Chapter 22 Rui
Rui
Based on the information Ten had given her, Rui concluded there were three groups to focus her search efforts on: Xingshan
cadets and professors, Exorcists, and the underground magic community.
She started with the most accessible group, interacting with cadets she’d never spoken to previously, trying to sense if there
was anything odd about any of them. The cohorts were small, and she went through the rosters quickly, but her masquerade as
an extrovert didn’t go unnoticed by her classmates.
“You didn’t tell me you were interviewing potential dates to the Winter Ball,” Ada said one day as they were eating lunch
at the cafeteria.
Rui’s spoon splashed into her soup. “Potential dates? What are you talking about?”
To her surprise, Ada clapped her hands gleefully. “Yes! Mai owes me five bucks.” When Rui continued to stare incredulously
at her, Ada explained, “You were suddenly so friendly to everyone, Mai thought you were looking for a date for the Ball, so she started a bet for fun. Of course, I knew you weren’t.
Anyway, I only brought it up today because I wanted to cash out.” Ada hesitated, looking sheepish. “You’re not mad at me,
are you?”
“I’m not, but I can’t decide if I should be insulted you only bet five bucks on me,” Rui replied, feeling both amused and
dismayed.
It wasn’t long before Rui ran out of cadets to talk to. She moved on to the professors and started playing teacher’s pet,
booking consultations with them on the pretext of improving her studies—and she hinted to Mai it was all an effort to get a leg up for her Guild applications. The new rumor spread quickly and bought
Rui cover as she went about her investigation.
But despite Rui’s efforts, no one at the Academy stood out. She didn’t sense anything, and she didn’t feel a connection with anyone, only a lot of awkwardness and anxiety on her end. The only person she did feel something with . . .
With all that spiritual energy, Mochi’s spirit core should’ve burned out, but it didn’t. Look at him, he’s perfectly fine.
What if Zizi had a point? Was there something more to Song Yiran she didn’t know about? Still, he had been born with a weak
and ordinary spirit core. That was a fact. The only reason she felt anything near him was because he had stolen her magic.
She relegated him back to the bottom of her list.
Deciding to try her luck in a different direction, Rui waited until the weekend, when she could leave campus, and went to
the Night Market.
She stood outside it now, a bundle of nerves, gathering the courage to enter. She’d walked by the area sometimes, but the
last time she was actually inside the Market was that night four years ago.
With a deep breath, she stepped forward.
The place looked the same. Rui didn’t know why she expected it to be different. Her eyes still watered from the thick incense,
her stomach still growled from the fragrant scent of roasted meats, and her ears picked up the familiar tune of haggling between
customer and merchant.
Colorful lights hung from the stalls, giving the place a festive feel, their patterns reflecting in the wet puddles on the
ground from an earlier rain shower. It seemed like everyone was out in the streets tonight. Rui weaved her way through the
crowd, keeping an eye out for anything or anyone who might seem unusual.
A rhythmic sound of metal hitting metal struck her ears, and she stopped abruptly in the middle of the path.
“Watch it—this isn’t your grandfather’s road.” A young girl with heavy eyeliner glared at her and pushed past. A few others
threw Rui impatient looks as they carried on, squeezing their way forward.
Drawn by the metallic ringing sound, Rui filtered into a walkway.
A kindly-looking old man was standing in the corner with a huge, round metal container propped up in front of him on a table.
He worked his tools, using one to hit the other, slowly breaking up a large milky-white piece of candy into smaller bite-sized pieces.
The old man noticed her. “Would you like some dingding tang?”
Rui shook her head, breathing hard. The thought of tasting her once-favorite candy made her nauseated.
It was an unspoken rule for Xingshan cadets to avoid places like the Night Market, where the underground magic community held
territory. But Rui had stopped coming here for another reason.
It felt like the scene of a crime. An unsolved murder that haunted her days and nights.
Angry at her own weak-mindedness, Rui walked quickly back into the crowd. But the trip was starting to feel like a waste of
time. It didn’t seem likely she’d be able to sense anything; it was too crowded tonight, and she was constantly being jostled.
She moved to the sidewalk for air.
Out of the corner of her eye, something blue flashed. She glanced over her shoulder. There was nothing. But she could’ve sworn
she’d felt eyes on her back.
“Something bothering you, meinu?” A middle-aged woman with cat-eye spectacles was gesturing at her from a stall. “A little
lovelorn? How about a charm? Auntie Lian has everything you need.”
The woman’s stall didn’t look any different from the dozen others that sold jade accessories for luck, calligraphic couplets
on red paper, prayer candles, joss sticks, and charms—real and fake. But the old shophouse behind her caught Rui’s interest.
Red lanterns, black markings. Similar to Zizi’s. A mage. Rui might not be able to sense a connection with anyone with the surging crowd, but there was something else the magic practitioners
at the Night Market were known for.
Information.
It would’ve been easier if she could ask Zizi for help. But he’d try to drag the truth out of her. A mage who was a stranger, someone who was purely in it for money, they wouldn’t ask questions.
“I don’t need a charm,” Rui said politely, “but can you tell me whose shop that is?”
Auntie Lian frowned, as if she’d noticed something. “Who wants to know?”
“Just me.”
“You train at Xingshan Academy?”
Rui was dressed in her street clothes, not her uniform.
“I can always tell,” Auntie Lian boasted, taking her silence as confirmation. “Something about you young ones—that look in
your eye like you think you’ll smile in the face of death. Until you see it, of course.” She laughed, tickled by her own words.
“A mage lives there, but I’m sure you knew that.”
“Are they taking visitors? The lanterns aren’t lit.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“I might have a job for them,” Rui said as if she were confiding.
“What job?”
Rui replied with a winning smile, “It’s a secret job, Auntie Lian. If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?
When will the mage be back?”
“Why do you want to know?”
Rui kept her tone light. “Why not?”
“What do I get in return if I told you?”
“Oh, depends.”
Auntie Lian popped a toothpick into her mouth. “Are you sure you don’t want that charm for your true love?”
Rui widened her eyes, still smiling her sugary smile as she coaxed, “Are you sure you can’t tell me anything else?”
“Cheeky thing. I like you.” Auntie Lian chuckled, then sobered. “I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know when the mage is
coming back.”
Rui sensed her concern. On a hunch, she said, “The mage isn’t missing, is he?”
Auntie Lian’s salesy persona vanished. “What do you know about missing mages?”
“Nothing,” Rui confessed. “Just that some have disappeared recently.”
Wariness trickled into the woman’s expression. “Does the Guild know about this?”
Rui shook her head. She wasn’t sure if that was the truth, but it seemed better to assure Auntie Lian.
“We haven’t seen Master Kang in over a week, and it’s not like him to go away without saying anything or leaving instructions.”
“Do you have people looking for him?”
Auntie Lian nodded. “We look after our own, not like your kind.”
She said it so matter-of-factly Rui lost the urge to defend her kind. Rui was still a cadet, and she didn’t know everything about the Guild and how they operated. It was likely the underground
magic community had a different experience with the Exorcists than Rui had.
“I hope Master Kang’s okay, and you’ll find him soon,” she said, meaning every word.
“You’re a good one. Here, this is on me.” Auntie Lian pressed a tiny jade rabbit hanging from a red string into Rui’s palm.
“For luck.”
A mother and child came up to the stall to browse, and Auntie Lian turned to them.
Rui took it as her cue to leave. She dropped the lucky charm into her pocket. It was almost time to meet Ada at the karaoke
club anyway. Tonight’s trip hadn’t garnered her the information she wanted, but it seemed like the mystery of the missing
mages was getting bigger. She’d have to talk to Zizi about it.
As she took a shortcut through a small alley to the subway station, that weird feeling of being watched came back. She swiveled
around.
Again, she thought she caught a flash of blue. But it’d happened so quickly she must’ve imagined it. After all, she was the
only one in the alley.