The residential compound was laid out in a hollow square, with a ring of apartment buildings enclosing a garden at the center.
Deep in the night, the central garden was cast in shifting, dim shadows. Xu Shuangning let Li Duo pull her onto a wooden bench by the fountain.
The fountain had long since fallen into disrepair. The little boy statue on top had probably not peed in years; it was covered in moss, and the stagnant water smelled faintly fishy—giving the whole place the distinct vibe of a horror movie.
The surrounding large trees looked as though they had never been pruned, their branches left to sprawl and intersect in lush canopies that blotted out every scrap of light.
Li Daonian had deliberately made them sit here to prevent residents on the upper floors from looking out their windows and spotting Duoduo down below.
In his line of work, keeping a low profile was rule number one. This was an age of science, after all; making a big public fuss was simply asking for trouble and creating a nuisance for society.
That was why, when catching ghosts, he rarely let his clients see the spirits with their own eyes. Today was an exception—Xu Shuangning was remarkably good at coaxing children and could be a huge help to him.
Li Daonian stood nearby, sprinkling flour over Duoduo's head, while Xu Shuangning held the little girl's hand and looked up at the sky.
Through the dense layers of leaves, the moonlight traced the outlines of the surrounding high-rise buildings.
"Mom is just not far from here, Sister. I can feel her," Duoduo said, her voice carrying a trace of unspent sobs.
When she had taken a tumble on the stairs just a moment ago, it had frightened Li Daonian enough to rush over and comfort her immediately, terrified that another loud bout of crying would wake the residents.
To his surprise, the little girl had managed to hold it in. He could tell that Li Duo had wanted to cry, but she had forced herself to stop. Logically speaking, she shouldn't even feel pain anymore; she was already dead, and the sensation of pain was gone.
Yet her mortal instincts remained, especially since she was just a child. What must have been going through her head was: *I fell down, my big brother and sister need to come help me up quickly, so it must hurt a lot.*
Ghosts were already muddle-headed to begin with, and combined with her being a child, it was innocence upon innocence.
When little children tried to put on a brave face, it was terribly cute—pouting their little lips, fighting back tears, knitting their brows tightly, straining every muscle in their bodies, and stubbornly thinking to themselves, *I mustn't cry, I mustn't cry.*
"It looks like it's over there!" Duoduo pointed with her finger toward a building on the left, where a sign on the exterior wall read "Building No. 3."
Li Daonian looked over at the building, where a few scattered windows showed lights. He scooped Duoduo up in his arms and pointed in that direction. "Are you saying your mom is in that building?"
"Mhm, mhm." The little girl nodded obediently a few times. "I can feel it. Mom is right over there."
He put Li Duo back down. Xu Shuangning quickly patted a bit more flour onto her, and then stood in place, deep in thought.
After Li Duo died, where had her mother gone?
Previously, he had always guessed that Li Duo's mother might have moved far away, or perhaps died. He never expected Duoduo to say she could feel her mother nearby.
And now, she was actually pointing at Building No. 3. Xu Shuangning's apartment was in Building No. 1, and the distance between the two buildings was less than a hundred meters.
The mother Duoduo missed every single day was right there, not far away at all. Yet because she was trapped and shackled within her room, that hundred-meter span might as well have been the distance between the North and South Poles.
He had originally thought Duoduo's obsession was finding her mother, and if she truly couldn't be found, he would have no choice but to exorcise the spirit.
However, he rather liked this little girl. Exorcising a spirit was generally a last resort; since there was a lead regarding her mother, he might as well bring the mother here.
The block was already identified, so figuring out the exact floor shouldn't be too difficult. He decided to take Duoduo and search floor by floor.
After exchanging a word with Xu Shuangning, the two of them began brushing the flour off Duoduo from front to back, preparing to render her invisible, leaving only one hand visible where they held hers.
Even though it was past four in the morning, he still worried about running into someone and scaring them half to death. A whole invisible body was too conspicuous; it was much better to leave just a hand visible, which also kept the little girl from wandering off and getting lost.
"Brother, Sister, what are you doing!" Duoduo asked, uncomprehending.
"Oh, you fell just now, so you got a bit dirty. Brother is just dusting you off."
"That's right! Duoduo, you were so brave not crying at all. Sister gives you a great big thumbs-up!"
Duoduo proudly puffed out her chest, feeling that she was truly, really amazing.
Passing through the lush, leafy park, the three of them—no, two people and a ghost—arrived at the entrance of the apartment unit.
Xu Shuangning felt that the whole situation was simultaneously bizarre and funny.
She looked down and saw only a tiny hand being held in the empty air. She could hear Duoduo's ceaseless questions, but couldn't see her body at all.
Thinking of the crying that had tortured her for so many days, she really couldn't connect the image of a terrifying ghost with such a little girl.
She glanced sideways at Li Daonian a few times, but he acted as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, just striding straight ahead. She really had no idea what kind of experiences he had been through.
"Let's go, Duoduo. We're going inside to find Mom now," Li Daonian said with a low chuckle, then tapped Li Duo on the nose—though whether he actually touched it or not was anyone's guess.
Li Duo giggled uncontrollably. "Brother, you poked my armpit! Hee hee hee."
Li Daonian was dead tired, physically and mentally exhausted, and only wanted to wrap things up as quickly as possible. He hadn't had much energy to laugh, but he was completely won over by her adorable giggle.
*Damn it, I actually got amused by a ghost.*
*What the hell kind of situation is this?!*
Seeing Li Daonian laugh, Xu Shuangning found the scene too amusing and began to giggle as well.
When Duoduo saw her brother and sister laughing, she joined in too.
The laughter of the three of them grew louder and louder, until finally Li Daonian had to crouch down on the stairs to rest his stomach for a moment.
Once the laughter subsided, he suddenly felt full of energy, determined to give Duoduo a happy ending.
"Let's go!"
They began climbing the stairs, one floor at a time.
"Mom isn't here."
Up a floor.
"Not here."
Up a floor.
"Not here."
Up a floor.
"Still higher up."
Up a floor.
"Brother, Sister, are you tired? Why don't you rest for a bit? You're both out of breath. How come I don't feel tired at all?"
Just like that, they climbed all the way to the sixth floor in one go. During the climb, Qiuyang and the others called to say they had arrived.
Li Daonian told them to wait in the park downstairs; the three of them would be down in a moment.
Qiuyang asked who the three of them were.
Li Daonian replied that it was him, Xu Shuangning, and Duoduo.
Qiuyang asked who Duoduo was again.
Li Daonian didn't dignify that with a response and simply hung up, because Duoduo had come to a dead stop in front of Room 604, staring blankly.
"Brother, Sister, Mom is right here."
"Room 604?"
"Mhm, mhm. Let's hurry inside and find Mom!" Duoduo's tone had grown noticeably urgent.
Xu Shuangning had expected Li Daonian to step forward and knock on the door, but instead he crouched right down, dusted a handful of flour onto Duoduo's face, and spoke to her eyes in a soft voice:
"It's only past four o'clock right now; Mom is definitely still sleeping. Let's go wait downstairs first, and once it gets a bit brighter out, I'll come back up and get Mom to come find you, okay?"
"No, no, I miss Mom too much. I want to see her right now!" Duoduo looked like she was about to cry.
Xu Shuangning had no idea what he was up to, but she chimed in to help persuade her: "Listen to Brother. Mom definitely has to go to work during the day. Do you want to ruin her sleep?"
Duoduo lowered her head in silence for a few seconds, then shook her little bun-shaped hair knots.
"I want Mom to be well, so... then let's go wait downstairs. You guys aren't tricking me, are you?" Duoduo wiped away her falling tears; her nose vanished into thin air.
"Brother isn't tricking you. Come on, Brother pinky-swears with you."
"Sister pinky-swears with you, too."
Watching Xu Shuangning lead Duoduo back downstairs, Li Daonian let out a long breath.
Knocking on the door right now was definitely not a smart move. He had no idea what state Duoduo's mother was in right now—frankly, he didn't even know when Duoduo had died.
She might have died many years ago, in which case everything could have changed.
Besides, if he knocked on the door and someone other than her mother answered, what then?
Furthermore, in the middle of the night, even if he managed to call her mother out and she suddenly laid eyes on her deceased daughter, there was no telling how severe the psychological shock might be.
In all his years in this line of work, he was actually quite reluctant to let people see their departed loved ones.
Because to the living, that could very well be a form of cruelty.
Therefore, for the sake of bringing Duoduo's obsession to a flawless end, he had to proceed with the utmost caution.