The actual room where the meeting, or more accurately a questioning or an inquiry took place, was a spacious room with a U-shaped long desk and a small wooden chair at the center. Gloria sat in this chair, while Fyman Nu, a middle aged lady and another middle aged man wearing a pair of thick sunglasses sat behind the U-shaped table.

Fyman Nu was a sharp-looking man in his early 30s. He had a full head of well combed dark hair, two keen eyes behind a pair of frameless glasses, a tall and thin nose and was in a full black suit with a dark red tie. It was as if he was trying his best to embody the stereotype of a South Eastern District enforcer, and a Harmony Enforcer at that.

“Okay, Ms. Gloria Lee, thank you very much for coming.” Fyman Nu did not even look at Gloria when he was addressing her, instead he just had his eyes on the files right in front of him: “My name is Fyman Nu, I am a Harmony Enforcer of the community collective. I specialized in general paranormality related safety and ritualistic safety. My colleagues with me here are watchers and overseers from the collective, they are here as neutral observers and monitors for our meeting, so don’t be discouraged or disturbed by their presence.”

“I understand.” Gloria took a deep breath and tried to make herself more comfortable on the hard and somewhat intentionally rough chair.

“Ms. Lee, how many years have you been a temporary watcher?” Fyman Nu finally looked up from the files and rested his hands before him, with his fingers laced.

“I have been for almost two years.” Gloria nodded.

“And for these two years, have you had any accidents like this?” Fyman Nu asked without a hint of emotion on his face. “And by ‘this’, I meant the incident for which you were called to attend this hearing. The incident at Fuman Coffin Home, regarding an unfortunate Young Man whose exact identity we have yet to find out.”

“No - not that I could remember.” Gloria tried to force herself to calm down and be as collected and clear in her head as she could. It was the first time she had been in a situation like this, she had only heard stories about similar situations from others, and only one or two of them mentioned the presence of overseers, none of which were good.

“But a year and a half ago, you DID have an incident, right?” Fyman Nu raised a small photo up: “At the time, you were tasked with sealing the body of a John Doe in a proper shroud. But you did not adhere to the standards of practice and use one made with red threads on the sleeves. If it was not noticed by an inspector the next day, it could have had some dire consequences.”

“That - that did happen, but every other safety measure was employed, and I was helping Sifu Kuo make sure that the entire coffin home has ample protection…”

“And just four months ago, you were tasked with constructing a blessing symbol and protection array on an unidentified body. And against the safety warnings and caution, you did not finish the symbol.”

“That’s because the official paint we ordered was delayed - and I chose to use the paint on the protection array instead of the blessing symbol because it’s more important …”

“AND after a short four months, here you are.” Fyman Nu shook his head lightly, his eyes staring at Gloria: “Another incident of negligence. In the event of a clearly forged placement order, and its suspicious timing, you did not exercise good judgment and failed to inform the collective, putting the safety of the entire coffin home, the sanctity and integrity of the other deceased at risk, in part contributing to their defilement.”

“That’s not fair. That's not what happened.” Gloria raised her voice and almost stood up: “That old woman came just minutes before we closed down. And she told me the body had not been placed for two days - it’d be very very disrespectful and ominous to leave the body out for any longer…”

“YOU COULD HAVE asked the community collective for help. You could have asked Sifu Kuo to raise this issue with the community collective. But you did not, did you?” Fyman Nu cut Gloria off: “You should have been properly trained on those. Didn’t your Sifu teach you this? ”

Gloria was about to say something about the local chapters of the community collective being slow and delayed in everything they handle. But words stopped at her throat for she realized where this line of questioning was going - it appeared that Fyman Nu was probably not really interested in her answers, but probably more interested in finding a reason to bring troubles to the Fuman Coffin Home. The man’s true motives were still unknown, though his intentions were not nearly as hidden.

“I … I guess I did not always make the right decision when too many things were happening.” Gloria almost scratched a few claw marks on the armrests, and she finally answered after a short moment of wrestling in her mind: “You weren’t there, Mr. Fyman, things were much more hectic and urgent back then. I did what I believed to be the right thing to do. And I made judgment calls when I needed to while keeping the big picture in mind. I will apologize for the harm as the result of these choices but I don’t think I wouldn’t do it again if I was to make them again.”

Fyman Nu narrowed his eyes and stared into Gloria’s. He did not seem not happy with Gloria’s answer at all. But he did not want to let it go just yet: “You should know this, Ms. Lee, that even as a temporary watcher, your input and feedback to the function of the establishment is still valued. And if your drops in performance can be attributed to the flaws of the environment, we as the community collective would be more than willing to extend our understanding…”

“I don’t think there’s anything anyone could do. We had limited resources and we had limited time.” Gloria shook her head.

“Alright.” Fyman Nu shook his head: “Then, I think I have everything I need - and as an enforcer of the community collective, taking your records and your testimony into consideration and the nature of the incident. I think a permanent suspension of your qualification as a temporary watcher and trainee is fitting…”

Gloria’s heart dropped, as if someone just grabbed it and squeezed with the full force of their fingers.

The middle aged man in glasses coughed lightly and raised an eyebrow at Fyman Nu.

“... but also considering this is an unforeseeable incident, and you did so out of compassion for the dead.” Fyman Nu let out a slightly frustrated grunt: “I rule that a suspension of 6 months is the right choice, with one additional year of probation. Let it not be said that the community collective is overly harsh and has no grace.”