The rain in Jincheng always carried a salty, fishy smell that nothing could wash away.
At midnight in late autumn, the abandoned warehouses by the old docks in Haihe District were steeped in darkness. Only a few streetlights, barely clinging to life, cast circles of dim yellow light through the rain. The damp wind carried the scent of the sea into the collar of the figure huddled in the shadow of a container, making him shiver.
"Toot... toot..."
A broken whistle suddenly rang out. It wasn't a musical instrument so much as the sound of some kind of bone object scraping and knocking together, hoarse and muffled, like a dead soul whispering.
The shadow tightened his grip on the object in his hand: a short flute carved from an animal's leg bone. Crooked patterns had been etched into it, and beneath the flecks of mud, faint dark-red marks could be seen. He leaned against the cold metal wall and listened as the flute's notes drifted away into the rain, until hurried footsteps approached from a distance.
"Did you bring it?"
The newcomer's voice was wrapped in the rain, with a tremor that was difficult to detect. The shadow said nothing, simply handing over the bone flute. In the dim yellow light, a hideous scar could be seen on his wrist, like a twisted snake.
