The Shadow of Lies

Chen Ge stared at the cup in front of him, feeling as if his entire worldview were being ground into the dirt.

It was an ordinary glass cup, with a few tea leaves steeping inside, bobbing up and down. The problem wasn’t the cup, but the person holding it: his immediate superior, department manager Wang Hai.

Wang Hai wore his trademark greasy smile and spoke a few words of encouragement. But behind him, a humanoid shape made of pure, flowing black smoke writhed with claws bared.

That thing was back again.