"Did you see that white shadow?" After the woman stepped out of the bedroom, her expression changed naturally—her eyes trembled slightly, her face turned pale, and she looked utterly pitiful.
"No." Gu Feiyu glanced at the woman, who had taken off her mask, a hint of embarrassment crossing his face. He quietly turned his head away.
"Let's sit down first. I feel like that white shadow appeared under strange circumstances." The woman gestured for Gu Feiyu to sit on the sofa. She seemed to find wearing high heels uncomfortable, so she kicked them off to the side and padded barefoot into the kitchen.
Gu Feiyu gripped his baton tightly with both hands, a bit nervous. He shifted restlessly on the seat, his leg twitching unnaturally.
The woman took two freshly opened bottles of drinks from the fridge and set them on the coffee table. "Thank you so much for today."
"It's my duty—no need to be so polite," Gu Feiyu said, slightly sheepish.
"I really do have to thank you. If it weren't for you just now, I wouldn't have known what to do. After my sister disappeared, I don't have a single relative left. I'm all alone here in Jiujiang, barely scraping by. I'm just waiting to sell this place, and then I'll leave here forever." The woman sat on the sofa opposite the security guard, still shaken. She propped her legs on the edge of the sofa and gently rubbed them with her hands.
"Leaving might be for the best," Gu Feiyu nodded, a touch of sympathy in his gaze. "But you shouldn't be too downcast. Your sister is only missing—maybe someday she'll be found."
"It's not as simple as you think. My sister and I were incredibly close. We grew up together. Whatever nice things she had, she'd share with me. Whatever secrets she held, she'd tell me. But then one day, she just vanished—nowhere to be found. I suspect she might have already…" The woman's voice cracked at the end, as though she'd been holding it together for a long time and finally, in front of a stranger, let the mask fall.
Her frame was small, her arms slender, giving her an inherently delicate air. Once she started crying, it was almost impossible to bear.
Gu Feiyu panicked, unsure what to do. He stood frozen for a long moment before finally setting down his baton and handing the woman the box of tissues from the coffee table.
She took the tissues, careful not to smudge her makeup, and dabbed gently at the corners of her eyes. "When I came home from work and saw that white shadow, I was completely terrified. Do you think my sister was taken by that monster?"
There was a note of despair in her voice. "Now I've seen the white shadow again—am I going to be the next person to disappear?"
"No, you won't." The woman seemed too overcome with grief to notice that her posture was a bit revealing. Gu Feiyu, sitting across from her on the sofa, politely averted his gaze.
"I hope so." The woman picked up the drink in front of her and lightly clinked it against Gu Feiyu's. "Sorry—you must think I'm a laughingstock."
She raised her drink. Only then did Gu Feiyu realize what was happening. Out of politeness, he hurriedly picked up his own and took a sip. "I don't think you need to be so pessimistic. Lots of people have been coming to the neighborhood asking about your sister these past few days. She's definitely still alive—she just might not be able to see you for some special reason."
The drink, fresh from the fridge, was crisp and refreshing, tasting quite good. Gu Feiyu found himself taking another sip without thinking. "Your sister has her reasons for disappearing. I don't buy any of that ghost or monster talk. She probably got herself into some trouble and made up this whole story to avoid prosecution. Honestly, people like her who spend their lives on the run are pretty pathetic—they can't even see the people closest to them. What's the point of living like that?"
"You don't know her. None of you have ever truly understood her." The woman's expression twisted with pain, and her voice shifted almost imperceptibly. "She's the best sister in the whole world. She was willing to share even her most treasured things with me."
Gu Feiyu was getting a bit tired. He cradled his baton and leaned back against the sofa. "Sounds like you two really did have a good relationship."
The woman seemed to slip into a memory, her eyes fixed on the half-finished drink on the coffee table. "When I was very young, people used to bully me all the time. My sister was always the first one to stand up for me. As we grew up, our personalities grew more and more different. I was selfish—I cried and threw tantrums—but no matter what I did wrong, my sister would always forgive me. She was a perfect person: beautiful, poised, with a gorgeous smile."
"Back then I was so immature. The more she forgave me, the more I resented her. Everything she liked, I disliked. She liked white, so I liked black—I had to be the opposite of her in every way."
"This went on for months, until that incident happened."