“Excuse me.” The voice of a gentle, middle-aged man interrupted Alex Pearson and his two clients, he sat down by the table, next to Alex Pearson: “I couldn’t help but overhear - you’re from Poison City?”

  “Who wants to know?” Alex Pearson narrowed his eyes and clutched tighter to his bowl. He did not have his weapons drawn, but if the situation called for it he would smash this bowl on the head of this strange man in no time.

  “My name is Deng, Guangyuan Deng, if you’re so inclined you can call me Senior Deng.” The middle aged man smiled, harmless and curious as he appeared: “And - you don’t need to tell me your name, it’s right to be cautious, especially if you’re from there. I just have some questions about Poison City. If you can help me with them, I’ll happily pay for your answers, starting with paying for your travel fare. How does that sound?”

  “We’ll tell you!” Eve Kim interrupted: “And you’ll pay us, right?”

  “As long as your information is worth the price, yes.”

  “Good, what do you want to know?”

  Alex Pearson sighed, he was cautious, for per his experience, people asking for information tend to be more trouble than their payment was worth. But right now the girls offered, he had no reason to interrupt the deal.

  “What happened in Poison City? Something’s changed, and not small changes, but pretty drastic.” The middle aged man asked.

  “Uh - ” This stumped both Eve Kim and Tanya Su. They knew something was wrong and something big happened, they had absolutely no idea what it was though.

  “It’s okay, just tell me what you’ve seen and heard.” The middle aged man sighed.

  Eve Kim hesitated for a moment before she opened up: “Blood Rainbows are appearing more sporadically, and ghosts - spirits are somehow moving to the city.”

  “Power outages are happening more and more often, and people are dying of strange ways.” Tanya Su added: “And when we left the city, the cops were out and searching for some detectives. They said these people were armed and dangerous. But they were so serious about it I kinda feel like they’re not telling us everything.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Blood Rainbows?” The middle aged man frowned and scratched his jaw: “How often do they appear? I mean recently.”

  “Woah, that would be - every couple of weeks? ” Eve Kim exchanged looks with Tanya Su: “It used to appear only once or twice a year. And before we left, they just appeared three times in two weeks. It’s - it’s horrible. And a lot of the temples, they stopped helping people in need as well, so - ”

  “Any rumors on what caused this? Any - any buildings, temples and important landmarks being affected or - had large scale incidents happen to them?” The middle aged man leaned in slightly, breathing faster and was more eager, or anxious for the answers this time.

  “My friend, this is a very dangerous question to ask of a couple of young girls who just made it out.” Alex Pearson interjected: “Please, don’t do this. It’s bad karma.”

  “Ah, my apologies.” The middle aged man leaned back and collected himself: “Never mind. Please forget I asked.” He pulled some cash from his pocket and put it on the table: “For your troubles and honesty.”

  “We should leave, now.” Alex Pearson’s gaze followed the middle aged man out of the room.

  Alex Pearson and the two clients of his hopped onto the same van in which they came. The smell still lingered, and the driver was still the same man. The familiarity was at least comforting.

  “What was that?” Eve Kim asked.

  “He shouldn’t have asked that kind of question. No one sane outside of the city would ask that kind of questions, not anyone here. ” Alex Pearson looked back a few times while the van drove away from the temple.

  Lucky for all three of them, they made it to the next stop without anyone following them. It was a bus station, and the other city was in plain sight.

  “Your new lives start here.” Alex Pearson smiled at the two clients of his: “Go to that city, or the next, or the next. Find a place to stay, find jobs, and stay away from Poison City.” He paused for a brief moment: “As for the issue with the bagua mirror. I asked them to fix it for you back there. So you don’t have to worry, just do what they told you.”

  “What about you?” Tanya Su asked.

  “I still have one more stop to go.” Alex Pearson nodded and looked behind him - another van pulled into a corner outside of the station, driven by a man wearing a pair of sunglasses and with tattoos on his left forearm: “This is where we part now. Stay safe, and have a good life.”

  “How do we contact you after this?” Tanya Su almost extended her arms at the man, but she pulled back this urge.

  Alex Pearson chuckled and shook his head: “Thank you, you’re nice. ” He sighed: “But you would’t wanna do that.”

  Back at the temple, Guangyuan Deng put down his headphones after listening to the radio he had. He went out of his room and into a small room near the entrance. He pulled a red envelope from his shirt’s inner pocket and handed it to a man sitting behind a counter.

  “I have an order for a specialty.” He told the man.

  “To where? From where?”

  “To Poison City.”

  “That’s new. You wanna go in as a pig?”

  “Not just me. There will be a group of us.”

  “How many?”

  “To be decided.”

  “Alright. Have your payment ready when it’s time.”