“Okay, here.” Keryn looked around in the kitchen for a minute, then handed Marcus a pair of plastic chopsticks, and with a pair of slightly worn rubber gloves.

Marcus put on the gloves, then picked the yellow cloth apart using the chopsticks. It was a doll made of straws, red threads, with a dark metal nail running through the heart position. He tried to move the doll, but it seemed that it was nailed to the floor itself.

“Can’t move it?” Kery asked.

“No.” Marcus sighed and shook his head: “We’ve gotta ask the landlady to either lock this house down, or find an exorcist.”

“Why? What is it - ” Keryn looked over, and hesitated: “Is that a scapegoat doll?”

“Yes, exactly. And - not the normal kind, I would think.” Marcus pointed at the dark metal nail running through the doll’s body: “I don’t know what this is called. But this kind of nail usually means locking something up or suppressing something crucial or evil. So even if we could remove it, we shouldn’t. It’s just bad things all around.”

“What could happen if we did?”

“It could alter the Fengshui of this place, unleash the unclean presence or negative energy locked by this nail, or absorb whatever curse this thing is taking on behalf of another person. Presumably John Mitchell or Luo Zhuge.”

“Well, then. ” Keryn immediately moved away from the spot, “I guess the prudent thing to do is to call an exorcist? Or lock the place down?”

“What? NO!” This was just in time for the landlady to come down and overhear Keryn: “You can’t do that! What is wrong!?”

“This.” Marcus stood up, still holding the plastic chopsticks and pointing at the straw doll in the empty space below the floorboards: “You know what this is, right?”

“Oh my god. That cursed little rat!” The landlady’s face turned bitter the moment her eyes fixed on the doll: “What the fuck!? Who does that in other people’s houses?”

“Now, regardless of whether you believe this thing or not, we need to find a way to deal with this place and possibly lock your house down for at least some time.” Marcus sighed: “Maybe, you may want to contact an exorcist?”

“I - I do, and I know one - but - ” The landlady scratched her head, then asked all the detectives present with a frustrated tone: “This is ridiculous! This is bullshit! You guys must find him! I’ll need to sue the shit out of that guy! How can anyone sully my property like this!?”

“Anything upstairs?” Keryn ignored the landlady, who was on the verge of an outburst, and asked Shrevas directly.

“Nothing stands out. Whoever lived there definitely cleaned the place pretty thoroughly. We may need to send in a forensics team to pick up DNA if we want to look any deeper.” Shrevas sighed: “The man knows what he’s doing. What’d you find?”

“A scapegoat doll.” Marcus nodded as he put the plastic chopsticks and his gloves into a small paper bag, then turned to the landlady: “Any place I can burn this?”

“Yeah - yeah, around the street corner, there’s a patch of empty ground where the locals go there to burn incense and paper money to commemorate their loved ones.” The landlady was on her phone already, texting someone with angry fingers.

“Alright.” After collecting some paper towels, some salt and a small bottle of cooking oil, Marcus turned to but and double backed just to confirm with Keryn and Shrevas: “Don’t touch that thing. Don’t touch it with anything wooden or metal either.”

Burn marks, ashes and unburned pieces of paper coins, letters and even paper houses, cars and servants were scattered around that patch of empty ground. A small brick furnace was on its side. It was crude, and its base was stuck to the ground with unevenly poured cement. Something the locals have put up, it seems.

Marcus took a bit of time to clean up the brick furnace and collected some dried leaves. He then used the paper towels soaked in cooking oil as a catalyst, sprinkled salt onto the plastic bag, then used a small piece of dried tree branch to light up everything.

There was no indication whether this would work. And now he just hoped that no one would be stupid enough to touch that doll.

“What the hell!? Again!?” The landlady’s shriek could be heard even from another end of the street.

“What is it?” Marcus rushed back.

It was a hole on the kitchen splash wall, hidden by a loose wooden panel. Behind it was a small empty space, inside which hid another item wrapped in yellow cloth and a small metal tool.

“This guy really has something going.” Shrevas frowned as he reached over with another pair of plastic chopsticks, with his hands wrapped in thin plastic bags: “We have more reason to scan this place now, we just need more men…”

This time, the object wrapped in yellow cloth was not pinned to the wall and with Shrevas’ careful maneuver, it was moved slightly over the edge, the cloth was lifted and its true face was revealed.

It was a wood carving. And in Marcus’ sight, there was nothing wrong or special about it. Just a simple small carving, slightly longer and thicker than an adult male’s thumb. When Marcus got close, and saw that the metal tool beside this wood carving was a mini chisel.

“What is this?” Shrevas looked to Keryn and Marcus: “Anything I should be stressed about?”

“Doesn’t seem so. But - ” Marcus scratched his head and looked around, then finally grabbed an old looking cloth kitchen towel, sprinkled some salt on it, placed it on the counter, then signaled to Shrevas: “Put them on here.”

Shrevas did as Marcus asked. And Marcus wrapped the wood carving and the chisel with the towel. This was not enough, and he decided to put a paper talisman on top just to have additional insurance.

The landlady could not move her eyes away the moment she saw that talisman. After Marcus wrapped everything up once again with paper towels, she asked: “Dear officer, where did you get this talisman? Can I buy it off you?”

“Sorry, not for sale. It’s a gift from a good friend.” Marcus shrugged.

“Officers, can I ask a question?” Before they left, the landlady called out to them from the doorstep.

“Sure.” Keryn shrugged.

“Can you let me know at once when you find him? I need to hold him accountable for the damages.”

“We’ll let you know. In the meantime you can actually keep an eye out for public notifications from the PCPD.” Shrevas nodded.