Chi Yan woke up from his dream in a shock, his pyjamas drenched in cold sweat and his heart thumping like a drum out of rhythm. He slowly opened his eyes, taking in the sight of the orange glow of his bedside lamp and the bright light streaming in from the living room, only letting out a sigh of relief as his fingers found the jade pendant hanging from his neck. He had dreamt that he was back in university.

When he was an undergrad, he had lived in the dorms, sharing a room with four other students. The toilets, showers and was.h.i.+ng up areas were all shared, located along the corridors, with one to a few rooms. He had dreamt that he had gone to the toilet, and returned to find himself locked out from the room. There was no response however loud he shouted, or how hard he knocked on the door. He called out the names of his roommates, saying, "Open the door, it's me Chi Yan," but all to no avail. Without a reason, he could see and hear what's going on inside. Besides his three roommates, there was another him, another 'Chi Yan', warning his roommates not to open the door, telling them, "The person outside is not human." The roommates whom he had spent most of his time with, shut him out outside.

The other Chi Yan stood behind his roommates, seemingly able to see him. Suddenly lifting his head, his lips stretched into a smile, and grinned at him. This was when Chi Yan awakened in shock.

Chi Yan was not a materialist, or it could be said that he was not sceptical at all. He didn't possess of any supernatural powers, nor a 'third eye' which could allow one to see ghosts as shown in books and on TV; he just felt their presence. They loitered around him, full of evil intentions.

He had been able to sense these things since young, but he could only be faced it alone, unable to let others know, until he was pushed off the stairs when he was 10. The mall's CCTV showed that he was alone when the accident happened, and that he had fallen off himself. His granny had been taking care of him at the hospital, and saw a tiny, almost invisible red handprint on his back when she helped him change. She was shocked, and started to prioritise this issue, staying by his side during his hospitalisation. When he recovered, she took him to a famous Taoist temple.

Chi Yan could still remember clearly that a Taoist priest, whose face had blurred in his memory, had tied a red blessed string around his wrist, advising him to "stay away from those things, as they are trying to kill him in order to replace him." At that time, Chi Yan was still clueless, but a month later after dinner, the string suddenly snapped into two, with the ends seemingly burnt by a lit cigarette.

Alarmed, his grandma quickly took him to see the priest again, but the priest did not see them. Pa.s.sing a message through his disciple, he had informed them that Chi Yan was born weak, and that his powers were not strong enough to protect Chi Yan, thus they should seek other help. The priest refused to meet them no matter how much his grandma begged, but eventually he relented though he would only see her alone. When she came out, her eyes were reddened, as if she had just cried. She left with Chi Yan, and tried to look for help from other priests, but to no avail. If the famous priest had his hands tied, what more could they do? No one agreed to help.

During that period, had his grandma not kept a close eye on him, he probably would have died. Moreover, he was able to avoid dangers as he recovered under her watchful eyes at home. Things started to improve after his grandma asked for help from her relatives from whom she got a supposedly ancestral jade pendant with much difficulty, which she then gave Chi Yan to wear with a red blessed string.

While he could still feel their ever-present gazes, and sometimes even hear the angry, senseless sounds they make, but there seemed to be a film separating him from them, preventing them from coming close and harming him.

However, the protective powers of jade pendant seemed to be weakening recently. Chi Yan could feel them closer to him, growing more daring and restless.

His parents had pa.s.sed away in an accident when he was nine, and he had been raised by his grandparents since then. When he was a soph.o.m.ore, his grandfather died, followed by his grandma in autumn, leaving him only with an uncle. His uncle was always busy with work, and they were not close. Moreover, his uncle had been sceptical of the things his grandma had been up to, such as talking about how Chi Yan had been born weak and thus attracted attention from evil spirits, as well as bringing Chi Yan around to pray to G.o.ds and visit priests. While he did not stop her, he had not been supportive of her actions as well. Thus now, Chi Yan could only rely on himself to protect his life.

Thanks to his parents and grandparents, he at least need not worry about his livelihood. His parents had left him an inheritance with the house and their savings, as well as their stocks in his uncle's company. Moreover, his grandparents were also well-off, and heartbroken over her daughter's plight, he was his grandma's favourite. She kept every penny of his inheritance, and had even helped him invest them. After she pa.s.sed away, she also left much of her properties to him.

As Chi Yan had always been living with an undercurrent of fear of his life, unlike other people, he did not have goals of being successful, and simply found a job related to his major, and worked steadily.

He felt for his mobile phone, and eyed the time. 3:59am. Everytime he woke up from a nightmare, it was 3:59am. But as he had encounters with evil spirits since young, he had become nonchalant towards such small details, as long as they were not harmful to him.

No longer sleepy, Chi Yan took out his phone and started to scroll through his apps, going through all sorts of online posts, as well as updates from his friends, feeling a sense of liveliness which calmed him down, slowing his heart rate and reviving him. He spent hours doing such, until sunlight started to stream in through his window at around 7am. He then got out of bed, turned off the lights in his room and living room, and prepared to wash up.

The apartment his parents left him, while located in the city, was in a shadowy area, where the lighting was not good. Chi Yan always felt as if his life was given to him by the sun, and could only feel relaxed under the warmth and brightness of sunlight. Thus he had rented out that place, and rented a sun-bathed apartment near his office. Before renting, he had even asked someone to have a look, to ensure that it was a place full of yang energy and of good fengshui. These might not matter much to others, but it was important to Chi Yan.

One thing to be grateful for from his plight was that now he had a good eye for scammers and be able to tell whether one was a genuine master or a cheat from just a short conversation.

Due to his special ‘circ.u.mstances’, Chi Yan had always felt a certain dislike towards mirrors, reflective surfaces, wells, things with lots of yin energy and supernatural places, thus while it was not healthy, he still chose to use disposable utensils as it was more difficult for these lifeless manmade materials to be possessed.

However, as it was not possible for him not to have any mirrors, as he still needed to check his appearance; but he had asked for advice to place one at the best possible position in the house.

After was.h.i.+ng up, he groomed his hair using the mirror, and suddenly his reflection looked up and grinned at him.

Chi Yan threw down his comb, grabbed his bag and rushed out of the house, his heart still thumping even after he got into the lift. Luckily it was peak hours, and his estate was prosperous with convenient transport options as it was close to the CBD. The rental was not cheap and most of the residents were office workers, thus the lift was usually packed with people. The smell of breakfast wafted in the air, and the liveliness of the surroundings helped pull Chi Yan out from the fear of the scare.

Feeling for his pendant, Chin Yan felt the urgency of the situation. While he had not experienced any physical harm, he noted that the increase in strange happenings recently. The pendant could lose its protective charms one day, and he must find a replacement before then. Upon thinking this, he took his phone out and applied for leave.