Fu Yao told herself not to be afraid; she had a protective talisman. As long as it worked, she would be saved.
But no matter how much she prepared herself mentally, fear was still fear.
The voice calling her grew closer, and the mist around her thinned. Fu Yao stayed put, afraid to move. She didn't know where that thing might be waiting, and feared that moving now would bring her closer to it.
"Ayao." The voice sounded right by her ear. "Why would you answer me?"
Fu Yao felt a chilling breeze brush against her ear.
She turned her head stiffly and saw an incredibly familiar face – her own face, the one she saw in the mirror every day.
"Ah!" Fu Yao jolted awake in bed. She quickly rummaged for the talismans on her bed, finding that they had all turned charred black.
So, it wasn't that the talismans didn't work, but that the enemy was too strong?
Fu Yao hurried out of bed to find the talismans she had placed in her bag. Only when she held them in her hands did she feel a sliver of security.
"Soon, soon." They were already processing her case; people should be sent over quickly.
Fu Yao glanced at her phone. It was just past one in the morning. Even if someone was sent, it would likely be until dawn.
She dared not move, holding her phone tightly and dialing the Special Events Bureau that had called her today.
"Hello?" The moment the call connected, Fu Yao spoke rapidly. This was her only hope now.
"Ring... ring... ring!" The ringing of a mobile phone woke the sleeping person.
He reached out from under his covers to find his phone on the bedside table. By the time he answered, he was already awake.
Hearing the instructions from the other end of the line, he quickly got dressed, grabbed his car keys, and left.
An hour later, there was a knock on the door of Fu Yao's room.
"Who?" Fu Yao, consumed by fear, was startled by the knocking.
She looked fearfully towards the hotel room door, afraid it was the thing from her dream.
Then she thought that thing probably wouldn't knock so politely.
"Miss Fu? I'm from the Special Events Bureau." A gentle male voice came from outside the door.
Special Events Bureau. Hearing the name, Fu Yao immediately stood up from the sofa, ready to open the door.
As her hand reached for the doorknob, she happened to catch sight of her face in the entryway mirror.
A complete face. The problem was, she was facing sideways in relation to the mirror. How could the mirror show her entire face?
Fu Yao quickly looked at the mirror, but there was nothing unusual. Everything that had just happened seemed to be her hallucination.
"Miss Fu?" the voice outside called again.
Fu Yao opened the door and saw a tall man standing there. As soon as he saw the door open, he immediately showed Fu Yao his identification to prove who he was.
Fu Yao didn't know what the Special Events Bureau's ID looked like, but looking at the man before her, she felt he wasn't a bad person. She stepped aside, letting him into the room.
After entering, he looked around the room, then sat down opposite Fu Yao. After politely declining her offer of water, he began to ask for information about her.
"You had another dream tonight?" he asked after verifying the mission details previously posted by the monk at Guanyin Temple for Fu Yao.
"Yes." Fu Yao sat opposite him, clutching a cushion. With another person there, she felt much less afraid.
"So, this time the talisman didn't work either?" His brow furrowed deeply. "May I see your talisman?"
"No problem." Fu Yao handed him a talisman.
He examined it meticulously, turning it over and over. He found no issues with the talisman, nor did it seem poorly made. Logically, this situation shouldn't have occurred.
"There's nothing wrong with the talisman. Keep it safe," he said, handing it back to Fu Yao.
Fu Yao then told him about her dream tonight, the face identical to her own in the dream, and the face she had seen earlier in the entryway mirror.
"It might have been a hallucination. I didn't see very clearly," Fu Yao hesitated, unsure if she had seen wrong earlier.
"It's probably not a hallucination," his expression became even more serious. "Let's wait until morning. I can only tell that there's some bad luck on your face, but I don't detect any yin or resentful energy."
He had already surveyed the entire room but found no traces of yin energy.
"I've already booked another room downstairs. I've set up some defensive formations in there. You should go and rest, and tomorrow I'll take you to see someone. She should be able to tell you what exactly is happening to you."
"You don't know either?" Fu Yao was very confused.
The monks at Guanyin Temple couldn't help her, and now this person from the Special Events Bureau couldn't resolve her situation either.
"I can't help it. I'm not learned enough, I can only run errands. Like now, when your call came to the bureau, they couldn't ask the higher-ups to take on a midnight mission, so they had to send me.
"But this is because your situation isn't severe. If it were more dangerous, the bureau would definitely contact those senior figures."
He spoke casually, unconcerned by Fu Yao's skeptical gaze.
In reality, he wasn't as incompetent as he made himself out to be. It was just his good nature and willingness to help that led him to be called out for emergencies so often.
"That's still much better than me," Fu Yao quickly regained her composure. "At least you're not afraid of encountering such things."
"Go and rest. I'll take another look at your current room. Pack your personal belongings."
"Okay." Fu Yao took the room card from him and packed her personal items.
Although he gave her the room card, he still escorted her to the door of the other room. After seeing her enter, he returned to Fu Yao's room.
He thoroughly searched the room again, focusing particularly on the mirrors in the room.
Finally, in the corner of the entryway mirror, the one Fu Yao had mentioned, he detected a trace of yin energy. However, it was extremely faint.
If Fu Yao hadn't pointed out the anomaly in the mirror, he wouldn't have investigated so thoroughly and wouldn't have found this wisp of yin energy.
He carefully collected the trace of yin energy, planning to present it to Senior Sister Lin tomorrow morning.
He believed Senior Sister Lin would surely know what was going on.
It had to be Senior Sister Lin. This Miss Fu's situation wasn't urgent, and others likely wouldn't have taken the mission.