can heal its wounds by consuming innocent victims’ lives. Then we’d be in big trouble.”
“What the - you should have told me that earlier!” Du Bai slammed his hands on the counter and was about to get up and leave. But Wu Xiaoming pulled him back.
“You should know that just by going like this there’s not really a high chance you’ll be able to do anything, and if more people had died you’d have gotten a few calls already.” Wu Xiaoming smiled: “My theory is, we’re safe for the night.”
“But what about tomorrow? Or - later today? Tonight?” Du Bai grabbed a full ball of chow mein into his bowl using a pair of chopsticks.
“That’s why I asked if you can get me into the hotel, assuming they banned me.”
“It’s best we go with the assumption that you are banned, and since you don’t want to work with MAGLAA or the LAPD, that puts us in a little bit of a bind.” Du Bai leaned back slightly and stretched.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. I know. I’ll think of something.” Wu Xiaoming got a mouthful of chow mein as well.
“Mm…” Du Bai grimaced as he swallowed: “You wouldn’t be - you wouldn’t be thinking about sneaking in?”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Wu Xiaoming raised his brows.
“Dude, you don’t say that around me. I just gave you a notice to appear on a potential vandalism case!” Du Bai almost laughed out loud.
“I’m just telling you I am not ruling it out. That thing needs to be handled.” Wu Xiaoming sighed: “I don’t really know how, but - ”
“Tell you what.” Du Bai smacked his lips: “I’ll help you out - I mean I’ll see what I can do. You still have something left in that hotel room, right? Makes sense for you to go back and collect some personal stuff. And makes sense for me to chaperone.”
“Wouldn’t your colleagues have done it already?”
“There’s room to work that, it’s an excuse at least.” Du Bai rolled his eyes.
“Okay.” Wu Xiaoming nodded: “Now, can you go ask that consultant of yours for help as well? And let me know what he says.”
“Already planning on that.” Du Bai nodded: “I actually have a real experience to tell him about. Minus the - ”
“Minus my involvement.” Wu Xiaoming nodded.
“Yeah, well, and minus how I repelled it.”