Liwu put the bureau’s newest toy on the desk. It was a truth resonator, a device that emitted a low hum when lies were spoken. It was still new and still in testing phase but she thought it wouldn’t hurt to put it to use now. "Tell your story, leave nothing out."
"Aren’t you going to ask for my na?" The woman asked.
Liwu smiled. "ng Ying, I already know your na."
The woman nodded. She leaned forward and said slowly, "The bureau does not like it when we predict fate for others. Will you be arresting after this?"
Liwu moved her head from side to side, "We will be pressing charges, depending on what you did. At worst, you will pay a fine."
ng Ying stood up and walked to the back wall, pacing from side to side like a cornered tiger. Liwu remained in place, watching her, like the hunter waiting silently, to take a bite of her prey at the right mont.
"I prefer to be called Madam ng." ng Ying said suddenly as she returned to the chair. "Fate prediction systems are unpredictable themselves, they speak when they want and give you bits of scraps sotis. You earn points when your prediction cos to pass." Her eyes clouded like stord glass. flickered. "But do you know what people do as soon as they learn their fate and don’t like what they hear?"
"They try to change it." Liwu filled in easily with the truth.
Madam ng nodded. She began recounting the visions she had seen, her voice weaving dread into the air. She pointed to the picture of the first victim, a thirteen year old girl with braided hair and geeky glasses but the brightest smile. "Chen Rong, she smiled too much. Her death was to co by water. She was to drown in the sea, her laughter swallowed by current."
She pushed that picture aside and moved to the second victim, a thirteen year old boy holding a soccer ball at his side. "Liang Wei. His ball would roll into a warehouse and he would go after it. A fire sparked by faulty wires would be his end."
Liwu presented the third picture, a boy posing on his skateboard.
"Zhao Ming, he liked to do stunts. He would die skating, chasing after a kite. One of those silly stunts for his online fans." Madam ng scoffed. She moved faster than Liwu to the next picture. It was a girl reading a book in a library. "Hua Lin, death by fever." She continued on, "Sun Jie, he laughed the most while I was predicting their fate. He would be struck by a car while crossing the road but that was not what would kill him. While in the hospital, he would co down with an infection and die."
Liwu nodded and shoved forward the next picture, a girl riding a horse at an amusent park. "Wu Fen, a case of the flu she would bring ho from her family’s sumr trip. It just wouldn’t heal. One of those new illnesses that have no cure." She paused and took a sip of water before continuing, "Tang Bo, trapped in a landslide abroad. that sa sumr."
The last two pictures, Liwu pushed forward at the sa ti. "Qian Yu, bitten by a venomous snake at the zoo and Ma Xiu, suicide. He had a terminal illness."
She finished and leaned back in her chair. "Nine children, nine deaths. It just seed so...." Madam ng shook her head, "sad."
Liwu gathered all the pictures and put them away in the box with the flowers. Then, she looked straight in Madam ng’s eyes and said, "Here is the problem, none of these children died the way you said they were supposed to. They were all suffocated in their sleep." She presented different pictures from the real cri scenes.
Madam ng did not respond in shock like Liwu expected. She just said softly, "They look peaceful."
Liwu blinked. "I had the sa thought when I saw them. So tell , was your system wrong or did you take things into your own hands and give them what you thought was a peaceful death?"
Madam ng laughed and twisted her hands. "I am afraid you are backing up the wrong tree detective. I don’t know why the thod of death changed but I know they were destined for death."
"We got the phone and internet records of all the families of the dead children. It looks like they contacted you more than once. Why?" Liwu asked her.
Madam ng planted her palms on the table and said with a sigh, as if she was tired. "That brings us to the reason why the Bureau does not want fate predictors to be active. If you tell soone that they will be hit by a bus on road A, they decide to take road B.
You tell a man that he will die lonely without a wife and children so he goes out and marries the woman he is dating even though they are not right for each other. In the end, that woman’s life is ruined ninety percent of the ti and him along with her.
After I predicted their deaths, their parents ca to , angry and yelling accusations. They thought I was conning their little ones for an easy pay day. Maybe they all went out for dinner after, or they ford a group chat, I don’t know. All I know is that they returned because they had decided to do whatever it took to change their children’s fate."
Liwu leaned back, considering. The children had gone to Madam ng as a joke and after, their families lived under a shadow. Madam ng was by no ans a fraud, like many people who pretended to have fate prediction systems were. Her predictions had been precise. It was ti to look into how the parents of those children had changed their fate.
But before, then, she needed to find out what Madam ng was lying about. "You have left out the tenth child. Why?"
Madam ng reached for the cup of tea which had been sitting untouched on the table. Her trembling hands shoved it accidentally. She grimaced. "I am sorry."
"It’s okay, soone will take care of it." Liwu assured her. "Just tell about the tenth child, Nu Ying.
Madam ng shook her head. "The system showed nothing. It was a void. No death, no past, no future. Perhaps the girl’s fate is hidden, maybe she is special. I don’t know. Systems are not a science, but I have never seen a void before. I told her that she would live a full life and die of old age. But honestly, I was terrified."
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