After sending Lily Ling to the hospital, William Wang stopped me outside her room to interrogate me along with Lam Ching Ying.
"What the hell was that thing?" he asked, pointing at the proton pack. I had brought it along because Lam Ching Ying wanted to study it – and he spent much of the time during the car drive staring at the bulky backpack. After alighting from my Toyota, he continued to study the proton pack, bringing it to the visitors' space in the hospital. Even so, the old guy was no closer to finding out anything about it. William was similarly bemused. "I've never seen anything like this before. When did you build that?"
"Recently," I replied with a shrug. "I was trying to construct a particle accelerator cannon for the Hunter, but I ended up building a smaller, man-portable version."
William gaped at me. "Are you serious?!"
"Yeah."
"Then how did you know this thing would work against the ghost?" William shook his head incredulously. I responded with a sheepish look.
"Well, I was gambling on it. Firstly, I was guessing that because of the ghost's negative yin qi, we will need positive energy to cancel it out. And the positron collider – informally known as the proton pack – emits a charged particle beam that is composed completely of positively charged protons. So I guessed that the positive protons had the ability to neutralize the ghost's negative yin qi."
"Ghosts do emanate tons of negative yin qi," Ninth Uncle agreed, turning the bulky man portable positron collider over. "I never thought to view this from a scientific perspective."
"Also, I've only just recently watched another ghost show from the 1980s, but one from Hollywood and not HK," I admitted. "They used a similar device in there…so I was inspired by that film and decided to make use of the proton pack to try and restrain a ghost."
Shrugging, I patted my chest and sighed in relief. "I'm glad it all worked out…otherwise we would have been screwed."
"No argument from me regarding that," Lam Ching Ying agreed, putting my proton pack down. He rubbed at his throat and grimaced. "If it weren't for you, we would have all been killed by that vengeful ghost. She was a lot more powerful than I imagined."
"Sorry." I lowered my head. It was my request that dragged the Daoist priest into such a dangerous situation in the first place.
"Not at all." Lam Ching Ying raised a hand, shaking his head. "You did the right thing. If you hadn't reported this to me, the vengeful spirit would only continue to wreak more havoc on the world of the living and cause more disasters. I'm glad we managed to successfully exorcize her."
"Yeah." I nodded and suppressed a yawn. Damn, but I was exhausted from all that excitement. "I just hope that Lily's life isn't in danger. Or her mind…or her soul. Will she wake up?"
The doctors said that her vitals were stable and they couldn't find anything wrong with her physically. They had no idea why she was in a coma. I couldn't possibly tell her that she had been possessed by a ghost. The doctors would have sent me to a mental institution if I did that.
"She will wake up soon enough," Lam Ching Ying assured me. "Her spirit just needs time to recover. I've already expelled the yin qi from her body, so her soul just needs time to heal. After all, her soul had been considerably weakened by the possession. Although the ghost extracted living essence and yang qi from the people surrounding her, and thus her body didn't undergo much harm, the disruption and forceful takeover would have left some spiritual damage."
"Can it be healed?" I asked worriedly. Lam Ching Ying nodded.
"Of course. She's recovering right now. Give her a day or two." Then he grinned and gestured toward my proton pack. "In the meantime, let's talk business! I want to buy that!"
"I'll construct a few for you when I come back," I said with a sigh. This would make me more money, so I was inwardly delighted, but the trouble was that I was currently too busy and dreaded the tremendous amount of work that would swamp me upon my return. I felt as if I was going to be overloaded by a myriad of requests.
"You can send it to Bu Fan and have his company build more proton packs for you," William suggested.
"I will. But I will need to patent it, run some more trial tests and all that first before putting it out on the market. I don't want to sell experimental prototypes that run the risk of blowing up in one's face whenever one flips the switch. The energies and subatomic particles in this device are pretty volatile."
"What else is new?" William was used to me running risky experiments. He had heard me complain about exploding ions, volatile charges, overloading power cells and blowing stuff up in confined spaces.
"Yeah, but you don't want our company to be sued for designing defective products that end up killing our customers, do you? Especially since this is a man-portable backpack, which is more liable to annihilate the user than an isolated generator or weapon mount in a war walker."
"Oh, right. We can't afford that sort of legal trouble right now," William agreed.
"Even so, your invention will change the face of exorcism forever!" Lam Ching Ying proclaimed, waving his hands wildly. "Run whatever tests you need to, but keep me posted! I will also need to tell my fellow Daoist priests and exorcists about this! This will make exorcizing spirits, demons and ghosts so much easier and safer!"
William shot me a look that asked, "How exactly?" I simply shrugged. Most likely Lam Ching Ying was thinking in terms of the proton pack's longer range and its power. Not to mention its ability to neutralize a ghost's abilities from afar, in addition to restraining her.
No wonder he was so excited.
"All right, I'll keep you updated. I'll contact you after I return from Province Y and let you know if I've produced a few more. I will want to supervise the trials and production myself until I'm sure the design is safe."
I also had to patent it, but I didn't mention that. That would make me sound like a money grubber, but I didn't know if I wanted to simply give away the blueprint and let people manufacture their own variants of my inventions for free. That would put me out of business. I didn't plan to monopolize it – eventually, I would just share the patent
"Great! I'll spread the word so that more people will buy it!" Lam Ching Ying was getting excited. I grimaced at that, already imagining a line of Daoist priests and such queuing up to buy a technological proton pack. That was quite the amusing image.
"Well, you'll have to be patient. For now, I'll have to go test out another product in Province Y. as I said, I'll let you know when I come back, but it'll take me a few months."
"Sure, sure." Lam Ching Ying was nodding. He waved at my secretary. "Ask William to contact me once you're ready."
"Understood."
"But seriously, your new device will change the future of exorcism!" Lam Ching Ying could barely contain his excitement. "I can't wait to see it!"
I listened to him prattle for a bit before he finally left. William sent an apologetic look in my direction.
"Ninth Uncle is always passionate and enthusiastic," he told me with a shrug. I smiled.
"That's how it should be. That's how we know we can trust him."
"Okay. Well…it's getting late, so I'll be going first." William patted my shoulder. "Don't forget to get some rest."
"Yeah, I will." I sat down and watched him go. After William left, I heard a voice calling out to me from inside Lily's room.
"Trevor? Are you still there?"
"Yeah." I rose from my seat and peered inside. I beckoned for a doctor, and they rushed over. "You're finally awake?"
"Y…yes." Lily's eyes widened when she saw the doctors and nurses barging into her room. One of them instructed me to stay outside while they conducted medical examinations. I waited patiently outside, more concerned than annoyed.
Fortunately, the examination didn't take long. The doctors filed away, murmuring to themselves. From their bemused tone and total lack of somberness, it seemed that Lily was all right. A nurse nodded to me when she exited the room.
"You can check on your girlfriend now," she said sweetly. I didn't bother to correct her – she was already walking away, anyway. Scratching my head, I stepped inside the room.
"How are you feeling, Lily?" I asked. She winced and shook her head.
"All right, all things considering." She frowned and tapped her head for a bit, as if testing to see if anyone was inside. "It feels like someone has been living inside my body for about two or three weeks now."
"Yeah, that's what happened."
"I think I remember, but the experience was so surreal…as if I was in a waking dream, watching television from somewhere far away. But I do have a bit of her memories, which spilled over to my mind when I was possessed."
Lily then scowled and clenched her fist, looking mightily miffed.
"She really thought she reincarnated into my body and was doing me a favor by starting to take revenge on my family! Unfortunately, she couldn't do much. She was relying on you – a CEO – to swoop in and save her. To help her fight against my scheming stepmother and stepsister."
"That Lily Bai is really an entitled b…" I muttered. Lily giggled.
"More like she read too many CEO stories and starred in too many dramas." She then glanced outside the window. "Unfortunately, thanks to her, I ended up being kicked out of the company. For some reason, it seems that I'm an actress now."
"Damn, she really messed everything up, didn't she?"
"You could say that. But it's fine." Lily steeled her resolve. "I'll take this challenge head-on."
Then she raise a hand before I could say anything. "And no…unlike Lily Bai, I don't want your help. I know that you have your own problems to deal with at the moment. So deal with them first. I'll take care of this myself. I plan to rise through the entertainment industry with my own abilities, not relying on you."
Now that was the Lily Ling I knew.
"Good luck. I know you will succeed."
"I'll do my best. So should you." Lily met my gaze evenly. "I heard that you are going to Province Y? My memories are still fuzzy, but I vaguely remembering the ghost possessing me confronting you over it."
"That's right. I have to conduct the field tests for my Hunters in person and find out any design flaws under extreme duress and conditions."
"I see. Stay safe, and don't push yourself. Don't do anything reckless." Lily Ling looked at me seriously. Unlike Lily Bai, she was going to selfishly stop me just so I could be around to pull her out of the fire when things went south. She was even encouraging me while concerned for my safety.
I was glad I exorcized the so-called reincarnated girl from my friend's body.
"Okay. I will be careful." I nodded. I stayed for a while and we continued talking for a while until I finally turned to leave.
When I did, I placed a hand on the doorframe and glanced back at her one last time.
"…get some rest. I'll be back. I'll do my best to drop by again before I leave for Province Y."
"Thank you." Lily responded with a radiant smile. I couldn't help but do a mock salute before I left the hospital. Closing my eyes briefly, I then glanced up at the night sky. The stars twinkled brightly, and I recalled an ancient legend that claimed that the stars were all souls of brave warriors who had passed on and ascended to the heavens as a reward for their deeds.
Hopefully, this mission would be a success…and no soldiers would die in this battle.