After finishing a cigarette, Chief Li asked me for another one, lit it, and continued, "Among these four girls, Meng Qingwen was the most enthusiastic because she wanted to use this game to find out if the new English teacher liked her.

　　So, Yang Qianyun had everyone take a deep breath and think of the questions they wanted to ask. Then, she looked at each of the three classmates in turn and was the first to place her fingertip on the saucer. Meng Qingwen, Zhang Xiaoyu, and Xu Yiran also placed their fingers on the saucer. They all chanted silently in unison, 'Plate spirit, plate spirit, come out quickly! Plate spirit, plate spirit, come out quickly!'

　　Xu Yiran felt a push on her hand, and the saucer began to move slowly across the newspaper. She glanced at Yang Qianyun, who gestured with her eyes for her not to be nervous. Xu Yiran saw that all their fingertips were on the saucer, and their wrists were moving with it as it spun faster and faster—something no one could do deliberately. Her heart was in her throat.

　　Since Yang Qianyun had experience playing with the plate spirit, she asked first, 'Who are you?' The saucer quickly stopped, and the red arrow pointed to the character 'plate.' Then, the saucer moved uncontrollably across the table again and stopped, pointing to the character 'spirit.'

　　On a newspaper with tens of thousands of characters, even if the four of them were to search for the words 'plate spirit' simultaneously, it wouldn't be easy to find them right away. Apart from Yang Qianyun, the other three girls looked at each other with expressions of disbelief. Yang Qianyun then asked, 'Plate spirit, plate spirit, the mock exam is tomorrow. How will my score be?' The saucer stopped, pointing to the character 'good.' Yang Qianyun let out a long sigh of relief. Then, Meng Qingwen and Zhang Xiaoyu also asked about their mock exam scores, both getting 'poor,' and they both looked dejected. Seeing that the plate spirit, though mysterious, seemed harmless, Xu Yiran mustered up her courage and asked, 'Plate spirit, plate spirit, how will my mock exam score be?' The saucer moved for a longer time this time and finally stopped at the character 'none.' Xu Yiran was stunned. 'None?' she wondered. "Does that mean I won't have a mock exam score?" The saucer moved again, and the red arrow stopped at the character 'yes.' Xu Yiran almost screamed. "How could I not have a mock exam score?"

　　Yang Qianyun patted her on the shoulder and said, 'We've all asked our questions. We should leave now. It's almost midnight.' Meng Qingwen hurriedly said, 'Wait, I have one more question.' Then, Meng Qingwen took a deep breath and said, somewhat shyly, 'You're my good friends. Please keep this a secret for me. I like the new English teacher. I want to know if he likes me too.'

　　The saucer began to move swiftly again, and Meng Qingwen was very nervous. Yang Qianyun, Zhang Xiaoyu, and Xu Yiran were also tense. What Meng Qingwen didn't know was that because the English teacher was tall and handsome, like a big boy, almost every girl in the class liked him. A few days ago, Xu Yiran had even given him a love letter.

　　The saucer stopped and pointed to the character 'yes.' Meng Qingwen felt her cheeks burn with happiness. Xu Yiran pushed the bowl away and said, 'This is nonsense. It's not accurate at all. For me not to have a mock exam score, it would mean I'm not allowed to take the exam.' Zhang Xiaoyu felt a pang of jealousy and chimed in, 'Yeah, I've never scored poorly before. How could it say my score will be poor?'

　　Yang Qianyun realized that things were getting out of hand and quickly said, 'Let's not argue. We've asked all our questions. Let's send the plate spirit back.' She took out four sticks of incense from her bag, lit them with a lighter, and gave one to each of them. She had them hold the incense with both hands and press it against their foreheads while chanting silently, 'Plate spirit, plate spirit, please go back.'

　　The four of them held the incense against their foreheads when suddenly, the classroom door was flung open, and their homeroom teacher, Mr. Liang, burst in, furious. 'What are you four up to? Get back to your dormitories and go to sleep!' Meng Qingyun and the others quickly gathered their things and ran out of the classroom, only to hear Mr. Liang shout after them, 'Stop! Xu Yiran, what are you carrying on your back?'

　　Xu Yiran looked behind her but saw nothing. Mr. Liang walked over and said, puzzled, 'How strange. It's gone now. I clearly saw a dark shadow just now.' Mr. Liang's words scared them all. On the way back to the dormitory, Yang Qianyun whispered to Xu Yiran, 'Did you remember to send the plate spirit back?' Xu Yiran slapped her forehead and said, 'Oh no! I forgot. I was so scared when the homeroom teacher burst in.'

　　The next morning, Xu Yiran suddenly came down with a high fever. Meng Qingyun and the others took her to the hospital and then rushed back for the exam. Zhang Xiaoyu said timidly, 'Xu Yiran can't take the mock exam, so she won't have a score. It seems the plate spirit's words were quite accurate. I'm in trouble. I'm really going to score poorly.' Meng Qingwen was still basking in the happiness that the English teacher liked her and wasn't too worried about it.

　　A few days later, the mock exam results came out. Yang Qianyun did well, as expected, but Meng Qingwen and Zhang Xiaoyu both did poorly. Zhang Xiaoyu insisted on dragging Yang Qianyun to play the plate spirit game again to see how their parents would punish them. But Yang Qianyun was hesitant. Xu Yiran's condition had worsened, and she had gone back to her hometown to recuperate. Could it be related to that game?

　　Since Xu Yiran was still ill, Yang Qianyun, Meng Qingwen, and Zhang Xiaoyu decided to visit her on the weekend, but then they heard the news of Xu Yiran's death...

　　Chief Li had finished his cigarette but didn't realize it until it burned his finger. He jerked his hand and flicked the cigarette butt away in surprise.

　　At that moment, Chief Li suddenly stood up and stared straight at me. 'Jay, you can probably guess what happened next. Starting with Xu Yiran, then Zhang Xiaoyu, and then Meng Qingwen, all three girls died within a little over a month.

　　The deaths of her three close friends cast a long shadow over Yang Qianyun. She became paranoid, always feeling like someone was trying to kill her. When I learned about this case, I personally led the investigation and confirmed that although the deaths of Xu Yiran, Meng Qingwen, and Zhang Xiaoyu had a certain element of chance, they were indeed accidents, and we ruled out any human involvement.

　　But no matter how much we tried to explain to Yang Qianyun and even brought in a psychologist to counsel her, she still firmly believed that someone was trying to kill her and that an invisible force was out to take her life.'

　　'Chief Li, could it be that Yang Qianyun suffered a mental breakdown due to the overwhelming shock?' I interjected.

　　'I had the same suspicion at first, but then Sun also had an accident, and that's when I realized how serious this matter was.'

　　'Sun? The detective?'

　　'That's right...'

　　As soon as I arrived at the Zigu Road Police Station, I heard about the legendary Detective Sun Yang. He was a fifty-something veteran cop with a remarkable track record of solving every case he took on. So impressive was his reputation that he was often called upon to help with difficult cases from other jurisdictions. But such a brilliant detective had passed away from a heart attack three years ago, a great loss to the police force.

　　Three years ago? I suddenly realized that was exactly when Yang Qianyun reported the case.

　　'Could Sun Yang's death be related to Yang Qianyun's case?' I asked, puzzled.

　　My question seemed to startle Chief Li. He took a deep breath and said solemnly, 'Jay, I've said too much already. Just pretend you never heard any of this. Whatever you do, don't get involved in this case. Otherwise, the consequences will be severe, and more people will die.'